Kingston, Ont. businessman and philanthropist Michael Davies died Tuesday, March 22, 2022, at the age of 85 after a long illness.
Davies is remembered as a generous, community-driven man who made an indelible mark on the city of Kingston.
He was publisher of the Kingston Whig-Standard from 1969 to 1990 and he also owned the newspaper for many of those years.
“We were just very, very, very lucky to have him as publisher for this city,” says former city editor of the Whig-Standard, Harvey Schachter.
“He was very driven by this city and felt his responsibility, I think, as a publisher, but also his responsibility as a member of the Davies family historically in the city, and also just as a citizen bringing people together.”
Schachter remembers Davies as a practical joker, but also a very thoughtful person who cared about his employees and the community.
“He was an ideal publisher,” Schachter says. “He was very conscious of his responsibility to the public to make sure the paper was high quality, and to also make sure that we told everything.”
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“He didn’t pressure us, he kind of accepted stories in the paper that sometimes he grimaced over and he was also very smart about money.”
An appointee to the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, Davies lived a philanthropic life.
He and his wife Elaine founded The Davies Charitable Foundation in 1990, the same year he sold The Kingston Whig-Standard.
“We want to give back to the community. The community’s been very good to us and continues to,” Michael Davies says in archived footage from 2010.
“The outcome from philanthropy is very important.”
The foundation has supported more than 500 individuals and organizations over the years, and has donated over $11 million to local charities.
“You can either stuff that money into a bank — he had lots of it — or you could do good things with it. Mike will do good things with it,” says Patrick Kennedy. “And it’s to his credit, to his lasting credit actually.”
Kennedy was a reporter for the Whig-Standard for 30 years and remembers Davies as a publisher who spared no expense to get the story.
“When he sold the paper…even though I’d only been there seven or eight years, there was a feeling that things were going to change, and not for the better.”
Schachter recounts instances of generosity by Davies, from buying a pair of running shoes for an employee to providing another with a two-week bonus in pay.
According to The Kingston Whig-Standard, there will be a family-only interment ceremony at Cataraqui Cemetery.
A celebration of Michael Davies’ life will take place this summer.
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