Charles Fleetford Sise

Who was Charles Fleetford Sise?

Charles Fleetford Sise, Sr. was a U.S.-Canadian businessman and one of the first presidents of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada. He was also part of its first board of directors, and that of the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company, the telephone company's equipment manufacturer, from 1895 to 1918.

He had formerly been a "hard nosed" sea captain before being commissioned as an agent by the newly formed National Bell Telephone Company of Boston, Massechucets, to help lead its incipient Canadian division.

From the time he was hired as an agent to the Bell Telephone Company of Canada in 1880 until his death in 1918 he was the company's single greatest advocate and leader, also overseeing its necessary divestiture of territories in the Maritime Provinces in 1887–89 and from the Prairie Provinces during 1908–09. His moulding influence and direction during those many years was extensive, pivotal and decisive, with his influence ultimately enduring until the last of his proteges retired in 1944.