On oct. 6, craig dobbin stepped down as CEO and chairman of CHC Helicopter Corp. for unspecified health reasons. Not only would it be his final official act in the business he had started in the mid-1970s, it would be one of the last acts of his life. Dobbin died the next day at 71 years of age.

As a Newfoundland success story, Dobbin had few equals: a self-made businessman who argued vociferously for improving his province’s place in Canada even as he worked relentlessly to build his companies as international competitors.

Dobbin was born in 1935, 14 years prior to Newfoundland joining Confederation; and it was this loss of political independence that formed his strong beliefs. By becoming a province, he believed, Newfoundland risked being subsumed economically and culturally into the North American mainstream.

This independent streak marked Dobbin’s business practices, starting in the 1960s, when he moved from selling building supplies into the risky realm of real estate speculation, first in St. John’s and then in Ottawa and Montreal.

In 1977, he made one of the most important decisions of his life by starting a helicopter company, Sealand Helicopters Ltd. Over the next 20 years, he transformed Sealand from a firm with a single helicopter in a small island province into a dominant global player.

Sealand benefited from the offshore oil industry that was particularly active during an intense exploration phase in the late 1970s and early ’80s. The company’s expansion began in 1987, when Dobbin headed a group that purchased Toronto Helicopters and Okanagan Helicopters and merged them with Sealand to create CHC Helicopter Corp.

This was followed by the purchase of British International Helicopters in 1994, and the acquisition of Helikopter Services Group of Norway in 1999. By this point, CHC was already the world’s largest provider of helicopter transportation. It further consolidated its position in 2004 by buying Schreiner Aviation Group, the leading offshore helicopter services company in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, and a key player in the Nigerian offshore industry.

Although Dobbin’s passion for New-foundland cannot be overstated, even he could not ignore the realities of global business. As the company went public, first on the Toronto Stock Exchange and then on the New York Stock Exchange, shareholders’ demands became increasingly difficult to ignore. Consolidation took place in 2000, when the company integrated its worldwide operations under the CHC banner, becoming the first helicopter services company to market its global operations under a single brand.

By 2003, the world’s largest oil companies began insisting on the standardization of safety and service around the world. In response to this — and in an effort to improve efficiency within the corporation — CHC underwent significant restructuring. This resulted in CHC moving its corporate headquarters in 2004 from St. John’s to Richmond, B.C. — a move widely seen as an act of betrayal in Newfoundland.

Dobbin managed to assuage his critics at home by reiterating CHC’s commitment to maintaining its East Coast operations in St. John’s, a policy that may be tested under Mark Dobbin, his son and current CEO.

Stories of Craig Dobbin’s generosity and tenacity are numerous, but the one that perhaps best illustrates his character dates back to 1979, when his love for helicopters came close to killing him. During a flight in eastern Newfoundland with friends, the helicopter’s engine failed and the aircraft crashed into a remote forested location. The pilot and one passenger were killed; of the others, only Dobbin was capable of walking. Although badly injured, he managed to limp through the forest until he reached a railway line. Dobbin dragged a log onto the track to mark the point where he had emerged from the trees and continued walking until he found a group of loggers. The men reached the crash site and helped the survivors get to hospital.

Mark Dobbin said that although the crash didn’t slow down his father, it made Dobbin Sr. more aware of his responsibilities as a businessman — and he remained concerned about flight safety for the rest of his life. IE