Dorothy Killam

Dorothy J. Killam ( Dorothy Ruth Brooks Johnston; 1900 – 26 July 1965) was an American-born Canadian philanthropist. She was the wife of Canadian financier Izaak Walton Killam. When he died in 1955 she inherited his fortune and continued to build it until her own death 10 years later. She engaged in philanthropic activity during her lifetime and left her estate to a number of Canadian educational and research institutions.

Family background Dorothy Ruth Brooks Johnston was born in 1900 in St. Louis, Missouri. By 1915 he was described as a "millionaire St. Louis banker", and was said to be considering running for the United States Senate.

Marriage

Dorothy Johnston met Izaak Walton Killam at a party when she visited a friend in Montreal in 1921. They were married in St. Louis on 5 April 1922. Killam had been president of Royal Securities since 1915, and had bought the brokerage firm from Max Aitken in 1919. He suffered serious financial losses in 1921, but recovered his fortune within a few years and went on to become extremely wealthy, with major interests in pulp and paper and electric power companies, among many others.

Dorothy Killam was a lifelong baseball fan. In St. Louis she had supported the St. Louis Browns and after her marriage, she became a fan of the International League's Montreal Royals, the top farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the 1940s the Killams started spending more time in New York due to Killam's business interests, and Dorothy Killam became a supporter of the Dodgers, attending home games at Ebbets Field.

Killam considered his wife to have "the best business brain of any woman he ever met", and discussed his business affairs with her throughout their married life. Approximately half of this amount went to the Canadian government as estate tax. The government realized a similar sum from the estate of Sir James Dunn, who died less than six months later. In 1960 she dropped out of the consortium, reportedly for tax reasons related to her Canadian citizenship.

In April 1960 Dorothy Killam became a member of the board of the Metropolitan Opera Association. She was also a benefactress of the company, financing its new productions of La sonnambula in 1963 and Lucia di Lammermoor in 1964.

After her husband's death, she kept the house in Montreal, the two houses in Nassau, and the New York apartment. In 1963, after several summers visiting friends on the French Riviera, she purchased the Villa Leopolda in Villefranche-sur-Mer from Gianni and Marella Agnelli.

Her will provided for the establishment of the Killam Trusts, whose stated purpose was to help in the building of Canada's future by encouraging advanced study... to increase the scientific and scholastic attainments of Canadians, to develop and expand the work of Canadian universities, and to promote understanding between Canadians and peoples of other countries. Dalhousie University received $30million, while the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta were given $14million and $16million respectively. The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University received $4million. As of 2021, more than 7800 scholars and researchers have benefited from Killam Trust awards.