Please join us in celebrating the life and legacy of Douglas Everett by supporting the Honourable Douglas Everett Entrepreneurial Opportunity Bursary at the University of Winnipeg.
Douglas was a long serving member of the Canadian Senate and a prominent member of the Winnipeg business community. From a young age he believed that structures should be set in place to lend a helping hand to those who are less fortunate.
As such, the Bursary will be awarded to a student in the Faculty of Business and Economics who shows academic promise and financial need as identified by the Opportunity Fund. The Opportunity Fund seeks to specifically support Indigenous students, new Canadians and refugees, and students from inner-city neighbourhoods. Friends of the Everett family, and the family itself, established this award to assist deserving students with their post-secondary education, carrying on Douglas Everett's legacy of activism and opportunity while displaying a true entrepreneurial spirit.
Born August 12, 1927, Douglas attended the Royal Canadian Naval College at Royal Roads and rose to the rank of sub-lieutenant. He graduated from Osgoode Hall and the University of Manitoba Law School and was a member of the bar in both Manitoba and Ontario.
He married his first love, Patricia Gladstone, in 1952 and together they raised six children.
An entrepreneur at heart, he transformed the car dealerships he inherited from his father into a multi-faceted private corporation which today includes one of Canada's largest independent gasoline retailers (DOMO), a real estate development and property management company, and a water purification business.
Appointed to the Senate at age thirty-nine by Lester B. Pearson, he was, at the time, the youngest person ever to be called to that office. Drawn to politics by a profound commitment to liberal ideals, he was guided by the principle that government exists to help those in society least able to help themselves. He believed the Senate played a crucial role in influencing social policy. A vigorous supporter of free trade, open borders, individual and women's rights, he consistently voted his conscience, leading to his decision in 1990 to sit as an Independent.
Douglas Everett was a man of uncommon imagination. His flexible and singular way of thinking informed his success in business, politics, life, and love.