Learn about the people behind our 10 branches named in their honour, from influential librarians to other notable community members. Most of these branch names date from 1970 or earlier. Today, we generally name new branches after identifiable locations, helping you easily find your local library.
- Albert Campbell
- Barbara Frum
- Charles R. Sanderson
- Daniel G. Hill III
- Evelyn Gregory
- Florence Taylor
- George H. Locke
- Lillian H. Smith
- Maria A. Shchuka
- S. Walter Stewart
Albert Campbell
Albert (“Ab”) McTaggart Campbell (1910–1973) was the 32nd reeve of Scarborough Township (1957–1967), the first mayor of the Borough of Scarborough (1967–1969) and chairman of Metropolitan Toronto Council (1969–1973).
Campbell fought for more recognition for Scarborough as it grew from a rural community to a booming urban area. He was instrumental in getting the Scarborough Town Centre built with the goal of creating a modern civic complex at the heart of the community. He was known for being quiet, dedicated and hardworking.
Campbell was born on May 21, 1910 in Ridgetown, Ontario and grew up on a farm. He attended the Ontario Agricultural College and earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto. He worked for more than 15 years as a secondary school teacher in Ontario. After marrying, he moved to his wife’s 19-acre family farm on Kingston Road in Scarborough where he lived until his death from cancer on August 30, 1973.
Albert Campbell branch was named in honour of him and officially opened by the Scarborough Public Library Board on September 29, 1971. In addition, Albert Campbell Square at the Scarborough Civic Centre and Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute were named after him.
Barbara Frum
Barbara Frum (1937–1992) was an acclaimed Canadian journalist and Order of Canada recipient. Born in Niagara Falls, New York, she was raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. After graduating from the University of Toronto, she began her journalism career in the 1960s as a freelance newspaper writer and commentator for CBC radio. She also wrote columns for the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Saturday Night magazine.
In 1971, she became the co-host of As It Happens, an innovative newsmagazine show on CBC national radio. Frum was known for her skills as a tough, sharp and well-informed interviewer. In 1982, the news program The Journal debuted on CBC Television. Frum became the sole host and interviewer - the first time in Canadian journalism history that a woman held such a position. Frum remained host of the highly-respected show until her death at age 54 due to complications of leukaemia.
On April 27, 1992, the North York Public Library Board voted to rename Bathurst Heights Branch in honour of Barbara Frum. The atrium in the CBC's Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, opened in 1993, is also named in her honour.
Charles R. Sanderson
Charles Rupert Sanderson (1887–1956) became the third chief librarian of Toronto Public Library in 1937 following the death of George H. Locke. He remained in the position for 27 years until shortly before his death in 1956.
Sanderson was born in Bury, Lancashire, England. He held various library positions including chief assistant librarian at Bolton Library, assistant librarian at Manchester Library and librarian at Gladstone Library, London. He also lectured at the School of Librarianship, University of London. During the First World War, he served in France and East Africa from 1914–1918. In 1929, he accepted the job of deputy chief librarian at TPL.
Under Sanderson’s leadership, TPL introduced library services during the Second World War for all ages. Collections were made available to military troops at Exhibition Stadium, a library was set up at Hart House for children evacuated from Britain and a library was established at John Inglis Company for wartime factory workers. Library services were also set up to serve patients in hospitals, settlement homes and residences for older adults. The Boys and Girls Division offered activities such as story times, puppet shows, plays and reading groups to children. As well as serving as chief librarian at this time, Sanderson served in the reserve army with the rank of major and acted as representative on the Canadian War Services Library Council of District 2.
In 1940, he earned an MA in Canadian history from the University of Toronto and in 1951 was awarded an LLD degree. He was the author of several publications and taught at the library school from 1937–1947. He was also active in several library associations in Canada and the US.
He died in July 1956, and in 1968 the Manning Boys and Girls branch was renamed in his honour.
Daniel G. Hill III
Daniel Grafton Hill III (1923–2003) was a pioneer and champion of human rights in Canada. He was also a distinguished writer on the history of Black people in Canada.
Originally from the US and the great-grandson of American slaves, Hill moved to Canada in 1950 to study at the University of Toronto. After completing his PhD in sociology, he was appointed the first director and later the Chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC). He worked tirelessly to establish the OHRC and transformed it from a tiny office with a small staff into a major public agency in the Province of Ontario with statutory powers. As Director of the OHRC, Hill fought discrimination for Ontarians from all social, racial and religious backgrounds. He resigned from the Commission in 1973 to establish the first human rights consulting firm in Canada.
In 1978, Daniel Hill co-founded the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS). This was the first public organization in the nation focused on the history of Black people in Canada, and he was its President for the first six years. He published his seminal book, The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada, in 1981. Hill was appointed Ombudsman for the Province of Ontario in 1984, a position he held until his retirement in 1989. As Ombudsman, he advocated on behalf of citizens who felt they had been mistreated by the government. He received the “Outstanding Service to Humanity” award from the Canadian Labour Congress in May 1984, was awarded the Order of Ontario in 1993 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999.
With his wife Donna Bender Hill, Daniel Hill raised three children - Dan, Lawrence and Karen
The Toronto Public Library Board approved renaming of the Jane/Dundas branch to Daniel G. Hill on June 24, 2024.
Evelyn Gregory
Evelyn Gregory (1903–1991) was Chief Librarian of York Township/Borough of York Public Library from its inception in 1945 to her retirement in 1969.
Gregory oversaw the extensive development of York Township’s library service, which began with only two small rented branches and a bookmobile service that began in 1948. In 1968, Metro Chairman William Allen officially opened a branch on Trowell Avenue and Eglinton Avenue which was named in her honour.
Gregory graduated from Trinity College, University of Toronto where she was active in the Hart House Players and St. Hilda’s residence. As a young woman, she spent time as a “Chautauqua girl” travelling through Canadian small towns. In 1925 she became one of 33 students accepted to the new training school for librarians at the University of Toronto. Instructors included Toronto Public Library staff George Locke, Lillian Smith and Winifred Barnstead.
Gregory was an active member of the Ontario Library Association, served as an officer in 1964, as second vice president from 1966–1968 and chaired several committees. She played a key role in the Metropolitan Toronto Library Community throughout the changes with Metro Toronto Corporation from 1953–1967. At the national level, she served on the Public Libraries Committee and was involved in writing the report Library Service in Canada, a Program of Inquiry for 1960–1961.
She died March 10, 1991 in Guelph, Ontario.
Florence Taylor
Florence Nightingale McMillin (1891–1954) was born in East Toronto on March 29, 1891. Her father was Andrew McMillin, one time mayor of the former Town of East Toronto. Her mother Ada Florence Selby died when Florence was 16. One of her two brothers, Ernest McMillin, became a local Alderman.
She attended Malvern Collegiate and married local businessman Fred Ibson Taylor in 1915. He owned Taylor’s Drug Store on the southeast corner of Kingston Road and Birchcliff Avenue, as well as a store on Main Street. In 1921, they moved to an Arts and Crafts-style house on Kingston Road at the northwest corner of Warden Avenue. The house was built under the direction of Florence’s father and constructed by his firm, McMillin & Costain.
Florence was active in the Scarboro Women’s Institute and served as president. She was also past district deputy grand matron, District No. 11 Order of the Eastern Star and past matron of Birch Cliff Chapter, OES. She was a mother adviser of the Rainbow Girls and a long time member of Birch Cliff United Church. Florence died in 1954 and was buried in St. John’s Norway Cemetery.
Fred Taylor went on to remarry and in 1962 he and his second wife, Kate M. Browning, decided to move to a new house. They began collaborating with Birch Cliff residents who wanted a permanent library in the neighbourhood. Kate suggested converting the house into a library in Florence’s memory. The property was transferred to the Scarborough Library Board in 1961, renovated and named the Florence Taylor Memorial Library. The original house was demolished in 1984 and a new building opened on the same property in 1985.
George H. Locke
George Herbert Locke (1870–1937) was the second Chief Librarian of Toronto Public Library, serving from November 1908 until his death on January 28, 1937. He is credited with having "transformed a small institution into one of the most respected library systems on the Continent" (Historical Plaques of Niagara Region). During his 29 year tenure, Locke established children's services, introduced books in many languages and opened a new central library and 16 branches. As a mark of respect, all of the libraries in Toronto were closed on the day of Locke's funeral and hundreds attended a memorial service at the Central Library.
Locke was born at Beamsville, Ontario on March 29, 1870 and educated at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He taught at Toronto, Chicago and Harvard universities and was dean at the School for Teachers, Macdonald College, Montreal, before coming to Toronto Public Library. Locke promoted library training and professionalism, helping establish the Library School at the University of Toronto and serving as president of the Ontario Library Association (1916–1917) and the American Library Association (1926–27) - the first Canadian to hold this office. He was a popular public speaker and the author of many books and articles on literary, historical and professional topics.
Locke received honourary degrees from the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada erected a plaque commemorating Locke, unveiled at Beamsville on October 26, 1948. An oil portrait of Locke by Curtis Williamson - presented by library staff in 1933 in recognition of Locke's 25th anniversary as Chief Librarian - hangs at the Locke branch, opened in 1949 under the name George H. Locke Memorial Branch.
Lillian H. Smith
"The love for a good story, well told, lies deep in every human heart." – Lillian H. Smith (1887–1983)
In 1912, in response to increasing demand for children's services, Toronto Public Library’s Chief Librarian George Locke recruited Lillian Helena Smith to head a new Children's Department. Born in London, Ontario, Smith was the first professionally trained children's librarian in Canada or Britain, and had worked for about a year in the Washington Heights Branch of the New York Public Library.
Smith was 25 when she came to Toronto Public Library. With energy and enthusiasm, she immediately started to improve collections, train staff and expand programs. By the end of her 40 years of innovative leadership, children's services were available in 16 branch libraries, 30 schools and two settlement houses, as well as at the flagship Boys and Girls House, opened on St. George Street in 1922. She also introduced story hours that frequently attracted audiences of more than 100 children in the 1920s and 1930s. Under Smith's guidance, reading clubs were organized for older children, and children staged plays and puppet shows, held debates and discussed literary and historical subjects.
Smith believed that the role of the children's librarian was to deliver "the right book, to the right child, at the right time." She edited Books for Boys and Girls, first issued by Toronto Public Library in 1927, which became an indispensable guide for libraries across Canada and beyond. In 1953, the American Library Association published her seminal book, The Unreluctant Years: A Critical Approach to Children's Literature. She lectured at the University of Toronto from 1913 to 1952, and was instrumental in forming the Canadian Association of Children's Librarians (which predated the Canadian Library Association).
The Toronto Public Library Board voted on May 24, 1995 to name the replacement branch for the Boys and Girls House in her honour.
Maria A. Shchuka
Maria Anastasia Shchuka (1931–1996) was born on September 6, 1931 in Ukraine and moved to Krakow, Poland when she was a young child. Her family then moved to southern Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1949. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Wilson College in Pennsylvania in 1955 and earned a Master of Science in Library Science in 1956 from Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia. She began her professional career as a reference librarian at the University of Pennsylvania Business Department Library.
In 1957, she married and, in 1967, they settled in Toronto where she worked for Etobicoke Public Library at the Richview branch and Brentwood branch. She also worked at the Ontario Secondary School Men’s Teachers’ Foundation. In the early 1970s, Shchuka joined the York Public Library system and was appointed head of Evelyn Gregory branch in 1975. In 1979, she became head of the York Main Library where she remained for the next 17 years.
Throughout her career with York Public Library, Shchuka was committed to the growth and improvement of the services. She achieved success with numerous innovative children’s programs, well-attended and informative courses for adults, expansion of the library’s collections and the introduction of a computer cataloguing system. She always took an interest in the personal lives of her colleagues and encouraged staff to further their professional careers.
Maria was active in her community and concentrated many of her charitable efforts in the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada.
She died on December 22, 1996. Staff proposed to the York Public Library Board that they rename the York Main Library in her honour. In 1997, the location was renamed Maria A. Shchuka Library.
S. Walter Stewart
Spurgeon Walter Stewart (1897–1969) was a pioneer of library service in East York. He served on the East York Public Library Board from its establishment in 1946 until his death on March 22, 1969. He was the board chair for 10 years and served on several library trustees’ organizations representing Toronto, Ontario and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s.
Stewart was born in Kingston, Ontario and named by his mother after a Baptist minister and England’s best-known preachers of the 19th century.
During the first World War, he was a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service and after the war enrolled at Victoria College intending to be a minister. He worked as an insurance agent and first served as chairman of the East York Board of Education in the 1920s before chairing the East York Library Board. He was the president of the East York Kiwanis Club when it started children's libraries in 1944. He also served as president of the Canadian Libraries Trustees Association and a governor of East York General Hospital. He was honoured with a Centennial Medal and an award for outstanding service from the Trustees Association.
In 1960, the S. Walter Stewart Building opened for service. In 1969, Stewart presented paintings valued at over $100,000 to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection at Kleinburg and what would become known as the S. Walter Stewar library. The nine paintings given to the library were by his friend A.Y. Jackson, a member of the Group of Seven.
After his death on March 22, 1969 at his home in Toronto, East York Council presented a resolution honouring Stewart stating: “Walter’s wide counsel, gift of diplomacy and gaiety of spirit will be deeply missed by his colleagues and the whole community for years to come.”