Then: Adam Beck Memorial, University Avenue, 1934. (Just south of Queen Street, in the median.)

I was one of those who had read about Adam Beck in school but had forgotten my lessons. Here's the "lowdown."

"BECK, Sir ADAM, manufacturer, horseman, politician, office holder, and philanthropist; b. 20 June 1857 in Baden, Upper Canada, son of Jacob Friedrich Beck and Charlotte Josephine Hespeler; m. 7 Sept. 1898 Lillian Ottaway in Hamilton, Ont., and they had a daughter; d. 15 Aug. 1925 in London, Ont."

"Hydroelectricity generated and delivered by a crown corporation to municipally owned utilities at the lowest cost had become an Ontario institution that would outlive changing governments and passing ideologies. That had largely been Sir Adam Beck’s doing."

Source: http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=41923

Now: June 2011.