Fred Maurice Blayney

1919 - 2017  (97 years)

• Name	Fred Maurice Blayney
  Born	19 Sep 1919	Townsend Township, Norfolk Co., Ontario
  Gender	Male
  Business	Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	Blayney Pharmacy
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-145701
  Died	24 Aug 2017	Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Buried	Oakwood Cemetery, Simcoe, Norfolk Co. , Ontario, Canada
  Person ID	I145701	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Dora Mae
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F43337	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  When a Record reporter interviewed Fred Blayney in June of last year, he was bright, cheerful, knife-edge sharp and 96 years old. His body might have been weakening but not his mind. Nor his passion for the many causes he supported in the past, such as art. The occasion of the interview was the 60th anniversary of Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, an institution that Fred and his wife, Dora Mae, helped found. When asked if Kitchener embraced its artists then as it does now, Fred was candid. "It was 'No, we don't need that,'" Fred told the reporter, then added "There's always somebody who says 'Oh no it's too expensive.'" But Fred, Dora Mae and friends were relentless. And the gallery, which started in an old bicycle shed behind Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute, opened the barn doors to the public in September 1956. The short-term exhibit featured works by Tom Thomson and was opened by none other than Group of Seven member, A.Y. Jackson. Fred, a pharmacist, and Dora Mae, a former teacher, were art collectors and he dabbled in painting himself. Fred said that though Kitchener had embraced music, art was considered elitist and city hall was reluctant to provide funding. "We had some influential people, prominent people," he said. "Then the church ministers were supportive." It was under pressure from these movers, shakers and God's representatives that the city finally relented and handed over some cash. Fred and the other founders might have been from the upper echelons of Kitchener society but they were not afraid to roll up their sleeves and grab a broom to clear out that shed. "It looked awful," Fred recalled. "It looked like a chicken coop." That chicken coop required three weeks of scrubbing layers of mouse droppings, dust and spiders. The ick factor was huge but it did not deter this group and, of course, today the art gallery is located at Centre in the Square and recognized as an important cultural centre. The gallery was not Fred and Dora Mae's only involvement in their beloved community. The couple consistently raised money for UNICEF and they were staunch members of First United Church in Waterloo and involved in Joseph Schneider Haus historical site. "He was really supportive and involved, right from the very beginning," said the museum's now-retired executive director, Susan Burke. She knew both Dora Mae and Fred from her student days and was always impressed by how avid - and eclectic \emdash collectors they were. As a museum professional, Susan is used to organization and tidy record-keeping. Fred and Dora Mae were more the freestyle kind of collectors, their basement stacked with antiques. "He didn't let people into his basement," said Susan, adding she was one of the privileged few to see the couple's collection, everything from kitchen iron pots to bed coverlets to quilts, glassware and dozens of clocks. Fred donated a number of items from this collection to Schneider Haus, pieces the public can see today \emdash including the iron pot in the kitchen and the hand pump at the side of the house. As Susan said, just gathering these artifacts meant Fred was often rummaging through old buildings and dusty piles to find buried treasures and he had an innate sense of what was valuable and what was junk. Fred and Dora Mae began collecting antiques long before it was fashionable and the childless couple soon became known for their knowledge of Canadian antiques. "We were blazing a trail because there were no books on Canadian artifacts," Dora Mae once told a reporter. "You can buy books for instruction now, but there was nothing available then." Jim Dunstan, curator or the Niagara Apothecary in Niagara on the Lake, said Fred donated many artifacts to the museum after closing his Waterloo pharmacy in 1969. "In 1970, a year before the Apothecary museum opened, he provided a good number of artifacts from his impressive collection; initially as a loan then in 1999 as a permanent donation," Jim recalled. "I believe they largely consisted of vintage glass and earthenware bottles and jars." The couple's interest in antiques was not restricted to Canada. In 1988 they travelled to Israel and Jordan, visiting biblical sites, one of dozens of trips the couple took all over the world. In many cases, Fred and Dora Mae would revisit countries they found particularly interesting, places such as Russia and Hong Kong, and they crossed the Atlantic six times on the Queen Elizabeth 2. In 1966, Fred and Dora Mae hired a part-time pharmacist to run the shop and left for three weeks in Ireland, ancestral home of the Blayneys, a place where they could blissfully immerse themselves in history. Fred was one of three children born in Townsend, in Norfolk County. He opened a pharmacy in Toronto and likely planned to stay there, until he met Dora Mae at a YMCA art lecture. She was teaching French and Latin at a high school in Waterloo Region. It must have been love at first sight because they married within months and two years later, bought a pharmacy in Waterloo. Dora Mae quit teaching to do the store's books. In every aspect of their lives, the couple worked together: In the pharmacy and in their pursuit of antiques. Lots and lots of antiques. In 1996, the couple decided to downsize and whereas for most people that means giving stuff to family or donating to charity, Fred and Dora Mae required a three-day auction to clear out their house of 40 years of collecting. At the time Fred, then 77, said their four-bedroom Waterloo home was just too crowded. Shirley Madill, the art gallery's executive director, was impressed with Fred for his other interest: Art. "One of the most memorable moments for me was meeting Fred Blayney for the first time at our Founders Dinner celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery," she recalled. "Fred encompassed what an innovative and visionary community leader truly is: A person with the ability to foresee future needs of a community and play a proactive role in making it happen despite any barriers." She spoke of Fred's understanding of the importance of art for a healthy community. As a person, Susan thought Fred was warm and engaging, someone who really enjoyed everyone he met. "He was always super interested in people," she said. "He was a really special guy." Hill, V. (2017). LIFETIMES: Fred Blayney a pharmacist, art lover and early collector of Canadian antiques | TheRecord.com. TheRecord.com. Retrieved 10 September 2017, from https://www.therecord.com/news-story/7547019-lifetimes-fred-blayney-a-pharmacist-art-lover-and-early-collector-of-canadian-antiques/

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 19 Sep 1919 - Townsend Township, Norfolk Co., Ontario Business - Blayney Pharmacy - - Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 24 Aug 2017 - Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Oakwood Cemetery, Simcoe, Norfolk Co. , Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth