This endowment was established to encourage excellence in Biology and continuing studies in related specialties and will be awarded to a student proceeding directly to Selkirk College from any high school within the College region. This student will have obtained the highest mark in Biology 12 and be enrolling into the Associate of Science program. To be eligible for year 2 of this scholarship, students must continue their full-time, consecutive enrolment in the study of Natural Sciences at Selkirk College and have maintained a minimum GPA of 3.33. Value of scholarship is $2000 per year.
April 23, 1910 - September 10, 1997
Born in Fort William, Ontario to a farming family, most of Daphne Hamilton’s adult life was spent in the West Kootenay. Daphne was a nurse who worked for many years at Rossland’s Mater Misericordiae Hospital before turning her professional talents toward a career as a teacher.
A founding member of the West Kootenay Naturalists Association, Daphne’s interest in nature was stimulated in the early 1970’s by an evening lecture series on natural science subjects presented by Selkirk College instructors Peter Wood, Peter Ommundsen, Lesley Anderton and Bill Merrilees, from which Daphne and her husband, Laurie derived much pleasure. It was members of the audience who attended these lectures that eventually established the West Kootenay Naturalists Association.
In 1974, Daphne and Laurie Hamilton retired and moved from their Rossland home to take up a more rural lifestyle around Grand Forks. Here too, Daphne was instrumental in establishing the Boundary Naturalists Society along with other like-minded individuals from within the Boundary. Retirement allowed the Hamiltons the time to devote to birdwatching, travel nature outings, and for Dahpne, painting. This was a talent that blossomed in Daphne and within a few years she was gaining recognition at local and regional art exhibits. He home was filled with her original works featuring still-lifes and landscapes.
Daphne made her mark as a philanthropist in 1990 by endowing a scholarship for the study of biology or natural science disciplines with Selkirk College. She was one of the first Foundation benefactors to adopt a planned giving strategy that would ultimately enable Selkirk College to receive her gift of $100,000. Her interim gifts of $30,000 enabled the College to award entrance scholarships to students attending Selkirk College from within the region and majoring in biology or another natural science with the goal of attaining a baccalaureate degree in science.
Upon her death in 1997, Laurie Hamilton donated ten of Daphne’s original works of art to the Foundation to be used for the purposes of promoting the Daphne Hamilton Entrance Scholarship.