Rotary Foundation of Canada in legal battle with 101-year-old Edmonton widow

A 101-year-old Edmonton widow is in a legal battle with the Rotary Foundation of Canada to change her husband’s will and disburse their $40 million estate in accordance with his last wishes.

Mary McEachern is 101-years-old. Her husband, Steve, passed away in September 2020.

“I was married to Steve for 72 years. He would say to me, every year, he’d take my hand and say, well kid, we made it another year. But we didn’t make it this one,” said McEachern.

When Steve died, his estate was worth $40 million.

“When they first met, they lived in a one-room apartment, and they had nothing,” explained Trish Young, Steve and Mary’s niece.

While Mary worked full-time as a nurse, Steve built a business with an investors group. They had no children.

In his will, Steve made provisions for Mary to be taken care of, and after his death, the remaining fortune would be donated entirely to the Rotary Foundation of Canada. He was a member there for 45 years.

But, according to Mary and their niece, Steve changed his mind about which charities should benefit before his death. That happened early in the COVID pandemic.

“He was 99, he wanted to change his will but we were in full lockdown, and his lawyer, aged 82, had retired. And his wife was 96. There was absolutely no way we could have got a lawyer in there. And also, my uncle was very frail, it was in the last six months of his life,” explained Young.

CityNews reached out to the Rotary. They dispute the family’s claims regarding the $40 million estate that remains untouched.

“If that is their perception, I am so sorry. Because that’s not rotary. That is honestly and truly not what we are,” said Dean Rohrs, the past vice president of the Rotary Foundation of Canada.

Rohrs says that the foundation was not aware of Steve McEachern’s will until 18 months after his death. She insists Rotary is a family and would have done anything possible to stay out of court.

“But we have been working really hard with Mrs. McEachern’s legal teams. And to know that there have been multiple legal teams that we have been working with. Which means that every time we are dealing with a new team, asking our questions, trying to identify exactly what the basic information is, and we have to start back at the scratch post again,” said Rohrs.

Mary’s niece says the Rotary Foundation has not directly spoken to Mary or the family since Steve’s death.

“This really makes me sad, Mary has never had a call from anybody at Rotary Canada to say we’re so sorry to hear that your husband passed away. Not a card. No flowers. She’s had zero communication. And yet they’re in the front of the line to say yes, that $40 million is ours. And I think it’s outrageous,” said Young.

Rohrs however says, “There was a contact from us. There was written in his book of memoriam, and there was a notification from the Rotary Foundation itself, there was a card or a letter that was sent. You know, when one is suffering so much loss, things do get missed. So it can be forgiven if that wasn’t seen or noted on.”

Mary is now appealing to the public to ask the Rotary to reconsider its stance and open dialog.

“There are 700 local rotary clubs in Canada, 1.2 million Rotarians. Who are, and I want to stress this, they are hard-working, boots on the ground, they devote their time and their effort, and I think that they would be shocked to know that all of the good work that they do is being what I consider to be tarnished by the way that rotary canada is handling this particular situation,” said Young.

Rohrs says “It needs to be resolved. Mrs. McEachern, in fairness to her, in fairness to the other thoughts, it doesn’t have to be a legal thing. We didn’t have a choice, we didn’t have a choice. By the stage we were involved, was already a legal issue.”