Toronto philanthropist, social activist and arts patron Bluma Appel was hailed Monday as "an inspiring, caring, compassionate, fiercely determined friend to Toronto."
Appel died Sunday night in a Toronto hospital. She was 86. According to her family, she was diagnosed with lung cancer about two months earlier.
Bluma Appel, a long-standing patron of the arts, died Sunday.
(Courtesy of Ontario Trillium Foundation)
Though most often cited for her arts advocacy and as a devoted theatre lover in recent years, the irreverent and spirited Appel had also been a champion for AIDS-related causes, equal representation for women in male-dominated industries, and scientific and medical research.
"Beyond being a philanthropist, which is the way she's being cast, she was a social justice activist," Ellie Tesher, Appel's longtime friend and a syndicated newspaper columnist, told CBC News on Monday.
"Bluma was constantly finding causes before they became mainstream and going at them in a unique way," Tesher said.
"She was an inspiring, caring, compassionate, fiercely determined friend to Toronto and friend to women."
In addition to getting every bank in Canada to put a woman on its board in 1975, Appel also founded the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research in the 1980s.
"She brought AIDS into conversation in bank boardrooms [and] CEOs' offices" at a time when it was only whispered about, and persuaded executives to look at the economic fallout of the disease, Tesher said.
"Those banks all came up with $100,000 each and she created a fund of $1 million as her starting point."
Though born in Montreal, where she started volunteering as a child, Appel eventually became synonymous with Toronto.
She made a significant impact in the arts community, where she frequently donated money to and served on the boards of many organizations, including the Canadian Opera Company, the Canadian Stage Company, Opera Atelier and the Royal Ontario Museum.
The city's St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts renamed its theatre after Appel in 1983, after she made a generous donation assisting the Toronto institution's renovation efforts.
"Her generosity of spirit not only touched everyone at the Canadian Stage Company, but also everyone in the Toronto theatre community. I will miss her more than I can say," Martin Bragg, artistic producer of the Canadian Stage Company, said in a statement Monday.
Appel was also an officer of the Order of Canada and one of only three people ever recognized with the prestigious, honorary trophy at the Toronto theatre community's annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
Named 2007 Canadian of the Year by Toronto's Canadian Club, Appel was feted by the group in April.
'A locked door particularly intrigued me, and I never gave up looking for the key.'—Bluma Appel
In her acceptance speech, Appel hailed "the importance of the arts to a civilized society," and also said she had spent her life "knocking on a series of doors."
"A locked door particularly intrigued me, and I never gave up looking for the key, as I learned that behind every door, there was something that would add to the mosaic of life," she said at the time.
For years, Appel had wanted to hide her age, Tesher said, because of her belief that to focus on a person's age limited one's "vision of people, whereas you should focus on people's energy, their output, their ideas."
However, when she turned 80, Tesher said, Appel "realized that she had something to offer by promoting her age, and by showing women and whomever else would listen … that you don't stop till you stop. You don't stop till it's over."
Appel, who celebrated her 67th wedding anniversary last week, is survived by her husband Bram, two sons and five grandchildren.
A funeral service for Appel will take place Tuesday at Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel in Toronto.
The Canadian Stage Company will also dedicate its Tuesday evening outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Toronto's High Park to Appel.
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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