Philanthropy
Having no children, Killam and his wife devoted the greater part of their wealth to higher education in Canada. The Killam Trusts, established in the will of Mrs. Killam, are held by five Canadian universities: the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Calgary, Dalhousie University and McGill University. The current market value of the Killam endowment is approximately $400 million Canadian dollars and it is used to fund scientific research and artistic ventures across Canada.
Dalhousie University, in Halifax benefited the most, having received a $30 million bequest from Dorothy Killam's estate in 1965 ($214 million in 2011 when adjusted for inflation), representing 32% of her fortune. The 230,000 sq ft (21,000 m2) Killam Memorial Library constructed between 1966 and 1971 at a cost of $7.3 million ($52 million in 2011) was designed by architect Leslie R. Fairn and remains an enduring legacy to this day.
Money from the Killam estate also went to establish Izaak Walton Killam Hospital for Children in Halifax and the Montreal Neurological Institute in Montreal.
When Killam died, the government, at his request, used his inheritance taxes, coupled with those of Sir James H. Dunn and a large donation, to establish the Canada Council for the Arts.
Read more about this topic: Izaak Walton Killam
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)