Episode 01: Rick Powers

“There’s no rule that says you have to give.”

If you know Queen’s rugby, you probably know Rick Powers. In this episode, Rick talks about the life-changing experiences that introduced and led him to his cause.

Transcript

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Cause & Effect, Episode 1: Rick Powers, Artsci’78, Com’83, Law’86

Host:   “A life without cause is a life without effect.” That’s from Paulo Coelho, the guy who wrote The Alchemist.”

Here’s another quote from Paulo Coelho, this one is actually from The Alchemist: “In order to find the treasure, you will have to follow the omens.” “In order to find the treasure, you will have to follow the omens.”

You might believe in omens. You might not. I’m not sure how I feel about them. But I do know that during the times in my life when I’m not sure what I should do, I look outside of myself for signs.  I think we all probably do that – you know, because it’s human nature. 

And sometimes, if you’re lucky, those signs will lead you to your cause. And once you’ve found your cause, well, it’s just a short journey from there to finding your effect.

I’m Deborah Melman-Clement, and this is Cause and Effect, a Queen’s Alumni Review podcast, where we dive into the motivations of philanthropists and explore what they’re passionate about and the impact they have on the world. 

If you know Queen’s Rugby, you probably know Rick Powers. And if you know Rick Powers, you probably call him Powie. I only know him a little bit, so I’m going to call him Rick.

I don’t know if Rick believes in omens today. I certainly don’t know if he believed in them when he was 18.  But there was an omen in his life back then. It was a taxi. And he followed it all the way to his destiny.

You see, Rick never actually planned to study at Queen’s. He wanted to go to our cross-town rival, RMC, the Royal Military College of Canada. He came to Kingston from his hometown, Brantford, Ontario. He went to RMC for an interview, wasn’t crazy about it, walked out the door, and the taxi was sitting there. He had a few hours to kill while he waited for his train, so he hopped in.

Rick:  So, I took a taxi, from RMC to Queen’s, got off at the Athletic Centre, went inside, and sat up in the balcony. I remember watching an intramural innertube water polo game. It looked like everyone was having so much fun. And I was the only one there until another gentleman walked in, and it turned out to be Bob Carnegie, who was the athletic director at the time. And we got chatting he invited me back to his office to talk about Queen’s and the next thing you knew, I had applied to Queen’s, and I was coming to Queen’s. I wasn’t going to RMC. I got to Queen’s in kind of an odd way. Still, it was the best decision I ever made.

Host:  Rick would end up with four Queen’s degrees. He started with a Phys. Ed. degree and an arts degree. He worked for a while as the Associate Athletics Director. And then he got an MBA and a Law degree. He spent 12 years in total at Queen’s. 12 years!! 

Rick: I always said I was a slow learner. I finally got that BA and got out of here. One of the reasons, as you know, I have a home here and I have had for a number of years.  I wasn’t ready to leave.   

Host:  Twelve years is a lot, but, believe it or not, it’s not a record.

Rick:  There’s another fellow, a very good friend of mine, Jim Stone, he was there for 13 years. The fun part there was I was the best man at his wedding.  So, between himself, myself, and his wife, we had over 30 years at Queen’s.

Host:  Today, Rick is an associate professor – and a former associate dean – at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. But he’s probably best known as a rugby guy. He’s a past-vice-chair of Rugby Canada. He’s been a team leader for Team Canada at the Commonwealth Games. Those are just a couple of highlights from his resume. He played rugby – of course. And you might know him as the rugby commentator on TSN 1050 radio in Toronto. But, you know, Rick wasn’t a rugby player when he came to Queen’s.

Rick: Yeah, I actually came to play basketball. on the field. That was my number one sport. I only played one year of rugby. At the high school I went to, we didn’t have rugby. It was a small boys’ Catholic school, so I think we had 140 people. We couldn’t put a team together for every sport on the field. 

When I got to Queen’s, I certainly didn’t have the pedigree around the game that a lot of other people did, so it took me a couple of years to make the team. And Gavin Reid, who was one of my professors in Physical and Health Education, the first program I did, he was very encouraging and ultimately I made the team and had the opportunity to play for a number of years.  So it’s a sport that keeps on giving. My best friends today are people that I played rugby with at one stage or another, and Queen’s has very loyal rugby alumni. We get together often. Any Saturday when Queen’s is playing, there’s usually a couple dozen of us out there. It’s wonderful to be able to keep in touch with those people and be able to encourage the new people to follow those traditions around the game as well.

Host: Those traditions around the game. One of them, of course, is philanthropy. Queen’s rugby players have been major players on the Queen’s philanthropy scene. You might recognize the name Gord Nixon. Gord was the public face of the Initiative Campaign, our 10-year capital campaign that raised $640 million a few years ago.

Gord’s personal gift to the campaign was one million dollars to build what’s now known as Nixon Field, the home of the rugby Gaels for the last 10 years. Nixon Field is on the same site that Rick’s teams played on, but it’s definitely not the same field.

Rick: When we played, I’ll tell you, by the second or third week of September, it was a dirt field. There was hardly any grass left. We were overtop of a parking lot. I think there was only six inches of dirt to start with. So it was like getting tackled on cement. But today, today I’d love to play on that field. In fact, I have played on it a couple of times, and you don’t mind getting tackled on it because it’s so comfortable.

Host:  Once the field was built, other alumni followed Gord’s lead, including Rick, whose most visible contribution was one of the field’s goalposts. 

Rick:  There’s an interesting story around the goalposts. Jim Stone, who I had mentioned previously, said he would name one set and I said I would name the other set. My nickname at Queen’s was Powie, so they’re the Powie Posts. Jim Stone’s nickname at Queen’s was Stoner, and for whatever reason, the Board of Trustees would not allow them to be called the Stoner Posts. So I think the Stone Family Posts was the ultimate name on the posts, but I thought it would have been great to call them the Stoner Posts.

Host: In addition to the Powie Posts, Rick answered the call of Leslie Dal Cin, the Executive Director of Queen’s Athletics & Recreation, when she decided it was time to upgrade the program’s coaching staff.

Rick:  She came to us and said ‘we want to professionalize the coaches on our varsity teams. We have football, basketball and hockey now, soccer, and we’d like to do it with rugby. We’re a little short on the budget. If you guys could help us out, we could have men’s and women’s professional rugby coaches.’ And again, that was, we had to come up with an amount of money very quickly, and we did it. And the next thing you know, we’ve got Dave Butcher, who’s just done a fabulous job – really continued the excellence that Queen’s has had with coaches right along. The team is always ranked in the top two or three in Canada – certainly in Ontario. They’ve won the championship eight out of the last 10 years, and certainly are looking to do so once again this year.

Host:  Rick did more than just play rugby during his 12 years here. He was also the eighth student in Queen’s history to serve in the role of rector. The seed was planted in his mind during his first convocation. Kind of like rugby, it wasn’t something he’d planned to do. But kind of like that taxi, that seed might have been an omen.

Rick:  I remember when I was graduating from Physical and Health Education, Hugh Christie, a very good friend of mine, was the rector. And I never really knew what the rector did. And when he handed me my degree, he was always on the dais with the chancellor and the principal. I went and I looked it up, and I thought, ‘boy, if I ever got the chance to do that.’ I didn’t know at that point that I was going to do an MBA and a law degree, but that’s what happened.

Host:  It was another life-changing experience – and it introduced him to another cause.

Rick: At the time, you were the only student voice on the Board of Directors. You were the ombudsman, sort of a bridge between the students and the faculty and the administration. So, every Friday, I would have a meeting with the principal, and we would talk about the issues of the day. I remember apartheid, the issues around apartheid, and Queen’s deciding to disinvest in companies that did business in South Africa. That was a huge issue at the time. And you had a voice.  I was the student voice on the Board of Trustees.

The first student rector, Alan Broadbent, still a wonderful friend of mine, he was a real mentor on the board. As you can imagine, I was quite young, sitting down at a table with really experienced business people and administrators. But they welcomed you. And it was a tremendous experience – to be part of convocation for two and a half years, to have the opportunity to represent the student body on a number of different committees. It was a wonderful experience. And that really solidified my passion for Queen’s and encouraging other people to come to Queen’s and really look for opportunities there.

Host: That passion for Queen’s has been part of Rick’s life for almost half a century now. It’s helped him stay connected to his lifelong friends, and it’s helped him build instant connections with new friends.

Rick: You know, when you say you’re from Queen’s, it means something. And it happens, you know, a couple of times a week where you meet new people and you ask where they went to school and they say Queen’s, and ‘well, I went to Queen’s too.’ And a smile comes across their face because you know they had a similar experience I hope to what I did, and usually that’s the case.

Host: That kind of community – that tight, tight bond that makes old friendships last a lifetime and paves the way for new friendships – it doesn’t always translate into a desire to give back. As Rick likes to say, “There’s no rule that says you have to give.”

Rick: The person who taught me that was Alan Broadbent. I had a wonderful opportunity to live in the Broadbents’ home when they were in Europe one year. I was actually articling in Toronto and I lived in their beautiful home. And Alan came back several times during the year, and he’d always have a pile of mail for me to mail for him when he was leaving. And it was always for a number of different organizations, and when I asked him about it, it was the organizations that he and his wife, Judy, thought were important to them. And they supported them financially. And I always thought ‘I’m going to do that when I’m able.’ And fortunately, again, through the education and opportunities I’ve had coming out of Queen’s, I’ve been able to give back to several organizations, but Queen’s is the biggest. And the rugby program is my number one choice because of the friendships that developed through that. But when I see people making these bigger donations, for instance Gord Nixon coming through with a million-dollar donation to establish the field, you know, there’s no rule that says we have to give back. We’ve been fortunate that we’re in a position where we can, and I just think it’s so important that we recognize the contributions of others and follow suit so we can further the students’ education and opportunities they have here at Queen’s.

Host: Rick has been giving for decades now, and when it comes to giving to Queen’s, he says the fundraisers he’s dealt with have made it easy for him by getting to know him – and also by getting to know what’s important to him.

Rick: I think the fundraiser has to get to know the person and what they’re passionate about. And when I talk to fundraisers at Queen’s, they know that my passion is sport and particularly the rugby program. So ,to the extent that I’m going to make a donation, that’s what we focus on: how can my donation help the athletics program, and more particular, rugby. And asking me to contribute to some other fund is not going to interest me as much because I’m not passionate about that cause. It’s not that I don’t think it’s important, it’s just that there are other people who are more passionate about that cause – you should approach them. So, the people I’ve dealt with have been very knowledgeable about my background and what I am passionate about at Queen’s. And through that discussion, you know, it’s a very easy discussion to have because I would like to give back. And they know where I would like to give back, and it’s a meeting of the minds. So, I really do think it’s important for them to understand people’s background, what they did at Queen’s and what they’d be interested in supporting into the future.    

Host: And what does the future hold—philanthropically speaking, at least -- for Rick Powers? 

Rick: At this stage, you’re getting older, I have to think about retirement at some point, where are you going to spend it? I know where I’m going to be. I’m going to be in Kingston, close to Queen’s, and I certainly intend to stay involved in any capacity that I can. I am currently helping on the Dean’s Advisory Committee for the Health Sciences upcoming capital campaign. I’m still involved, obviously, with the rugby, the old boys rugby executive. I intend to stay involved and hopefully contribute further, both personally and financially as well. I think it’s very important to give back. So, to the extent of the capacity I have to give back, Queen’s is certainly in the picture.

Host:  Rick Powers – Powie to his friends – wanted me to know how happy he was that he was able to work a few mentions of his friends and teammates into our interview. I guess philanthropy, like rugby, is a team sport.

Rugby is Rick’s cause. And you can see the effects of his philanthropy on the field. As we record this, both the Queen’s men’s and women’s rugby teams are at the top of the standings, just one win away from undefeated seasons.

If you have a cause – especially a Queen’s cause – that you’re passionate about, and you’re ready to tell the world about it, we would love to hear from you. You can reach me through your relationship manager, or you can find me on the Advancement staff directory at Queen’sU – dot-CA.   

It takes a lot of people to make a project like this to happen, and that means I have a lot of people to thank. Certainly Rick Powers for a great interview. I also want to thank a few of my colleagues in the Queen’s Office of Advancement:  Our executive producers, Karen Bertrand and Scott Anderson, also Alex Beshara, Callum Linden, Yeshi Dolma, Wendy Treverton, Allison Slopack, Patricia Falzon, Michelle Fuko.

I’m Deborah Melman-Clement, and this was Cause and Effect. If you want more, you can subscribe on Spotify, Apple, Google, or Amazon.