Edith Mary Winstone Blackwell (1877 – 15 September 1956) was an eminent philanthropist in Auckland during the 20th century. She was born the only daughter of George (Senior) and Mary Winstone.
She attended the Beresford Street Public School before becoming one of the first girls to attend Auckland Grammar School in Symonds Street.
Edith married Joseph Henry Blackwell in 1932. Following a time in Kaiapoi they returned to Auckland building Marewa a fine home on the north-eastern slopes of Mount Eden with fascinating gardens spreading down the hillside.
In 1950 Edith established a charitable trust the Edith Winstone Blackwell Foundation - which was incorporated in 1956. A Trust Board appointed to run the trust included a representative of the descendants of each of Edith's brothers. Edith donated a Zeiss telescope to the Stardome Observatory. The primary fixed telescope at Stardome Observatory is named after her.
In 1954 Edith was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty the Queen; the award was presented at Government House in Auckland on 25 February 1955 by the Governor General Sir Willoughby Norrie. She died on 15 September 1956.
The Edith Winstone Blackwell Case Room in the Owen G Glenn Building at the University of Auckland is named after her.
In 2008, the University of Auckland launched a fundraising campaign to redevelop the Leigh Marine Laboratory at Goat Island, Auckland as the base for the South Pacific Centre for Marine Science - with a $4.5 million donation from the Edith Winstone Blackwell Foundation. In 2011, the Edith Winstone Blackwell Interpretative Centre is due to be opened.
Famous quotes containing the words edith and/or blackwell:
“When a woman behaves like a man why doesn’t she behave like a nice man?”
—Dame Edith Evans (1888–1976)
“It is well worth the efforts of a lifetime to have attained knowledge which justifies an attack on the root of all evil—viz. the deadly atheism which asserts that because forms of evil have always existed in society, therefore they must always exist; and that the attainment of a high ideal is a hopeless chimera.”
—Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910)