Alexander H. Welker
Inducted In
1973
Alex Welker has many claims to fame: he helped manufacture Canada’s first production car, the “LeRoy” for Milton and Nelson Good in 1901; was cofounder of Electrohome Limited; co- invented and built the Cycle car at the Pollock-Welker Manufacturing Company and patented thirty inventions in the mechanical field.
He served on the Kitchener Waterloo High School Board for fifty-three years and in 1954 was awarded the “Lamp of Learning” for outstanding service in the field of education.
Born in Listowel in 1882, he apprenticed at the Waterloo Manufacturing company branch in Elmira for $425 a year, and board, and later worked at the Waterloo plant and the Tuerk Engine Company. He established the Met-Craft firm in Waterloo and designed and made the ornamental brass work at the front of the sanctuary in St. John’s Lutheran Church in Waterloo.
He witnessed the first Canadian flight of the famous Wright brothers in Weston, Ontario in 1909. Welker was a director of the first symphony orchestra in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and played the cello.