Gallagher: R.I.P. Harry Renaud

April 10, 2026

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

When you think of upper management with the Expos in their early years, majority owner Charles Bronfman, president John McHale and general manager Jim Fanning come to mind.

Filling out the famous quartet was a lesser known but important figure by the name of Harry Renaud, the franchise's vice-president, secretary-treasurer and chief financial officer.

When McHale and Fanning were taking care of the baseball-operations side of the franchise, Renaud looked after financing and was often consulted when it came to the money needed to acquire a free agent. He was an earlier version of Bill Stoneman, who worked for the Expos from 1983-1999 -- the money man.

Renaud, a Montreal native, was a chartered accountant who joined the Expos after a stint with prestigious accounting firm McDonald, Currie and Co., which later became Coopers and Lybrand.

Harry Renaud modelling an early Expos uniform.

In their first season, the Expos' marketing department asked Renaud to model their uniforms (see photo above).

Renaud is being remembered by Bronfman and friends following his March 28 passing at age 87 after a prolonged hospital stay in suburban Toronto.

"Dad wasn't part of the Expos' on-the-field management or player negotiations but he was a major part of the management team,'' his daughter Jennifer said.

Renaud told me years ago a funny story of how he, McHale and Fanning travelled to North Carolina in mid-December 1974 to meet with prized free-agent pitcher Catfish Hunter and his agent.

Hunter had spent 10 seasons with the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics but he had become a free agent. Every other team except the San Francisco Giants courted him. The Expos were hot on his trail.

"It's a great story,'' Renaud told me. "We took the Seagram jet (owned by Bronfman) we used to go and meet agents with. We go to this small town. We got into a room at 8 in the morning. There was this country type lawyer and he asked, 'Do you want a Coke?' There was no coffee.

"Catfish came in and was chewing tobacco and every few seconds, he was spitting tobacco juice into a styrofoam cup,'' Renaud said, laughing.

"We made a great presentation. We came out of the meeting very high. On New Year's Eve, we were getting dressed to go to a party and we heard the radio flash Catfish had signed with the Yankees.''

Two years later, Renaud was part of the entourage that tried to lure superstar free-agent outfielder Reggie Jakson to the Expos. Like Catfish, Reggie opted to go to the Yankees.

Renaud stayed with the Expos for 13 years. His death made Bronfman "very sad'' because they had known each other for so long. The Renaud family expressed thanks to Bronfman for making a donation to MS Canada in memory of Harry.

"Harry was an intricate part of the Expos, as you know,'' Bronfman, soon to be 95, said in an interview. "While he and I were relatively close, I spent much more time with John and Jim than I did with Harry. There are two things that are important to me - Harry was a gentleman first and foremost, and he was an unheralded but real partner of our senior management.''

In 1981, Renaud became general manager of B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver where he hosted events such as Expo '86 and over the years, he welcomed celebrities like Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II.

Renaud returned to Toronto in 1994 to become GM of the Boulevard Club and is the namesake of Harry's Bar at the famous jaunt on the waterfront. Later in life, he was the executive director of the Whitechurch-Stouffville Chamber of Commerce.

Renaud leaves his wife Barbara, his first wife Judy, daughters Jocelyn and Jennifer, grandchildren Nicole Sparrow and James Renaud and son-in-law Kevin Sparrow.