Hamilton's newest public school will stick with the name honouring a former school doctor and medical officer of health.

The new downtown elementary school, on the site of the former Dr. J. Edgar Davey Junior Public School on Ferguson Avenue North, will keep the Davey name.

Board chairperson Jessica Brennan said students "very strongly wanted to see the Dr. Davey school stay (with) the same name."

Davey, a former school board medical officer and chief medical officer of health for Hamilton, is credited with helping to wipe out diphtheria in Hamilton in the 1920s.

After a city-wide epidemic led to 32 student deaths, Davey helped usher in the city's first youth-based diphtheria immunization program, according to the school board. He died in 1969 at 96.

The other two names that made the short list for the school were:

* Dr. Gene Sutton, an amateur sports icon who taught for 30 years at various schools, including Winona High School and McMaster University. Sutton, who died last year, was Hamilton's 2009 Citizen of the Year.

* Jillian Rumble, a popular chief executive officer for Hamilton's YWCA from 1992 until she retired in 2002. She died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2004 at age 56.

School trustees approved the motion to keep the Davey name at a board meeting this week.

It goes for final approval later this month.

The school is expected to open in September.

cprete@thespec.com

905 526-2487