2009 Honourees

Dr. John E. Dick

John E. Dick

Dr. Dick's research has focused on understanding normal and leukemic human stem cells. One of the most important achievements was development of a system for transplanting normal and leukemic human stem cells into immune-deficient mice; an assay that has revolutionized the study of human hematopoiesis. His group characterized many of the properties of normal repopulating cells with this assay system. His lab also established that only a small proportion of human leukemic cells were capable of initiating human leukemia within the immune-deficient mice. The purification of these leukemia-initiating cells provided direct evidence for the cancer stem cell hypothesis.

Dr. Dick is currently Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto and since Oct 2002, a Senior Scientist of the University Health Network in the Research Institutes of the Toronto General and Princess Margaret Hospitals and the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine. His work has been recognized by several major prizes including: the 1997 Michael Smith Award of Excellence from the MRC, the 2000 Robert Nobel Prize from the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the 2002 Herman Boerhaave Medal from Leiden University, in 2002 he was appointed as a Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, and in 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Canadian Academy of Science. In 2005, he received the William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology (ASH). In 2007, he received the Metcalf Lecture Award from International Society for Experimental Hematology. In 2007 he received the Premier’s Summit Award in Medical Research and in 2008 he was the Clowes Awardee of the American Association for Cancer Research.



Leonard Simpson

Leonard Simpson

Leonard has been very philanthropic throughout his lifetime, helping a wide range of causes achieve their goals. In 1952 Leonard Simpson opened Town Shoes in Sunnybrook Plaza – Canada’s first shopping centre. In the late 1980’s Town Shoes launched a new division called The Shoe Company, which has gone on to become Canada’s leading box store chain.

Today, Town Shoes and The Shoe Company have 105 stores across Canada and continue to open new stores each year. His son Alan is the President and CEO.

Over the years, Leonard, who has dedicated a lot of his time to community causes has been actively involved with the UJA, Zareinu and The United Way, along with many other charitable organizations. Leonard is also very philanthropic and has been a very generous donor to various worthy causes. Upon receiving Shoe Person of the Year in 2003, he established the Leonard Simpson Family Endowment Fund in conjunction with the Two Ten Foundation. This provides college tuition and assists industry people who are in financial difficulty.

Leonard has three children, Brenda, Fern and Alan, two step children, and is married to Micki Moore. Together they have 12 grand children and he is actively involved with them all.

Leonard graduated from the University of Toronto in Political Science and Economics with an honors B.A. and an average of 75% in bridge. Leonard’s golf game keeps improving, and as time goes on his score keeps going up.