Alan Hitchen ’51 knew better than most people the power of a moment, decision or opportunity.  

At the age of four, he experienced a moment that would ripple throughout the next nine decades of his life. It was 1927, an era when newfangled automobiles shared the roads with horses. Hitchen was playing outside his family’s Hamilton home when a car horn startled a horse pulling a milk wagon. The horse quickly fled from the shocking sound, but trampled Hitchen in the process, causing him to suffer a catastrophic and permanent leg injury. 

He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.   

Yet, the devastation of this moment did not define Hitchen. Rather, it spurred a lifelong determination to work hard, achieve success and help others where he could. 

“Mr. Hitchen was one of those extraordinary people who didn’t need to meet someone to believe in their possibilities,” says Celeste Licorish, program manager of the McMaster Access Strategy, a program that Hitchen generously supported. “He was incredibly grateful for the support he received and willing to put resources towards the success of others. He trusted McMaster to give those in need an opportunity to reach their potential.” 

Hitchen, who died two months shy of his 100th birthday in June 2023, leaves an extraordinary legacy at his alma mater and across Hamilton, where he gave nearly $3.5 million in charitable donations.  

At McMaster, his generosity allows students to pursue an education they otherwise could not afford. In 2021, he made a $1-million gift to establish the Alan Hitchen Access Strategy Award, which supports equity-deserving first-year students who could not attend university without financial assistance.  

Most recently, Hitchen bequeathed $1.3 million to allow an even wider array of students to pursue life-changing education. In the 2024-2025 academic year, McMaster will begin offering the Alan Hitchen Memorial Medicine Bursary and the Alan Hitchen Memorial Chemistry Graduate Scholarship, both of which were directed through Hitchen’s will. 

“Growing up, I never thought I could attend university,” said Hitchen in a 2021 interview. “My life changed forever when I received a bursary and finally had the financial means to enrol at McMaster and pursue my passion for chemistry.”  

In 2006, Hitchen decided to translate that gratitude into a significant philanthropic legacy when he established The Janitza Hitchen Bursary in memory of his late wife. “My McMaster education is the reason why I am in a position to give back,” he said. 

Hitchen took a different path to McMaster than most students. He left high school for a job at Stelco to help support his family, but he was determined to continue his education. Throughout the 1940s, he took night classes until he earned his diploma and decided he was ready for a different future. He then went to McMaster’s campus and discovered that this time, he was in the right place at the right time. 

The university admitted Hitchen as a mature student and, crucially, awarded him a bursary to help with his expenses. He graduated in 1951 with a degree in chemistry before working in Ottawa for the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources at Canmet, now known as CanmetMATERIALS and located at the McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton.  

As he established a professional reputation for hard work, precision and gentlemanly composure, Hitchen and Janitza made their life together in Manotick, Ontario just south of Ottawa. He retired in 1982 after a 30-year career. 

Through the decades of his career, Hitchen never forgot the enduring impact of the bursary that made it possible for him to study at McMaster. This opportunity served as a longtime inspiration to support students. In other words, Hitchen’s legacy continues to support those who face the same financial challenges that he faced more than seven decades earlier. 

“Donors like Mr. Hitchen are changing lives completely,” says Licorish. “His student awards are helping break cycles of poverty and societal exclusion. I tell students that these donors are dreaming of possibilities for them. They want you to be brilliant. And then, when the time comes, you will want to do it for someone else. There’s something beautiful about that for me.”