8. A Lawyer’s Weird Dedication to Proving His Office Windows’ Strength
Canadian attorney Garry Hoy (1955 – 1993) was a respected senior partner at a Toronto law firm. Before going to law school, he had gotten a degree in engineering, and the robustness of modern building techniques fascinated him. He was especially proud of the tensile strength of the windows at his office in the Toronto Dominion Center, a downtown high rise. For some reason, he wanted everyone to know about the windows’ sturdiness, and got in the habit of proving it by body checking them.
As things turned out, and as Hoy discovered on July 9th, 1993, his extreme demonstrations were ill-advised. That evening, Hoy was at a welcoming party for incoming law student summer interns, in a conference room on the high rise’s 24th floor. Wishing to impress the interns with the office windows’ strength, he sought to demonstrate that they were unbreakable by throwing himself at a glass wall. He had done so many times before and always ended up bouncing off harmlessly. Not this time.
