Ronald Vaughan Joyce

Ronald Vaughan Joyce was a Canadian entrepreneur and billionaire. He co-founded the Tim Hortons doughnut chain as Tim Horton 's partner and first franchisee in 1964. He helped create Tim Horton Children's Camps and the Tim Horton Children's Foundation. He was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1992. He was born and raised in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, where his mother, who was widowed at the age of 23, raised Joyce and his two siblings in a home that had no water, no electricity and was heated with a wood-burning stove in the kitchen. The only bathroom, Joyce told a CBC interviewer in 2006, was "a nice wooden one outside." Joyce left home when he was 15 and moved to Hamilton, Ontario. He served in the navy and later became a police officer before getting into the coffee shop business. Tim Horton, who at the time played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, opened his first store in Hamilton in 1964. When he decided to expand, he chose Joyce as the first franchisee. Joyce said he knew "zero" about making doughnuts when he went in for his first shift. "But by golly, I borrowed $10,000 from the credit union, and I had to learn in a hurry," he said in the interview. After Horton died in a car crash in 1974, Joyce took full control of the business and oversaw its growth into a billion-dollar business. There are now more than 4,500 Tim Hortons locations worldwide, including 3,600 in Canada. Joyce eventually sold his Wendy's stock and retired from management, but even in retirement continued to be active in his holding company, Jetport Inc, which has significant real estate, aviation, and commercial interests. In 2000, Joyce opened Fox Harb'r Golf Resort & Spa, a five star, four diamond resort gated community. He died peacefully in his home in Burlington, Ontario, on January 31, 2019, with family at his side.