Jimmy Lomax calling it quits

[scotto]

Pat Saunders
The Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton
(Jun 24, 2010)
Re: 'Hamilton should honour Jimmy Lomax on school, stadium or hospital' (Letters, June 16)

That Jimmy Lomax should be recognized for his lifetime commitment to children is a given. In another era, naming a school or hospital to honour him would have guaranteed it would be "a permanent mark, etched into the stone of Hamilton's history." Unfortunately, such is not the case now, given recent examples of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board soliciting names for three schools that were being reconstructed and only retaining the original names when opposition to renaming was expressed by the community.

As for naming the children's wing of McMaster hospital as another way to honour Lomax, the letter writer is under the impression that "usually this honour is for financial benefactors." This, too, has not always been the case. A case in point is the naming of the new Mountain hospital in 1954 to honour Nora-Frances Henderson for her lifetime of service.

Naming the Pan Am stadium would most likely be for financial consideration. So naming it the Jimmy Lomax Centre, as the writer proposed, would be a wonderful way for city councillors to demonstrate they do value a lifetime of service to the community over the almighty dollar.