Ross Dixon fonds

Dixon, Ross.
Ross Dixon fonds. 1914-2009.

ca. 6.28 m of textual records and other material.

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Ross Vernon Dixon (1914-2009) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist in Kitchener, Ontario. He had a career in industrial relations and his entrepreneurial interests included construction and investment businesses. Dixon was born in Toronto in 1914 and grew up in Hamilton and Toronto. During the 1930s he worked for his father at his sporting goods buisness. During that time he also met Doris McRae Whiting from Orillia, Ontario, and they were married in 1942.

Ross Dixon began his career in industrial relations in 1940, working as a personnel manager at two different companies. In 1947, he accepted the position of Industrial Relations Manager for the Dominion Rubber Company, Footwear Division, in Kitchener, and in 1959 he became the Director of Industrial Relations for the company (which eventually became Uniroyal Canada).

Shortly after Ross and Doris moved to Kitchener, Ross formed the Westmount Construction Company. He built around 150 homes in Kitchener and Waterloo during the 1950s and 1960s, in the area surrounding the Westmount Golf and Country Club. Dixon retired from Uniroyal Canada in 1977 and became a local agent for the Morgan Trust Company, and a year later formed Ross Dixon and Associates. In 1990 he sold a majority interest to a holding company and Ross Dixon Financial Services was formed. This company eventually had thirty franchises in Ontario.

Ross and Doris Dixon were active philanthropists, supporting many charitable organizations and providing scholarships for students at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo through the Ross and Doris Dixon Charitable Foundation. Ross served as a member of the Board of Governors of Wilfrid Laurier University for eight years. In 2002, Ross and Doris Dixon received honourary degrees (LLD) from Wilfrid Laurier University. (Source: contents of the fonds; "Ross Vernon Dixon: a Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist," by Gordon M. Ward, Kitchener: [2003?].)

Fonds consists of material accumulated and kept by Ross Dixon relating to his entrepreneurial interests, career, and personal life, and to the philanthropic activities of
Ross and Doris Dixon. The material documents some aspects of his personal interests and childhood, his early career, and his career in industrial relations. A significant portion of the fonds relates to the businesses he formed outside of his professional career, the Westmount Construction Company and Westmont Enterprises Limited, for the period from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. These records document trends in suburban home-building and design during that time and include a large number of architectural drawings. The fonds is not comprehensive, lacking documentation relating to the formation and administration of his companies and containing only a small amount of material relating to his interests in investment and financial services. Fonds includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, advertising material, architectural drawings, legal documents, photographs, accounting records, reports, ms. notes, certificates, speeches, company publications, minutes, financial statements, ephemera, and other material.

Fonds is arranged in the following series:
1. Personal
2. Career
3. Career: Uniroyal
4. Westmount Construction Company
5. Architectural Drawings
6. Westmont Enterprises Limited
7. Ross Dixon Financial Services
8. Accounting Records
9. Philanthropy
10. Photographs
11. Visual Materials.

Title from content of the fonds.

Includes 1352 architectural drawings, 259 photographs, 3 videocassettes, 2 audio discs, and 2 paintings.

The extent is measured in linear metres of shelf space occupied by the fonds.

Donated in 2010.

Some restrictions may apply.

Finding aid available: file level.

Call number: GA207

Special Collections

Ross Dixon fonds