William Secondo Lombardo (1930 – 27 March 2009) is a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur and philanthropist. Lombardo was born in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

. His father Angelo owned ''Lombardo Construction'', which in the 1960s built many Windsor-area establishments, including

ice rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

s and schools. Bill and his wife Jina moved to southern Spain in the mid-1970s, with their six boys. They settled in Torremolinos, a picturesque coastal town, and ran a restaurant and bar. The family returned to Windsor in the early 1980s, and Bill took over as President and CEO of ''Peerless-Cascade Plastics''. He turned that fledgling company into a major auto parts supplier in southern

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 ...

and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. Also, he represented the Canadian government on trade missions to China and Japan. Throughout his life, Lombardo contributed generously to charities and other worthy causes, such as building the ''Brentwood Recovery Home'' in Windsor. Bill was an active community member in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

, where Jina and he kept a winter home. Over the past few decades, the couple's worldwide travels took them to faraway places in Africa,

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, Asia, Europe, and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. Bill Lombardo was a pioneer in establishing better employer–employee relations in the Windsor area, and was among the first business owners to set up an employee

substance abuse Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...

treatment program.

References

Obituary: Bill Lombardo a kind-hearted philanthropist
The Windsor Star
William Lombardo – Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lombardo, William Secondo 1930 births 2009 deaths Businesspeople from Ontario People from Windsor, Ontario 20th-century Canadian philanthropists