VANCOUVER: Woman Leaves Millions To UBC, SFU

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Woman Leaves Millions To UBC, SFU

Five universities to get a share of her $28.8-million estate

Neal Hall and Doug Ward
Vancouver Sun

A wealthy Vancouver woman who died earlier this year has left more than $21 
million to five Canadian universities,
including Simon Fraser University and the University of B.C.

Florence May Foreman lived a quiet, largely anonymous life in the same 
apartment in Vancouver's West End for more than
30 years before she died March 24 at the age of 88.

The gross value of her estate was $28.8 million, most of it invested in 
government treasury bills and fixed-income
bonds. She also held shares in three Canadian banks.

Born on a Saskatchewan farm, Foreman had never worked. She inherited her 
fortune from her parents and a sister who had
predeceased her.

Although a philanthropist for much of her later life, she usually made 
anonymous donations because she disliked any
public attention.

Her will specified that 75 per cent -- $21.5 million -- was to be split into 
equal one-fifth shares for SFU, UBC, the
University of Saskatchewan, Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, and the 
Montreal Neurological Institute at
McGill University.

"There are no strings attached," Foreman's cousin, Harry Smith of West 
Vancouver, said Wednesday of the $4.3 million
bequests to each university.

The universities can decide how they want to allocate the money, he said, but 
they were told that one of Foreman's
primary interests was research, particularly in the health field.

The universities were thrilled by Foreman's philanthropy.

"It's the single largest bequest we've had to date," said Kathryn Aberle, 
director of media and public relations at
SFU. "It was a delightful surprise to us."

Foreman had made donations to SFU over the years "but there was nothing to 
indicate that this was coming our way," she
added.

No decision has been made about how the $4.3 million will be used, Aberle said.

The SFU spokesman said the estate's executor made it clear to the university 
that Foreman did not want to become the
subject of media attention.

"She would have preferred that the publicity be about how the money is used," 
she said.

Foreman lived in a 1950s style high-rise condominium on Chilco Street, just 
above Lost Lagoon. Her next-door neighbour,
Ken Dutton, described her as a very private person.

"She preferred to be anonymous," said Dutton. He added he knew Foreman well but 
didn't want to discuss her publicly.

"She's told me her stories but I won't repeat them. She was a lady as far as I 
was concerned and she deserved a private
life."

Foreman gave very generously to many charities during her lifetime but most of 
her donations were made anonymously,
explained Smith.

"She avoided publicity," he said of his cousin, whom he described as a world 
traveller who loved music.

"She was a very caring and quiet person who liked to do things without any 
fuss," Smith said from his cottage in
Quebec. "She was one of those people who never said a bad word about anybody.

"She was a very social person who had a wonderful passion for life," added 
Smith, executor of his cousin's will. He was
left 25 per cent of Foreman's estate.

He said his cousin never married. Neither did her only sister, Phyllis Foreman, 
who lived with her sister until she
died about 20 years ago. Their parents, Douglas and May Foreman, died in the 
1960s.

Florence Foreman was born in Swift Current, Sask., on a sprawling wheat farm 
owned by her parents, who had lived in
Montebello, Quebec before deciding to head west, seeking adventure.

The Foremans had "old money" from lumber and food-distribution interests in 
Quebec, Smith said. They were also
fortunate in that they invested wisely, he added.

Smith said his cousin's philanthropic nature was fostered while growing up on a 
farm during the Depression years, when
the family helped less-well-off neighbours.

"In Saskatchewan, they were quite a bit wealthier than the people around them, 
and that made her uncomfortable," Smith
said. "Florence didn't like it when her father bought a new car or some other 
sign of affluence."

By the mid-1940s, the family was dividing their time between the wheat farm and 
a winter home on the West Coast.

Smith said Foreman decided to leave the large bequests to universities in the 
three provinces where her family had
lived and made their fortune.

Foreman's mother suffered from Alzheimer's disease and her sister died of 
Parkinson's disease, which helps explain her
contribution to medical research at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

"We are both honoured and humbled by the extraordinary example of Miss 
Foreman's philanthropy in support of research in
the neurosciences," said Dr. David Colman, director of the Montreal 
Neurological Institute.

"Her commitment to discovering the causes and alleviating the suffering of 
neurological diseases and disorders is a
great source of inspiration for us at the MNI."

Pam McPhail, director of development at Bishop's University, said the $4.3 
million donation is the largest in the
university's 160-year history, topping a 1999 gift of $3.7 million from alumnus 
Richard Tomlinson and a $3-million
donation from David Williams in 1996.

The Foreman bequest will be added to the Bishop's University Foundation, 
bringing the endowment fund to $25 million.

Foreman also left $75,000 to a friend, Darlene Grace Hartness of Lacadena, 
Saskatchewan.

SOURCE: The Vancouver Sun, Canada


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