Frederick J. Mills Fund

Frederick James Mills died in 1970. He enjoyed a first-hand relationship with the Foundation, having been elected to the Board in 1964.

Mr. Mills served in Italy during the First World War, attained the rank of Captain and was awarded the Military Cross. Subsequently, he joined the family hardware business and was active in the Gyro Club, a local service organization. Like his father Charles, a well-known architect, Fred Mills had an eye for design which he put to use in building his home on Hillcrest Avenue.

 Excerpt from 1989-1990 Annual Report

Samuel & Dora McFarlane Fund

Audrey Kershaw

Audrey Kershaw

“I love to see things grow and bloom,” said Audrey Kershaw. The Flamborough resident is referring to her garden, but the sentiment can be equally applied to her philosophy on charitable giving. When she retired from the Board of Education, Mrs. Kershaw began reviewing her charitable giving. Confronted with so many choices and worthy causes, Mrs. Kershaw looked to the Community Foundation for a solution.

After discussions with Foundation staff about her own personal charitable goals, Mrs. Kershaw set up the Samuel and Dora McFarlane Fund, to honour the memory of her parents. This allows Mrs. Kershaw to make contributions on a regular basis. Occasionally, she makes an additional in memoriam donation when someone dies. “It has given me great peace of mind knowing I’m helping more people this way. I’ve watched the fund grow and eventually, I would like to specify that it be directed to the needs of students.”

“It gives me great satisfaction”, she adds, “to read the annual report and see who benefits or to attend a theatre performance and realize it was made possible thorough a Foundation grant. I think the Foundation attracts good, decent people who emit a feeling of good will.”

Excerpt from 1998-1999 Annual Report

Jane C. LeWarne Fund

Jane LeWarne’s nursing career started with the Red Cross in Dryden in 1938 and took her to many communities across Northern Ontario. She loved the north and became a keen observer of birds and plant life, a pastime which gave her much pleasure through her years. In 1977, upon retirement from her supervisory position at the Runnymede Hospital, a long-term care facility in Toronto, Miss LeWarne moved to Hamilton to live with her sister Elizabeth, who established this memorial fund to perpetuate her sister’s tradition of support for the needs of young people.

Excerpt from 1992-1993 Annual Report

Francis Spence Hutton Fund

Francis Hutton

Hamilton-born Francis Hutton attended Delta Collegiate before heading to the University of Toronto where he studied civil engineering. In 1941, he married Bette Margaret Brown, a girl he had met at the Hamilton Figure Skating Club where the two shared a passion for ice dancing. The following year, he left his bride behind to serve with the Royal Canadian Engineers in France and Germany where he helped to rebuild bridges when were destroyed during the Second World War. Returning to the CNR in 1946, Mr. Hutton held a variety of positions that kept him on the move.

His family, which grew to include daughters, Deborah and Margo, lived in many cities across Canada. Eventually, Oakville became home and Mr. Hutton immersed himself in the community by giving his time and expertise to various boards. “My father was a patient, thoughtful and astute man. Emotionally, he was very even. He was on dialysis for the last nine years of his life and he coped with this difficult challenge with a great deal of dignity and courage, ” daughter Margo recalled.

Mr. Hutton’s generous bequest to the Foundation was one of the many in his will.

Excerpt from 1995-1996 Annual Report

Helen Gertrude Harrison

Helen Harrison was born in Hamilton in 1905, graduated from Loretto Academy and took a job as a secretary at Firestone. Her first big summer holiday was a trip to New York City, but when she married Chester Morgan Harrison, the couple fell in love with the tranquility of Ontario’s north, especially Algonquin Park. “Parts of the park were quite inaccessible, so Helen and Chester would hire a guide for canoe trips in the remote areas. She really loved to get out doors and leave civilization behind,” recalls her cousin Mary Lees.

An amateur artist, Mrs. Harrison did pen and ink drawings of plants and animals. She was also an accomplished pianist with tastes ranging from classical to jazz. Although an intensely private person, her home was always open to family visitors according to her nephew Peter Brown. “My aunt was an avid Scrabble and card player who also loved crossword puzzles. Uncle Chester and I had lively discussions about Shakespeare, ” he reminisced. Predeceased by her Husband, Mrs. Harrison lived the last seven years of her life at Highgate Manor in Ancaster. After remembering many family members and charities in her will she left a share of her estate to the Foundation.

Excerpt from 1997-1998 Annual Report

Heels Family Vocal Award Fund

Heels

Mary Josephine Heels, born August 25, 1908, had a life-long passion for music, and church music in particular. An accomplished pianist and singer, Mary was the contralto soloist at Zion United, Central Presbyterian and Binkley United churches. In the late 1920s she and her sister Ellen – later the Rt. Honourable Ellen Fairclough – entertained each week on their own half-hour radio program. Mary’s daughter, Dr. Joan Heels, said the $5 they were paid for each show was immediately used to purchase sheet music for the following week.

Her mother was vivacious and full of life, Dr. Heels said, and she loved to hear and tell a good joke. A graduate of Commercial High School in Hamilton, Mary worked full time at the Fairclough Printing Company and was busy every night of the week with community activities. A president of the Zonta Club Hamilton 1 and president of the Women’s Ad and Sales Club, she also established a scholarship with the Hamilton Kiwanis Music Festival in the church solo class.

As a tribute to her mother, Dr. Heels, a vocal teacher herself, established a fund at the Hamilton Community Foundation this year for worthy young music scholars.

“I was able to have piano and singing lessons as a child because my mother worked and I feel this is a way to honor her memory. I hope it will help students further their music education,” says Dr. Heels. The Hamilton Community Foundation, she added, is a safe place for the fund. “They have the expertise and will take care of it when I’m gone.”

Excerpt from 2000-2001 Annual Report

Lillian & Marvin Goldblatt Family Fund

This fund supports initiatives that address and build on the concept of family values within the community, especially in the area of seniors, children and youth.

Gibson Trust/Town of Flamborough

James Lewis Gibson Fund has been established with a purpose to assist in the payment of medical and health care expenses, including expenses related to nursing, respite care and health care received at home for sick children in the Town of Flamborough who are acutely ill or medically fragile or who are receiving in-patient or out-patient hospital care whose families would not otherwise be able to afford such expenses.

The Gallagher Family Fund

T. H. L. “Shiner” Gallagher was born in 1900 in Ottawa and grew up on Montreal and Toronto, where he attended Lower Canada College, Montreal and St. Andrew’s in Toronto. He spent his working life with Dominion Securities Limited, opening its Hamilton office in 1921 where he was a managing partner.

Mr. Gallagher was Alderman in 1933-34 and was active in the community. He served as Director of Chedoke Hospital. During the Great Depression, Mr. Gallagher was the driving force, along with G. Vert Rayner and Jean McTaggart, in answering a community need by founding Amity Goodwill Industries in 1935. In 1984, to celebrate his 50th year of volunteer to service to Amity, “Shiner” established the Amity Goodwill Fund to encourage and stimulate people with disabilities in their efforts to recreate their lives and achieve their career and personal goals. Mr. Gallagher was a valued ambassador for this agency in our community for many years.

Mr. Gallagher served during the last World War as Commanding Officer of the Sea Cadets Corps of Hamilton.

Mr. Gallagher passed away on August 28, 1999. He was predeceased by his beloved wife Frances (nee Innes), daughter Willemene Agro and son Harold. His contributions will be long remembered and he has left the world a better place than he found it.

Russell I. Elman Fund

The Russell I. Elman Fund was established with the Foundation in 1985 as a donor advised fund. Arising from Mr. Elman’s interest in the written word, the purpose of the Fund is to support initiatives related to reading and literacy.

Income from the Fund has provided a scholarship to a Canadian student studying at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. This Fund has also supported the Day Care Link initiative, a pilot project of Hamilton and District Literacy Council being undertaken at the MacNab Street YWCA Day Care Centre. The project is designed to stimulate the interest of preschoolers in books and reading.