Richard Arthur Northwood Bonnycastle is a Canadian businessman who is the former owner and publisher of Harlequin Enterprises and an owner of Thoroughbred racehorses.
Background
Dick Bonnycastle graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1956 and eventually joined Harlequin Enterprises, a romance novel publishing business founded in 1949 by his father, Richard H. G. Bonnycastle. On the death of his father in 1968, Dick Bonnycastle assumed management of Harlequin and would serve as its chairman until 1981. Within a few years of taking over from his father, he moved the company"s operations to Toronto, Ontario where he would build it into a major international force in the book publishing industry.
Career
He is part of the family founded in Canada by British military officer, Sir Richard Henry By 1971, Dick had orchestrated the buyout of British publisher Mills & Boon and had contracted with Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster to distribute the Mills & Boon novels in the United States. In addition, he oversaw expansion to Australia in 1974, The Netherlands in 1975, set up a joint venture in 1976 in West Germany and in 1977 established a subsidiary in France. Dick saw his company grow to where it would command eighty percent of the romance fiction market in North America.
In late 1975, Toronto Star Limited. purchased a 52.5 percent interest in Harlequin Enterprises and in 1981 acquired the balance of the company"s shares.
A supporter of various causes related to nature and the environment, is a trustee of the Fort Whyte Center for Environmental Education in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has served as chairman of the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, an international affiliate of Ducks Unlimited on whose board his father had been a member, and in 1963 was one of the founders of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
Dick "s great-great-great-grandfather, Darcy Boulton, was Canada"s first racing steward. became involved with the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing in the early 1970s. Racing under the name at racetracks across Canada as well as in the United States, he has also campaigned horses in Europe.
In the 1970s, one of his best runners in Canada was a multiple stakes-winning son of the great Northern Dancer named Nice Dancer.
Membership
He has served as chairman of Bracknell Corporation (1983-1990), Rupertsland Resources Limited. (1975-1983) and was a member of the board of directors of Western Feedlots Limited. from 1970 to 1978 and of Torstar from 1975 to 1982. In 1973 he was one of the founding members of the board of stewards of the Jockey Club of Canada and has served as its chairman since 2005.