Family donation honours 1924 pharmacy graduate

Walter Beattie, 1924.

The family of Walter Beattie, a 1924 pharmacy graduate, recently gathered to commemorate a bench named in his honour near Soldier’s Tower on the U of T campus. Fifteen descendants, including his two children Ila Vaculik and Ross Beattie (both U of T alumni), grandchildren and great-grandchildren, toured the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and visited the commemorative bench.

“I wanted to give to the university to honour my father, but also my family’s continuing connection to U of T,” says Ila, who attended both the Faculty of Music and Faculty of Education in the 1960s. “This was our time to give.”

Walter was born in 1900 on a farm near London, Ontario. After graduating from high school, he apprenticed for four years at Strong’s Drug Store in London. He then attended the Ontario College of Pharmacy (now Pharmacists), which became a part of U of T in 1953.

Ila says that after graduating, Walter wanted more excitement than London or Toronto offered, and he moved to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, near Detroit, where the Ford Motor Company was based. He worked in a pharmacy whose customers included Henry Ford. He moved back to Toronto in 1933 and opened a small drug store in the city’s east-end Beach neighbourhood.

Walter married Isabel Carr, a singer from the east coat, in 1936. Ross was born in 1940, and Ila was born in 1944, and the family lived in a home near Walter’s pharmacy, where Ila still lives today.

Sadly, Walter died of a heart attack in 1949, at just 49 years old and after practising pharmacy for over 20 years.

Ila was only five years old when her father died and doesn’t remember much about his pharmacy practice. But she can recall that Walter enjoyed the profession and was a member of the “Knights of the Pestle,” a group of fellow pharmacists. She also remembers that community members thought very highly of Walter and his drug store.

Supporting U of T’s Landmark Project

The Beattie family remains strongly connected to U of T. Not only did Ross and Ila attend U of T in the 1960s, but Ila’s two children also studied there.

When Ila heard about U of T’s Landmark Project, an initiative to transform the St. George Campus into a greener, more accessible space, a few years ago, she wanted to support it and recognize the generations of the Beattie family who have benefited from U of T education. 

“The St. George campus and Soldier’s Tower are both unique – you can sit in the middle of the city and experience the quiet,” Ila says. “U of T is a fabulous university, and I always knew that I would go there. Now I’m happy to stay involved and make a contribution that others can enjoy.”