Going back to the farm
Noreen Taylor of Windfields Farm named as UOIT's new chancellor
Noreen Taylor, seen here at her official confirmation ceremony, has been named as the chancellor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Taylor’s father-in-law, E.P. Taylor, was the founder of the famed Windfields Farm, which stood on the ground that is now home to the university’s northern campus.
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
In years past, she remembers a parcel of land in north Oshawa as part of her family’s world famous horse farm. Now, Noreen Taylor is the chancellor of the university that now stands there.
Speaking ahead of her official confirmation ceremony, Taylor says the news that the University of Ontario Institute of Technology wanted her as their chancellor took her by surprise.
“It was about the last thing I expected. I had actually expected to be meeting with President (Tim) McTiernan about issues, either relating to the gravesite of Northern Dancer and our other stallions, or related to issues about student housing because I had dealt with those two topics for, I think, the last 10 years,” she said.
“I never expected to be asked to be chancellor. I was surprised.”
Taylor is no stranger to the land that the university’s north campus now stands, with it being the former home of Windfields Farm, a horse-breeding farm founded by her father-in-law, E.P. Taylor. The farm is most famous for being the home of Northern Dancer, the winner of the 1964 Kentucky Derby and one of the most successful studs in horse racing, with 146 of the 635 foals he sired going on to be stakes winners.
Taylor says the fact that UOIT’s northern campus sits on the farm’s former lands is not lost on her, and carries with it many memories.
“It’s heartbreaking and it’s wonderful. We had been involved with the creation of this university and it’s been decades talking with then-president Gary Polonsky about his dream of the university, and we had all bought into this dream of what the university would be and how it would really diversify and broaden the base of Durham and the city of Oshawa. That was really important to us,” she said.
“At the same time, we knew there was the 407 going through. The lifetime of our farm was going to be really limited. We can’t breed good horses when you got five lanes of traffic going on Simcoe Street, Trying to cross a mare over a field would be disastrous. We knew what we had to do and we knew we had to phase out our family farm.”
Taylor added that while there are many memories of Windfields’ past on the UOIT campus, the university is a bright spot in the city.
“I still find it hard. Whenever I go to…the north Oshawa campus, I can stand in certain spots and say, ‘this was here then, this was here 10 years, this was here 15 years ago, here’s when that roof needed to be replaced on that barn,’” she said.
“To think, now there are young people, going to be fulfilling their dreams as a group of young horses fulfilled our dreams. That’s just exciting.”
Aside from her family’s history in the area, Taylor has been active in years past. In 2000, she created the Charles Taylor Foundation, named for her late husband, to oversee the RBC Taylor Prize, which is given out every year for works of literary non-fiction. Taylor, through her role as president of Windfields Farm Limited, has also donated funds to the new palliative care center at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Taylor has also sat on the board of the Advisory Board of the University of Toronto Art Museums, the Board of the National Ballet of Canada and was chair of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
With all of those past positions on her resume, what does Taylor think she’ll bring to UOIT?
“Passion,” she responded. “Passion for excellence, I hope. That, and a good sense of humour.”