Auto-themed city library named for Rose City Ford founder
The new $2.5-million library branch being built at South Walkerville’s Optimist Community Centre will be named after the founder of Rose City Ford, Bill Chisholm.
The Windsor Public Library board announced Wednesday the branch, which will contain the city’s automotive archives and has been designed with an automotive theme, will be called the W.F. Chisholm Branch.
Library CEO Kitty Pope said when current Rose City Ford owner John Chisholm and his wife Sophia approached the library with the idea of sponsoring the branch in honour of his father, “we quickly realized that Bill’s inspirational career is perfectly aligned” with the new branch’s automotive theme.
In a news release, John Chisholm said he’s thrilled about establishing a legacy for his father, who was born in Nova Scotia in 1932 and moved to Windsor at the age of 10.
The Chisholms declined to state the amount of their donation. Sophia said in an email that, while it’s significant, “the amount contributed is a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the love and respect that we hold for our father. He is a prince of a gentleman with a heart of gold, and we are just so very happy that we could pay tribute to dad in such a relevant and enduring manner.”
Bill Chisholm, now 84, was hired as a brake tester on the Chrysler assembly line and worked his way up to become national sales manager for Chrysler Canada. He resigned and pursued his dream of running a car dealership when he was 41. After moving to Kitchener to own a Chrysler dealership he moved his family back to Windsor and opened Rose City Ford in 1981 in the midst of a brutal recession.
The business grew to become one of the most highperforming and respected Ford dealerships in the country, according to Sophia. Her father-in-law retired and sold the business to his son John in 1996.
The new branch — a consolidation of the library branches in South Walkerville and Remington Park — is slated to open in October.