Donald G. BOAL

A member of Hamilton, Ontario’s Leander Boat Club, Don Boal’s first major international tournament was the 1930 British Empire Games, where he won a bronze medal in the coxed eights alongside Harry Fry, Les MacDonald, Al Taylor, Bill Thoburn, and the non-Olympians Joseph Bowkes, William Moore, and Joseph Zabinsky. He was equally successful at the 1932 Summer Olympics, where he won a bronze medal in the eights (with Eastwood, Fry, MacDonald, Taylor, Thoburn, Joe Harris, Cedric Liddell, and Stanley Stanyar), finishing only 0.4 seconds ahead of the British crew in the final. He was also a member of the Leander crews that won Canada’s Henley Royal Regatta every year from 1932 through 1936, and was selected as an alternate in the eights for the 1936 Summer Olympics, but did not compete. Retiring from active competition after these Games, he was soon transferred to Calgary by his employer and came to Ottawa in 1939 to further his career in business, also taking up coaching at the Ottawa Rowing Club. His tenure there was interrupted by World War II, where he served with the Canadian Provost Corps. He was discharged with the rank of Sergeant after the conflict and returned to the Ottawa Rowing Club. By the time of his death in a traffic accident in July 1953, he was a coach at the University of Ottawa.