Jerzy-Tadeusz Pindera was born December 4, 1914 in the village of Czchow, in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire (now Poland) and raised in Chelm. Pindera was born into a middle class Catholic family living with his mother who was a teacher and his step- father who was a civil servant. Pindera attended elementary and high school in Chelm. Pindera later joined the local scouting branch and did some paramilitary courses while in high school. In 1933 he graduated and passed his entrance exams for the Technical University of Warsaw. While at the University of Warsaw Pindera studied Mechanical Engineering, with an emphasis on Aeronautics. He was also a member of the Academic Scouting Organization and the Academic Detachment of the Rifleman Association.

After graduating in 1936 Pindera enlisted in the army for his mandatory one year of military service, with an eye on attending graduate school for aeronautical engineering the following year. After completing his military service Pindera went back to University of Warsaw and enrolled in the M.Sc. program in Aeronautical Engineering. Here he gained what would become invaluable experience working on the floor in an airplane manufacturing plant, and in learning to fly.

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and Pindera’s military unit was mobilized. He was sent to Wlodawa to join the Ninth Regiment of Heavy Artillery. After the
Soviet invasion of Poland, Pindera attempted to reach Warsaw in a reconnaissance plane with Polish markings liberated from a local airfield taken over by the Soviet Army. Following a river he encountered an “interesting situation”: he was fired upon by both the Soviets and Germans each occupying either side of the river. He was finally was shot down by a unit of regular German Army anti-aircraft battery, captured, and taken to a field hospital outside of Warsaw.

In subsequent conversation with his captors he was apparently lucky: a Waffen SturmStaffel (SS) unit was located several kilometers from his point of capture. This unit executed on the spot all Polish officers. He escaped the hospital in October of that year, fled to Chelm, and eventually decided to try to escape to Hungary. Pindera’s war time experience, education, and political affiliations while at University made it likely that he would be part of the group of Polish political activists and intelligentsia that were being captured by the Germans. In February of 1940 Pindera attempted to escape to Hungary with the intent of ultimately joining the Polish military units being formed in the UK, only to be arrested by Ukrainian police working for the Gestapo and taken to a cell with other Polish political prisoners. In July of 1940 Pindera received his sentence from Berlin - he was to be sent to a concentration camp, with the notation “Return Undesired.” In August of 1940 Pindera arrived at Konzentrationslager (KZ) Sachsenhausen.

While at Sachsenhausen, Pindera helped to organize resistance amongst Polish political prisoners aimed at slowing down the rate of killings by the Nazi guards and their
inmate collaborators, and at carrying out acts of sabotage to slow down the Nazi war machine. He was doing this while slowly being worked to death on various concentration camp work details. His activities attracted the attention of the established resistance group within the camp, comprised most notably of German communists and socialists. The latter formed the original prison population of the camp during the Nazi takeover of the German government and the subsequent drive to eliminate all traces of opposition to the Nazi rule. A member of this group saved him from impending death as his weight had fallen below 30 kilograms by 1942. Pindera’s contact and collaboration with this leading resistance group, and friendship with one member who was also working in the camp’s construction office, or Bauburo of the concentration camp, as well as his engineering background, made it possible to start working as an engineer for the Bauburo when an opening became available.

After spending five years in various “blocks” at Sachsenhausen, Pindera and the other 95,000 prisoners were marched from the camp in April of 1945 as Soviet and American troops
advanced in an attempt by the Nazis to eliminate the evidence of the concentration camp’s existence. The Nazis’ intent was to put the prisoners on barges and then sink the barges in the North Sea. After slightly over a week of marching Pindera and few others escaped the line and fled into the forest away from their SS guards. Two days after this the Soviets liberated the area and Pindera returned to Chelm and his family.

When Pindera returned home he was responsible for looking after his mother and sister, as his step-father had been murdered in a Soviet concentration camp as a political
dissident. He returned to school at Warsaw Technical University and in 1947 he graduated with his masters of Aeronautical Engineering. During the period 1947-1963 Pindera held leadership positions at several research institutes in Warsaw, including Aeronautical Research Institute, Institute of Precision Mechanics, and Institute for Building Research, while working towards his Ph.D. in Mechanics at the Polish Academy of Sciences. He received his PhD in 1959, and subsequently the D.Sc. degree (Dr. Habil.) in Applied Mechanics from the Technical University of Cracow. His research and several books that he had published during this period attracted the attention of researchers on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and made it difficult for the communist authorities to jail him outright for his increasing dissatisfaction with the system and the willingness to speak out publicly. Instrumental in his survival during the Stalinist terror of the 1949-1954 period were his resistance activities in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as many of his fellow inmates involved in the resistance were now high-ranking party officials, and some were willing to help at their own personal risk.

While attending an international mechanics conference in Paris in the early 1960’s, Pindera met Dr. Felix Zandman, a well-known scientist and entrepreneur from the United
States working in the same area. Dr. Zandman, a Polish Jew whose survival during the war was in large part due to the effort of a Polish family in hiding him and several of his family members in their farm house, took an interest in Pindera’s plight in Poland and decided to help him. Shortly thereafter, Pindera was invited to Michigan State University as a Visiting Professor, and assumed this position in April of 1963, with his family following in November of the same year. In 1965 Pindera accepted a permanent faculty position as Professor of Experimental Mechanics in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He, his wife Aleksandra-Anna and his sons Marek-Jerzy and Maciej-Zenon moved to Canada.

Pindera was a professor at the University of Waterloo until 1983 when he retired from full time teaching. After 1983 he continued to research, guest lecture at other institutions, and
in 1987 he was appointed as Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Besides his teaching work, he wrote numerous refereed journal articles, edited scientific journals, sat on boards and
committees, and held eight patents for laboratory instruments he designed. As well, Pindera was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Cross of Auschwitz and the Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk medal.

One of Pindera’s most lasting contributions to the University of Waterloo was the establishment, in 1979, of the Academic Exchange Program between the Faculty of Engineering
at the University of Waterloo and the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, for which he received the Das Grosse Verdienstkreuz Medal from the German government. Since the establishment of the program over 200 students from Waterloo and Germany have gone on yearlong study and cultural exchange programs. This exchange program has served as a model for others established by the University of Waterloo.

Dorothy Etta Russell was a teacher and photographer. Born to Etta Lydia Mary White (nee Schantz) and Ward White on April 26, 1900 in the family home at 43 Schneider Avenue, Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario. Shortly after giving birth, Dorothy’s mother died from complications of childbirth. At the time of Dorothy’s birth, her father was homesteading in Alberta and he remained out west after she was born.

Subsequently, Dorothy was raised by her grandmother Mary Schantz, her aunts Sophie Emma Schantz, and Florence Annie Catherine Schantz and her uncle Franklin Abram Schantz.

At the age of ten, Dorothy began attending school for the first time. She was enrolled in Courtland Avenue School in 1910. Later, she attended Victoria Public School. Between 1916 and 1920, Dorothy attended the Kitchener and Waterloo Collegiate Institute.

In September 1920, Dorothy enrolled in the Toronto Normal School to train as a teacher. She stayed at a boarding house in Toronto, Ontario during this time. Afterwards in 1921, Dorothy accepted a position at Suddaby Public School in Kitchener, Ontario as an assistant kindergarten teacher.

In 1923 Dorothy began taking Hawaiian guitar lessons from Clarke Russell and the two developed a relationship. The couple married on July 2, 1924. They moved to Chatham, Ontario around 1928.

Their first son Donald Richard Russell was born on February 24, 1929.

In 1933, Clarke moved to Toronto to pursue his music career. Dorothy and Donald moved back to Kitchener, Ontario and into the family home at 43 Schneider Avenue.

Dorothy and Clarke’s second son Harold Clarke Franklin Russell was born on September 14, 1935.

In 1937 Dorothy accepted a teaching position at Margaret Avenue School and stayed there until 1954. Afterwards, she taught at Prueter Public School until she retired in 1965.

Dorothy enjoyed a successful retirement spending time travelling and pursuing her interests including photography.

Dorothy died on January 18, 2005 after a period of illness.

Helen M. Bawman (nee Byers) was born in 1888. She married Sam D. Bawman, originally of Washington D.C., in 1918.

Adam Bowlby (1792-1883) was born in 1792 to Richard Bowlby, and wife Elizabeth Hawksworth. Adam moved to Upper Canada in 1815 to live with his uncle Thomas Bowlby, the first Bowlby family member to come to Upper Canada and here Adam set up a gristmill. After a few years manufacturing tools and implements for farmers, Adam purchased a small parcel of 450 acres in Townsend around the time of his marriage, in 1819, to Elizabeth Sovereign of New Jersey. The farm was built up over a period of 21 years to approximately 3,000 acres. During this 21 year period Adam and Elizabeth had six children: Alfred Bowlby in 1820, William Bowlby in 1822, David Sovereign Bowlby in 1828, Mary Ursula Bowlby Powell in 1830, Ward Hamilton Bowlby, in 1834, John Wedgewood Bowlby in 1837. During this time Adam served as magistrate and district councilor, treasurer of the Masonic Lodge and Captain of the Waterford Company during the rebellions of 1837-38. Adam eventually left his farm to son William (the only farmer in the family) and settled in Berlin (Kitchener) where he died in 1883 at the age of 91.

Charles Bowlby Clement (1879-1970) was born August 19th, 1879 to Edwin Perry Clement and Janie Elizabeth Bowlby Clement in Berlin (Kitchener). Charles followed the course of his father in some ways and in 1869 started with the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada. After doing very well in the head office in Waterloo, in 1917 he left for the Winnipeg office to become Secretary of the office, and eventually assistant loan manager. After this he continued into loan manager positions in Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. He eventually retired in 1944 after having worked for the company for 49 years, at the time a company record. In his personal life he was very interested in chess, music, opera and art. He played violin for fun and in the “Clement Trio” with his brothers Edwin Oliver and William Pope. He was also instrumental in collecting the works of his cousin A.Y. Jackson. In 1904 he married 24 year old Gertrude Unger (1880-1967), also of Berlin. Gertrude was the daughter of Mennonite pioneers who came from Pennsylvania. The two hand only one child, Carlton Clement in 1907 in Waterloo. Carlton attended the University of Alberta for law school and graduated in 1931. He was appointed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Alberta in 1970 and was named King’s Council in 1943. Charles Bowlby died in 1970 at the age of 91 and Gertrude died in 1967. Carlton died in 1999. His papers can be found at the Legal Archives Society of Alberta.

Ela Bliss Moyer was born February 11, 1869 in Peru, Illinois to Samuel and Emma Moyer. He married Jessie Watt in 1899 and together they had two children: Dorothy Louise and Barbara Helen. Ela died in 1954 and was buried in Parkholm Cemetery in La Grange Park, Illinois.

Walter Bishop Spelman was born in New York State on June 20, 1885 to Amasa Bishop and Nancy Agnes Spelman. He and Ruth Schantz married on December 23, 1912 and together they had six children: Walter, Margery, Dorothy, John, Constance, and Richard. Spelman joined what would become Morton Community College as an English teacher in 1912. He was named dean of men when the school became a junior college in 1924, a position he held until his death. Spelman died July 4, 1941 of a heart attack while in Montreal with his wife, where he was recovering from a hernia operation. He was buried in Champlain, New York at the Glenwood Cemetery.

Melvina Dorthula Flagler was born in Illinois in 1842 to A.B. and Elizabeth Browne. She married Samuel Adee Flagler (1837-1905) on October 24, 1858 in Union, Illinois. She died June 21, 1921 and was buried in Forest Home Cemetery next to her husband.

Levi Nash Moyer was born in Ontario to Abraham Bechtel Moyer and Mary Gross Moyer (nee Nash) on June 19, 1845. He emigrated to the United States at twenty years of age first going to Illinois before settling in Cedar Falls, Iowa and work for several years in the dry goods industry. He moved to Chicago in 1890 where he worked with Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company. Moyer eventually landed in Plainfield, New Jersey where he spent the last seven years of his life.

He married Mary Elizabeth Raymond (1851-1914) on June 20, 1871 in La Salle, Illinois. Together they had six children. Levi died in April 13, 1919 in Bridgewater, New Jersey at the home of his son Harry.

Born January 1890 in Kansas.

Ward was born to John White (1838-1910) and Susan Malott (1846-1872) on March 21, 1870 in Leamington, Ontario.

Ward was a member of the Salvation Army.

On September 1, 1897 Ward married his long-time friend Etta in her family’s home located at 43 Schneider Avenue, Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario. The couple moved to Leamington, Ontario and had their first child, Wilfrid Herbert White on February 20, 1899. Wilfrid died at four months of age on June 4, 1899.

In 1900 Ward moved out west to homestead in Alberta with Etta’s brothers Arthur and Austin and her father Tobias. Subsequently, Etta returned home to Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario to give birth to their second child, Dorothy Etta. Etta died from complications of childbirth shortly after.

Ward stayed in Alberta and proposed marriage to Etta’s sister Sophie. Sophie declined his proposal.

In 1908 Ward moved to Chilliwack, British Columbia and worked as a contractor. He helped build the extension of the Chilliwack hospital, nurses’ home, and Methodist church. Later, he worked as a caretaker of municipals schools until he retired.

Ward married Ella Feeg (nee Hunsperger) and helped her raise her three children from a previous relationship; Benjamin, Gilbert and Beatrice.

Ward died on May 1, 1948 in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

George Herbert Bowlby was born July 16, 1865 to David Sovereign Bowlby and Martha Esther Murphy Bowlby in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario. Educated in Berlin at both the elementary and high school, he studied briefly at St. Jerome College before obtaining a medical degree at the Toronto University. After obtaining his degree he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London and also was a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. As a youth he was heavily involved in sports, playing soccer and cricket. At the onset of WWI he joined the Army Medical Corps of the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force, became a Captain and was appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services. In 1894 at the age of 28 he married 22 year old Blanche Alexandrine (Adine) Seagram (1871-1919), the daughter of Joseph Emm Seagram, founder of Seagram Distilleries.

In 1917 while serving in WWI, George was walking the ground of Bath military hospital, where he was working, and fell off a cliff. He was found dead at the bottom of the cliff and was cremated in Bath. Adine was overseas at the time as well, volunteering for the Red Cross. After the death of her husband, Adine stayed on with the Red Cross for another year until she was forced to return to Berlin to look after her ill father. On July 19th, 1919 Adine was riding in a car with her brother Capt. Tom Seagram and her niece. The car was involved in a collision with another vehicle and Adine died of the injuries she sustained.

Florence Grace Clement (1889-1988) was born November 8, 1889 to Edwin Perry Clement and Janie Elizabeth Bowlby Clement in Berlin (Kitchener). She was educated first in town and later at Havergal College in Toronto. In her early twenties Florence went to England and then to Germany to study voice, but a sudden bout of homesickness sent her back to Berlin just before the outbreak of WWI. Back in Berlin she continued to be involved in music, and spent much time in Northern Ontario vacationing with her family. She looked after her mother when she was elderly, and after her passing Florence spent much time traveling.

Florence was very active in the community as a life member of Trinity United Church being in the choir and the women’s organization, a charter member of the Queen Anne chapter of I.O.D.E., a life member of the Canadian Red Cross, and a charter member of the Westmount Country Club where she was an accomplished golfer. She was also an active donor to the Tom Thomson Gallery and a life member, probably stemming from her close relationship with her cousin A.Y. Jackson. Florence was responsible for keeping much of the family history and made a great effort to trace her genealogy. She also inherited many of the antiques from her mother, some of which now reside at the ROM. Florence spent her later years living at the Preston Springs retirement home until her death at the age of 98 in 1988.

Mary Eidt Ratz was born to Christine Eidt and Henry Ratz in Gads Hill, Ontario on December 14, 1856. Mary was one of 13 children born to Christine Eidt and Henry Ratz.

In March 1877, Mary married Jacob Kaufman, who at the time worked as a sawyer in her father's saw mill. Together, Mary and Jacob moved to Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario. Mary and Jacob had seven children. Only two of their sons and two of their daughters reached adulthood; Emma Ratz Kaufman, Alvin Ratz Kaufman, Milton Ratz Kaufman, and Edna Louise Kaufman.

Mary was a member of the Zion Evangelical Church throughout her life and led the Zion's women's society. Mary was also actively involved in many civic and community initiatives. She was the president of the local Children's Aid Society and the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and a member of the National Council of Women of Canada, the Women’s Hospital Aid Association of Ontario, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Mary was also known to support the Kitchener-Waterloo Orphanage and the Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital.

Mary died on December 24, 1943.

John Ross Augustine was born to Albert William Augustine and Edna Louise Kaufman in Kitchener, Ontario on December 17, 1927 and was raised alongside his three siblings; Albert Jacob Augustine, David William Augustine, and Mary Caroline Augustine.

John married Annette Helene Gofton (b.October 8, 1929).

John received his MD, with Honours, from the University of Western Ontario in 1952. In 1954, he moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario to establish his own practice as a family physician. From 1956-1959, John received additional training in Toronto, Ontario and subsequently became a certified specialist in internal medicine. Afterwards, he returned to Thunder Bay, Ontario and continued to work as a physician until his retirement in 1994.

John was a leader in the health care sector both as an educator and as an activist. He was involved in many key projects and served in a variety of roles that shaped the Canadian health care system, especially in northern Ontario. For example, John was a founding member of the Thunder Bay branch of the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario and helped set up the first methadone treatment outreach for addicts in the late 1980s. In addition, John helped developed the Northwestern Ontario Medical Program (NOMP) which brought medical students from McMaster Medical School to northwestern Ontario to work with local doctors and health care providers. In the late 1990s, John also worked to establish the Northern Ontario School of Medicine with campuses in Thunder Bay, Ontario and Sudbury, Ontario. It was hoped that the school would encourage more physicians to train and practice in northern Ontario and ultimately sustain a health care system up north. These are a few examples of the projects John worked on during his career. He was actively involved in many other initiatives as well.

John died on April 13, 2014.

Martha Melvina Rieder was a Canadian homemaker. She was born November 19, 1879, the fourth child of John Schmitt and Lydia Anthes. Martha went to the Central School in Berlin (later Kitchener), Ontario and attended Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby. In 1906 she married Talmon Henry Rieder and they had four children. Margaret Catherine (1906-2003), called Marnie, was a teacher; she married Elmer Paisley. Edward Anthes (1908-1966) worked at the Mutual Life Assurance Company and served as president of the company from 1959 to 1964; he married Jean Rudell. Helen Elizabeth (1911-1959), and Henry Paul (1914-[19--?]), called Paul. Martha died in 1971 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery with Talmon.

Lauretta Rieder was born October 31, 1886 in New Hamburg, the child of Peter and Emeline Merner. She died at 21 years of age of meningitis and was buried in the Rieder family plot at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Married Ernest Wood of Massachusetts on October 18, 1906 in Waterloo.

Josiah Kolb Shantz was a farmer and caretaker born in Freeport, Ontario to Benjamin Shantz and Lydia Kolb on December 5, 1834. He married Anna Kolb on October 6, 1860 and together they had several children: Elizabeth, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Lorena Anna ad Elo Josiah. Shantz died in Kitchener on August 3, 1913 and was buried in the First Mennonite Cemetery.

Mary was born to Abraham Bechtel Moyer and Mary Gross Moyer (nee Nash) on July 1, 1840 in Cayuga, Ontario and raised alongside her nine siblings. She was raised in a pioneer Mennonite farming family and moved throughout her childhood to Norfolk County, Lincoln County, Pelham, and Cainsville, Ontario.

Mary was also a descendant of Samuel Meyer who came to Lincoln County, Canada West in 1800.

At the age of 16, Mary acquired a position as a school teacher in the Niagara Peninsula. She eventually accepted a teaching position in Port Elgin, Ontario.

On August 6, 1863, Mary married Tobias Schantz in Port Elgin. The couple had eight children: Orpheus Moyer Schantz, Etta Lydia Mary Schantz, Sophie Emma Schantz, Austin Tobias Schantz, Franklin Abram Schantz, Arthur Benjamin Schantz, Florence Annie Catherine Schantz, and Herbert Cecil Palmer Schantz.

From 1864-1865, Mary lived in Poughkeepsie, New York while Tobias attended the Eastman National Business College. She returned to Port Elgin, Ontario in 1866 with her family.

In 1867, she stayed with her mother and brother in Campden, Ontario while her husband travelled to Missouri with his father.

Mary moved to the village of Hawkesville in Waterloo County in 1870 later to the village of Conestogo in Waterloo County in 1877 as Tobias found work in local mills.

In 1884 Mary and her family moved to Berlin, Ontario and lived in a house on Benton Street. In 1887, the family purchased two aces of land from Samuel Schneider’s farm for $1,100.00. In 1888, the family built an Italianate style home at 43 Schneider Avenue. It was the first house built on the street and cost $1,725.00 to build.

Mary died on January 28, 1935 and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Harold was born to Flemming Clarke Russell and Dorothy Etta Russell (nee White) on September 14, 1935 in Kitchener, Ontario and raised alongside his brother Donald Richard Russell.

Carl Balzer "Cully" Schmidt was a journalist and the editor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Schmidt was born in Waterloo (Ontario) on March 9, 1911, the third of four children to Lydia Catherine Burghardt and Carl Heinrich Eckhardt (“Charles Henry Edward”) Schmidt. On October 7, 1936, Schmidt married Margaret Elizabeth Lockhart. The couple had two children: Margaret Jane and John Alexander.

Schmidt began working as a paper carrier for the Kitchener-Waterloo Record as a boy and started writing as a journalist at the age of 17. He went on to move through various roles in the editorial department before being named editor-in-chief of the newspaper in 1968, at the age of 56. Nicknamed the "Iron Duke," Schmidt held the role until his retirement in 1975.

During his youth, Schmidt served as a player and team representative in the Ontario Hockey Association and the Ontario Rugby Football League, curling player and controlling body of the Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Club, and president of the Athletic Association of Kitchener and Waterloo. Schmidt was also president of the Kitchener Musical Society, the operating body of the Kitchener Concert Band, and a founding member of the Western Ontario Newspaper Awards in 1952 (renamed the Ontario Newspaper Awards in 2004).

Cully Schmidt died in Waterloo on September 21, 2006, at 95.

Johann was born to Eduard and Elisabeth Höpken on January 21, 1922 and raised in Germany alongside his five siblings; Gisela, Walter, Karl, Wilhelm and Peter.

He served as an Engineer Lieutenant during World War II and never returned from a patrol in Russia in 1941. Johann's parents made several attempts to discover what happened to their son and even contacted the Red Cross after the war. However, they were unable to determine what happened to Johann and they never heard from him again. Eventually, they had Johann declared legally dead.

Walter was born to Eduard and Elisabeth Höpken on March 3, 1924 and raised in Germany alongside his five siblings; Gisela, Johann, Karl, Wilhelm and Peter.

Walter served in the Reich Labour Service during World War II until he contracted tuberculosis. Although he fully recovered from this illness, he was deemed unfit for military service. In 1942, he began studying medicine in Graz, Austria and continued his studies in Düsseldorf, Germany after the war. He wrote his state exams in 1947.

Afterwards, he accepted a position as an intern at a hospital in Lüneburg, Germany and wrote his medical exams. In 1949, Walter worked as a practical hygienist and as a scientific researcher in the area of bacteriology and virology. Later he worked as an assistant at the Medizinaluntersuchungsamt in Lüneburg and Osnabrück, Germany and then successively accepted positions at the Institute for Cellular Research and Tissue Cultivation, the Robert Koch Institute and at the Lower Saxon Medizinaluntersuchungsamt as the Chief Medical Officer after 1954. At some point, Walter also spent half a year working at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland after receiving a scholarship. Walter travelled frequently for his work and specialized in researching influenza viruses.

Sometime before 1960, Walter married a woman in Gratz, Austria and had two children; Fritz and Anne. Fritz was considered a good student and enjoyed studying German and English. He hoped to become a lecturer. Anne became a nurse and moved from Gratz, Austria to Hanover, Germany to care for her stepmother. Afterwards, Anne moved to Toronto and travelled to Canada by ship. She met a young Swiss man on the ship and they married a year later. Anne and her husband eventually moved to Switzerland. Walter's first wife's name is unknown.

In 1960, Walter married for the second time and had a son named Jens (b. 1962). His second wife's name is unknown.

It appears that Walter also had another son named Thomas (b. April 13, 1953).

Wilhelm was born to Eduard and Elisabeth Höpken on October 24, 1928 and raised in Germany alongside his five siblings; Gisela, Johann, Walter, Karl, and Peter.

Wilhelm was recruited as a secondary student to be a helper in the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force during World War II. He was involved in the German retreat from East Prussia to Berlin, Germany in 1945. He landed near Berlin, Germany and was taken to a Russian prison camp. In the prison camp, he was reportedly treated relatively well because of his young age and was shortly released. Afterwards, he worked as a manual labourer. Wilhelm met with his mother in Neuhaldensleben, Germany (now Haldensleben, Germany) in September 1945. Wilhelm and his mother then met with his brother Peter Höpken and together they all travelled to Lüneburg, Germany. They travelled to Lüneburg, Germany because Wilhelm's father was working there at the time.

Wilhelm finished his secondary school education in Lüneburg, Germany in 1948. Afterwards, he studied law in Göttingen, Germany. He wrote his exams in Celle, Germany and then accepted an articleship in Hamburg, Germany. He stayed in this articleship until he graduated from his civil servant exams in 1957. By the end of 1958, he accepted a job as a legal official with the revenue office in Hamburg, Germany. He eventually became a Senior Executive Officer with the Office of Finance for corporate bodies. He enjoyed his career and particularly like to work with large corporate bodies in trade and industry.

Wilhelm married Helga Grotefend in 1953 and together they had four daughters; Elisabeth (b. September 18, 1957), Ulrike, Stephanie (b. March 29, 1965) and Christine (b. April 20, 1966). Wilhelm was regarded as a quiet, level-headed and smart individual.

Mauritana Smith was the daughter of Damaris Isabella Smith and sister of Elizabeth Smith Shortt, who was one of the first three female medical doctors in Canada. Mauritana was born on August 9, 1856, to a loyalist family in Winona, near Hamilton, Ontario. She was educated by a governess, in the Winona School and at the St. Catharines Collegiate Institute. She taught in the Lee neighborhood and at Hamilton Beach, and the Waterford Public School. She married Hervey A. Coon in 1887. She died June 18, 1946.

Gordon was born in 1920.

In 1945, Gordon married Doris Elaine Moyer and together they had three children; Mark Bolender, David Bolender, and Merla Bolender.

From 1946-1960, Gordon worked as a teacher and Doris served as a nurse in Nigeria with the United Missionary Society (the forerunner of EMCC World Partners).

Gordon died on February 13, 2002.

William Henry Bartlett was an artist and author born in Kentish Town, England on March 26, 1809. Throughout his life, Bartlett travelled Europe, America, and the Middle East collecting sketches for his engraving illustrations. Bartlett spent many months visiting Canada in 1838, where he drew sketches of major landmarks such as Niagara Falls, markets in Toronto, landscapes in Montreal, as well as scenes of daily living conditions throughout Western Canada. He died at sea, off the coast of Malta, on September 13, 1854.

Glenn Earl Eby was born February 22, 1898 in Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario to Menno (1869-1899) and Sarah Ann (1872-1902) Eby. He was a student at the Kitchener Collegiate and Technical Institute between 1913 and 1917, before enlisting with the Canadian Over-seas Expeditionary Forces on April 19, 1918 in London, Ontario. He married Elise Margueritt Bechtel on November 15, 1922 in Wentworth, Ontario and together they had three children. Eby died February 28, 1962 and was buried in the Blair Cemetery.

Wilfrid Herbert White was born to Etta Lydia Mary White and Ward Malott White on February 20, 1899. Wilfrid died at four months of age on June 4, 1899.

Canadian poet Alexander McNeill was born at The Corran, Ireland on May 10, 1842. In 1872 McNeill and his wife Hester moved to Canada, settling first in Elderslie township before building a home "The Corran" near Wiarton. A practising lawyer, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the first time in 1882 and continued to serve until 1901. McNeill died April 18, 1932.

Iris Turcott was a dramaturge, director, and actor. She obtained an Honours degree with the University of Western Ontario on English and Drama as well as a Bachelor of Education at the University of Toronto. Turcott has worked with many Canadian stage companies such as the Canadian Stage and the Stratford Festival. She was also part of international plays in Manchester, Melbourne, and the Abbey Theatre. Turcott was also involved in the education and mentorship of the arts, having taught at the National Theatre School of Canada. She was the recipient of the George Luscombe Award in 2008 and the Playwrights Guild of Canada's Honorary Award in 2013. Turcott died on September 22, 2016.

Daniel H. Alger was a plant manager born in Broughham, Ontario in 1884. He went to Colborne High School and studied at the Ontario College of Pharmacy. He worked from 1926 to 1927 at Lindsay Distilleries Ltd., before joining Joseph E. Seagram and Son's in Waterloo as a plant manager in 1929. Alger was a member of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, the Waterloo Board of Trade, and a member of various golf clubs including Westmount Golf and Country Club. He died August 12, 1936 in Toronto, Ontario following an automobile crash north of Orangeville, Ontario while returning to Waterloo from his summer home in Georgian Bay. Alger's wife and a maid employed by the couple, who were in the car with Alger, survived the crash. He was entombed at Woodland Cemetery in Kitchener.