Paul Godfrey

Paul Victor Godfrey

• School University of Toronto
• High School C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute

• Born January 1939 in Toronto, ON CAN

Biographical Information

Paul Godfrey was the president of the Toronto Blue Jays for eight years, from September 1, 2000 until the end of 2008.

Godfrey spent almost two decades in municipal politics around Toronto, ON before becoming the publisher of the Toronto Sun newspaper. He is a chemical engineer by training, having attended the University of Toronto. He graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree. As an alderman for North York, ON starting in 1969, he was at the center of efforts to bring a major league team to Toronto, even traveling in person to the winter meetings in 1973 to meet Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and plead the case for the Canadian metropolis as a major league city. As chairman of Metropolitan Toronto, he was behind efforts to retrofit Exhibition Stadium to make it suitable to host baseball games, and it was ready when Toronto was granted an expansion franchise in 1977. In the mis-1980s, he was chairman of the Crown Corporation that oversaw the construction of the SkyDome, which became the Jays' home starting in 1989.

He was named as a member of the Order of Canada in 1999. In 2010, he was named to the Order of Ontario, the province's highest honor. Godfrey was recognized as follows: "He is known for his leadership in municipal governance, advocating for venerable Toronto institutions, and the creation of the Herbie Fund, which pays for life-saving operations for children around the world."

He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.

Sources

• CBC news story
• CBC news story on his resignation
• Order of Ontario nomination
• Order of Canada details
• U of T biography