The Kress Family
Kress Family Gift Celebrates “A Perfect Match”
Ed Kress grew up in the west end of Toronto, and attended Islington Public School, Etobicoke Collegiate, and the University of Toronto. Yet when he joined the board of the West Park Foundation in 2002, he had barely heard of the hospital.
“That was the big problem West Park had,” he says. “Nobody knew what it was or where it was! For me, it was quite an education.”
Much has changed in the intervening two decades. Now a beautiful new hospital building is attracting kudos, and West Park is celebrating the recent voluntary integration with University Health Network (UHN). Kress has made a $1 million donation to West Park Foundation, part of a joint gift solicited with UHN Foundation, that will be recognized by naming West Park’s diagnostics and imaging laboratory, The Kress Family Diagnostic Centre.
Kress studied commerce at U of T and then, influenced by two family members, became an accountant. His practice came to focus primarily on one large client, Brascan (later Brookfield Corporation), and in 1974 Kress joined the company.
“It was a great company, and a great place to work,” he says. He rose to the top, eventually serving as Group Chairman at Brookfield Asset Management.
As his career peaked, Kress was encouraged to get involved in the community. A U of T classmate approached him about a gift to West Park. When he replied that Brookfield preferred to support organizations where their employees were involved, he was invited to join the West Park Foundation Board of Directors. He served on the board from 2002 to 2011, including one year as Vice Chair, two years as Chair, and also spent two years on the Centre Board.
Even in the early 2000s, there was growing recognition that West Park needed a new building. To raise awareness of the hospital and support the future fundraising effort, the board inaugurated a gala, the Scarlett Ball. Kress’s wife Paddy, an experienced event planner, led the first event, which was a huge success. She also served as the inaugural Chair of the Foundation’s Donor Recognition Committee.
When Paddy became ill, Kress stepped back from his work at West Park. He remembers a time when Paddy was diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Toronto Western Hospital. Worried, Kress called Dr. Roger Goldstein at West Park. Goldstein told him that the head of the unit was an exceptional clinician who had transformed the way ICUs operate. Says Kress, “That gave me some comfort at a difficult time, and we got through it.” Paddy passed away in 2019.
In 2023, West Park CEO Anne-Marie Malek called Kress at the cottage to let him know that West Park was in the process of merging with UHN.
“I was absolutely overjoyed,” he says. “West Park’s new building and its location are spectacular, and now it’s connected to Canada’s leading hospital network. It’s a perfect match.”
