Background
Needles was born in Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1893.
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Ira Needles
Edit ProfileCareer
After school, Needles began working at (now known as Goodrich Corporation) in 1916 in Akron, Ohio. He moved to Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1925 after Goodrich purchased the Ames-Holden Rubber Company, and worked at its office as an assistant sales manager, and was eventually promoted to several positions including general manager of the tire division (1930), vice-president of sales, and chairman of the board (1958). After 26 years, he eventually rose to the position of president of Benjamin Franklin Goodrich Canada, in 1951.
He resigned from Benjamin Franklin Goodrich in 1960.
During World World War II, Needles served as a technical advisor for the Government of Canada to help ration rubber, which was a strategic material during the war. In the summer of 1956, Needles gave a speech at the Rotary Club of Kitchener—Waterloo entitled WANTED: 150,000 Engineers – The Waterloo Plan.
In this presentation, Needles offered a different approach to education that would include both studies in the classroom and training in industry that would eventually become the basis of the cooperative education program at the Needles suggested that universities and industry should work together to fill the growing need for skilled graduates. Waterloo College (now Wilfrid Laurier University) planned to open a science faculty that would become known as the Waterloo College Associate Faculties in 1957.
After founding the university, Needles served as chairman of its board of governors from 1956 to 1966 and then became chancellor from 1966 to 1975.
Membership
In 1958, he was named the first Kitchener—Waterloo Citizen of the Year by the K—West Junior Chamber of Commerce and was a member of the Kitchener Chamber of Commerce.
