Kelso, J. J. (John Joseph)

Born in 1864, John Joseph Kelso, better known as J.J., was an Irish immigrant who, though a school dropout, eventually landed a full-time job at the Globe newspaper in 1887 as a police reporter. It's his role as a community activist, however, that Kelso is best known. Responding to the misery he saw among the destitute children of Toronto, he founded the Toronto Humane Society, which was orginally meant to prevent cruelty to animals, women and children. In 1891, he organized and became the first president of the Toronto Children's Aid Society. He was also the first provincial superintendent for neglected and dependent chilrden. He died in 1935.