A woman with experience will never be at the mercy of the person with an argument.  

This is how Martha Law and Rosemary Vezina remember their mother Sheila Scott on the 50th anniversary of the McMaster Children’s Centre. 

The centre was born out of personal tragedy. In 1952, Scott’s 44-year-old husband – orthopedic surgeon Dr. Frank Moore Scott – died unexpectedly and suddenly. Scott was now a single parent with four children between the ages of two and eight. 

“We were all very active children,” say Law and Vezina. “Fortunately, mom was also very active and very fun. She loved playing the piano and singing with us. She tolerated our many pets and critters and drove us on all sorts of excursions.” They credit their lifelong love for gardening to family walks through the Royal Botanical Gardens and their mother’s flower gardens.  

Scott was named Hamilton’s Mother of the Year in the late 1950s. “Although the photo for the award was staged, I can honestly say that mom made wonderful meals and set a beautiful table every night.” 

As the sole breadwinner, Scott hired a live-in housekeeper and, with an honours degree in English, Classics and French, began teaching at Hamilton high schools. In 1957, Scott joined McMaster as an assistant registrar. She was appointed Dean of Women in 1965 following the retirement of Marion Bates.  

As Dean, Scott made an on-campus daycare a priority project. Not everyone was on board. In 1973, less than half of Canadian women between 24 and 54 years of age were in the workforce. 

“In those days, there were quite a few people who felt that a mother should not work or attend school,” say Law and Vezina. “Our mother ignored their protestations and kept going with her dream of establishing a daycare at McMaster.” 

Along with her personal experience as a single mother, Scott was seeing growing numbers of students struggling to access quality care for their children. She looked to Scandinavian countries for inspiration on how the university could best support students, faculty and staff.  

“Dean Scott recognized that safe and reliable childcare on campus would allow young families, and women especially, to pursue their education and careers,” says Linda Davis, current president of the centre’s board of directors and a lab coordinator in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology. “I can only imagine the resistance she came up against in the early days of this project.” 

A presidential committee was struck in January 1972 to weigh the costs and benefits of opening a daycare on campus. The committee recommended the university give Scott’s dream a green light. 

The daycare incorporated in 1974 with Scott as its president and entered into a 20-year lease with the university, paying $1 a year with utilities included. 

A temporary building once used by the architects who designed the McMaster University Medical Centre would be the daycare’s first home. The building had sat empty since 1972.  

Renovating and equipping the daycare would cost $129,000. The Ontario government initially offered to cover a portion of that cost – Scott persisted and the Ministry of Community & Social Services eventually agreed to provide full funding.  

Scott also reached a compromise with Forsythe Avenue residents who initially opposed the daycare over concerns with increased traffic and noise. The building was cut into sections and moved 200 feet from its original location.  

“It was all part of the democratic process,” said Scott in a February 1976 edition of The Silhouette. She credited “gradual reasoning” with the province and university neighbours. 

The daycare opened with spots for 48 children, with 14 spots for children between 18 to 24 months old. Today, the centre on the second floor of the Peter George Centre for Living and Learning has spots for up to 88 children. Executive director Joanne Messina estimates the centre’s provided care to upwards of 4,000 children since opening its doors. 

When Scott retired as Dean of Women in 1982, the university named the daycare Sheila Scott House. The Alumni Association made Scott an honorary member in 1989 and established a merit scholarship in her name to be awarded annually to an outstanding student studying English. 

Scott passed away on Sept. 30, 2005 in her 88th year surrounded by family at the McMaster University Medical Centre. Along with founding the McMaster Children’s Centre, Scott’s legacy includes helping to establish the Hamilton Children’s Museum and Fieldcote Museum in Ancaster.  

“She was an outstanding mother, grandmother, great grandmother and mentor,” say Law and Vezina.  And a godsend to generations of grateful parents and their children.