CAWEE Acclaim Quarterly News - June 2007
What's Inside
How to Achieve Work-Life Balance - Creating a Life Map
Mission Statement
President's Message
10 Tips for Getting Your Work-Life in Balance
Here We Grow Again!
CAWEE Meets
Your Voice: Are we as Canadians Striking a Balance
Members' News and Notes
Final Words 		Ten Tips for Getting Your Work/Life in Balance

Anne Sowden Elizabeth Tower . . . ExtraOrdinary Woman

by Pat Vann & Elizabeth Harrington

Liz Tower, a loving mother, wife, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, friend and mentor to an ever-expanding community of adoring women entrepreneurs was an ExtraOrdinary Woman.

A trailblazer who rode the wave of the women’s movement starting her own business in the early 1970s, Liz started Tower Total Personnel, a full-house staffing company in Toronto, which grew to more than $2 million in sales in less than five years. She was a passionate advocate in believing women could achieve success while maintaining close family and community ties. Her strength and easy, familial bond with others affected so many that a documentary of her life and career was featured on CTV, The Women’s Network and Bravo; and in 2004 she was awarded ExtraOrdinary Woman by the Canadian Association of Executives and Entrepreneurs (CAWEE).
 
Most women who have been touched by Liz didn’t meet her, she met them. She nurtured these relationships and challenged women to be the best they could be. She brought people together in order that women could help each other whether it was with running their own businesses or climbing the corporate ladder. This tall, beautiful, successful, and so glamorous woman had so much time for anyone needing help, and she always knew just who to call.
 
Liz was often referred to as the “queen of networking.” Her greatest gift was her ability to give encouragement, especially when the road to success seemed paved with insurmountable obstacles, she offered keen and insightful advice when it was often needed the most.
 
Along with running her own business, volunteering, working with women growing their businesses, Liz had four children. Her Daughter Christine tells us she instilled in them a love of all music by taking them to concerts in the park along with a cooler of food and (of course) her favourite wine. She was the model of giving and volunteering for them – working for the Catholic Women’s League. Her son Eddie wrote an essay in public school entitled, ‘My Mother the Do Gooder.’   

My Mom, the 5 foot 8 inch woman with her hair in a ponytail and brown eyes and freckles is… a do-gooder.
 
A do-gooder is someone who is always in clubs, helping the poor but never has time to do anything especially cleaning the house. But that does not mean that the house is not clean. We kids make sure of that, and it does not mean that my mom does not care about us either, it just means that she does not just like being kind to my brothers and sisters and me, but to everyone else she meets.
 
On Monday nights her confident hands make paper mache jewellery. On the third and fifth days of the week…. chosen for her cunning ability by Father Harding, she is the president of the CWL. On Wednesday morning her sleekness and good timing brings her to the home for unwed mothers to teach jewellery making , while the same night she is at art school learning how to paint. So if you ever see a middle aged woman who will say, ‘I will try and find time…’ you will know it’s my Mom …. the do-gooder.


















She started a program in downtown Toronto for ‘bag ladies’; began probably the first clothing drive for women who needed ‘a suit for their interviews’. One of the last places she volunteered with her husband Ray, was at a hospice in Shelburne.
 
Liz had eclectic interests ranging from art, travel, gardening, and gourmet cooking to preserving, antiques, and jazz. She was well known for hosting wonderful parties at her home in Toronto and had a knack for attracting the most fascinating people from varied backgrounds - the arts, titans of business, law and banking, politicians and the jet set people just passing through Toronto. She often thought of her parties as her “salon” complete with fascinating conversation and lively repartee.
 
She loved Toronto passionately, the energy, the speed of business, the culture, the restaurants, as well as the many friendships and business contacts she had developed. She embodied the belief of Helen Keller’s that “life is a daring adventure or nothing.”
 
Ten years ago, she and Ray decided to live a simpler life and moved to their crooked little century old farmhouse in Horning Mills, north of Caledon Hills. The quest for a quiet life never happened! While she created magnificent gardens with style and flare (her gardens in the country were often used in Toronto commercials) and preserving her famous jams for Liz’s Larder, she threw herself into community, forming task force groups and women’s business groups while once again becoming a Pied Piper for women’s issues.
 
Accolades and honours were prolific throughout her lifetime. As a pioneer she was a Founding Member to groups such as CAWEE, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada, Step Up Mentoring, Fabulous Women Network and too many task forces, advisory boards and trade missions to list.
 
Liz lived life at full speed and only the most virulent ovarian cancer complications was able to slow her down. An eternal optimist, right to her final hours, she was sure she would beat the odds and bounce back. Even in her final days, she was determined to give words of encouragement and cheer to others, as she had done so generously and honestly throughout her remarkable life.
 
Our lives are so much richer for having known Elizabeth (Betty Ann, Liz) Tower! She was our angel in life and now our true angel. We love you dearly Liz.
 
Pat Vann, a CAWEE member for five years, is a Leadership Coach and has known Elizabeth for over 30 years. Pat was one of her first clients and says: “I can tell you that, if it wasn't for Liz, I would not have been a member of any women's associations. I'm not a 'joiner'. Consequently I would not have had the wonderful relationships with so many women that I do today. Liz was an inspiration . . . simply a wonderful woman.” Pat can be reached at patvann@rogers.com.

Elizabeth Harrington, writer, serial entrepreneur and a former member of CAWEE now lives in Minneapolis Minnesota. This Fall she is launching The New PrimeTime.com, a Web 2.0 marketing company, helping companies focus on reaching the SMART Boomer Woman through new media. You can contact Elizabeth at elizabethharrington@mac.com.