Draft:Leonard H. Omstead

• Comment: This is very excessively reliant on primary sources that are not support for notability, such as content self-published by his own company and the funeral home that held his funeral and directory entries, with very little evidence shown of WP:GNG-worthy coverage about him in reliable sources (which means media and/or books writing about his work analytically, not just anything you can find with his name in it.) Bearcat (talk) 21:22, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

• Comment: Please convert your references from bare URLs to full citations. C F A 💬 15:48, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

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Leonard H. Omstead (born 8 April 1930) is a retired former president and co-founder and former owner of Omstead Foods Ltd. of Wheatley, Ontario, now defunct. The Omstead family is among the first of the early pioneers who made Wheatley the "Freshwater Fish Capital of the World," and the home to many fisheries owned and operated by local families.

The Omstead company in 1984 underwent an ownership change and rebranding (John Labatt Ltd.), and the following two decades further ownership changes took place from H.J. Heinz to TriWest Capital Partners and other.

Biography

Born on 8 April 1930 in the Village of Wheatley, Ontario, Leonard H. Omstead is the son of Leonard Roy and Mabel Omstead. Leonard H. Omstead's grandfather, Everett H. Omstead is a descendant of early settlers in Essex County and the founder of the Omstead Fishery in 1911. Grandfather Everett and his son Leonard Roy, president of Omstead's Foods, were the first on the North Shore of Lake Erie to attempt to "fillet" fish. Later, Leonard Roy was responsible for initiating and introducing trawling for smelt in the Great Lakes after speaking at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada that funded and built 'Leo d'or", a stern trawler to kick-start the program. Then, Everett's grandson Leonard H. Omstead went on to develop a modern food processing plant under the brand of Omstead Foods Limited (1961).

Before the Second World War half of the Wheatley population worked in the fisheries and agriculture, and the largest of them was owned by Everett Omstead with three pound-net fisheries, four grill-net fisheries, and a fleet of six modern boats. He also conducted a large-scale warehouse and retail business. In the early days of commercial fishing in Wheatley, the pioneers were: Everett H. Omstead; George and Enoch McLean; T.H. Maxwell; Issac Shaw; LaMarsh Brothers; Josh Liddle; Moody and Coulson, A. E. Crewe; John W. Bailey; Adolphus N. Baldwin; and many others.

In 1942, at the height of World War II, Leonard's grandfather, Everett, passed away at the age of 56, when most of the male population in Wheatley either left for overseas or were about to leave. This acute shortage of manpower forced 12-year-old Leonard to work at Omstead Fishery. Later, he attended St. Andrew College and H.B. Beal Technical School in London, Ontario, majoring in electrical science, along with two of his family members, Bob, who took courses in construction, and Norm in mechanics. After graduation, Leonard developed the Infrared Cooker, Norm built the conveyor line for the Infrared Cooker and the cook room elevator, and Bob supervised the building construction of the office and two cold storage units. With the Omstead Fishery office manager Rae Bell, Leonard, Norm, and Bob invested five hundred dollars each to form a company called Wheatley Industries Inc.

Wheatley Industries Inc.

Their first purchase was a large grinder, a rack, galvanized metal trays with a capacity to hold twenty-five pounds of groundfish waste, and a plate freezer. Leonard, 18, was now a shareholder.

The company went on to purchase a tandem dual truck that carried twenty thousand pounds of mink feed. The deliveries of mink feed and fresh fish throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, New York and Ontario fell on Leonard, who enjoyed the driving despite the difficulties encountered on the road, bad weather, and a variety of unexpected obstacles that awaited him. From a truck driver, Leonard worked his way up to sales and quickly learned other facets of the Omstead Fisheries operations and processes. The firm sold breaded and battered fish portions of many species from the fresh waters of Lake Erie all across A&P stores, then opening across Ontario and Canada. Later on, when other chains got the word of "Omstead's great product," they wanted to cash in. In order not to jeopardize the good relationship with A&P, Leonard and his family members decided to develop different trademarks for the different chains. Brand names of Omstead Foods Ltd. were Wheatley, Sportsman, W Brand, Omstead Foods, and Leo d'Or labels..

In 1951, when the future Queen of England, Princess Elizabeth was visiting Canada with her husband, a chef was rummaging in his mind about what to serve the royal couple when they stopped over in Toronto. Then, remembering the Omstead's reputation of being the first to "fillet" fish, he immediately "ordered 320 kilograms of fresh fillets from Wheatley Fisheries."Also, in the Fifties, Omstead employed newcomers in Wheatley, mostly Italian and other immigrants

On 2 May 1971, the 26th Annual Meeting of the Fisheries Council of Canada , held at Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Leonard H. Omstead, vice-president of sales with Omstead Fisheries (1961) Ltd., was elected its president.

In 1979 both President Leonard Omstead and his father Leonard Roy Omstead, the chairman of the board, decided to build a plant in Port Dover and expand the cook room by adding two cooking lines. That helped the company to increase sales and profit exponentially.

Recognition

Fifteen years later, Leonard H. Omstead as President and Chief Executive Officer of Omstead Foods Limited was invited to the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries and Forestry by Honourable Senator Jack Marshall at the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa in 1986. He was personally introduced by Marshall to other senators for the work he and his family did to develop the Lake Erie freshwater fishing industry in Canada that was being hailed the world over as the largest and most efficiently run. At the height of Omstead Foods Limited, Leonard recalls that they had a 125,000 square foot refrigerated warehouse and a fleet of more than two dozen refrigerated trucks. They employed almost a thousand people at the height of their operation.