James Henry Gundy
Plot 10, Lot 110
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
A native of Harriston, Ontario, Gundy was born the son of a Methodist minister on March 22, 1880. He received his early education in London and Windsor, Ontario, coming to Toronto at the age of 18 where he joined the Central Canada Loan and Savings Company. When Dominion Securities Corporation was established in 1900, Gundy was appointed secretary. It was, while he was with Dominion Securities that he and co-worker George Herbert Wood decided to strike out on their own, establishing Wood, Gundy and Company in 1905. In addition to guiding the Wood, Gundy firm to the forefront of Canadian financial investment institutions, Gundy also sat as a director on the boards of numerous other companies and acted as a financial advisor to the federal government during both war and peacetime. Following the end of Second World War, it was the Wood, Gundy organisation that was responsible for raising the huge amount of capital required by Ontario Hydro as it strove to meet the province’s electrical needs in the post-war boom period.
James Gundy died on November 10, 1951 at the age of 71. At his death, Gundy owned a large parcel of land adjacent to the Don River in the town of Leaside. The property which now comprises Serena Gundy Park in North York was donated by Gundy in honour of his first wife Serena Lake Clark who predeceased him by ten years and is also buried in the Gundy plot.
Mike Filey
Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide
Second Edition Revised and Expanded