“The flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.”

Donald Scott Frazer (Scott) – rower, financial maverick, boundary pusher, outdoor adventurer, husband, proud and adoring father, loyal friend, and lifelong kid -- passed away quickly and peacefully at his home in Toronto on February 12, 2018, at the age of 60. Born, raised, and based in Toronto his whole life, Scott is one of few people who could claim to have gone to the same barber for 50 years! He spent a rich and adventure-filled childhood with his siblings Gordon and Carol in creeks, conservation areas, and summers cottaging on Manatoulin Island, which fuelled his lifelong passion for fishing, camping, hiking, and sailing. As a young boy, he was shaped by the precision and attention to detail of his City of Toronto architect father Donald and the creativity and loyalty of his mother Marguerite, whose longstanding friendships through work at Canada Life Insurance shaped his own approach to friends. Starting in high school at Royal York Collegiate through to university and beyond, Scott kept adding friends into what would become an ever-expanding international constellation. He entered the field economics (and math) in 1977 at the University of Western Ontario, and through the influence of childhood friend Dave Patchell was introduced to the world of rowing, which would prove to be a major influence in his life. As a naturally gifted athlete, Scott quickly made his way through novice, junior varsity, and varsity boats; if Scott was in the boat, in six seat ("the engine room"), it usually won. He celebrated successes at the national and international level, later turning his focus to coaching, Scott was a driving force behind the successful lightweight women's rowing program at the Toronto Argonaut club where Scott met his future wife, Pamela Plant. Scott continued his rowing connections, becoming the node in a network of Western alumni—pulling them all into the Ceeps and other select watering holes and making sure they made it to Old Oars events—and converting his home into rowing central after heading off to Bay Street to a lesser if substantially more lucrative form of competition.
The industriousness of Scott’s grandfather Leon Frazer, who started the first mutual fund in Canada, laid the genetic groundwork for Scott’s career in finance and entrepreneurial start-ups. Combining a brilliant, original, and creative mind with incredible determination, Scott achieved results others thought were impossible, developing and maintaining throughout his entire career a reputation for solving extremely complex financial and business problems—with grace, a genial disposition, and personal integrity. As a young financial executive at Royal Trust, he developed programs for pension-fund immunization and the trading of derivatives. As a Vice President in the Structured Finance Group at RBC Dominion Securities, he spearheaded the introduction of mortgage-backed securities in Canada, and served as Chairman of the Investment Dealers Association’s National Housing Authority Mortgage Backed Securities program. This program enables home ownership by providing millions of Canadian homeowners with government-insured mortgages, and is now a $700 billion program. Scott was responsible for launching the first credit-card-asset-backed securities in the Canadian market with a $1.5 billion credit card securitization for Sears Canada. After leaving RBC Dominion Securities, he embarked with his RBC/DS co-worker Paul Gray on an entrepreneurial career as co-founders of Coxswain Row Capital Corporation where Scott also held senior operating roles in start-ups that the company financed. Later in his career, Scott applied this unique combination of financial and operating experience, determination and problem solving to benefit First Nations renewable energy start-ups and economic development initiatives, and ensure their success, most notably in partnership with Henvey Inlet First Nation and Rainy River First Nations Ontario.
With equal gusto, focus, and devotion, Scott approached his life as husband and father. After luring his wife on their first date to slide in a mud field and go fishing off the piers of Florida with a kiddie "whale" rod, they continued their rock-solid partnership through all highs and lows for 28 years. During that time Scott and Pam shared their passion for the outdoors, adventure and travel (to over 30 countries), as well as their extensive networks of friends while also beginning their next great adventure together: parenting! As a devoted and playful father to Lily Catherine (15) and Callum Livingstone (14), Scott would sometimes lose sight of dinner guests or delay business meetings because he was so engaged with the kids—covering the floors of the house with puzzles, life-sized Lego projects, detonating Mentos and Coke geysers, bouncing on the outdoor trampoline, or parachuting Barbies off the back deck. He was most fully alive and most his adult-kid self when he was with Lily and Callum and his nephews Tyler and Brennan and nieces Niamh and Ciara. There was nothing he would not do for his family.
Scott’s final adventure, with ALS/FTD, was faced, like with many challenges, with tenacity, innovation, and mischief. He continued to work until the last few weeks of his life and developed ingenious ways to work around the limitations of his illness. Scott got his grounding walking a well-worn path along his beloved Humber River, frequenting various Toronto eateries, laughing at horror movies with Lily, wrestling with Callum, cheering the Leafs hockey team, and opening up to new friendships that helped him and his family navigate ALS. During this time, he also dispensed many an inspiring saying, including: “Don't ever let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do in life". Being with family and friends frequently brought him tears of joy, and he celebrated his 60th birthday with such an assemblage at the Blue Goose Tavern in Toronto, and took his final "Magic Carpet Ride" in similar company, mere months later. He will be well remembered and sorely missed.
Celebrations of Scott's life will be held in the future. Scott was a generous supporter. If desired, donations in his name can be made to the Western University Rowing Equipment Fund in Scott's name: https://secure2.convio.net/uwo/ScottFrazerMem.html or to the ALS Society www.als.ca/donate.