During World War II, after the United States Lend-lease program was launched in March 1941, fellow Canadian businessman Max Aitken, the then volunteer British Minister of Aircraft Production, asked McConnell to help finance the training of pilots such as Jackie Cochran in the United States to ferry American-built aircraft across the Atlantic.
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As well, he was made a governor of McGill University in 1927 and of the Royal Victoria Hospital the following year, both institutions benefiting greatly from his generosity.
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A patron of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, in the early 1960s when the Orchestra was preparing to move to new facilities at Place des Arts, McConnell purchased a 1727 Stradivarius violin for concertmaster and violinist Calvin Sieb.
In 1925, Graham sold the Montreal Star to John Wilson McConnell, but continued to be in charge of the newspaper until his death in 1938.
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