Positivity: Canadian Couple Leaves Fortune to Charity
Four local institutions in Brockton, Ontario have a nice problem — what to do with money left to them by Herbert and Eileen Field (HT
Good News Blog):
Couple leaves fortune to charity
By SHARON STENHOUSE
For The Recorder and Times
Posted 4:30:02 PM Wednesday, March 8, 2006Four major institutions in Brockville have become the beneficiaries of a childless couple who left their entire estate to the community in which they lived for some 30 years.
Herbert James (John) and Eileen Field moved to Brockville in 1972 from England and lived here until their deaths. Eileen Field died in 2001, aged 75, and Herbert Field died in 2004, three days short of his 85th birthday.
The executor of the estate, Betty Carton, said the Fields’ express wish was to leave their estate, in its entirety, to Brockville General Hospital, which received about $164,000, St. Vincent de Paul Hospital, which also received about $164,000, the Brockville Public Library, $65,600, and the Brockville branch of the Ontario Humane Society, $43,700.
“John was a very, very good man,” Carton said. “He spent years being a bobby (police officer) in England.” Carton had been school friends with Eileen Field and they continued their friendship for 61 years and became stepsisters when Carton’s father married Eileen Field’s mother.
In 1987, a year after Carton’s husband died, the Fields persuaded Carton to move to Brockville from England.
“I’d always hoped to come to Canada,” Carton said.
She was neighbours with the Fields on Country Club Place until the time of the Fields’ deaths.
“They did a lot of good in Brockville,” Carton said. “They had so many friends and I’d like them to know the good that they’re doing. And they’re not even here.”
Margaret Williams, chief librarian at the Brockville public Library, said the Fields’ donation was a fantastic way to support the community.
“This was such a wonderful surprise,” she said. “It shows that Mr. and Mrs. Field really cared about this community and had a vision for the future.”
Williams first heard that the library had been listed as a recipient last year during the “Roots and Wings” campaign. The fundraising goal was $100,000 and, thanks to the Fields, the sum was surpassed, Williams said.
The campaign was intended to fill in some funding shortfalls in programs and services, a consequence of former premier Mike Harris’ government, which made the municipality totally responsible for funding and governance, Williams said. It has since been abandoned, but the government did not go back and restore the dropped funding.
Now the library receives $42,000 annually from the province, but the amount has stayed the same for 10 years, she said.
“Inflation has raised prices and we really have been falling behind,” Williams said.
The Fields’ bequest was a “tremendous boost” and will go toward several initiatives, said Williams, with the focus this year on improving services for young adults and seniors. Greater collections, services, programs are on the list, as well as new electronic resources.
….. “This community is so generous,” Williams said. “We’re so careful with every dollar and we’ll be sure to maximize it to the nth degree.”
Williams hopes to put up a plaque of Mr. and Mrs. Field in a “prominent” place in the library.
“We’re very grateful and we’ll always remember them,” she said.
