DeGroote gives $105 million to McMaster University
A Canadian businessman gave $105 million to McMaster University's medical school on Wednesday. Michael DeGroote said he donated the cash to support health-care research and education.
The money will be divided into a $41-million capital fund for buildings, outfitting laboratories and hospital units, and a $64-million endowment fund.
McMaster officials said the projects include:
- Three medical centres focusing on pain, cancer, infectious diseases research and education.
- Construction of a learning and discovery centre. A development fund to attract researchers, physicians and teachers.
A number of buildings on McMaster's Hamilton campus will be renamed in honour of DeGroote and his family members.
McMaster president Peter George called DeGroote's donation a "historic gift" not only for the university and Hamilton community but for all of Canada.
The philanthropist's earlier gifts went to the university's business school, the McMaster Museum of Art, epilepsy research, literary criticism and the new student centre.
DeGroote is a former Hamilton-area resident who lives in Bermuda.
He made his fortune as the owner of Laidlaw, a small trucking company that he bought in 1959 and transformed into a multinational trucking and waste-haulage giant.
DeGroote sold Laidlaw in 1988.