Florence Martin (February 21, 1916-August 11, 2015)
Florence Martin Recieving Outstanding Achievement Award 1985
Name/Title
Florence Martin (February 21, 1916-August 11, 2015)Entry/Object ID
P2010-01-30-20Description
Florence E. Martin was born in Vineland on February 21, 1916 on her parent's farm. The farm home was a Regency Style cottage, three-brick deep walls and the original home of Samual Moyer who had come to Upper Canada as a Loyalist from Pennsylvania in the 1770s. Florence and her brother Richard attended Beamsville High School. Florence attended Queen's University in Kingston and recieved a BA in English History and French. She intended to further her studies in Library Sciences however given her brother died during WWII and her mother's poor health, she returned home and worked with her father operating their fruit farm until 1952. Following her father's passing and the sale of the family farm, Florence moved to Grimsby and followed her dream of becoming a librarian. Looking for volunteer opportunies, she was ahappy to be invited to assist at the Museum of the Twenty in Jordan. She was also invited by Helen Gibson to attend a meeting of the Grimsby Historical Society. The GHS decided that Grimsby needed a museum and purchased the Stone Shop on Main Street. While the building was in very poor condition, volunteers cleaned it up, replaced the old barn dorrs with the door from Marlatt Inn (which the GHS had in storage) and got the building ready. Florence found her niche cataloguing all the items the GHS had been collecting over the years. Florence went to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and persauded them to donate old display cases. With the support of Florence and other volunteers, the museum opened three afternoons a week. Florence became the Director-Curator of Grimsby's first musuem. Funding the museum became a problem and grants would only be given to municipally owned museums and the musuem was taken over by the Town of Grimsby in 1963. With Florence's perseverance, a Government grant was recieved for $300,00 in 1983 and today's Grimsby Museum was built in 1984. In appreciation of her dedication, one of the musuem galleries was named in her honour. Florece was an active volunteer right up until she was 95 years old. Her volunteer resume includes the Girl Guides, Christmas Seal committee, the Grimsby Museum, Jordan Historical Society, Red Cross, West Lincoln Memorial Auxiliary, Children's Aid, Canadian Cancer Society, St. Andrew's Church, Heart & Strokce, Lincoln County Humane Society, to name a few. In 1961, Florence was named the 27th recipient of the annual Grimsby Lions Club Citizen of the Year award. In 1981, just after she officially retired after 20 years as the musuem curator, she was offically recognized as Grimsby's 1984 Citizen of the Year by the Grimsby and District Chamber of Commerce. Florence recieved an award from the Ontario Museum Association for outstanding achievement for contribution to the museum community of Ontario, October 25th 1985. In 2012, she recieved a Lietenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement for her role in the development of the Grimsby Museum. Martin's legacy continues to outlive her. Her charitable spirit continues to live on through the Florence E. Martin Charitable Foundation which supports 22 beneficiaries on an annual basis.Category
Photos - Museum