Ed Mirvish
| Ed Mirvish OC CBE OOnt |
|
|---|---|
Ed Mirvish, 2006
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| Born |
Yehuda Edwin Mirvish July 24, 1914 Colonial Beach, Virginia, United States |
| Died | July 11, 2007 (aged 92) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation | Founder, Chairman and CEO of Honest Ed's |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Macklin (m. 1941; his death 2007) |
| Children | David Mirvish, two others |
Edwin "Honest Ed" Mirvish, OC CBE OOnt (July 24, 1914 – July 11, 2007) was an American-Canadian businessman, philanthropist and theatrical impresario who lived in Toronto, Ontario. He is known for his flagship business, Honest Ed's, a landmark discount store in downtown Toronto, and as a patron of the arts, instrumental in revitalizing the theatre scene in Toronto.
Born in Colonial Beach, Virginia, the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania (his father, David) and Austria (his mother, Anna). His parents gave him the Hebrew name, Yehuda, but at the urging of a cousin, they added a more American name, Edwin. Mirvish often told the tale of his bris; there was no mohel in Colonial Beach, so the family hired one in nearby Washington, D.C., to come down to perform the ceremony. The mohel chosen was Rabbi Moshe Reuben Yoelson, the father of Al Jolson. Mirvish credited this as his introduction to show business.
The family later moved to Washington, D.C., where Mirvish's father opened a grocery store. The grocery store went bankrupt in 1923, and David Mirvish moved his family to Toronto where he worked as a door-to-door salesman – peddling, among other things, Fuller Brushes and the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry – until he opened a grocery in the Toronto Jewish community, on Dundas Street. The family lived above the store, sharing their tiny apartment with a Hebrew school. Mirvish would often joke that it was his dream in those days to someday have a bathroom he did not have to share with 50 others.
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