Our History
Willy struggled to cope with his hearing loss in 1966. He could not hear the tiny voices of his great grand children who were living with him at the time and that was perhaps his biggest single disappointment.
Willy’s grandson Bernie refused to sit by and watch such a proud man accept defeat. Bernie searched for a solution. That search led him to the Beltone Hearing Aid company. The same people who invented the world’s first stand alone hearing aid, the Monopac, in 1944. It worked and Willy had his life back. Each day he stuffed an amplifier the size of a deck of cards into his shirt pocket, ran the wires to the speakers in his ears and went about his business. He could hear again. After seeing that small miracle Bernie walked away from a successful business career and set out to help others. That is how Beltone came to Nova Scotia. A young man’s determination to help his grandfather has grown into a family business that helps thousands of Nova Scotians live life to the fullest every day. Three years after Bernie opened that first Beltone office in Yarmouth the company designed and fitted ear pieces for NASA’s astronauts. Even then, Beltone was more about Willy than Buzz Aldrin or Neil Armstrong. Today, Bernie Deveau’s children carry on the family tradition making sure Beltone’s space age technology is within the reach of every Nova Scotia Family.
By 1985 those tiny voices Willy struggled to hear belonged to adults who entered the family business. Two of his great grand children, Bernie’s own kids, opened a small office on the Dartmouth Road near the Magazine Hill. They began serving people in Metro Halifax. Beltone’s amazing advancements in hearing-aid technology created a demand so strong the small Bedford office was soon serving clients in Hants and Lunenburg counties as well. There are eight locations now but the focus and commitment remain the same. It is a family based business where every client receives the same quality of care that Willy did in 1966.
In Nova Scotia, Beltone remains rooted in the family values of the 1960’s but that doesn’t mean the company stopped exploring with the space program. Just as NASA moved from Apollo capsule to space shuttle Beltone moved from analog to digital, from big to very small. It remains an innovator and world leader in hearing aid technology. Stop in to see how Beltone can make a difference in your life.