Laurence Hudson:  

I graduated from Huron College in '73 with a degree in Philosophy and English (what was I thinking?). I had to go to summer school to do so - I guess I was paying a bit too much attention to my girlfriend in my last year. She left London in October, 1973 and I left to join her on December 31st. Got to Ottawa just in time to fall asleep on New Year's Eve, and wake up as an Ottawa (actually, Hull, Québec) resident on January 1st, 1974. Anyway, my girlfriend (Nicole, who nobody has met) got a job immediately with the Feds. I had to go to Montréal to find work, and was eventually posted to our nation's capital. I actually found myself trying to sell ... LIFE INSURANCE ... at some point I accepted a weekend contract to write a speech for a Minister of the Crown (André Ouellette) and received $400.00 for my efforts - a princely sum at the time. Buoyed by this limited success, I decided to offer myself to the world as a free-lance writer, which worked until we had an economic downturn. This is when I went to work with a computer company as resident writer. I learned a great deal about generating user documentation and the printing process, all of which stood me in good stead later in my career. Meanwhile, Nicole and I were married in September, 1975, and had a bunch of kids: Paul & Julie - 1980 (surprise, twins!) Paul has an MBa, and works with SNC-Lavalin, a huge international engineering firm. Julie has two Law degrees and, can practice virtually anywhere in...Expand for more