The optimistic entrepreneur

Raimo Einari Rahunen’s working life began at age 12 as a messenger for Matkatoimisto Kaleva in Helsinki. Decades later, the entrepreneur and chief executive would help create a hockey stick that carried the name Toronto to players in Canada, the United States and the Soviet Union.

Rahunen died in Jyväskylä on July 1, 2026, aged 92. Born in Helsinki on March 29, 1934, he spent part of his childhood during the war years as a war child in Sweden while his father was at the front. He later returned to visit his foster parents.

After moving to Central Finland, Rahunen trained as a carpenter and took part in postwar reconstruction. In Säynätsalo, he worked on custom wooden pieces for buildings designed by Alvar Aalto, including furniture for Säynätsalo Town Hall, completed in 1952. He recalled that Aalto followed the work closely and demanded the highest possible quality.

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He followed the work closely and demanded the highest possible quality.

Rahunen continued developing wood products in a workshop with his father, Einar. There they produced the Toronto hockey stick, made from a single bent piece of wood with a curved blade. A design first considered unusual soon gained favor among players. Rising demand led the company to acquire a new factory in Muurame in 1963, helping mark the early stages of the town’s industrialization.

The business later faced financial difficulties, ending the Toronto sticks’ story, but Rahunen did not become embittered. He remained an entrepreneur until the end of his working life and took part in Round Table activities and church life. His daughter remembers a supportive father and loving grandfather whose greatest joys included family trips, hiking in Lapland and camping journeys across Europe. Even when nearly blind in his final years, he described each new day with gratitude.

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The warmth, optimism and positive outlook of Raimo will remain in the memories of those close to him.