Ruth Goldbloom, who spearheaded efforts to establish Pier 21 in Halifax as a national museum in 2010, has died. She was 88.Sandor Fizli/The Globe and Mail
Ruth Goldbloom asked that her funeral service take place at Pier 21, the national museum of immigration she helped create from a derelict shed on Halifax's waterfront.
But such is the huge reach of the tiny Cape Bretoner, who stood just under 5 feet tall, that her last wish could not be respected.
The museum simply couldn't accommodate the more than 2,000 people, including provincial Premier Darrell Dexter, interim federal Liberal leader Bob Rae, provincial business leaders and ordinary people whose lives she touched, who all came to the service.
Instead, they paid tribute in a nearby building in the shadow of the museum she treasured.
Mrs. Goldbloom died on Wednesday of lung cancer. She was 88 and is survived by her husband of 66 years, Richard, a well-known doctor in the province, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
"Pier 21 was Ruth's fourth child, eighth grandchild, second husband," Rabbi Ari Isenberg said on Friday at her funeral service. "Pier 21 is the house that Ruth built."
So much so that Mrs. Goldbloom, whose very last visit was on July 1 for a citizenship ceremony over which her husband presided, was known to pick up a wrapper that fell on the floor, always ensuring the museum was spotless.
The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is one of only two federal museums outside the national capital region (the other is in Winnipeg). Opened 13 years ago, it gets about 100,000 visitors every year. The federal government contributes just under $8-million of its annual operating budget of about $9-million.
Ironically, it is located in a province and region suffering from lack of immigration and a declining and aging population.
"She felt so passionate about immigration that she made it happen," said Marie Chapman, the museum's CEO.
And that passion was driven, in part, by her own story.
Mrs. Goldbloom was the granddaughter of Russian immigrants, who with no money and unable to speak English, found their way to Cape Breton in the early 1900s, fleeing persecution and in search of a better life.
Her mother, Rose, was widowed when she was pregnant with her sixth child – but she prevailed, running a successful store and becoming a community leader. She served as an inspiration to her daughter. In fact, Mrs. Goldbloom went on to university at Mount Allison in New Brunswick and later to McGill University in Montreal.
"Pier 21 was the symbol of the opportunity that allowed all that to happen," her son Alan said in his eulogy. "Pier 21 spoke to my mother's belief in opportunity, hard work and achievement. It spoke to her abhorrence of prejudice and intolerance in all forms … it spoke to her love of Canada, not as a melting pot but as a country enriched by its multitude of cultures."
He said that she never forgot her family's beginnings and "she didn't want other Canadians to forget theirs, reminding people over and over again that we are all immigrants."
At the funeral her children spoke of her tenacity and feistiness – both at home and in her public life. Even before Pier 21, Mrs. Goldbloom raised money for a local hospital, the IWK Health Centre, and through her connections managed to have Pope John Paul II visit the hospital on his trip to Canada in 1984.
The Jewish mother and grandmother served paté to the Pope – and later the recipe "Pope's Paté" was included in the hospital's 10th-anniversary cookbook.
"She was very, very real," Ms. Chapman said.
Mrs. Goldbloom, who museum staff supplied with a "Ruth box" to stand on when she delivered speeches, was not intimidated by much. She could walk into boardrooms across Canada, and cajole oil executives in Calgary, for example, into donating money to her museum.
A leading Nova Scotia businessman, Ken Rowe, jokingly referred to her as his "favourite pest."
She raised $7-million for an endowment to open the museum – and never stopped. All in all, she raised nearly $20-million.
When she first saw it, however, Pier 21 was just a "low brick shed," said Ms. Chapman, that had served as the first impression for so many new Canadians.
Between 1928 and 1971, one million people passed through at Pier 21. Immigrants, mostly Europeans, and Canadian troops going to serve in the Second World War.
But with more immigrants arriving on airplanes, the building took on other roles – at one time it was a home for artists and at another it was a customs office. Still, it had a draw.
"It wasn't a very remarkable looking spot … but people would come back," Ms. Chapman said. "People would come back … and stand there and try to get in … and Ruth lived here long enough to hear the stories. She knew, she knew there was something special ..."