Floyd Chalmers
Floyd Sherman Chalmers | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 14, 1898 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Died | April 26, 1993 (aged 94) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Known for | editor, publisher, and philanthropist |
| Children | Joan Chalmers Wallace Chalmers |
| Awards | Order of Canada Order of Ontario |
Floyd Sherman Chalmers, CC OOnt (September 14, 1898 – April 26, 1993) was a Canadian editor, publisher and philanthropist.[1]
Born in Chicago, Illinois, to Canadian parents, he was raised in Orillia and Toronto, Ontario.[1] He worked for the Bank of Nova Scotia before serving with the First Canadian Tank Battalion during World War I.[1][2]
Chalmers married Jean Chalmers, née Boxall, in 1921.[3] They had a son, Wallace Chalmers, in 1923, and a daughter, Joan Chalmers, born May 30, 1928.[4]
From the 1930s on, Floyd and Joan Chalmers became supporters of the arts in Canada, helping establish the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Stratford Festival, among other arts organizations.[4]
Chalmers first established his subsequent career in publishing as editor of the battalion's newsletter,[1] and joined the Financial Post as a reporter in 1919.[1] Appointed chief editor of the Financial Post in 1925,[5] he later became president of Maclean-Hunter from 1952 to 1964 and chairman of the board until 1969.[1][6] In 1964, Maclean-Hunter went public and Chalmers sold half his shares.[4]
From 1968 to 1973, he was appointed chancellor of York University.[1] As a philanthropist, he served on the board of the Toronto Conservatory of Music;[1] endowed the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards,[1] one of Canada's most prominent literary awards for playwrights; and created the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.[1] He commissioned an opera for Canada's centennial in 1967, written by Mavor Moore and composed by Harry Somers.[7]
He wrote Codes for Canada (1934), A Gentleman of the Press (1969), a biography of John Bayne Maclean, and Both Sides of the Street: One Man’s Life in Business and the Arts in Canada (1983), an autobiography.[1] He founded The Ticker Club in 1929 which was a luncheon club to give business founders and thought leaders the opportunity to address the financial community.
In 1967 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1984.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Floyd Chalmers Archived 2016-08-20 at the Wayback Machine at The Canadian Encyclopedia.
- ^ "Search the Collection | Canadian War Museum". Canadian War Museum. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
- ^ "Jean Chalmers". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
- ^ a b c Morrow, Martin (2016-12-16). "Joan Chalmers turned philanthropy into activism". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 12 Mar 2025. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
- ^ "Publishing Inc. on the move". The Globe and Mail, April 9, 1983.
- ^ "Starting as a reporter 49 years ago, Floyd S". Digital Archive Ontario. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
- ^ Braz, Albert (2021-10-08). "Singing Louis Riel: The Centennial Quest for Representative Canadian Heroes". Canadian Review of Comparative Literature. 47 (1): 107–122.
- ^ Office of the Governor General of Canada. Order of Canada citation. Queen's Printer for Canada. Retrieved 26 May 2010
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- 1898 births
- 1993 deaths
- Businesspeople from Toronto
- 20th-century Canadian biographers
- Canadian male biographers
- Canadian autobiographers
- Chancellors of York University
- Companions of the Order of Canada
- Members of the Order of Ontario
- Members of the United Church of Canada
- American emigrants to Canada
- Writers from Toronto
- Canadian newspaper editors
- Canadian male journalists
- 20th-century Canadian philanthropists
- Canadian business biography stubs