NORMAN LEIGH

Norman “Buddy” Leigh served in the RCAF from 1942-1946. He was in action during the North African and Italian campaigns. 

He was born in Ottawa and went to St. Pats high school where he graduated and joined the air force. He trained as a pilot under the commonwealth air crew training program before going overseas. 

At the end of the war he joined the federal government as an auditor with Customs and Excise.  He would later go on to become Assistant Deputy Minister Customs Operations during the Trudeau years. 

He retired from Government and became President of the Canadian Customs Brokers Association where he passed away at age 60 from leukaemia on Jan 6, 1985. 

He was a well-respected man known throughout Government and the industry. His funeral mass held at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa was attended by Ministers and senior government representatives, politicians of varying political stripes and from just common persons some that did not know him but heard about him; and from the customs industry that he loved so much. 

To this day his “Spitfire still flies high in our hearts”.