Walter & Mildred Danby Fund

Originally from a farm near Mt. Forest, Ont., Mildred Leanna Gilstorf was a physician’s house keeper before her marriage to Walter Danby, a Hamilton homebuilding contractor. Together, they built a substantial trust fund for causes of deep personal concern, including severely burned children, church and missionary work, and health problems such as arthritis, cystic fibrosis and mental disabilities. The Walter and Mildred Danby Fund supports several named organizations working in these areas. Following her husband’s death in 1978, Mrs. Danby stayed on in her Florence Street home, which Mr. Danby had built some 60 years earlier, until she passed away in 1988.

Excerpt from 1988-1989 Annual Report

Vangie M. Crosthwaite Fund

Vangie Crosthwaite took a great interest in documenting her family’s early history in the Hamilton area. Her ancestors settled in Bartonville, and today a street in that area bears the family name. As was the custom, she stayed at home on King Street East to look after her parents, Nellie Gage and Harvey Franklin Crosthwaite. Her garden was a source of great pleasure, not only to her, but to others who nominated her for several Trillium Awards.

Excerpt from 1989-1990 Annual Report

Donald A. Cooper Fund

Donald Armstrong Cooper died at the age of 86, was a well-known and respected teacher and administrator within the Hamilton Board of Education.

A 1928 graduate of Queen’s University, Mr. Cooper taught mathematics and became Principal of Hamilton Central Collegiate Institute and was Superintendent of Secondary Schools at the time of his retirement in 1969. He was past President and life member of the Ontario Educational Association. Mr. Cooper was also a musician, singing with the Bach Elgar Choir and playing violin in the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

His bequests to arts and cultural organizations, hospitals and educational institutions, as well as his gift to the Foundation for general purposes, reflect his lifelong interest in culture and learning, and his concern for the well-being of his fellow citizens.

Excerpt from 1991-1992 Annual Report

Florabel Condy Fund

Florabel Condy

Florabel Condy was an energetic and dedicated member of many local groups – Women’s Art Association, Head-of-the-Lake Historical Society, IODE, Women’s Canadian Club and the Art Galleryof Hamilton, to name a few. She was also an avid traveler and student; detailed notes from all the Couchiching Conferences she had attended, for example were discovered among her papers.

During World War II, the federal government’s national Selective Service took Miss Condy from her accounting position in a glass firm and made her responsible for placing disabled women in suitable jobs – an assignment of which she was very proud. Later, she became Director of Public Relations for Amity.

She was a native Hamiltonian, having descended from a Scottish family, which had settled in 1842 in Bartonville, a community along King Street East in the Rosedale-Cochrane Road area. When Miss Condy died at 92, several local organizations were notified of legacies, including the Foundation.

Excerpt from 1994-1995 Annual Report

Harold E. Clarke Fund

Harold E. Clarke

Born in Liverpool, England in 1904, Harold Clarke trained as a banker before emigrating to Canada where he joined the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. He was happiest, according to his friend and neighbour Karen Harrison, when tinkering with broken equipment whether it was cars, sump pumps or radios. His skill with radios was in demand during the Second World War when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and later, the Royal Air Force in England where he was assigned to work on radar equipment. With the RAF, he also served a ten-year stint in India.

Harold Clarke and Nancy, his wife of 50 years, eventually settled in Fruitland. They loved dogs and lavished affection on Princess, their German Shepherd. Predeceased by his wife, Mr. Clarke died in 1997. A year later, the Foundation received the residue of his estate.

Excerpt from 1997-1998 Annual Report

Margaret Eleanor Chetter (Tschetter) Fund

When friends and family recall Margaret Chetter, they describe a kind, generous , loyal and assertive person.

Born Margaret Leitch in Burlington, she was educated at Branksome Hall in Toronto and served as executive secretary of the Downtown Hamilton Rotary Club for 12 years. She was in her forties, when, making her way through a supermarket checkout line, she met Andrew Chetter, a widower who she married in 1959. Andrew’s job as sales agent for a jewelry company allowed the couple to travel extensively, with regular trips to the Caribbean and South Africa.

After Andrew died, Mrs. Chetter remained in her Burlington home with the help of homemaker, Valerie White. “Margaret became a mother to me and befriended my whole family. She was extremely generous. One Christmas, my husband was on strike and my son had just announced he was getting married. She insisted on buying dresses for me and my daughter to wear to the wedding. That’s just the way she was. ” Mrs. White recalled. A nephew, Ken Waters, remembers his aunt as a very private person, financially and politically astute, with eclectic interests – antiques, theatre, concerts, current events.

Always wanting to help others. Margaret Chetter left the Foundation the residue of her estate.

Excerpt from 1997-1998 Annual Report

M. Jessie Chagnon Fund

Born in 1897 in Green Valley near Ottawa, Ont., Jessie MacDonald nursed First World War veterans at Toronto’s Christie Street Hospital where she met her husband-to-be, Elmer Stanley Chagnon, a lieutenant in the Canadian Infantry who had won the Military Cross for bravery in the battle at Amiens, France. The Hamilton Tigers’ championship quarterback was never to play football again as a result of a disabling hip wound. By 1933, he had qualified as a chartered accountant and joined forces with C.K. MacGillivray, a former Executive Director of The Hamilton Foundation, to form Chagnon & MacGillivray.

After her husband’s death in 1953, Mrs. Chagnon remained in their Burlington Northland Ave. home for many years. In her Will, she left generous legacies to various health and social agencies, Roman Catholic Charities and The Hamilton Foundation.

Excerpt from 1988-1989 Annual Report

Henrietta F. Campbell Fund

Born in Lancaster, NY in 1905, Henrietta Rautenstrauch began her nursing career at St. Mary’s Hospital in Niagara Falls, NY where it is said she was the first nurse to use an x-ray machine. After a 17 year engagement to Lorne Thomas Campbell, the two moved to Hamilton where Mrs. Campbell found employment at the General Hospital and rose to the position of operating room supervisor.

Independent, generous and caring, Mrs. Campbell was active in her church as a member of the Catholic Women’s League. A neighbour, Karime Mafekh, recalled, “We met as neighbours in 1965 and adopted each other as family. I had arrived from Lebanon two years earlier and Henrietta was like a mother to me.”

Widowed in 1969, Henrietta Campbell remembered several organizations in her will and left the residue of her estate to the Foundation as a way of fulfilling her wish to help as many people as possible.

Excerpt from 1996-1997 Annual Report

Irene Caldwell Memorial Fund

When Irene Caldwell died in July 1996, her husband of 47 years, Campbell Caldwell of Burlington, decided to set up a fund in his wife’s name to honour her memory. His gift to the Irene Caldwell Memorial Fund is a gift which may be used as the Foundation determines.

Irene grew up in Hamilton’s north end, graduated from Central High School of Commerce in 1944 and went to work for the Burlington Steel Company where she met her future husband. Recalling his wife’s great love for reading, Mr. Caldwell says her favourite place was the public library. “She read everything from mysteries and politics to history and medical books.” Science fiction writers Stephen King and Isaac Asimov were two of her favourites. Mr. Caldwell reminisced about another of Irene’s passions – music and dancing, especially to the big band sound of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman.

 Excerpt from 1997-1998 Annual Report 

Dorothy & Travice Broadbent Fund

Dorothy Broadbent, was a devout and lifelong member of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church where she was actively involved in many aspects of church life, especially the Women’s Missionary Society. Mrs. Broadbent was also a faithful volunteer at, and supporter of, St. Peter’s Hospital and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

F. James Travice Broadbent, a chemist by trade, came to Canada from Huddersfield, England in 1992 as representative of a dye manufacturer. At the time of his retirement, he was associated with Hoechst Canada and Hoechst Celanses Corp., in the U. S. He was a devoted member and a Perpetual Deacon of the Anglican Church, serving in many capacities in the local, provincial and national levels, and was Honourary Assistant at the Church of St. Thomas. Mr. Broadbent was active in both Masonry and Scottish Rite, and served for more than 20 years on the Board of St. Peter’s Hospital.

Excerpts from 1987-1988 and 1990-1991 Annual Reports