Jean MacMillan Southam, 91: Canadian Socialite
La N
JEAN MACMILLAN SOUTHAM, 91: SOCIALITE
Philanthropist brought together two famous Canadian families
The daughter of lumber baron H.R. MacMillan, she married Gordon Southam and
embarked on a life of wealth, privilege and influence as a corporate board
member, writes Sandra Martin
SANDRA MARTIN
October 31, 2007
By birth and through marriage, Jean (Jeannie) MacMillan Southam united two
top-tier Canadian families - and the forestry and newspaper industries that
they dominated for much of the last century. Her own life, which began in
ordinary circumstances, became one of wealth, travel, parties, privilege and
philanthropy as her dynamic and visionary father, H.R. MacMillan, developed
the lumber industry in British Columbia.
She never held down a workaday job, but she never forgot the exhilaration
she had experienced as an undergraduate at Stanford University and, for the
rest of her life, education was a prime focus for her philanthropic
largesse. Her life had its share of tragedy - her eldest son, Gordon, was
killed in a single-vehicle car crash in 1976, on the day after the funeral
for her father, the legendary founder of MacMillan Bloedel. Her remaining
son, journalist Harvey Southam, committed suicide in 1991. Two grandchildren
also died in tragic circumstances.
A woman with a dynamic personality, a proclivity for madcap antics and large
martinis, and a go-ahead attitude, she energized gatherings and
organizations simply by walking into a room or taking a place on a board of
directors. "She was not Auntie Mame, she was not a character in that way,
but when she entered a room you knew Jeannie Southam was there," said lawyer
and businessman, Jim Coutts. "She had a presence."
Former prime minister John Turner echoed those comments: "She was full of
fun, and occasionally mischief, and I had a wonderful affection for her over
the years."
Gertrude Jean MacMillan Southam was born in Victoria in the fall of 1915,
the younger of two daughters of Harvey Reginald and Edna (née Malloy)
MacMillan. Her father and mother, who had been high-school sweethearts in
Aurora, Ont., married in August, 1911, after Mr. MacMillan had graduated
from the Ontario Agricultural College (now the University of Guelph), done a
master of forestry degree at Yale University (graduating cum laude in 1908)
and undergone a rigorous outdoor regime to cure his tuberculosis.
Their first child, Marion, was born in Ottawa in June, 1912, the same year
that Mr. MacMillan was hired as chief forester of British Columbia. The
family settled in Victoria, in a rented house near Beacon Hill Park, and Mr.
MacMillan assiduously began building the B.C. Forest Service and travelling
the world to develop export markets for lumber for the company that would
eventually become MacMillan Bloedel. He learned of baby Jean's birth while
he was eating dinner in the Grand Hotel in Pretoria, South Africa, when he
was handed a telegram that said, in part, "daughter well."
When Jeannie was three, the family moved to Vancouver, settling in the
Kitsilano neighbourhood. After the First World War ended, Mr. MacMillan went
into business for himself, forming the H.R. MacMillan Export Company in
1919. A forceful personality who hated inactivity, he had a favourite Sunday
activity, according to his biographer, the late Ken Drushka. He would rise
early, acquire the makings of an elaborate picnic, prepare the food, load
the baskets, the children and his wife into his car and drive them to the
beach or to any other of a number of favourite sites on the lower mainland.
As his daughters grew older, he organized annual family expeditions on
horseback along the trail from Princeton to Hope, collecting plants and
other specimens which he pressed and then asked the botanists at the
University of British Columbia to identify. His younger daughter loved
travelling with her father - whether it was to see log booms on Vancouver
Island or to visit corporate customers in Japan.
Although Jeannie had been a very mischievous child - she had been kicked out
of several schools, according to her daughter Nancy Southam - she was
actually a committed student. In the mid-1930s, she went south to study at
Stanford University. She had such a good time and applied herself so
enthusiastically that she kept right on taking courses even after she had
completed all the requirements for her degree. Wanting to entreat his
daughter to leave Stanford, and knowing how much she liked to travel, her
father offered her a trip around the world as a graduation present. When
asked who she wanted as a travelling companion, she immediately said, "you."
Father and daughter were set to embark on their world voyage in March, 1939,
with stops at his major plants en route, which became a second education for
Jean in the global lumber business.
Meanwhile, she had met the love of her life - Gordon Southam of the
newspaper family. He had come west to work for the Vancouver Province and
immediately made a splash with his good manners and athletic good looks.
They met at a party in Vancouver when he introduced himself and asked if she
had been at a drinks party the previous weekend at Qualicum Beach on
Vancouver Island. "I gave it," she retorted. That was the opening
conversation in a lifelong romance, according to their daughter Nancy.
H.R. MacMillan and his daughter set sail from Vancouver and were sitting
down to dinner in Victoria, the first port of call, when in walked Mr.
Southam. Having acquired their itinerary, he arranged to have a bouquet of
roses sent to her each time the ship sailed into port.
The couple was married on Feb. 26, 1941, and lived in Halifax while he
served in the Royal Canadian Navy, and it was there that the eldest of their
seven children - two sons and five daughters - were born. After the war
ended, the Southams moved back to Vancouver.
"We were half a generation apart," Mr. Turner said of Mrs. Southam, "but she
had contagious energy, a tremendous sense of fun and a very strong community
involvement. We were great pals." He knew the Southam family from his days
in Ottawa and met the MacMillans through his mother and stepfather after he
moved to Vancouver in 1945, when he was 16, to attend the University of
British Columbia. Mr. Turner left Vancouver after he graduated in 1949, but
kept up with her at Christmas and family visits. They were both on the board
of MacMillan Bloedel in the 1970s - she was the first woman to serve in that
capacity - and became even closer friends when Mr. Turner became the Liberal
M.P. in Vancouver-Quadra, the federal riding in which she lived, in 1984.
They also served together for a time on the board of Holt Renfrew. "She was
relevant, precise and concise," as a board member. "When she was in a room,
you knew it," he said.
"Infectious enthusiasm." That's the way Mr. Coutts described Mrs. Southam as
a colleague. "She was very bright, very tough, had a great sense of humour
and she could get things done. If she was on your team, or if you were on
her team, you knew it was going to happen."
They met in the 1970s when they both sat on the board of Lester B. Pearson
College of the Pacific, a constituent part of the United World Colleges.
Years later, when Mr. Coutts, a founding member of the college, became chair
of the board, he invited her to come back as a director. "She didn't support
a lot of things, but when she supported something it was in every way. She
went to bat for people on projects she believed in," he said, mentioning
that she was a quick study who could perceive a need "within five seconds"
of an issue being presented. In all, she gave about $2-million to Pearson
College, according to Mr. Coutts.
In the mid-1980s, Craig Nesser, then managing a sales group at MacMillan
Bloedel, got a phone call from Mrs. Southam. "You look good with that
window, but do you actually sell those things or do you just hold them up?"
she demanded referring to a picture of Mr. Nesser with a new line of windows
in M-B's annual report. That was the beginning of a relationship with "a
very challenging, but lots of fun," woman.
That's why when the deal was struck in 1999 that saw Weyerhaeuser buy out
MacMillan Bloedel, Mr. Nesser was the lucky fellow who got to break the news
to Mrs. Southam, who was then 84. She was not pleased. "Over my dead body"
was one of her milder comments. In the end, she did agree to sell her
shares, although she let everyone know that they were desecrating her
father's legacy. "The spirit of H.R, came through in her strongly. She was
very outspoken and very challenging but underneath that she was a genuinely
wonderful person who cared as much about the company and its heritage, and
timber in B.C., as anybody I have ever met," said Mr. Nesser, who is now
president of Weyerhaeuser in Canada.
A passion for bulldogs formed a bond between the Southams and former
governor-general Ramon Hnatyshyn and his wife, Gerda, when they met through
a mutual friend in 1991. "If one were to visit the Southam home in
Vancouver, the den is lined with paintings of bulldogs," Mrs. Hnatyshyn said
yesterday. The bulldog "in residence" then was called "Mister." Mrs. Southam
later acquired Rosie, who in the last years became "her devoted companion."
Rosie is "an absolute terror," who was capable of simultaneously grabbing a
visitor's silk scarf and nipping at a delivery man. Nevertheless, "she was
still number one in Mrs. Southam's eyes," according to Mrs. Hnatyshyn.
"I found her enormously generous," said Mrs. Hnatyshyn, pointing out that
Mrs. Southam had donated the Persian carpet that is now on the floor of the
drawing room at Rideau Hall and contributed family money for the rose garden
and for the publication of Rideau Hall: Canada's Living Heritage, which Mrs.
Hnatyshyn wrote to raise money to help maintain the governor-general's
residence.
Having been healthy all her life, Mrs. Southam began to suffer from
congestive heart failure and dementia in the last year or so, and gradually
needed nursing care.
JEAN MACMILLAN SOUTHAM
Jean MacMillan Southam was born on Oct. 26, 1915, in Victoria. She died in
Vancouver on Oct. 23, 2007, a week after suffering a massive stroke. She was
91. Predeceased by her sister Marion Lecky, her sons Harvey and Gordon and
her husband Gordon Southam, she is survived by her five daughters, 13
grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. A memorial service is planned
for tomorrow at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver.