Donor Story:
This Award has been established by The Afro-Caribe Community Foundation of Kingston to memorialize the unique contributions that Robert Sutherland (1830 - 1878) made to Queen’s University.
Sutherland started as a student at Queen’s in 1849, just eight years after the university was founded, and graduated in 1852 with honours in classics and mathematics. He was an extraordinary successful undergraduate at Queen’s, winning 14 academic prizes, including one for general merit in Latin that was awarded after a vote by his fellow students.
Sutherland went on to study law through apprenticeship and examinations, and became British North America’s first known black lawyer.
Just prior to his death in 1878, Sutherland willed his entire estate to Queen's. This donation was the largest that any one person had yet given to the university and came at a time when Queen's was battling its way out of poverty. The university had lost most of its endowment in a bank collapse a few years earlier.
Sutherland’s gift was used to launch a fundraising campaign that helped stop Queen's from being annexed by the University of Toronto.
About the Fund:
Established in May 2001 and revised in September 2018 by the Afro-Caribe Community Foundation of Kingston with donations from friends and colleagues of the Foundation. Awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need, academic achievement and involvement in and/or contribution to the African or Caribbean communities in Canada to students entering first year of any first entry undergraduate degree program. Applications are to be made to the Office of the University Registrar, Student Awards.
