John McKellar served on numerous boards, including corporate entities such as CHUM, SportsNet and Netstar Communications.Mike Meehan/Courtesy of family
On the eve of his 70th birthday, corporate lawyer and arts patron John McKellar took to the stage at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto and, to the surprise of the crowd, performed a high-quality tap dance.
He spent a year practising the routine for the gala he helped organize. The event also included appearances by a who’s who of performers such as Cynthia Dale, Brent Carver and Seán Cullen, and raised money for an endowment to support mid-sized performing arts companies.
“He was a steward of culture for the arts community in Toronto,” says Richard Rose, former artistic director of the Tarragon Theatre, an organization Mr. McKellar helped found.
Mr. McKellar, who died on Nov. 5 at the age of 91, was a successful lawyer by day, working for 62 years at the same firm, now known as WeirFoulds LLP, 13 of them as chairman.
After hours, the father of three served on numerous boards, including corporate entities such as CHUM, SportsNet and Netstar Communications. He was an adviser to the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Canadian Tax Foundation.
Mr. McKellar also volunteered for dozens of arts organizations throughout his life, including the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Cultural Attraction Fund, the Arts and Letters Club, Glenn Gould Foundation and Canadian Stage Company.
He donated regularly to these organizations – at the Tarragon, for instance, he sponsored one show a year – and would often produce shows in Toronto and beyond, such as for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He often worked pro bono as a lawyer for arts groups as well.
He frequently served as treasurer or chair of arts boards. “He was the ideal chair,” says Claire Hopkinson, an arts administrator who was the director and CEO of the Toronto Arts Council and founded Tapestry Opera. “He offered advice when needed. He steered a very efficient meeting. John appreciated efficiency in meetings and would cut people off if we needed to move forward.”
His son, the actor and filmmaker Don McKellar, noted his father’s effectiveness at running meetings and managing others. “He could be no nonsense without being officious, which is a real skill.”
As a board member, the elder Mr. McKellar understood his role when it came to the art itself. “He never strayed out of his lane,” Ms. Hopkinson says.
Mike Payette, executive director of the Tarragon Theatre, says Mr. McKellar understood that innovative work would not always be profitable, even though he often oversaw the finances. “He never stood in the way of risk. Especially within a company like the Tarragon, where everything we do is uncharted.”
For the Tarragon, in particular, Mr. McKellar was pivotal. The theatre company was founded in 1970 by academic Bill Glassco and his wife, Jane (née Gordon) Glassco, with Mr. McKellar helping set up the business side of the theatre and founding its board of directors.
The paperwork was due to get the theatre up and running for its first season so, over the phone, Mr. McKellar insisted Mr. Glassco pick a name for the theatre. The founder was cooking, and reached out for his herb jars, choosing tarragon, and made a decision.
Meanwhile, at Tapestry, Ms. Hopkinson looked to Mr. McKellar to help the small company level up in the 1990s. “Tapestry didn’t have the same level of donors and supporters as the major organizations did. We were incubating at the time, and a pioneering organization. It takes a visionary to support a pioneering organization.”
In 2020, theatres shut down, and the return to live shows was slow over the following years. “Even through some of the most challenging times in this sector, John was stalwart in his unabashed celebration of theatre and his belief in our mission,” Mr. Payette says.
At his day job in law, Mr. McKellar was an excellent problem solver who frequently mentored and supported his fellow lawyers, says longtime colleague William Ross. “He was an excellent lawyer. He had a broad practice in commercial law, which is rare now. He was a gentleman and a gentle man.”
John Duncan McKellar was born on Oct. 28, 1933, to John, a high school principal, and Vera (née Cook) McKellar. He was the eldest of three, with a brother, Peter and sister, Mary, the youngest.
Since John’s father was the principal of Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute, which would have been John’s local school, he went to North Toronto Collegiate Institute. He then attended the University of Toronto, graduating in 1955, and then on to Osgoode Law School.
While in school, he was set up with Marjorie Stirret, known as Kay, who grew up around the corner from him. They married over the Christmas Holidays in 1956. “Because they were diligent students,” Don says.
She worked as a science teacher, pausing her career when the family expanded to include David, Don and Mary, and returned to work later. John joined the law firm, and by the 1970s began volunteering in the arts. In his later years, he wound down his law practice, devoting almost all his time to arts work, and fully retired from his job in 2021. He stepped away from his arts positions only very recently.
He was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1996 and earned Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medals in 2002 and 2012, the Edmund C. Bovey Award in 2011 and the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts in 2016.
John McKellar with his wife Kay.Mike Meehan/Courtesy of family
Aside from attending arts events and volunteering, his only other hobby was doing magic, which he took up as a child.
“I think he did it quite seriously. When I was a kid, I found that was a big part of his mystique,” Don says. Helping his father do magic inspired Don to make the arts a career, he says.
John McKellar was a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Don recalls his father performing regularly at family holiday events and doing at least one public show, perhaps at the University Women’s Club at the University of Toronto.
“I remember going out with him to rent a rabbit for the finale from who knows where,” Don says. “He was very charming and self-deprecating in his shows. For the performing arts, it must have been his first taste.”
Mr. McKellar leaves Kay, his wife of 67 years; sons, Dave and Don; daughter, Barb; granddaughters, Ruby and Fiona; and sister, Mary Tracy.
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