Dr. Kenneth Rubin is Professor Emeritus, Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland – College Park.

Rubin worked as a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo from 1973-1995.

In 1854 the beginnings of what would become Dominion Rubber, and the accompanying Rubber Machinery Shops were laid. It was in this year that William Brown, Ashley Hibbard and George Bourn met in Montreal to start Brown, Hubbard, Bourn & Co., the first manufacturer of Caoutchouc (Indian rubber) footwear in Canada. The company grew and in 1866 became the Canadian Rubber Company, manufacturing not just rubber footwear but also springs, machinery belts, and rubberized cloth.
By 1906 the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company, as it was now known, had purchased many of the competing rubber companies in Canada and in February of 1907 purchased the Berlin and the Merchants rubber companies of Kitchener. A merger with United States Rubber in 1910 created the Dominion Rubber Company and more opportunities for growth and expansion.
By 1912 the Dominion Rubber Company saw a potential for a lucrative line of business as motorized vehicles began to take hold in Canada. With this in mind, the company set out to establish the Dominion Tire factory and began searching for locations. In a contest that included larger and more developed cities such as Hamilton, London, and Windsor, it was Kitchener (then still Berlin and only just declared a city) that won the bid, thanks in no small part to Talmon Rieder.
Talmon Rieder, a well-known Kitchener business man was working for the Dominion Rubber Company at the time in their head office in Montreal. His wife and family were in Kitchener, and it was he that convinced the company to build the new tire factory in the city. The land was purchased, and on Aug 9, 1912 ground broke on the new one million dollar factory on Strange Street.
The Dominion Tire factory opened Christmas of 1913 and began regular production in 1914. The first tire was built on Jan. 6 by Oscar Totzke of Kitchener, who had been sent to Detroit and Indianapolis to learn the craft. At the time it took Mr. Totzke an hour to assemble the tire and the factory’s goal was one tire, per man, per day. This pace was soon too slow for demand and by 1919 the factory employed 1,800 workers and produced 420,00 tires per year.
In 1917 an integral part of the Dominion Tire factory was opened, the Rubber Machinery Shops. Built next to Dominion Tire on Strange Street for the express purpose of creating machines for use in the factory, the Rubber Machinery Shops (RMS) designed and manufactured machines for use in the rubber industry (and eventually many others) at this location until 2009.
In 1966 RMS was bought by Uniroyal (the former United States Rubber Company that went into partnership with Canadian Consolidated Rubber) and its role changed. RMS became a self-sustained division of Uniroyal, operating and maintaining its own facilities for sales and manufacturing. Although Uniroyal would be RMS’ largest client during the period, economic conditions saw the company branch into other industries and begin manufacturing machines for such diverse purposes as producing medicated Band-Aids and cutting wooden bungs for whiskey barrels, and products such as portions of the peritelescopes on the CN Tower. RMS changed again in 1989 when Michelin purchased Uniroyal, and the focus again became producing machinery for the parent company.
In 1993 RMS became an independent corporation when it was purchased by the managerial staff. The company would continue to produce machines for various industries and sell to other corporations worldwide. No longer associated with a tire manufacturing parent company, the contracts accepted, and the variety of machines produced by RMS would increase substantially.
1999 saw the final purchase of RMS, by Pettibone Tire Equipment Group, owned by Heico Companies. During this period there was a great deal of employee unrest in the company that culminated in a 34 month long strike through 2001-2004. When the strike finally ended, none of the employees that were out returned to the company. Shortly afterward, in 2009, RMS headquarters moved to Akron, Ohio and production began there. Although RMS still has offices in Kitchener, it is no longer located in the space it occupied for almost one hundred years.

Naomi Gwladys Royde-Smith (1875–1964), literary editor and writer, was born on 30 April 1875 at Craven Edge, Halifax, Yorkshire, the eldest of six daughters and two sons of Michael Holroyd Smith (1847–1932), an electrical engineer responsible for the electrification of the City and South London Railway, as well as an inventor of a helicopter and a boomerang, among other things, and Anne (Daisy), née Williams (1848–1934), the daughter of the Reverend Ebenezer Williams of Penybont, Wales, and ‘a zealous student of the Bible’ (private information, M. Royde Smith). Matthew Smith, the painter, was a cousin. In the Wood, a novel written in 1928, was in part a description of her Yorkshire childhood. When the Holroyd Smith family moved to London (the children all taking the surname Royde-Smith), Naomi and her sisters attended Clapham high school; her education was finished in Switzerland at Geneva, and she then began to earn her living, becoming a well-respected reviewer. She also wrote poetry but did not publish any.
From 1904 onwards Naomi lived in London with her sister Leslie (b. 1884) in rooms in Oakley Street, Chelsea (later she also had a cottage at Holmbury St Mary, near Dorking, Surrey) and worked at the Saturday Westminster Gazette, both reviewing and writing the ‘Problems and prizes page’. By 1912 she had become literary editor, the first time a woman had held this position, publishing early work by, among others, Rupert Brooke, D. H. Lawrence, and Graham Greene. Her large circle of friends included J. C. Squire, William Beveridge, Hugh Walpole, and Middleton Murry.
"Miss Royde-Smith had risen entirely through her own ability and drive. She had a forceful personality, sharp-tongued and sharp-witted; she was extremely well read and, while quite able to tackle men on their own terms, she was also fair-haired, feminine and a successful hostess" (Whistler, 173) wrote the biographer of Walter de la Mare, the poet, who met Naomi in the spring of 1911 and was to be in love with her for the next five years (writing her nearly 400 letters). On Naomi's part she ‘felt a great need to be artist's Muse. She wanted the men she loved to be men of genius … Her chief usefulness was the confidence she gave him’ (ibid., 178, 187); she was, however, ambivalent towards men sexually. A close friend at this period was the novelist Rose Macaulay; in the years after the First World War ‘she and Rose, acting jointly as hostesses, received such diverse authors as Arnold Bennett, W. B. Yeats, Edith Sitwell and Aldous Huxley’ (Smith, 100) at Naomi's flat, 44 Prince's Gardens, Kensington, where, Mary Agnes Hamilton remarked, ‘everybody in the literary world, the not yet arrived as well as the established, was to be met’ (Emery, 191) and where Naomi ‘dressed à la 1860; swinging earrings, skirt in balloons … sat in complete command. Here she had her world round her. It was a queer mixture of the intelligent & the respectable’ (Diary of Virginia Woolf, 5 June 1921). Rose Macaulay was to satirize Naomi at this period of her life in Crewe Train (1926), where she appears as Aunt Evelyn, ‘a fashionable, meddling, arch-gossip’ (Emery).
It was only after Naomi had given up her job in 1922 that she began to write fiction: The Tortoiseshell Cat, which was in some ways her best novel, appeared in 1925, and over the next thirty-five years she went on to publish nearly forty more novels, several biographies (for example of Mrs Siddons and of Maurice de Guérin), and four plays. The novels are admired by some but others are of the opinion that "in spite of a good style, intelligence and frequent touches of truth to character, her novels have no great imagination. Too often the romantic parts suffer from wish-fulfillment studies in masculine Genius that remind one uneasily of many inferior passages in her letters to de la Mare." (Whistler, 342)
Lovat Dickson wrote that ‘none of her novels … is likely to survive’ (The Times, 30 July 1964) but Betty Askwith responded by saying that The Delicate Situation (1931) should be remembered and deserved comparison with Alain-Fournier's Le grand Meaulnes. She observed that ‘any writer might be proud to have written just one book on that level’ (The Times, 4 Aug 1964). Other novels that are admired are For Us in the Dark (1937) and The Altar-Piece: an Edwardian Mystery (1939).
On 15 December 1926, at Lynton parish church, Devon, Naomi married the Italian-American actor Ernest Gianello Milton; she was fifty-one, fifteen years older than her husband (but pretended to twelve). She gave up her hectic social life, although continuing to review and being for a period art critic of Queen magazine, and settled into a surprisingly successful marriage—‘a triumph over unlikeliness by the strong-minded, romantic woman she was, and the histrionic, highly-strung, generous-minded actor. He placed her, for life, on a pedestal of admiration, though not by temperament drawn to her sex’ (Whistler, 342).
The Miltons lived variously in Hatfield in Hertfordshire, Chelsea in London, Wells in Somerset (during the 1930s), and then (during the 1940s and 1950s) in a house in Winchester once lived in by Nell Gwyn, 34 Colebrook Street in the shadow of the cathedral, and later on nearby at Flat 4, 43 Hyde Street. In 1942 both became Roman Catholics. At this period of her life Naomi Milton was, according to her niece, Jane Tilley, ‘hugely amusing, chain-smoked, was large and uncorseted, and wore large patterns’. ‘The sheer luxuriance of Naomi's discourse is what stays with me’ was the impression of her nephew, Michael Royde Smith. She continued to write in spite of increasing blindness. At the end of her life she and Ernest went to live in London at Abbey Court Hotel, 15 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead. She died from renal failure at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, Marylebone, on 28 July 1964 and was buried in Hampstead cemetery. Her husband survived her.
(Nicola Beauman, ‘Smith, Naomi Gwladys Royde- (1875–1964)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2014 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/56910, accessed 13 March 2015]).

The Royal Canadian Air Force Association was formed by a government order-in-council in May 1948.

Royal Air Forces Ex-P.O.W. Association was established in the 1950s by a small group of ex-prisoners of war who met occasionally at a pub in the Holborn district of London, England.

David Rothenberg was a producer, director, and author. Rothenberg is also the founder of the Fortune Society which is an organization that focuses on helping former prisoners to reintegrate back into society. In 1967, Rothenberg helped to produce John Herbert's play, "Fortune and Men's Eyes", which depicts the hardships in prison life. This spurred Rothenberg to later establish the Fortune Society.

Rotary International was begun by Paul Harris in Chicago on February 23, 1905. In 1912 the first Rotary Club was charted in Canada, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Rotary Club of Kitchener was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Guelph in September 1922 as the Rotary Club of Kitchener and Waterloo. The first officers were: President- A.J. Cundick; Vice-President- T.A. Witzel; Secretary- H.M. Cook; Treasurer- P.V. Wilson; Sergeant at Arms- W.M.O. Lochead. Directors included C.A. Boehm, L.O. Breithaupt, P.E. Heeney, Jerome Lang and Oscar Rumpel. By the end of the first year the membership had grown to forty members. As of 2013 membership was sitting at 70 members.

The main project of the Rotary Club of Kitchener is the KidsAbility Centre, a Childrens Treatment Centre that serves children with a range of special needs. As well, the Rotary Club of Kitchener takes part in youth development programs, grants, a car draw fundraiser, a golf tournament, environmental protection projects, a children's Christmas party, the Rotary African Women's Education Fund, study exchange programs and more.

Since 1922 Rotary clubs have also been charted in Kitchener-Grand River, Kitchener-Westmount, Waterloo, Kitchener-Conestoga, Cambridge North, Cambridge Sunrise, and Preston Hespler.

Dr. Hildy Ross is a Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo.

Miss Oktoberfest 1986.

Walter Rosekat was born on September 2, 1896.

Walter was the son of Christian Rosekat and Henrietta Bechler. Walter worked as a bootmaker in Berlin (later Kitchener). Rosekat enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces during the First World War on January 7, 1918. Regimental No. 3130783. Walter married Margaret Frank (b. 1895, d. 1980 on December 18, 1926.

Walter Rosekat passed away in 1957.

Henrietta Wilhelmine Bechler was born in Germany on November 7, 1859 to Christian and Christine (nee Floetke) Behcler. She married Christian Rosekat with whom she had several children. She died May 24, 1925 in Kitchener and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Christian "Christoper" Rosekat was born on July 15, 1850 in Germany. He and his wife, Henrietta Wilhelmina Bechler (b. November 7, 1859, d. May 24, 1925) immigrated from Germany to Berlin (now Kitchener) in 1879, though it is unclear if they were already married at that time. Christian Rosekat worked as a tanner in Berlin (later Kitchener). Christian and Henrietta had nine children: Wilhelmine Henriette (Mina), William, Charles, Henry, Alfred (Frederick), Herman, Albert, Walter, and John. He died in November of 1922 at his home in Kitchener and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Wilehlmina “Minnie” Rosekat (b. March 30, 1881, d. 1947) married Ervin Owen Woelfle (b. 1878, d. 1945) on September 15, 1903 in Berlin. Minnie and Ervin had five children: Harvey, Walter, Hilda, Erma, Oscar.

Private William Rosekat (b. February 1, 1883, d. 1947) served Canada in the First World War in the 4th Battalion Reserve. Rosekat enlisted on May 31, 1918. Regimental No. 3137585. William was a machine hand and later a trimsawyer at a furniture factory.

Charles Rosekat (b. December 30, 1884, d. 1911) worked at the Kaufman Rubber Company and was involved in several athletic sports teams in Berlin. Charles married Edith “Ida” Behrend (b. 1887, d. 1952) on May 23, 1906. The couple had three children: Leona, Margaret (Theresa), and Harry.

Henry Rosekat (b. February 14, 1887, d. 1950) worked as a boot maker in Berlin.

Alfred (Frederick) Rosekat (b. May 21, 1889) worked as a rubber bootmaker in Berlin. Rosekat enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces during the First World War on April 4, 1916 and served in the 18th Battalion. Regimental No. 751623.

Herman Rosekat (b. October 25, 1891, d. 1960) worked as a tire builder in Berlin. Herman married Lorna Kumpf (b. 1899, d. 1961) on June 14, 1923. Lorna worked as a housekeeper in Berlin.

Albert Rosekat (b. March 28, 1894, d. 1946) worked as a cobbler in a shoe factory for 31 years. Rosekat enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces during the First World War on February 26, 1918. Regimental No. 3131939. He married Annie Mary Franke (b. 1897, d. 1972) on February 18, 1926. The couple had a daughter named Ruth Rosekat.

Walter Rosekat (b. September 2, 1896, d. 1957) worked as a bootmaker. Rosekat enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces during the First World War on January 7, 1918. Regimental No. 3130783. Walter married Margaret Frank (b. 1895, d. 1980 on December 18, 1926.

John Rosekat (b. September 1899) married Lydia Becker. The couple had a child named Anna Margaret Rosekat.

Christian Rosekat passed away on November 20, 1922.

Charles Rosekat was born in December 30, 1884. Charles was the son of Christian Rosekat and Henrietta Bechler. Charles worked at the Kaufman Rubber Company and was involved in several athletic sports in Berlin (later Kitchener). Rosekat played hockey in the intermediate and senior O. H. A teams of Berlin and the Berlin pros. for several years. Charles married Edith “Ida” Behrend (b. 1887, d. 1952) on May 23, 1906. The couple had three children: Leona, Margaret (Theresa), and Harry. On a trip with friends Chas. Lundgren and Lawrence Seiling in Grimsby, Charles Rosekat drowned in boating accident in Lake Ontario at the age of 26 in August of 1911. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery. The three Rosekat children were admitted to the St. Agatha Orphanage on Sept. 10, 1916. Margaret and Harry were discharged on August 22, 1922.

Bob Rosehart was the President and Vice-Chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU). He assumed this position on September 1, 1997 and completed a 10-year term in August 2007. The previous 13 years he served as President and Vice-Chancellor of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

Born in Owen Sound, Ontario, Bob holds BSc., MSc., and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Waterloo. He was a professor of chemical engineering at Lakehead University during the 1970s, prior to beginning his administrative career as Dean of Lakehead’s University Schools in 1977. He holds honorary degrees from University of Waterloo, Nipissing University, and WLU.

Elizabeth Davidson was born December 5, 1843 in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario to Sheriff George Davidson and Margaret Davidson. She married William Roos (1842-1922) on January 15, 1873. They had four children of whom the eldest, daughter Florence Katherine Roos, married Harvey James Sims. Elizabeth died January 31, 1928.

Norman McLeod Rogers was born July 25, 1894 in Amherst, Nova Scotia. From 1927 to 1929, he was private secretary to William Lyon Mackenzie King. He was elected as a Liberal MP for Kingston in 1935, served as Minister of Labour from 1935 to 1939, and as Minister of National Defence from 1939 to 1940. He died on June 10, 1940 in a plane crash.

Mary Roe was a volunteer in the Waterloo Region of Ontario with several not-for-profit organizations.

John Harvey Robertson was born August 12, 1829 in Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, son of John Robertson and Janet Harvey Robertson. His father died ca. 1832 and his mother remarried in 1836 to James Sims. The family emigrated to Canada shortly after, settling near Hawkesville, Wellesley Township, now in the Region of Waterloo. He married Ann Hawk and moved to Kelvin, Windham Township, Norfolk County. He died there on October 5, 1912.

Born in Vinton, Iowa in 1876. Married Rice Hugh "Hugh" Roberts in Buena Vista, Iowa on June 28, 1897.

Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts KCMG FRSC (January 10, 1860 – November 26, 1943) was a Canadian poet and prose writer. He was one of the first Canadian authors to be internationally known, publishing various works on Canadian exploration and natural history, verse, travel books, and fiction.

Thomas Frederick Ritchie was born April 24, 1888 in Bryson, Quebec. In the late 1930's, he was a chief assistant at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario. He died February 28, 1976.

Walter Riss worked as a photographer for Studio Two in Mississauga, ON.