John Wilson McConnell - Philanthropy

Philanthropy

McConnell quietly set about becoming one of his country’s greatest philanthropists. He shunned publicity and his own newspaper was never allowed to mention any of his charitable donations. To aid in the treatment of cancer, he purchased a cobalt 60Co therapy machine for the Imperial Cancer Campaign, and donated them to the Jewish General Hospital, the Hôpital Notre-Dame de Montréal, and the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal and Hôpital L'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec in Quebec City. In 1937 McConnell founded the J. W. McConnell Foundation.

A major benefactor of McGill University, McConnell served on the Board of Governors for 30 years (1928–58). He gave the university Purvis Hall in 1942, Chancellor Day Hall (James Ross mansion) in 1948, the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1952 and the McConnell Winter Stadium in 1956. In 1959, he donated the funds to build the McConnell Engineering Building which doubled the number of engineering classrooms and offices and in 1961 built Presbyterian College (Morrice Hall). After his death, the J. W. McConnell Foundation undertook the 1971 renovations to the McCord Museum.

During World War II, after the United States Lend-lease program was launched in March 1941, fellow Canadian businessman Max Aitken, the then volunteer British Minister of Aircraft Production, asked McConnell to help finance the training of pilots such as Jackie Cochran in the United States to ferry American-built aircraft across the Atlantic. McConnell donated $1 million for the "Wings for Britain" campaign and in recognition of his contribution, a flying squadron was given his name.

In the 1950s, J.W. McConnell provided the money to build a boys and girls club in Montreal's predominantly French speaking East End and in the English speaking suburb of Pointe-Saint-Charles, one of the poorest sections of the city of Montreal. McConnell's benevolent works extended to individuals such as Maureen Forrester who recounted in her biography how he had learned of the difficulty she was experiencing, holding down a job while trying to develop her singing career. He contacted her and offered to cover her expenses for three years so she could train professionally — on the condition she never reveal his name. A patron of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, in the early 1960s when the Orchestra was preparing to move to new facilities at Place des Arts, McConnell purchased a 1727 Stradivarius violin for concertmaster and violinist Calvin Sieb.