Students benefit from $3.6 million surprise gift

Phyllis Summerhayes and father Maurice, circa 1922.

A daughter's love and devotion to her father has resulted in the single largest donation for student awards ever given to the University of Victoria.

The faculty of engineering has received an unexpected $3.6 million donation from the estate of the late Phyllis Summerhayes, who died in Victoria in October, 2004 at the age of 96.

"This donation came as a total surprise," says Dr. Michael Miller, dean of the faculty of engineering. "It's also a bit of a mystery."

Summerhayes, who had no previous connection to the university, made the gift through her will to establish the Maurice William Summerhayes Memorial Fund. The endowment will provide bursaries and scholarships in perpetuity to engineering students in memory of her father, the late Maurice Summerhayes, one of Canada's leading mining engineers during the first half of the 20th century.

The donation will provide financial aid and awards to about 50 engineering students every year.
Norma Cameron, manager of planned giving in the development office, tracked down the scant details of the donor's life. "Miss Summerhayes was clearly a woman of vision and tremendous generosity, but sadly, we hardly know anything about her."

Cameron worked with the development office research team and members of the Summerhayes family to piece together a picture of the donor, who spent the later part of her life in Victoria.

"She was an extremely bright person," says Cameron. " She was a meticulous bookkeeper and a very savvy investor. She lived a very quiet life, but amassed a substantial fortune over the years. We know that she was deeply devoted to her father."

Phyllis Summerhayes was born in 1908 and spent her youth in California. Following her mother's death in 1940, she moved to Canada and worked in the banking business in Toronto for a short time. She later moved to Duncan to be with her father. When he died in 1953 she moved to Victoria. She liked playing bridge and reading, travelled extensively and dressed impeccably.

Maurice Summerhayes was a mining engineer who came to Canada in 1911 to work in the Porcupine Crown Mine, and later, for Write-Hargreaves Mines Ltd. at Kirkland Lake as managing director. He retired in 1949, but continued in a consulting capacity until his death at the age of 81. He was a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and was former president of the Ontario Mining Association.

"This endowment will enrich our student financial awards immeasurably," says Miller. "While there's still an unmet need, we can create significantly more bursaries than we do now. We hope to create one very prestigious $20,000 scholarship that will attract some of the most talented students to the engineering faculty."

News of the gift was announced at a special ceremony in the engineering lab wing on June 30. Members of the Summerhayes family came from England, South Africa and the U.S. to attend.