Ira George Needles

Ira G. Needles, a native of the United States, graduated from Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He joined the B.F. Goodrich Company in Akron, Ohio, in 1916. He came to Kitchener in 1925 when Goodrich purchased the Ames-Holden Rubber Company and became an executive of the Canadian Goodrich Rubber Company (which eventually was amalgamated with Uniroyal). He became general manager of the tire division in 1930, president in 1951, and chairman of the board in 1958.

Needles was a founder of the University of Waterloo, serving as chairman of the board of governors from1956 to 1966 and chancellor from 1966 to 1975. In 1958 he was named the first Kitchener-Waterloo Citizen of the Year by the K-W Jaycees. He was an active member of the Kitchener Chamber of Commerce and was known for his ability in fund-raising, especially for Waterloo College, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Waterloo, YMCA, Canadian Conference on Education, the Ontario Safety League and Federated Charities (now United Way).