James White Crooks (February 3, 1866 – September 4, 1944) was a pharmacist, business owner and politician in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. He served as mayor of Port Arthur from 1924 to 1925. He was born in

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and was educated at the Ontario College of Pharmacy. He lived for a short time in

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before moving to Port Arthur in 1886. He opened a drug store in 1891 and went into partnership with Thomas Smellie in 1895. By 1909, he was sole owner of several drug stores in Port Arthur and Fort William. Crooks retired from business in 1935; the pharmacy remained in the family until 1986, when it was purchased by

Shoppers Drug Mart Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (named Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in nine provinces and two territories. The company was founded by pharmacist Murray Koffler in 1962 ...

. An earlier attempt by Shoppers to purchase the company in 1979 had been turned down by the Canadian

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. He served on Port Arthur city council from 1920 to 1923. Crooks died in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

at the age of 78.

References

1866 births 1944 deaths Mayors of Port Arthur, Ontario Canadian pharmacists {{Ontario-mayor-stub