Minority investor Orrette Staple would start the same way at annual general meetings: “Mr Chair, with your permission, I would like to ask questions, but before I do I also have some observations.” What followed –for the better part of three decades – was a performance that CEOs and minority shareholders knew well. Some appreciated it. Others vocally disapproved. Staple, who died last month aged 80, was farewelled on Thursday at a thanksgiving service at Meadowbrook United Church in Kingston.