Amy Redpath Roddick

Born in Montreal in 1868, she was the daughter of John James Redpath and part of the prominent Redpath family. Sources from McGill describe her as a poet and writer as well as a major benefactor of the university, and records of her published work show books including The Flag, and Other Poems (1918), The Armistice, and Other Poems (1919), and From Montreal Elsewhere (1929).

She became the second wife of Sir Thomas George Roddick in 1906. After his death, she donated the Roddick Gates to McGill in 1924 in his memory, a gift that remains one of the university’s best-known landmarks.

Her writing and philanthropy seem to have grown side by side: McGill library materials note that she produced a substantial body of work, while archival and historical sources remember her for generous support of libraries, memorial projects, and other causes in Montreal. She died in 1954.