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Thomas Arthur McEwan was an active member of the Guelph Board of Education from 1960-1963, serving as chairman in 1962-1963. He formed and led the group of Guelph citizens that made representation in 1962-63 to establish the University of Guelph. McEwan was chairman of the Federated College's Board of Regents from 1964-1965 and founding chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Guelph from 1964 until his retirement from the board on June 30, 1968. He died on May 13, 2006, and the funeral service was held in War Memorial Hall on May 17, 2006.

Ira Earl McIntosh was born on April 13, 1896 in Ontario, Canada. He died on February 5, 1930 in Carrick Township, Bruce County, Ontario. He is buried at Clifford Public Cemetery, in Howick Township, Huron County, Ontario.

Albert "Russell" McKay was born 24 October 1886 to parents George H. McKay and Elizabeth Richardson Lang, Baptists of Scottish heritage. The family farm was located on Lot 17, Concession 4, on the edge of Prince Albert, near Port Perry, Reach Township, Ontario County. The McKay family rented this land before buying it in 1912 from Solomon Wilson. Russell died from consumption on 28 January 1917 at the age of 30.

Andy McKim is an award-winning Canadian director, dramaturge, and teacher from Quebec. He studied at Mount Allison University then went on to work at Neptune Theatre in Halifax from 1976 to 1981 in various roles, including house and company management, tour co-ordinator, audience development, and directing. He received a Gulbenkian Foundation Commonwealth Priority Grant that allowed him to spend two years in England and Scotland as an apprentice director working with more than 40 different directors including Sir Peter Hall. On his return to Canada, he assumed the role of apprentice dramaturge at Tarragon Theatre. He remained with that theatre until 2007, helping guide the company to its status as a leader in new play development. Working closely with Artistic Director Bill Glassco, he served as its Associate Artistic Director from 1986 until he left and also oversaw Tarragon's Playwrights Unit and programmed the Spring Arts Fair. In 2007, he moved on to become Theatre Passe Muraille's (TPM) Artistic Director, a position he held for the next 12 years. He continued his support for new play development at TPM and took it up a notch when he instituted the Five-Minute Pitch program, which provided anyone the opportunity to pitch new play ideas.

In addition to his work with Tarragon and TPM he has been a leader in the Canadian theatre community as a member of board member of the Toronto Theatre Alliance (now called the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, TAPA) from 1993 to 1997 and then its President from 1997 to 1999, board member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) and then its President from 2002 to 2005.

McKim has directed more than 50 different productions in Canada, predominantly world premieres. The one in particular that most stands out is Richard Greenblatt and Ted Dykstra's 2 PIANOS, 4 HANDS which has toured worldwide for more than 20 years. He has directed over 30 intensive, new-play workshops and worked as a dramaturg with over 120 different writers.

Among his many awards are two Fringe First Awards from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the George Luscombe Mentorship Award (2007) for his contributions to the development of new Canadian plays, the Bra d'Or Award (2010) by the women's caucus of the Playwright's Guild of Canada for his support of women playwrights, and TAPA's Silver Ticket Award (2016) for a lifetime of achievement not just in one's career but in nurturing the development of Canadian theatre from Quebec. He studied at Mount Allison University then went on to work at Neptune Theatre in Halifax from 1976 to 1981 in various roles, including house and company management, tour co-ordinator, audience development, and directing. He received a Gulbenkian Foundation Commonwealth Priority Grant that allowed him to spend two years in England and Scotland as an apprentice director working with more than 40 different directors including Sir Peter Hall. On his return to Canada, he assumed the role of apprentice dramaturge at Tarragon Theatre. He remained with that theatre until 2007, helping guide the company to its status as a leader in new play development. Working closely with Artistic Director Bill Glassco, he served as its Associate Artistic Director from 1986 until he left and also oversaw Tarragon's Playwrights Unit and programmed the Spring Arts Fair. In 2007, he moved on to become Theatre Passe Muraille's (TPM) Artistic Director, a position he held for the next 12 years. He continued his support for new play development at TPM and took it up a notch when he instituted the Five-Minute Pitch program, which provided anyone the opportunity to pitch new play ideas.

Robert Lachlan McKinnon (1872-1954) began his law career in Guelph in 1898 and served as Judge of Wellington County from 1928 until his retirement in 1947. McKinnon was a descendant of Scottish immigrants from the island of Colonsay who came to Ontario in the 1820s. Robert's father was a cousin of Professor Donald MacKinnon (1839-1914), the first chair of Celtic Languages at Edinburgh University.

Born on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, John McLean (1799-1890) was a fur-trapper, trader, explorer, grocer, banker, newspaperman, clerk, and author. He joined the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821 and became the first person of European descent to discover Churchill Falls on the Churchill River and, in 1838, to cross the Labrador Peninsula. In the mid 1840s, McLean married Clarissa Eugenia Evans, daughter of missionary and linguist James Evans (1801-1846), and settled in Guelph, building a home at what is now 21 Nottingham Street, Guelph. He managed a grocery store on Market Square and later opened and managed a branch of the Bank of Montreal. He was also involved in the founding of the Guelph Herald and was later Clerk of Division Court, Elora. McLean also wrote under the name “Viator” including “Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory” and “Remarks on the Great Nor'-West.” McLean left Elora in 1883 for Victoria, British Columbia, where he died in 1890.

Norman McMillan, known as “Mickey”, was a hockey player from Guelph. He played for the Guelph Maple Leafs hockey team (Guelph Professional Hockey Club), and was part of the team when they won the championship of the Canadian Professional Hockey League during the 1929-1930 season. McMillan also coached the Ontario Veterinary College’s hockey team in the mid-1930s. As General Manager of the Biltmore Hat Company, he was influential in founding the Guelph Biltmore Hockey Club in 1947, a junior affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers, and was the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters’ (or The Biltmores, for short) treasurer until the team moved to Kitchener and became the Kitchener Rangers in 1963. In 1956, McMillan became President of the Biltmore Hat Company, a position he held until 1974 when his son, Michael McMillan, took over. Norman remained as Chairman of the board. He was also President and Director of the Cutten Club for 28 years.

Ruby Mercer (1906-1999) was an American-born Canadian writer, broadcaster, and soprano. She made her debut in 1936 as a member of the Metropolitan Opera, portraying Nedda in Pagliacci. Marriage to Geza Por brought Mercer to Toronto in 1958. She founded the periodical Opera Canada, which she edited from 1960 to 1990, as well as the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus, serving as its first president. Mercer was host of CBC Radio's weekly shows Opera Time from 1962 to 1979 and Opera in Stereo from 1979 to 1984. She became a member of the Order of Canada in 1995.

John Miller (1817-1904), born in Scotland, was a farmer and politician in Pickering Township, Ontario, near Brougham. He immigrated to Upper Canada in 1835. By the 1860s, Miller was one of North America’s most successful Clydesdale horses and Shorthorn cattle breeders, importers, exhibitors, judges, and marketers. John Miller and Sons, run by John and several of his sons, including William (d. 1886), Robert (1857-1935), and John Jr., also imported and bred Berkshire and Yorkshire pigs and Shropshire, Leicester and Cotswold sheep. Other farmers in Pickering Township, including James Ironside Davidson (1818-1902) and John Dryden (1840-1909), often made purchases in conjunction with John Miller and Sons, including from the famous Scottish breeder Amos Cruickshank. Their families were also connected, with Davidson’s daughter Mary marrying William Miller (d. 1886), and William and Mary’s daughter Margaret marrying Dryden’s son, William Arthur Dryden.

Miller served on his local township and county councils from the 1860s through to the 1890s. The Miller farm, called Thistle Ha’, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1973 and a Province of Ontario Heritage Property in 1977.

John Hodder Moggridge (1771-1834) was born into a prosperous Bradford upon Avon family who were involved in the textiles industry. A leading Unitarian and something of a radical among industrialists, he became a member of the landed gentry in 1803, living in Dymock, Gloucestershire, where he had inherited an estate following the death of his father. He served as Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1809. In 1812, he moved to South Wales – where he lived for the rest of his life – and used his considerable wealth to set up “model” communities, founding the towns of Blackwood and Ynysddu in Monmouthshire to provide better living conditions for poor workers [From luciusbooks].