Garry Hoy

Garry Hoy (January28, 1954July9, 1993) was a Canadian lawyer who died when he fell from the 24th floor of his office building at the Toronto-Dominion Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In an attempt to prove to a group of prospective articling students that the building's glass windows were unbreakablea stunt he had performed without incident many times beforehe threw his body against the glass. True to Hoy's assertion, the window did not break; instead, the entire window yielded whole, popping out of its frame, and Hoy fell to his death.

Background Three of the Toronto-Dominion Centre's towers: (left to right) the Ernst & Young Tower, TD Bank Tower, and TD North Tower. Hoy fell from the TD Bank Tower (known at the time as the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower).

Hoy was a partner at law firm Holden Day Wilson in Toronto, specialising in corporate and securities law. While giving a tour of the Toronto-Dominion Centre to a group of dozens of articling students, he attempted to demonstrate the strength of the structure's window glass by slamming himself into a window. He had performed this stunt many times in the past, bouncing harmlessly off the glass. After one attempt with the same result, Hoy tried again, but the window separated from its frame, and he fell to his death from the 24th floor.

Structural engineer Bob Greer said "I don't know of any building code in the world that would allow a man to run up against a glass and withstand it."

The shock of losing one of its most successful and popular lawyers was a contributing factor in the decline and closure in 1996 of Holden Day Wilson, which at the time was the largest law firm closure in Canada.

In popular culture Hoy's experience was featured in numerous television shows, including MythBusters, The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd, and 1000 Ways to Die (in the episode "Unforced Errors").

Across the internet, numerous sources incorrectly use an image of an Australian man, based in Buffalo, New York as of 2018, with a similar name.