A dedicated fighter for the working class in Canada and in the world!
Bill was a member of the Canada-USSR Association for many years and its
active Interarts Committee, which was composed of people in the Arts
and dedicated to exchanges with artists of the Soviet Union. As an
artist, he devoted his life to the struggles of the workers and for
peace in the troubled world.
Bill established the Stapleton Advertising Agency in which I was the
Art Director for many years. Here are some of his drawings that
appeared in NSC and in many other publications.
This letter from his daughter Lynn Taylor expresses in words much more
than I could do about Bill and his legacy, which I am certain, will be
an inspiration to future generations.
You will be missed, dear Bill.
Your dear friend
Michael Lucas
Dear friends:
Many of Bill's drawings were published in our monthly journal "Focus on Friendship".
I am writing to let you know that my father, Bill Stapleton, passed
away recently in Bracebridge, Ontario. His health has been failing so
he moved here from Toronto to live with us. It was difficult fie him to
leave so many good friends in Toronto, and I know that you Michael had
been a part of his life for many years.
He traveled widely in his life, but when asked what his most memorable
trip, he always said that it was the cultural exchange organized by the
Interarts Committee to the Soviet Union in 1974 which he was head of.
The Toronto newspaper Globe & Mail had a feature article about dad as well as in the Canadian Dimension magazine.
Dad was honoured at the 50th Anniversary of the Ontario Federation of
Labour and received the Lifetime Cultural Achievements Award for his
artistic documentation of labour struggles both in Canada and around
the world.
I remember when I was with Dad at the Friendship House in Toronto to
see the documentary film about the Canadian Seamen’s Union. It was a
pleasure to wee the faces of the people I had hard dad speak about for
many years.
Bill Stapleton