Pam Dunn
On June 24, 2008, the McGill University Health Centre Foundation lost a beloved member of its Board of Directors when Pam Dunn passed away just shy of her eighty-fourth birthday. She joined our Board at its inception in 1999 and could always be counted on for valuable insights and practical recommendations on the matters at hand.
Born Osla Jane Holt, the native Montrealer was nicknamed “Pam” at an early age. She spent her formative years in Quebec’s Eastern Townships at King’s Hall, Compton, before attending university to study Arts at McGill and French at Laval. During World War II, she enlisted in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (known affectionately as the WRENS) and it was during her service in Halifax that she met her future husband, investment banker Timothy Dunn. The couple married in 1943 and moved to Quebec City a short time later. During their 30 years in “la Vieille Capitale,” Dunn raised six children and expressed her love of community service through dedicating herself to helping the mentally handicapped.
Dunn was always a lively, fun-loving presence, spending time with family in the Bahamas and the Laurentians and embracing a move back to Montreal in the 1970s. Ever eager to take on new challenges, she not only acted in various amateur productions throughout her life but earned her pilot’s licence in her forties. Long a sports enthusiast, Dunn volunteered at the Montreal and Calgary Olympics in 1976 and 1988 and was known to tell youngsters on the cross-country ski circuit to “move aside” as she sprinted past them. She also made time to sit on the boards of numerous charitable foundations that dealt with the two subjects dearest to her heart: health care and education.
As a granddaughter of Sir Herbert Holt, one of the country’s most influential industrialists and a former president of the Royal Bank of Canada, Dunn learned the value of philanthropy early in life and filled her days with projects that helped better the lives of those less fortunate. She will long be remembered for the extraordinary contributions she made to her community through many charitable avenues, including the Royal Victoria Hospital Foundation, Bishop’s University (from which she received an honorary doctorate in 1999), Sun Youth, Dans la rue, the Douglas Hospital Foundation, the Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal, the St. John Ambulance Foundation, the Montreal Association for the Blind and, of course, as a founding board member of the McGill University Health Centre Foundation. “She was one of the most remarkable, energetic people I have ever met,” says Dr. Arthur T. Porter, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the McGill University Health Centre. “She was incredibly vibrant, so alive, so involved in her community.”
Dunn is survived by her husband and six children, as well as by 16 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Health Perspectives would like to extend special thanks to Peter Dunn for his generous help with this article.
