Robert McMichael

Robert Alliston McMichael O.Ont., D.Litt., LL. D (1921 – November 18, 2003) was a Canadian art collector and philanthropist. Together with his wife, he founded the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg.

Career McMichael was born in Toronto. He attended Humberside Collegiate Institute and while there, he worked on the school yearbook as a journalist, then as advertising manager. Afterwards, he wrote for neighborhood newspapers, then founded a newspaper for high-school students, then worked as a reporter for the Toronto Star, then for the T. Eaton Co. Ltd. in marketing.

In 1965, McMichael donated his collection and his house in Kleinburg, northwest of Toronto, with 14 acres of land to the Province of Ontario under the terms of a formal Agreement. The Agreement stated that the Government of Ontario would maintain the Collection and its special character in perpetuity and give the McMichaels lifelong membership on the Collection’s advisory committee, which controlled acquisitions. The lawsuit culminated in a decision of the trial judge, Justice Peter Grossi of the Ontario Court’s General Division on November 15, 1996, in favour of the McMichaels.

McMichael died on November 18, 2003, of pneumonia following complications from a broken hip.