Canada: Calgary Public Library Gets Seven-Figure Gift from a Former Chairwoman

From the Calgary Herald:

The Calgary Public Library got a major boost Sunday after officials announced a seven-figure gift, but the donor is not an oil tycoon or powerful corporation.
Judith Umbach, who will leave the donation to the library’s foundation in her will, is a retired City of Calgary employee and a former chair of the library’s board.
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Umbach said she has visited libraries for as long as she could remember. She would pore over story books as a child when her mother would take her, and carried on with the tradition into adulthood.

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See Also: Library Named for Pioneering Calgarian: Judith Umbach (via Calgary Public Library)

By making a seven-figure gift in her will to the Calgary Public Library Foundation, Umbach is paving the way for other Calgarians to give to the Library in a meaningful way.
“It’s difficult for many of us who may not have cash on hand to say, ‘I’m giving something right now,’” said Umbach. “For many people this makes it possible to leave a legacy now.”
“We call Judith a best friend of the Library,” said Paul McIntyre Royston, President & CEO, Calgary Public Library Foundation. “Calgary and the Library are part of her DNA – she grew up in Calgary, spending her free time at the Library. As an adult, Judith has taken up the Foundation’s bold, audacious vision to transform Calgary Public Library into the best library in the world for Calgarians.”

Filed under: Libraries, Public Libraries