Fonds SCA220-GA207 - Ross Dixon fonds.

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Ross Dixon fonds.

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Fonds

Reference code

SCA220-GA207

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Physical description

ca. 6.28 m of textual records and other material

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1914-2009)

Biographical history

Ross Vernon Dixon 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 attended the Hillcrest Private School (now Hillfield Strathallan College) in Hamilton. During the 1930s, his family moved back to Toronto where his father started a sporting goods business. Dixon worked for his father for almost ten years, during which time he formed a company to manufacture felt crests for sports uniforms and took extension courses in business administration from the University of Toronto. During that time he also met Doris McRae Whiting from Orillia, Ontario, and they were married in 1942.

Dixon began his career in industrial relations in 1940 when he was hired as Assistant Personnel Manager at Research Enterprises Limited in Leaside, Ontario. In 1944, he became Personnel Manager at Otaco Limited in Orillia, Ontario. 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). Throughout his career, he was an active member of the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, serving as president from 1959 to 1960.

Shortly after Ross and Doris moved to Kitchener, he formed the Westmount Construction Company, which built around 150 homes in Kitchener and Waterloo during the 1950s and 1960s in the area surrounding the Westmount Golf and Country Club. Around 1953, he also formed Westmont Enterprises Limited as a holding company for the Westmount Construction Company and several other interests in which he was involved.

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 in their community, supporting many charitable organizations as well as 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.

Custodial history

Scope and content

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 at Uniroyal Canada (formerly the Dominion Rubber Company).

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 the Westmount Construction Company and Westmont Enterprises Limited and containing only a small amount of material relating the other area of his entrepreneurial activities, investment and financial services.

Fonds includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, advertising material, architectural drawings, legal documents, photographs, accounting records, reports, handwritten notes, certificates, speeches, company publications, minutes, financial statements, ephemera, and other material.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Donated in 2010.

Arrangement

Fonds is organized into 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.

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Physical description

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

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Arranged and described by Anita Streicher, 2010-2011.

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