Personal Life
Bain was a well known businessman in Winnipeg. He was the president of Donald H. Bain Limited, a grocery brokerage firm headquartered in Winnipeg and operated in numerous cities. It was through his firm that he amassed a large fortune. He was a community leader. He helped found the old Winnipeg Winter Club on land that is now the HMCS Chippawa naval reserve division, and after World War II he organized the current Winter Club. Bain was a member of many community groups and was the life governor of the Winnipeg General Hospital. He was also one of Western Canada's first automobile enthusiasts and owned many British vehicles.
As a result of his trap-shooting career, Bain gained an appreciation for nature. He bought an ownership share of the Portage Country Club, on the Delta Marsh near the south shore of Lake Manitoba, and later donated the land to Ducks Unlimited. He built the Mallard Lodge as a personal retreat on land adjacent to the club. He strictly enforced his privacy, even building a road to his lodge that he allowed no one else to use. Members of the Portage Country Club were required to take a different route. Bain intended to donate his lodge to the government of Manitoba for preservation, though he died before doing so. The lodge passed into the control of the government anyway, and was donated to the University of Manitoba as a research facility in 1966 that remains active today. He was a member of the Manitoba Game and Fish Association and the Winnipeg Humane Society.
He never married and had no children. Bain was fond of his pets, in particular his Curly Coated Retriever dogs that he was said to value above human company. He died August 15, 1962, in Winnipeg at the age of 88. Bain left behind an estate in excess of C$1 million, the majority of which he donated to charity and former employees.
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