Robert RS. McLaughlin

    McLaughlin was born near Bowmanville in the hamlet of Enniskillen, Ontario, the son of Robert McLaughlin and Mary Smith.[1] As a young man, he worked for a short time in a local hardware store, then in 1887 became an apprentice in the upholstery shop of his father's company, McLaughlin Carriage Works,[2] which had opened in 1867 and at one time was the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn buggies and sleighs in the British Empire.[citation needed] In 1890, McLaughlin took a job at H. H. Babcock, an upholstery company in Watertown, New York.[3]  In 1892, McLaughlin and his brother George become junior partners in their father's company. In 1898, he married Adelaide Mowbray.[1]  With engines from William C. Durant of Buick, he produced the McLaughlin-Buick Model F, establishing The McLaughlin Motor Car Company, incorporated on November 20, 1907. In 1908, its first full year of operation, it produced 154 cars. In 1910, he became a director of General Motors. He sold his Chevrolet company stock in 1918 and became president of General Motors of Canada, which continued to sell cars under the McLaughlin-Buick brand until 1942.  He retired in 1945, but remained chairman of the board until his death in 1972. He continued to serve on the board of General Motors until the early 1960s, and was coincidentally replaced by Royal Bank of Canada president Earle McLaughlin, his first cousin once removed.  His older brother, chemist John J. McLaughlin (1865–1914), founded the Canada Dry company.[4] After his brother's death in 1914, McLaughlin became president of this company briefly until it was sold around 1923.  His mansion, Parkwood Estate, begun in 1916, was designed by the Toronto architectural firm of Darling and Pearson. In 1989, the Parkwood estate was officially designated a National Historic Site by the federal government, on the recommendation of the national Historic Sites and Monuments Board.[5][6]