Lacy & Co., owner Bernard (Les) Durkin has died at the age of 88 after a short illness.
“Les was a good, honest, hardworking, and respected businessman, who in the later part of his life expressed a real fondness for the trade and wished he could have kept on working,” his family told Jewellery Business.
“He worked well into his 80s, but vision problems kept him from continuing. He once said his fondest wish was that he could start all over again as a young man.”
Born in England, Durkin served with the Royal Marines in the Second World War. When it ended, he got his start in the jewellery trade as a training manager for a jewellery chain store and stayed there until the family emigrated to Toronto in 1955. He eventually became a partner in Lacy & Co., a watch material and retail jeweller’s supply house before becoming sole owner in 1965.
In 1992, his son, Les John, started an independent Lacy West Co., in Vancouver, while his daughter, Gillian, runs the Toronto operation. Durkin is survived by his wife, Hallie, his daughters, Margaret and Gillian, and his son, Les John. He was predeceased by his first wife, Margaret, and his youngest son, Robin.
