PITT–LEAVITT Family: - Brisbane, Canada, Switzerland, New York from 1960’s

 

PITT–LEAVITT Family: - Brisbane, Canada, Switzerland, New York from 1960’s

The PITT/LEAVITT story commences when Ted (Edward John born 18Jun1946 in Brisbane QLD) was transferred by his employer ANZ Bank (he had joined ANZ at early 1962 from Indooroopilly High School) from Brisbane after 1 year at Southern Branch, Queen Street and then 2 years at the 323 George Street branch to Mackay, North Queensland. He had purchased a four year old Ford Consul on "hire purchase" and drove it up the coast at age 19. He lived in boarding houses and started to learn about life on his own. The bank then moved him to Cairns where he worked his way up to head teller for all of far north Queensland. The previous person in that position had been 28, and Ted figured he could be in that job for another 7 years. At that time, you were paid on your age and the scale was the same no matter what your position.  Needless to say he was discontented and wanted to see the world. One of his jobs was to keep the correspondent banking signature books up to date so that signatures could be matched when tourists came to the branch with Letters of Credit to be drawn against. (A practice outdated by traveller’s cheques). It was from these books he got the address of the Bank of Montreal in Canada and wrote to them asking for a job if he arrived there. Of course, they said "come and see us". (More on that later)

While at Indooroopilly High, one of the courses he took was French. He hated it, but it fascinated him. He had a teacher from France who was derogatorily called "the Count". He would influence Ted's life through his dedication to teaching French. The teacher arranged for each student to have 2 French speaking pen friends. Ted got one, Lynne Gerard, in Montreal, Canada and the other, Catherine Vigor in Chartres, France.

Montreal starts to become real to Ted as he watches the first worldwide LIVE black and white broadcast from Expo '67 in Montreal on Australia day. The Monkeys were singing "I'm a believer" against the backdrop of the Australia pavilion.

One day, Ted serves in the bank two Canadian vagabonds, Jim and Gary, on a holiday from Canada who wanted to exchange some Canadian cash. Ted said "I will give you a good rate and take them myself as I have booked a passage on the S.S. Canberra sailing from Sydney in February 1968". He took them for lunch in the Great Northern Hotel where he worked nights in the lounge serving drinks.

It was Christmas 1967 and he invited Jim (from Sundridge, Ontario) and Gary to come to Mrs. Schwilk's boarding house for Christmas dinner. Jim phoned his girlfriend Jenny Loeb after dinner, saying how hospitable Australians were, and mentioned that Ted would be travelling to Canada in the coming months. She said she would like to return the hospitality. She would play a big part in getting Ted settled in Toronto later.

Ted had been busy with writing to Canada to obtain a work permit as he thought he would stop in Montreal with his pen friend, Lynne,  and find work to finance the rest of his trip around the world on his "2 year working holiday" which many Australians did at the time.  They sent him papers to become a "landed immigrant" which later proved to be very helpful. Both countries were part of the British Commonwealth. Both country passports were "British" with Australian stamps on them. This made it easy to relocate between “the colonies”!

By the time he was 21 he had been working for ANZ for 6 years and requested a leave of absence to do the trip. It was denied so he had to resign, very reluctantly, and see what would happen in Canada. He sold his beloved car, bought a train ticket to Sydney with a stop in Brisbane to attend his brother Jeff's wedding in Surfers Paradise. He stayed in Sydney with Mrs. Schwilk's sister Sylvia in Harbourd near Bondi Beach and met up again with the Canadians who were looking for a working passage on a freighter back to Canada as they had run out of money. (They would succeed later)

Ted shared a cramped six berth cabin (way below the waterline) on the luxurious S.S. Canberra with Hugh Seccombe with whom he would become lifelong friends. Together with Hugh, Wendy Schmidt and Francis Hulme he would drive a car from Los Angeles to Chicago when the ship arrived there on March 1^st 1968. He stayed in Chicago with Russ Laney and his wife Julie for a couple of weeks. He telephoned Jenny Loeb in Toronto to see if she meant her offer from the previous Christmas.  She was thrilled to hear from the Australian and invited him to join her family in Miami where her mother, a doctor, was speaking at a Cancer convention at the Fontainebleau Hotel. Ted had purchased a 99 days for $99 dollar bus ticket for North America, so he excitedly went to visit them. They graciously invited him to stay with them if he passes through Toronto. (Another key part to Ted’s story).

He then took the bus to New York City to look up a friend from Cairns and see the sights.  It was overwhelming for a boy who had never left Queensland. He arrived in the city and checked into the Times Square Hotel near the bus station. Not quite the address at that time (or ever). After seeing all the sights he headed for Montreal to meet his pen friend Lynne. He stayed with her and tried to get work but, even then, you had to be bilingual. So he took the bus to Toronto to take up the offer of Jenny’s family.

Fate takes a hand.  The bus stops at Kingston where Queens University is located. Barry Leroy, who is on an educational leave from his job as Assistant Personal Director for Ontario for the Bank of Montreal, sits next to him. Ted mentioned he had written to Bank of Montreal from Australia. He said to come and see him for a job in Toronto on Monday.

He got the job starting at Canadian $4800 a year, up from Australian $2400 a year, and was able to work as he was a landed immigrant. He went on their executive management program, took leave of absence to go to University of Western Ontario to get his Economics Degree and Masters of Business Administration, both in 4 years. He ended up working in the International Department for Bank of Montreal after graduation.