On June 7, 2017, two of our commercial insurance brokers, Shawn Freeze and Chuck Prince, attended a special celebration in Moncton, New Brunswick, for Mr. Steve Liptay, a long-standing client and founder of The Great Northern Auction. It was a wonderful event, complete with refreshments, sunny weather, and an impressive turnout of dignitaries and well-wishers. It’s not every day a client achieves 50 years in business, so we wanted to share just how accomplished Mr. Liptay is in his chosen field – auctioneering.
Steve went to auctioneer school in the United States, and started auctioning cattle and livestock in his hometown of Bowmanville, Ontario, in the early 1970’s. He grew so skilled in his craft that he won the title of World Champion in 1976, the first ever non-American to be crowned with that distinction.
This is impressive in it’s own right, but his accomplishments don’t end there. In addition, internationally acclaimed German filmmaker, Warner Herzog, featured Mr. Liptay in his 1976 documentary “How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck”. Herzog’s films tend to focus on on people who stand out their typically “unconventional” field of work (i.e. cattle auctioning). To shed some light on how esteemed Warner Herzog is, he was actually a guest on David Letterman! The full documentary is available on YouTube. Mr. Liptay is featured throughout the film, which ends with him bringing home the gold!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkcsz9QujmU
Every business owner has a story to tell and we certainly found this one to be both fascinating and worthy of recognition.
Congratulations Steve and the team The Great Northern Auction Company, from everyone here at Stanhope Simpson Insurance!
