Showing 4881 results

Authority record

Kitchener-Waterloo Record

The Kitchener-Waterloo Record began with the publication of the Daily News of Berlin on February 9, 1878 and was the first daily paper in the area. It was published by Peter Moyer. Over the years it had several names and publishers: in January of 1897 it was purchased by the German Printing and Publishing Company and was amalgamated with that company's Berlin Daily Record to become the Berlin News Record, and later still the News Record, all published by William (Ben) V. Uttley. In 1918 the publishers of the German-language paper the Berliner Journal, William D. Euler (later Senator for North Waterloo) and William J. Motz, purchased the News Record and changed the name to the Kitchener Daily Record. On July 17, 1922 the Record absorbed the other daily, the Daily Telegraph. With that event, the original three daily papers (the News Record, the Berlin Daily Record, and the Daily Telegraph) became one.

The Berliner Journal began in December 29, 1859 by Frederick Rittinger and John Motz, and was located on Queen Street south, Kitchener. Motz remained editor until his death in 1899, at which time his son William acquired his father's interest. When Rittinger died in 1915 his share was acquired by William D. Euler. The weekly Journal ended on May 10, 1924. The Record’s first staff photographer was Harry Huehnergard, who worked for the paper for 49 years before retiring in 1986 as Manager of the Photographic Department.

In 1948 the Kitchener Daily Record was re-named the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, which name it retained until 1994, when it became simply The Record. In 1928 the paper moved from its home at 49 King Street west to a new building at 30 Queen Street north where it was to stay for 44 years until moving in May 1973 to 225 Fairway Road. When William J. Motz died in 1946 his son John E. Motz took over as publisher. The by-then Senator Euler sold his interest to Southam Press in 1953. John E. Motz died in 1975 and the Motz Family continued to own a controlling interest in the paper until 1990, when it was sold to Southam. In 1998, The Record was sold to Sun Media Corporation, and then in March 1999, to Torstar Corporation. In January 2005, the paper moved its offices to Market Square on King Street east in Kitchener's downtown core, and on March 11, 2008, the name was changed to the Waterloo Region Record.

Davidson, Barbara

  • Person

Barbara Davidson is an award-winning Canadian photographer. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, she graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography and Film Studies. From 1992 to 1996 she worked as a photographer for the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Since leaving the paper she has covered the war in Bosnia, and conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has worked for news outlets including The Washington Times and the Los Angeles Times. In 2011 she won a Pullitzer Prize and a National Emmy for her work documenting victims of gang violence in Los Angeles.

Weil, Bernard

  • Person

Bernard Weil graduated from Sheridan College in 1981 in the program of Photography. He worked as a volunteer for The Mississauga News covering the local elections. He later took on full-time work as a darkroom technician with the publication after his graduation. He moved to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record (The Record), where he was working for a daily newspaper. In 1986, he won the photographer of the year award from the Ontario News Photographer's Association and went on to join The Toronto Star as a staff photographer.

Bryan

  • Person

Rex, Kay

  • Person
  • 1918-2006

Kathleen (Kay) Amelia Rex was a Canadian reporter and writer. She was born in 1918, the daughter of Lionel and Grace Rex of Woodstock, Ontario. In 1941, after graduating from university, Rex began work with the Woodstock Sentinel, a local daily newspaper, moving to the Canadian Press (CP) in 1942, where she worked in various CP bureaus across the country including Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto. In 1953, Rex left the Canadian Press, thereafter gaining employment with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). In 1957 she began work as a freelance journalist, traveling first to Mexico City. In 1959 Rex joined the Globe and Mail where she worked until 1983. Her stories brought to the paper an early form of feminism, highlighting women's issues including poverty, daycare, immigration, health, employment and peace.

Upon retirement from the Globe and Mail, Rex became president of the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Authors Association. Her retirement from journalism also allowed Rex to begin research on a history of the Canadian Women's Press Club of which she was a member. Published in 1995, No Daughter of Mine: The Women and History of the Canadian Women's Press Club, 1904-1971 tells the stories of the female journalists who were its members. Rex died on July 10, 2006 in Toronto and was interred at Woodstock Presbyterian Cemetery.

Crusz, Rienzi

  • Person
  • 1925-2017

Rienzi Crusz was a poet and retired librarian living in Waterloo, ON. Born in Galle, Sri Lanka, Crusz was educated at the University of Ceylon (B.A. Hons.) and was employed as Chief Research Librarian for the Central Bank of Ceylon. After emigrating to Canada in 1965, he attended the University of Toronto (B.L.S.) and the University of Waterloo (M.A.). He worked at the University of Toronto Library and in 1969 was appointed as a reference and collections development librarian at the University of Waterloo, a position he held until his retirement in 1993.

His creative work first began to appear in periodicals and newspapers in 1968, and in 1974, his first collection of poems was published under the title Flesh and thorn. Since then, numerous other collections have been published. Crusz is an active voice among Canadian immigrant poets, and his work depicts the contrasts between South Asian and Canadian life. In 1994, he won the literature award in the Kitchener-Waterloo Arts Awards.

Dare Foods Limited

  • Corporate body
  • 1889-Present

Dare Foods Limited is a family-owned business based in Kitchener, Ontario. It manufactures cookies, crackers, candies and fine breads at its seven plants in Ontario, Quebec and South Carolina. Dare candies are made in Toronto and Milton, Ontario.

In 1889, Charles H. Doerr opened a grocery store on the corner of Breithaupt and Gzowski (now Weber) Streets in Berlin (now Kitchener, Ontario) that by 1892 had become a biscuit-manufacturing operation. In 1919 a larger bakery was built in Kitchener to replace the original plant and at the same time a line of candies was added. In 1942 the Kitchener plant was destroyed by a fire and in 1943 a smaller wartime replacement was constructed on a former flying field on the outskirts of Kitchener. A new office building was constructed in Kitchener in 1952. In 2003 a new Kitchener office building was constructed to preserve and highlight the original 1952 yellow-brick structure.

The company now known as Dare Foods Limited was originally known as the C.H. Doerr Co. When Charles H. Doerr died in 1941 his grandson, Carl M. Doerr, became President of the company and began an expansion program that introduced Dare products in more than 40 countries. In 1945 the company and family name was changed from “Doerr” to “Dare” creating The Dare Company, Limited, later renamed Dare Foods Limited. With the help of his sons Bryan and Graham, Carl Dare continued to guide Dare Foods Ltd. until 2002. In Nov. 2002 Fred Jacques was appointed as President, the first non-family member to head the company in 111 years. Bryan and Graham Dare remain co-chairmen of the company’s Board of Directors.

The business history of Dare Foods is complex: it has formed, acquired, merged and dissolved other companies and its own divisions over the years. One of Carl M. Doerr’s first expansion acquisitions was The Howe Candy Company in Hamilton, Ontario. Other acquisitions include Saratoga Products, St. Jacobs Canning Company, Mother Dell’s Bakeries, Dairy Maid Chocolates, Bremner Biscuit Co., Saputo/Culinar CFS.

In 1960 a sales office was opened in Montreal, establishing Les Aliments Dare Limitée, Dare’s selling and distributing organization in the Province of Quebec. The Western Division was established in 1962 with the opening of a bakery and sales office in North Surrey, Vancouver, B.C., serving British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

In 1954 The Dare Company, Limited was the first Canadian cookie company to use the new recloseable tin tie packages that had been used successfully in the coffee industry and which have become standard packaging in the cookie industry in Canada.

Patterson, John

  • Person

John Patterson was a member of the Muskoka Lakes Association between 1980 and 1994 and acted as president between 1990 and 1992. John acted also as a Muskoka Lakes Association Director between 1985 and 1986 as 2nd Vice-President and Taxation. He was a member of the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain between 1982 and 1983.

Rubber Machinery Shops

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.

Walter Bean Grand River Community Trails Foundation

  • Corporate body

"The Walter Bean Grand River Community Trails Foundation is a non-profit organization led by a volunteer board of area citizens dedicated to the success of the project. The catalyst for the development of the Trail was the Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation whose directors voted in 1996 to provide $25,000.00 in seed money to initiate the project. Walter Bean was a business and community leader who believed in contributing to the welfare of area residents. He championed the vision of a public hiking trail along the Grand River. As Honourary Chair of The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, Walter challenged the Foundation to increase public accessibility to the river by building a trail along its length in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo.

Following Walter's death, his many friends took up his challenge and in 1998 formed The Walter Bean Grand River Community Trails Foundation. To make his vision a reality, this non-profit fundraising corporation has partnered with the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and the Township of Woolwich to build and maintain a recreational trail. It would please Walter to see the co-operative spirit of community in building this legacy. When complete, the Walter Bean Grand River Trail will extend along 78 km of the 290-km Grand River. It will reach from the north end of Woolwich Township to the southern trailhead in Cambridge. Along its way, it will connect with many local municipal trails and the Trans Canada Trail."

Rieder and Anthes family

  • Family

The Rieder family lived at 58 Roy Street in Berlin, but moved to Montreal in 1912 because of Talmon's business interests there; they lived in Berlin again from 1915 to 1917 and then Martha and the children moved back to the Roy Street home in Kitchener permanently after Talmon died in 1922.

Talmon Henry Rider (1878-1922) was an industrialist and rubber company executive in Berlin and Montreal. He was born in New Hamburg, the eldest child of Peter Rieder (1850-1936) and Emeline Merner (1857-1940). Peter Rieder was born to Daniel Rieder (1827-1868) and Christina Laughoff ; Emeline Merner was one of nine children of Christian Merner (1832-1912) and Elizabeth Young (or Jung) (1837-1926). After Talmon, Peter and Emeline Rieder had eight other children: Maude, Idella (Della), Elmer, Loretta, Esther, Eva, Talma (May), and Alma.

Talmon Henry Rieder attended the Berlin High School. He married Martha Melvina Anthes (1878-1971), daughter of John Schmitt Anthes (1844-1915) and Lydia Catherine Herlan (1849-1935), and they had four children (Paul, Edward Anthes, Margaret Catherine, and Helen Elizabeth). In 1899 he became the bookkeeper and a minor shareholder in the newly formed Berlin Rubber Company (Margaret Avenue) and was soon appointed as a director. In 1903, he and Jacob Kaufman organized the Merchants Rubber Company (Breithaupt Street) and Rieder managed this factory until it was merged with several other companies in Quebec and Ontario to form the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company in 1907. Rieder was vice-president and managing director of this company, and in 1908 he became president. He also directed the operations of the Canadian Consolidated Felt Company. By 1910, the United States Rubber Company (later Uniroyal) had obtained full control of the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company. Talmon convinced the company to build its new tire plant in Berlin; construction on the Dominion Tire factory began in 1912 and production began in early 1914. In 1919, Talmon resigned from his positions in the Consolidated Rubber and Felt companies to assume the position of president and managing director of the Ames Holden McCready Company of Montreal and began building up a large leather and rubber footwear system that included the construction of a second tire plant in Kitchener (later the B.F. Goodrich Company).

In addition to his work in the rubber industry, Talmon Henry Rieder had an interest in urban planning. In 1912 he purchased several farms in the German Company Tract Lot 22, on the west side of Berlin, and had the lands surveyed and divided into lots. With three other partners he formed the Westmount Improvement Company to carry out his vision to develop this area on the border of Berlin and Waterloo into a contemporary garden suburb, inspired in part by the Westmount area in Montreal where he and his family lived. Talmon died unexpectedly after a 10-day illness in April, 1922.

John S. Anthes (1844-1915) was a businessman and politician in Berlin. He became owner of the Hoffman furniture manufacturing business, which in 1877 was merged with the Simpson Furniture Co. to become the Simpson-Anthes Co. In 1881, he withdrew from that partnership to establish the Anthes Furniture Co. In 1901, he was involved in the amalgamation of furniture companies through Canada Manufactures, Limited, and after he resigned as a director of this company in 1906, he formed the Anthes Manufacturing Company in Berlin with John C. Breithaupt as president. In 1916, C.J. and J.H. Baetz took over management of the company, and in 1920, they formed the Anthes-Baetz Furniture Company. John S. Anthes was also involved in municipal affairs, and was first elected as a councillor in 1886. He served as Deputy Reeve in 1887, 1891, and 1897, and again as councillor in 1907. He was also one of the first water commissioners and one of the founders of the Berlin & Waterloo Hospital, in addition to holding various offices in the Zion Evangelical Church.

John S. Anthes was the son of Martin Anthes (1812-1891) and Catharina Schmitt (1814-1894) of Wilmot Township. His brother was Rev. Jacob Anthes. In 1867, John S. married Lydia Catherine Herlan (1849-1936), daughter of Rev. F. and Caroline Herlan. John. S. and Lydia Anthes lived at 44 Weber Street in Berlin, and their family was involved in the nearby Zion Evangelical Church. They had five children. Caroline (Carrie) Catharine Anthes (1868-[19--]) married businessman and politician John C. Breithaupt (1859-1951) in 1892, and they lived in Berlin. John and Carrie had six children: John Edward, Louise Catherine, Carl Louis, Frieda Caroline, Walter Hailer, and Helena Esther. John Isaac Franklin Anthes (1870-1933) was an associate with his father in the furniture manufacturing business. He then became a director of the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company and from 1915 to 1919 served as the General Purchasing Supervisor of the company. In 1919 he founded Anthes & Sons, Agents and Importers, in Montreal. J.I. Frank Anthes married Cyrena Hoffman Simonds in 1897. They lived for a time in Wiarton, Ontario, and also lived in Berlin and Montreal. They had five children: Olive Cyrena, Edith Louise, Leonard John, Henry Herbert, and Norman Franklin. Lydia Louisa Anthes (1877-1942) married businessman Albert Libourious Breithaupt (1870-1955) in 1901; they lived in Berlin. Albert and Louisa had six children: Friedrich Albert, Marie, Rudolph A., Ruth Anna, Arthur L., and David J.

Larrington, Jane Stuart

  • Person
  • 1890-1987

Jane Stuart Larrington was a teacher, writer and editor, and was an early member of the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Women's Press Club. She was born in 1890 in Middlesex County, Ont. and her first work was published in the Globe when she was 13, after which she continued to write and publish sketches and articles. After two and a half years of teaching she moved to Toronto and became, first, assistant editor of Methodist Sunday School Publications and later, editorial assistant with Presbyterian Publications. She joined the Toronto Women's Press Club in 1914 and was a member until her death at the age of 97 in 1987. (Sources: GA 94 File 47: Canadian Women's Press Club, Biographical Scrapbook, 1921.)

Hamilton-Gordon, Ishbel Maria Marjoribanks

  • Person
  • 1857-1939

Ishbel Maria Marjoribanks Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair and known as Lady Aberdeen, was born in 1857, the daughter of the first Baron Tweedmouth. She married the first Marquis of Aberdeen in 1877, who became Lord Aberdeen, Governor-General of Canada, in 1893 and remained in that office for the next five years.

Lady Aberdeen was active in philanthropic and educational work along many paths for nearly sixty years. She was president of the International Council of Women for nearly forty years, from 1893-1899, and then again from 1904-1936. She was also president of the Irish Industries Association, the Women's National Health Association of Ireland, and the Onward and Upward Association, and for a number of years she was the chairperson of the Scottish Council for Women's Trades. In Canada, Lady Aberdeen founded the Victorian Order of Nurses and took a leading role in the formation of the National Council of Women of which she was the first president. She died in Scotland in 1939.

Lacey, Thomas

  • Person
  • 1895-1966

Thomas Lacey, a trance and direct voice medium, was born in Glossop, Derbyshire England on November 4, 1895.

Thomas married Edith Emma Lomas on March 18, 1918 in Whitfield. Edith was born in Whitfield, Derbyshire England on September 28, 1895.

Thomas and Edith immigrated to Canada in March 1923 and April 1924 respectively. Thomas worked as a mechanical engineer at companies including Dominion Rubber and Sutherland and Schultz.

Records of Thomas conducting séances in the Kitchener-Waterloo region begin in 1924. Edith, although not a medium, was an active participant in the séances. Thomas and Edith moved to Hamilton in the 1950s before returning to Kitchener-Waterloo in the 1960's. The séances recorded in the 1960s were held in the home of Otto and Nelda Smith in Kitchener. Otto Smith, a local businessman, played the organ at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Kitchener and his organ playing can be heard throughout the séances.

Thomas and the séance sitters believed his main control during the 1960s was a spirit named Amirah and they maintained that his younger brother Walter, who died at a young age, acted as his gate keeper. Thomas Lacey purportedly channeled the spirits of Thomas Edison, Emmanuel Swedenborg, and John Wesley, amongst others. Sitters at the séances were said to have experienced apports, materializations, and automatic writing. One séance recording also contains what is believed to be an example of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP).

The séances fall into three general categorizations: Masters Night when philosophical discussions took place; Visiting Night when spirits of friends and family were welcomed; and Rescue Night when the sitters would help spirits who had not crossed over the veil to do so.

Thomas Lacey died on June 17, 1966 at age 70. Edith Lacey died in 1993 at age 97. Thomas and Edith Lacey were buried in Parkview Cemetery, Waterloo, Ontario.

Hagey, Joseph Gerald

  • Person
  • 1904-1988

Joseph Gerald “Gerry” Hagey (September 28, 1904-October 26, 1988) was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario by Menno Hagey and Esther Cornell. Hagey’s great-grandfather was Mennonite Bishop Joseph B. Hagey, an early settler to the Waterloo area from Pennsylvania. Hagey attended Waterloo College (later Wilfred Laurier University) completing his high school and University education there. After graduating he took a position as a sales clerk with B.F. Goodrich in Kitchener. After working for B.F. Goodrich for many years, he eventually rose to the position of National Advertising Director by the 1950’s. Throughout this time he was still actively involved with the affairs of Waterloo College, then a small church college affiliated with the University of Western Ontario. After sitting on the board, he was asked to be the president of Waterloo College in 1953.

During his time at B.F. Goodrich, he had become interested in the idea of students working in their respective industries while studying believing that it would provide experience and revenue for the students, revenue for the college, and assistance for the company. Although a controversial idea, in four years Hagey and his supporters had established a co-operative school of engineering. In the summer of 1957 the Waterloo College Associated Faculties opened, with Hagey as the president. In 1959 Hagey decided to resign his position with Waterloo College and devote his time to the Associate Faculties, which separated from Waterloo College and incorporated as the University of Waterloo. Hagey spent the next ten years developing Waterloo from a two portable school with 75 students to a multimillion dollar university with over 9,000 enrollments.

In 1969 Hagey retired from the University of Waterloo due to a battle with cancer that resulted in the removal of his larynx. In his later years he re-taught himself to speak after his surgery, and was awarded numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Order of Canada in 1986. Hagey died of pneumonia on October 26, 1988.

Urquhart, Jane

  • Person
  • 1949-

Jane Urquhart was born in 1949 in Little Long Lac, Ontario, and received her education in Toronto and Guelph. A novelist and poet, her work has been published since 1982, and includes False Shuffles (1982), The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan (1984), The Whirlpool (1986), Storm Glass (1987), Changing Heaven (1990), Away (1993) and The Underpainter (1997).

Jane Urquhart has been writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa, at Memorial University, and most recently in 1997 at the University of Toronto. In 1997 she was awarded the Governor General's Award for Fiction for her novel The Underpainter. Prior to 1997 she had already been the recipient of several literary awards: Le Prix de Meilleure Livre Etrangere (Best Foreign Book Award), France, for The Whirlpool, 1992, The Trillium Book Award in 1993, and the Marian Engel Prize in 1994.
In 1997 Jane Urquhart received an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo.

Alpha Delta Kappa. Province of Ontario Chapter

  • Corporate body

Alpha Delta Kappa is an honorary sorority for women educators, founded in 1947 by Agnes Shipman Robertson, Marie Neal, Marion Southall and Hattie Poppino. Their aim was to recognize and support the professional efforts of women educators. Now an international society with headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, Alpha Delta Kappa has more than 1800 chapters in the United States, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Ontario Alpha, Windsor, was the first chapter from outside the United States and received its charter in Sept. 30, 1957. Other Ontario chapters followed: Beta, 1958, based in Toronto and Gamma, in Windsor, in 1961. By 1964 Delta, Zeta and Epsilon Chapters had been formed. In October 1966 these six chapters met to form a provincial organization, and after becoming a "state" of Alpha Delta Kappa, continued to add chapters. By 1968 Eta, Theta, Iota and Kappa chapters had joined. In 1970-72 affiliation of Ontario chapters with American state chapters was dropped and Ontario was organized into three districts, with chapters reporting to the Provincial President. By 1980 twenty-two chapters had been organized, including two in Manitoba. Membership in Alpha Delta Kappa is by invitation only. To be eligible for membership a woman must be an educator actively engaged in teaching, administration or some other aspect of the teaching profession.

Dickson, William

  • Person
  • 1769-1846

William Dickson was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1769. Dickson was a legislative councillor of Upper Canada, politician, colonizer and founder of Galt, Ontario. He immigrated to Canada in 1792 and later became a lawyer in Niagara. In 1815, after having served as an officer in the Canadian militia in the War of 1812, he was named a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. It was also in 1815 that he purchased the township of Dumfries and began the process of bringing in settlers. From 1827 to 1836, he lived in Galt, Upper Canada. He returned to Niagara in 1836 and died there February 19, 1846.

Bray Family

  • Family
  • 1795-Present

The Bray family were early white settlers of what is now southern Ontario. Members of the family are the descendants of George Bray (1795-1846) who was born in England on December 11, 1795. He married Ann Preston (b. 1796) and the pair had 10 children: Jemima (b.1816-1866), Abraham (1818-1901), Isaac (1819-1837), Sarah (b. 1821), Rebecca (b. 1824), Rachel (b. 1827), Ruth (1832-1837), Hannah (b. 1834), Mary (b. 1839) and Jacob (1840-1920).

Eldest son Abraham immigrated to Canada in the early 1840's where he settled in Zorra Township and began to farm. By 1845 he had married Sarah, also a British immigrant, and the couple had nine children: George (b. 1845), Elizabeth (b. 1847), Robert (b. 1849), James (b. 1853), Mary Jane (b. 1855), John (b. 1858), William (b. 1860), Marie (b. 1862), Joseph (b. 1867).
Abraham's youngest sibling, Jacob, settled in the Listowel area and there married Jane Brown (b.?). Jacob and Jane had son George (1873-1937) who later married Florence Murray (1874-1959).

(George) Murray Bray (1905-1974), lawyer, was born January 12 1905 to Florence Murray Bray (1874-1959) and George Bray (1873-1937) both of Canada. Born in Perth, Murray and his parents later moved to 70 Margaret Ave. in Kitchener. Murray studied law in Toronto and in 1929 he was called to the bar. He began working at his father's law office of Sims, Bray, McIntosh and Schofield in Kitchener. In 1928 Murray married Isabel Treacy (1906-1986) daughter of William (1878-1953) and Francis Crawford Treacy (1875-1929). Murray and Isabel had two children, William George, called Bill (b. 1929) and Judith (b. 1933). The family of Murray Bray lived in the Westmount region, at 145 Union Blvd. and later at 54 Rusholme Ave. Murray died in 1974 and Isabel in 1986.

Conroy, Marion

  • Person

Marion Conroy was the Alberta Chairman of the Women's Regional Advisory Committee to the Wartime Prices and Trade Board, Consumer Branch, during the Second World War and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her wartime work. Set up by the Canadian Government in 1939, the Board's purpose was to prevent the same sort of inflation and social unrest experienced in Canada during WWI. In 1941 PM Mackenzie King announced a price and wage freeze, and appointed Donald Gordon, a prominent banker, to manage the program. A combination of astute administration, public relations and public education resulted in overall effectiveness in the Board's objectives.

Stone, Lucy

  • Person
  • 1818-1893

Lucy Stone, suffragette, was born August 13, 1818 on Cory's Hill Massachusetts. At the age of sixteen she began teaching at the district school and then enrolled at Quaboag Seminary and Wesleyan Academy. In 1839 she entered Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and in 1843 she enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio. When she graduated in 1847 she was the first woman from Massachusetts to obtain a college degree. Stone was appointed a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1848 which allowed her to meet reformers within the Garrison wing of the abolition movement. In 1849 she conducted the first petition campaign in Massachusetts for the rights of women. The first National Women's Rights Convention was held in 1850 and Stone was one of the organizers, later being appointed to the central committee of the convention. In 1851 Stone became an independent women's rights lecturer speaking at various venues throughout the United States for the next seven years.
During the course of her lecturing Stone met and married Henry Brown Blackwell, although she continued to be known by her maiden name. Stone and Blackwell's daughter Alice was born September 14, 1857 and Stone spent less time on her political activities and more time raising her daughter. Alice would later become a leader of the suffrage movement.

By 1866 Stone was involved again in politics and helped to organize, and served on the executive committee of, the American Equal Rights Association which was to press for both African American and women's rights. In 1870 Stone and Blackwell moved to Dorchester Massachusetts to organize the New England Woman Suffrage Association, and Stone founded "The Woman's Journal", a voice of the suffrage movement.

Stone gave her last public speeches in May, 1893 at the World's Congress of Representative Women. She died October 18, 1893.

Hespeler Furniture Co.

  • Corporate body

The Hespeler Furniture Company was started in 1901 in Hespeler, Ontario (now a part of Cambridge) by Mr. George A. Gruetzner, who was originally from Buffalo, N.Y. He worked for The Simpson Co. of Berlin (now Kitchener), Ont., first as a salesman and then as the manager of its factory in Berlin. When this company merged with the Canada Furniture Syndicate, Gruetzner established his own factory in Hespeler in 1901.
George Greutzner was active in the community, serving on the Parks Board, and then on Town Council. He was elected mayor of Hespeler in 1925 and served for five years. He died in 1949. (Source Waterloo Historical Society 37 (1949): 45.)

Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain

  • Corporate body

The Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain began in 1981 and for most of the 1980's was Canada’s largest environmental group. It played a central role in raising awareness of the acid rain issue, through advocacy, educational programmes and by lobbying the governments of both Canada and the United States for the passage of legislation resticting acid rain-causing emissions. With the passage of amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act in 1990 the Coalition’s mandate was completed and the group disbanded. During the decade of its existence the Coalition was headed by Michael Perley and Adele Hurley, its executive co-ordinators and chief lobbyists. Starting in 1981 with 12 member groups representing tourism, naturalist and sportsmen’s associations, the CCAR maintained offices in both Toronto and Washington. Registered as a charitable organization in Canada, the CCAR was registered as a lobby group in the United States, and was the first-ever Canadian lobby group to be so registered in Washington. By 1991 the Coalition had grown to 58 member groups, representing over 2 million Canadians.
CCAR worked closely with the Canadian Acid Precipitation Foundation, a registered charitable organization created to carry out a variety of educational projects on the acid rain issue, and to support the educational work of the Coalition. The Foundation’s activities included extensive direct mail campaigns asking for private donations, the sale of merchandise, charitable dinners featuring such prominent speakers as Senator Edward Kennedy and Alan Gotleib (former Canadian ambassador to the United States), and the AirWatch monitoring project.

Pequegnat, Marcel

  • Person
  • 1886-1988

Marcel Pequegnat was a civil engineer in Kitchener, Ontario, who spent his professional career with the Kitchener Water Commission as superintendent and consultant. He was also involved in the Grand River Conservation Commission and the Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company.

Pequegnat was born in Berlin (now Kitchener) April 27, 1886 to clockmaker Arthur Pequegnat and his wife Hortense (nee Marchand), Marcel studied engineering at the University of Toronto. After graduating he taught at the University and worked for several summers for the Berlin City Enginneers. In 1910-1911, he surveyed land in Manitoba, and in 1913, he was appointed assistant city engineer in Berlin. In 1919, he became superintendent of the Kitchener Water Commission, holding this position until 1957 when he became a consultant until retiring in 1970. Pequegnat also served for 27 years on the Kitchener Planning Board and for 30 years on the Kitchener Suburban Roads Commission. He was president of the Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company from 1940 to 1964, though for most of that time the company was dormant, having ceased clock production by 1942.

Pequegnat was a founding member of the Grand River Conservation Commission (GRCC) when it formed in 1932 and served as vice-chairman from 1938 to 1952, chairman from 1953-1959, and chief engineer from 1962 to 1965. His period of service with the GRCC coincided with the building of the Shand, Luther, and Conestogo dams. He was also Life Member of the Engineering Institute of Canada, a charter member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario, and received their Citizenship Award in 1973. He also was awarded Life Membership in the American Waterworks Association.

Pequegnat married Nellie Elizabeth Klippert (1888-1972) December 28, 1910 and together they had three children. He died in 1988 and was buried alongside Elizabeth in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Shortt, Elizabeth Smith

  • Person
  • 1859-1949

Elizabeth Smith was born January 18, 1859 at 'Mountain Hall', Vinemount. She was educated by a governess in the home, at Winona School and at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute. She attended Queen's University, Kingston and received her degree in medicine at the Royal Medical College in 1884 (one of the first 3 women M.D.'s in Canada). She also received a diploma from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.

For two years Dr. Elizabeth Smith practised in Hamilton. She was married December 3, 1886 to Adam Shortt. They moved to Kingston where Elizabeth lectured at Queen's on Medical Jurisprudence and Sanitary Science. She worked for the first Y.W.C.A. in Canada and served as its president, and was a sponsor of the Kingston Musical Club and presided over it for seven years.

In September 1908 she and her husband, Dr. Adam Shortt, moved to Ottawa where she became very active in the local, provincial, and National Council of Women affairs. In connection with these organizations she wrote pamphlets on social aspects of tuberculosis, housing, inspection of markets, clean-up weeks, fly control, pasteurization of milk, care of mentally deficient, child welfare, and mother's pensions'. In 1911 she was the first Convener of the Public Health and Mental Hygiene Committee of the National Council of Women. She was also Convener of the Committee on Immigration in the Council and was instrumental in organizing a hostel for women immigrants in Ottawa. She was largely responsible in convening a committee to petition the Provincial Government to establish Mother's Allowances in Ontario, and when this was accomplished in 1920, she was appointed vice-chairman of the Provincial Board of Mother's Allowances and acted in that capacity for seven years. She died in Ottawa Jan. 14, 1949.

Muriel Shortt and Roger Clark married in 1917 and settled into fruit farming in Vineland. Her portion of the fonds contains details of the struggle to become established in this field.
Lorraine Shortt, a graduate of Queen's, chose a field in the public service - social work, and the collection traces her successful career in this area.

Churchill, Mary B.

  • [ca. 1817]-1870

Mary Buckminster Churchill (nee Brewer) was born circa 1817 in Massachusetts to Darius Brewer (b. 1785) and Harriet Buckminster (b. 1793). Mary married Asaph Churchill (b. ca. 1814) a lawyer on May 1, 1838 in Dorchester Massachusetts. Mary died in 1870.

King, Gladys Lilian

  • Person
  • 1884-1970

Gladys Lilian King was born in Exeter, Devon to Joseph and Mary King. In 1911 King emigrated to Canada to work as a secretary but returned to England in 1915 to do war work. She became a member of the Women Police Service during the war and worked in factories and hostels before becoming employed at the "Beaver Hut", a refuge for Commonwealth soldiers. King worked at the Beaver Hut from September 30, 1918 to August 21, 1919. When the Beaver Hut closed at the end of the war King took up police work in Reading. In 1940 she gave up police work to become the full time female probation officer, a position she held until her retirement in 1949. King died in Reading on June 4, 1970.

Good, Gordon

  • Person
  • 1905-2000

Gordon Ray Good as a Kaufman Rubber employee. Good was born August 13, 1905 to Reverend Cyrus Good and Livy C. Hallman in Aylmer, Ontario. Gordon’s father was a New Mennonite Church minister and he and Livy had three children besides Gordon: Grace (b. 1901), Ira (b. 1903) and Myrtle (b. 1909). The family moved frequently during his childhood and they first came to Kitchener in 1910. In 1913 they moved to Blair (now Cambridge) and in 1917 back to Kitchener where Gordon would settle for his adult life.

Good originally began working for Merchant’s Rubber, a subsidiary of Dominion Rubber, in 1923 as a pay clerk in the factory office. After two years with Dominion Rubber, he decided to move on and applied at Kaufman Rubber. He began working in the factory office in the Costs & Payroll department on September 2, 1925. Upon the death of his supervisor Ed Snyder, Good took over as head of Costs and Payroll. He remained with Kaufman until his retirement in September of 1972. He died May 5, 2000.

Sackville-West, Victoria

  • Person
  • 1892-1962

The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson was an English author and poet, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and aristocrat. Vita as she was commonly known was born March 9, 1892 to Lionel Edward Sackville-West, the 3rd Baron Sackville, and his wife Victoria Sackville-West. In 1913 Vita married the writer and politician Harold George Nicolson (1886-1968), son of Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. Vita and Harold lived abroad for many years in Constantinople and traveled frequently. In the 1930's the couple acquired Sissinghurst Castle which had been once owned by Vita's ancestors. They settled here with their sons Nigel (1917-2004) and Benedict (1914-1978).

Although Vita and Harold remained married until her death they were in an open relationship and both had numerous extra marital affairs. The couple's relationship with the Bloomsbury Group of authors lead to Vita's most well known affair with Virginia Woolf.

Vita wrote a number of novels, namely The Edwardians and All Passion Spent, poetry, and a gardening column for The Observer. In her later years she was heavily involved in gardening creating the gardens at Sissinghurst Castle (that are now run by the National Trust) and becoming a founding member of the National Trust's garden committee.
Vita died at Sissinghurst on June 2, 1962.

Russell, Olive Ruth

  • Person
  • 1931-1979

Dr. Olive Ruth Russell was born in Delta, Ontario on July 9, 1897. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1931 and from the University of Edinburgh in 1935 going on to teach at various schools and colleges from 1920 to 1942. During World War II, she served as a personnel selection officer with the Canadian Women's Army Corps, 1942-1945, attaining the rank of Captain. From 1945 to 1947 she was an executive assistant to the director general of the Rehabilitation Branch, Dept. of Veterans' Affairs.

Dr. Russell was a Canadian delegate to the Inter-continental Conference of the National Council of Women, 1946; a fraternal delegate from the World Federation of United Nations Associations to the Conference of the International Federation of University Women, 1947, and a member of the board, National Commission for Beneficient Euthanasia, U.S.A. She was Assistant Professor of Psychology, Winthrop College, S.C., 1947-1949, and Professor and Chairman of the Dept. of Psychology, Western Maryland College, 1949-1962. She authored Freedom to Die: Moral and Legal Aspects of Euthanasia (1975) and campaigned vigorously in favour of euthanasia. She was also the author of numerous articles on euthanasia, education and psychology.

Russell died on May 25, 1979 at her home in Chevy Chase at the age of 81.

Thompson, Waldo

  • Person
  • 1813-1892

Waldo Thompson was born in 1813 and was a member of the New England Genealogical Society. Thompson was the author of Swampscott: historical sketches of the town. The book, published in 1885, provides a historical overview of Swampscott, a town located in northeastern Massachusetts.

Crapo, Henry H.

  • Person
  • August 12, 1932–September 3, 2019

Dr. Henry H. Crapo was a faculty member at the University of Waterloo in the Department of Pure Mathematics. Crapo donated a sizable volume of rare books and materials for the history of dance for Special Collections & Archives at the University of Waterloo. Crapo also helped to organize the Vestris Prize choreography competition with Boston Ballet in 1967.

Snyder, David H.

  • Person
  • [18--?]-[19--?]

David H. Snyder was a a farmer in the New Dundee area of Ontario.

Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Ltd.

  • Corporate body

Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Ltd. came into Hespeler in 1928 when the company purchased the R. Forbes Company Ltd. mill at what is now Queen St. West in Cambridge. The company would operate in Hespeler until 1959 when it went into receivership and was purchased by Silknit. As the largest woollens and worsteds mill in the British colonies at the time, the factory played a large role in the history of Hespeler, at one time employing almost one third of all citizens of the village.

During and immediately after WWII the mill employed a large number of women employees from both the Hespeler area as well as those who were brought in to work from Newfoundland and Northern Ontario. These women lived in boarding houses or dormitories provided by the mill and many of them stayed in Hespeler after the war, forever changing the village.

Production ceased permanently at the mill in 1984 and one third of it was destroyed shortly afterward in a fire. Today the portion of the mill that still stands is rented by retail stores. In 1986 Kenneth McLaughlin and three graduate students began to conduct oral history interviews with workers from the mill who were still living in the region, including those women who came from Newfoundland and Northern Ontario.

Wagner Hailer family

  • Family

The Wagners and Hailers were prominent early settler families in Waterloo County, Ontario, as were the Staebler, Biehn/Bean and Breithaupt families.

Grand River Conservation Authority

  • Corporate body
  • 1966-

The Grand River Conservation Authority is a corporate body governing the cooperative management of the Grand River watershed and its natural resources by municipalities, landowners and other organizations within the watershed. Formed in 1966 following the merging of the Grand River Conservation Commission and the Grand Valley Conservation Authority, the GRCA's origins date back to the 1930s.

In the early 1800s, the Grand River was a source of transportation, power and water for local communities. Settlement led to deforestation, intensive farming and urbanization, which began to hinder the natural cycles of the river. By the 1930s river conditions had become so severe that annual floods, drought and pollution were affecting public health and the economic development of the communities up and down the Grand.

Sponsored by the Grand Valley Boards of Trade and modeled on the fledging Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States, the "Grand River Conservation Commission Act" was passed by the Province of Ontario in 1932. The Grand River Conservation Commission (GRCC) was the first watershed management agency in Canada when it received its formal Letters Patent in August, 1934. The formation of the GRCC marked the first time local municipalities had banded together to address water management issues on a watershed scale. The founding partner municipalities were Brantford, Galt, Kitchener, Fergus and Caledonia. William Philip of Galt was the first chairman, and the commission's head office was in Brantford. Other municipalities soon joined the partnership.

In 1942 the commission completed the Shand Dam near Fergus, the first dam in Canada built for flood control, water supply and water quality purposes. This was followed by the Luther Marsh Dam in 1954 and the Conestogo Dam in 1958. Funding was shared between the federal and provincial governments, (each paid 37.5 per cent) and the local municipalities paid 25 per cent. The GRCC also planted more than two million trees and undertook some of the province's first large scale reforestation projects. The success of the commission, its watershed scope and municipal partnership model led to the Guelph Conference on Conservation in 1941, and the Conservation Authorities Act of Ontario in 1946. This new act led to the creation of 36 conservation authorities across the province.

In 1948, the Grand River watershed municipalities formed their own Grand Valley Conservation Authority (GVCA) under this new act. This new agency had extended powers in the 1950s, which allowed it to acquire many wetlands, forests and natural areas in the watershed. The GVCA also acquired park land for camping, swimming, fishing and canoeing including what would become the Elora Gorge, Rockwood, Pinehurst Lake and Byng Island.

Over time the GVCA's objectives began to parallel those of the GRCC and the two agencies merged in 1966 to form the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA), which operates under the Conservation Authorities Act of Ontario. As a corporate body, through which municipalities work cooperatively to manage the water and natural resources in the watershed for everyone's benefit.

Hunt, Alice Riggs

  • Person
  • 1884-1974

Alice Riggs Hunt, journalist and activist, was born in New York City June 14, 1884. She was educated at private schools in New York City, one being Graham's School for Girls from 1895-1898. In 1907-1908 she attended Columbia University as a student in the School of Journalism. Later she attended the Drake Business School. She was organizer, speaker and writer on both New York Campaigns for Women's Suffrage and in several other states. She contributed to the New York Evening Post, New York Tribune, New York Evening Mail, New York Call, London Daily Herald, La Vie Ouvriere (Paris), The Workers' Dreadnought, London, Bulletin of the Peoples, Council of America, and Bulletin of the American Woman Suffrage Association. She attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, attached to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace as special correspondent for the New York Evening Post. She attended the International Congress of Women in Zurich, 1919, as part of the American delegation. She was a member of Colonial Dames of America, Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America and Huguenot Society of New York. She died August 21, 1974 in Calgary, Alberta. (Description from original in-house finding aid)

Edmonds, Frederick Arthur

  • 1884-1962

Frederick Arthur Edmonds was born in Madras India, where his father was a Bandsman in the British Army. Edmonds was also a musician, and he moved to Guelph, Ont. before the WWI to become a member of Guelph's symphony orchestra. He had been in the 1st Essex Regiment, British Army, and in the Canadian Militia before the war, and enlisted on 23 September 1914 at Valcartier Quebec in the 11th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. In March 1915, Edmonds sailed to England, and on the 26th of April joined the 4th Battalion (Central Ontario) of the 1st Division, in Boulogne. He was in the front line trenches from April 1915 to April 1917, and was invalided home just before the battle of Vimy Ridge. Sources: taken from information received with fonds, and Hayes, Geoffrey. Waterloo County: an illustrated history. Kitchener, Ont.: Waterloo Historical Society, 1997.

Panabaker, John H.

  • Person
  • 1928-2023

John Panabaker is the former President of the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada. Panabaker attended McMaster University where he received his B.A. Hons in Political Economy (1950) and his M.A. in Political Economy (1954). After leaving McMaster he began working for the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada where he would eventually be named President (1973) and later CEO (1982-1985). He retired from Mutual Life in 1989.
Panabaker has also been involved with a number of organizations in Kitchener-Waterloo and nationally including serving as Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Life and Health Assurance Association, as a trustee of the Toronto School of Theology, as president of the Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation, and as a director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra Association. Panabaker was also the Chancellor of McMaster University from 1986-1992 and holds honorary degrees from McMaster, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. In 1990, Panabaker was made a member of the Order of Canada.

Shaw, K. Mary E.

K. Mary E. Shaw was a teacher and/or student at the Battersea Polytechnic Institute in 1904. Battersea College of Education had its origins in the department of ‘Women’s Studies’ at Battersea Polytechnic Institute. A special grant had been given to the Polytechnic by London County Council to open a teacher training school in domestic economy, and the first eleven full-time students started their course in 1894. The department was reorganized by the Board of Education as a teachers’ training school in 1895. The Battersea Polytechnic Institute eventually became the University of Surrey. (Source: Pickering & Chatto antiquarian booksellers – catalogue)

Goldie, John

  • Person
  • 1793-1886

John Goldie was born in Ayreshire, Scotland. He married Margaret Smith on June 18, 1815 and they had eight children : William, John, Elizabeth, James, Jane, Margaret, David and Mary. A botanist and plant collector, he travelled to Canada, New York State, the Maritimes and Russia and discovered species unknown at the time. In 1844 Goldie moved his family to Ontario, to a property which became known as Greenfield, near Ayr, where the family founded first a sawmill, and then a flour and oatmeal mill in 1848.

James Goldie (1824-1912) was the third son of John Goldie. He had moved to the United States in 1842, where he was employed as a gardener and was involved in the flour and lumber business. In 1860 he moved to Guelph, where he built the Speedvale Mill. He operated the mill until 1898, at which time it became the James Goldie Company, Ltd.

Ledbetter, Ken

  • Person
  • [1932?]-1993

Dr. Ken Ledbetter was a professor of English at the University of Waterloo and a writer. He joined the English department in 1966 and served as deputy dean of arts from 1968-1969, associate dean (special programs) from 1975-1981, and acting director of the correspondence program from 1980-1981. He received a Distinguised Teacher Award in 1983. He also founded several programs in the Faculty of Arts, including the English language proficiency program. Ledbetter was also a writer of short stories and novels, and his biggest success was Too Many Blackbirds (1984).

Jardine Family

  • Family

The Jardine family of Hespeler, Ont. originated in Scotland, near Glasgow. William Jordan, (Jardine), collier, married Catherine Bell in 1814. Andrew Bell Jardine, their son, a machinist, married Isabella Dawson in 1844 and came to Canada from Scotland ca. 1854. He and his family moved from Toronto to Hespeler, Ont. ca. 1862 to start a foundry business. This was A.B. Jardine Co. Ltd., one of the pioneer industries of the area, which Andrew owned in partnership with other family members including James Jardine, Peter Jardine and James Dawson.

Dendy, William

  • Person
  • 1948-1993

William Bruce Dendy, Canadian architectural historian, was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1948 and died May 29, 1993 in Toronto, Ontario. Dendy graduated from the University of Toronto in 1971, received a B.A. in Architectural History from Cambridge University in 1973, and in 1979 received two Masters degrees in architectural history, one from the University of Cambridge, and one from Columbia University in New York. He worked as an architectural historian for the Toronto Historical Board from 1973 until 1976, taught Canadian architectural history at the University of Toronto, at the University of Waterloo, at Carleton University in Ottawa, at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in Toronto, and at the Toronto Urban Studies Centre. Dendy also worked on a consultancy basis as architectural historian to many Toronto-based architectural firms, developers, and government agencies, and also led architectural walking tours of Toronto.

Dendy's two published works, Lost Toronto (1978) and Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons, and History (1986), were both published by the Oxford University Press and both won Toronto Book Awards. In 1993 Dendy was awarded an honorary membership in the Ontario Association of Architects, and in the same year he was given an Allied Arts Award for his lectures and books on historical architecture.

Palmer, Dorothea

  • Person
  • 1908-1992

Dorothea Palmer was born 1908 in England. She had some training in a hospital in England. She was employed as a nurse by the Parents' Information Bureau of Kitchener, Ont. to visit homes of those known to be poor or relatively poor, and to offer to needy mothers the opportunity of applying for certain contraceptive materials. Miss Palmer was arrested at Eastview, an Ottawa suburb, as she was leaving the home of a French Roman Catholic family which was on relief and had a large number of children. The mother had telephoned Miss Palmer and asked her to call. Miss Palmer was arrested on the charge of distributing birth control information and contraceptive devices. The trial occupied nineteen days of testimony and four of argument, and during which forty witnesses were examined. The case was a remarkable one in that the decision overruled religious and medical objections to the dissemination of birth control information. She was acquitted March 17, 1937 after a trial that extended over a period of six months. The Crown appealed the case which was heard on the 1st and 2nd of June 1937, by the Court of Appeal for Ontario, presided over by the Chief Justice of Ontario and two Associate Judges. The Appeal was dismissed without Defence Counsel F.W. Wegenast being called. Dorothea died in 1992.

Dane, Nazla L.

  • Person
  • 1906-1998

Nazla L. Dane was born in Indian Head Sask., in 1906 and spent her early years in Saskatchewan. She taught public and secondary school in Saskatchewan from 1925-1933, worked for various businesses in Regina and Vancouver, and then worked in the Departments of Munitions and Supply and Transport in Ottawa from 1941-1945. She worked as director of both the Women's and Educational Divisions of the Canadian Life Insurance Association from 1945 to 1971. In the course of her work she wrote news columns and travelled across the country speaking to women's groups not only about finances and money management, but about women's issues such as rights, laws and employment. Nazla Dane was elected President of the Toronto Business and Professional Women's Club 1949-1951, President of the Ontario BPW 1958-61, President of the Canadian BPW 1964-1966 and from 1971-1974 served as President of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women. She has been active all her life in many women's organizations, including the YWCA, VON, Women's Canadian Club, Toronto and Area Council of Women, among others. In 1977 she received the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal and in 1985 received the Persons Award from Governor-General Jeanne Sauve.

Martin, John Gartshore

  • Person
  • 1921-2007

John Gartshore Martin, Col. DSO, MID, Q.C., was an officer in World War II and later became a lawyer in Kitchener, Ontario. The youngest son of John Alexander and Jessie (Wilson) Martin, John studied at the University of Toronto and was employed at the Waterloo Manufacturing Co. Ltd. until he enlisted in the Canadian army in 1941. At that time, he was posted to the Highland Light Infantry regiment as a reinforcement officer with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Before enlisting, he was a member of the Scots Fusiliers of Canada and trained with them at Niagara, Brockville, and Camp Borden. He also worked on staff at a military school in Vernon, British Columbia before being posted overseas in September, 1943. In 1944 he was transferred to the Lincoln and Welland Regiment (infantry), which participated in the landing at Normandy and the Allied advance through Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany. Martin was promoted to the rank of Major and was awarded several medals, including a Distinguished Service Order and mention in despatches. After returning to Kitchener in 1946, he married his fiance Mary Ann Kabel (daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Art Kabel of Kitchener) and enrolled in law school at Osgoode Hall. Upon graduating in 1949, he practiced law in Kitchener and retired as a senior partner of the law firm Clement, Eastman, Dreger, Martin & Meunier. Martin was involved in community service at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and several organizations in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. He and Mary Ann had three children: Cathryn Jean, John Jamieson, and David Alexander.

McKay, Donald

  • Person
  • [1785]-1820

Donald McKay was a fur trader who spent much of his life in the Timiskaming district of what is today northern Ontario and Quebec. Born to Scottish immigrants near or around Montreal he had several siblings, including Angus and Neil who also worked in the fur trade. When the Hudson's Bay Company post Frederick House was established in 1785, McKay who was then a clerk, was master of Canadian house, Langue de Terre, on Lake Mistinikon. By 1794 he had a post on Matawagamingue, today Mattagami, that served as the base for the area and he established the Flying Post on Groundhog Lake, which was in operation in 1800. From 1804 to 1806 McKay was in charge of the depot at Fort Timiskaming before relocating to Abitibi for a short time. He returned to Fort Timiskaming in 1806 and remained there as master until his death on June 9, 1820. Two of McKay's sons, Donald John and John, worked in the fur trade as well, serving as clerks in the Timiskaming district for the North West and Hudson's Bay companies.

Enslin, Christian

  • Person

Emmanuel Christian Gottlieb Enslin, known as Christian Enslin, was a German immigrant who arrived in British North America ca. 1830, later settling in Berlin about 1833. Enslin established a book bindery, bookstore and printing operation. He also served as editor of the Deutsche Canadier, the only German language newspaper in British North America from 1841-1848 and held numerous public offices.
Christian Enslin died on March 29, 1856. Source : Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, http://www.biographi.ca.

Bowlby, David Shannon

  • Person
  • 1874-1938

David Shannon Bowlby was born in Berlin (Kitchener) Ontario January 24, 1874. He attended the University of Toronto graduating with a B.A. in 1895, and an LL.B. in 1896. In 1893 he received his call to the Bar. He was appointed Crown Attorney for Waterloo County in 1917. Bowlby died October 11, 1938.

Galt, John

John Galt (1779-1839) was a novelist, political and social commentator, and founder of the city of Guelph, Ontario.

Gordon, Armistead Churchill

  • Person
  • 1855-1931

Armistead Churchill Gordon was an American lawyer and writer born December 20, 1855 in Virginia. Gordon attended the University of Virginia, and later studied law, being called to the bar in 1879. Involved in many aspects of higher education in Virginia he was a member of the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary and the University of Virginia, as well as being the first chairman of the Virginia State Library Board. Outside of his work in the law, he published multiple books on the history and peoples of Virginia, as well as collections of poetry.

Suits, Bernard

  • Person
  • 1925-2007

Bernard Herbert Suits was a philosopher and professor. He was born November 25, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan. Suits attended Denby High School in Detroit and went on to receive his BA at the University of Chicago, his MA in Philosophy also at the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Illinois. Suits' area of philosophic inquiry was games and gaming and he would go on to become an authority in the field. In 1957, Suits began teaching at the University of Illinois and moved on to Purdue in 1959. In 1966, Suits became an associate professor at the University of Waterloo where he would remain until his retirement in 1994.

While teaching at the University of Waterloo, Suits would hold such positions as Chair of the Waterloo Philosophy Department, Associate Dean for Graduate Affairs in the Faculty of Arts and President of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport. Suits was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1982 and was appointed Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 1995.

Outside of teaching Suits published essays in a number of journals and is best known for his book "The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia." Suits was also a visiting professor at the University of Lethbridge and the University of Bristol. In 1982, Suits was a special guest star on the TVO special "The Academy on Moral Philosophy."

Bernard Suits died in 2007.

Davis, Bertram R.

  • Person

Bertram Rolland Davis was born in Bristol in 1897. Financial and familial situations prevented him from attending University, and after high school he began to work for the cable company established by his father, where he would stay for forty years. When not working he spent his free time as an amateur scholar with an interest in the Romantics and their links to Bristol. In particular, his interests tended towards former Poet Laureate Robert Southey and boy poet Thomas Chatterton. He corresponded with many of the leading Romantic scholars and critics of the twentieth century including Raymond D. Havens, E.H.W. Meyerstein, Maurice H. Fitzgerald, and Earl Leslie Griggs, and others. Davis also played an active role in preserving the history of Bristol and its famous residents.
To support his research, Davis purchased as many documents relating to the Romantics as he could afford. He amassed a collection of forty-five manuscript groups comprised of original documents by Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and their contemporaries as well as an extensive library relating to his academic interests. His library is known as the Bertram R. Davis “Robert Southey” collection.
After Davis’ death, his personal library, manuscript groups, correspondence, and research files were acquired by the University of Waterloo.
(Bertram R. Davis / Kenneth Curry.)
(Catalogue of the Bertram R. Davis "Robert Southey" Collection / compiled by Jane Britton. -- Waterloo: University of Waterloo Library, 1990.)

Porter, Dana Harris

  • Person
  • 1901-1967

Dana Harris Porter was born to Dr. George Dana Porter and Lena Harris of the Massey-Harris family in Toronto, Ontario on January 14, 1901. He attended the University of Toronto for his B.A. which he completed in 1921. In September of that year he traveled to England to study at Balliol College, Oxford from which graduated with his M.A. in 1923. He then returned to Canada, and records show that he intended to study for the Ontario Bar. He was called to the bar in 1923 and began practicing litigation law at Fennel, Porter and Davis. During his time at law school he met Dorothy Chaplin Ramsey Parker (born 1905) the daughter of Admiral A.R. Parker. Dorothy had been born in Hong Kong and raised mostly in England having taken many trips to Canada as a child and youth where she stayed with her Uncle the Honourable J.D. Chaplin, an M.P. in St. Catharines. By December of 1928 the couple’s relationship was becoming serious and they were engaged in June 1929. Dorothy was visiting England at the time, and she returned to Canada for their October 5, 1929 wedding. In 1931 their first son, Dana Jr. was born and a second, Julian, followed in 1936.

During this time Porter continued to work at his firm and in 1943 he made the decision to enter into provincial politics. In the 1943 election he ran as a Progressive Conservative in the Toronto riding of St. George, which won him a place in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He would hold this seat until 1958. During his political career he served under three premiers and in a variety of positions. From 1944-1948 he was the Minister of Planning and Development during which time he was instrumental in the airlifting of British immigrants to Canada. From 1948-1951 he was the Minister of Education and was Provincial Secretary and Registrar from 1948-1949. In 1949 Porter ran for head of the Progressive Conservative Party at the 1949 Provincial Tory Leadership Convention, but lost to friend Leslie Frost. Instead, Porter became Attorney General of Ontario, a position he held until 1955. His last role in the Provincial Government was that of Treasurer and Minister of Economics from 1955-1958. Throughout these years he was also a member of numerous standing committees on a broad range of topics.

In 1958 the Progressive Conservatives came into power at the national level with Diefenbaker becoming Prime Minister and Porter stepped down from politics to accept his appointment as Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal. During his tenure he also headed the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance from 1961-1964 and presided over a number of important trials, such as the lifting of the ban on notorious novel Fanny Hill.

Porter also had a number of personal interests and activities that kept him busy. He spoke at a variety of events in Ontario and Canada at large, including convocations, meetings, luncheons etc. He was also an amateur Shakespeare historian and was particularly interested in the Sonnets. He wrote a number of essays on the possible order of the Sonnets, and on the identities of the Dark Lady, the Fair Youth and the Rival Poet. Although an attempt was made to have one of his works published, the furthest that came of it was printed and bound editions that he had made and sent to friends and critics. His literary endeavors did not end with Shakespeare as he also wrote a play and three essays on politics in Canada.
Porter’s dedication to academia lead to many accolades including being installed as the First Chancellor of the University of Waterloo in 1960. He was also on the Board of the University of Toronto and was awarded Honourary degrees from such institutions as McMaster University. The Dana Porter Library at the University of Waterloo was dedicated to and named after him on October 27, 1967, and his portrait hangs in it.

In 1967 Porter stepped down from his position largely due to his failing health. On May 13 of the same year he died of cancer in Toronto.

Catley, Elaine Maud

  • Person
  • 1889-1984

Elaine Maud Clark was a writer born November 14, 1889 in Bath, England, daughter of Frederick Charles and Annie Matilda (Whittington) Clark. Educated in private schools in Guildford, Surrey, Elaine married Sydney Charles William Catley in December 29, 1915. After he served in the Imperial Forces for four years they settled in Calgary, Alberta, in 1920, where they raised four children.

Elaine began writing verse when just thirteen, and won three prizes from John O'London's Weekly. In Canada her poetry and journalism regularly appeared in the Calgary Herald and other papers. Active in the Canadian Authors Association and the Canadian Women's Press Club, she included Nellie McClung, Laura Goodman Salverson, W.T. Allison and John W. Garvin among her friends. Her six volumes of verse span a career of 58 years. Elaine died in Calgary July 29, 1984.

Rempel, John I.

  • Person
  • 1905-

John Ivan Rempel (1905-) MRAIC, architect and architectural historian, was born September 29, 1905 near Ekaterinoslav, Russia (now Ukraine) to Dutch parents. In 1924 he emigrated to Canada and settled in Kitchener, Ontario where he completed high school at Kitchener Collegiate Institute, graduating in 1928. John attended the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto and graduated in 1933, receiving an honours degree, a Bachelor of Architecture, and the Architectural Gold Medal. He began practising as an architect in 1939 after having completed early work with such well known firms as Templin and Wells, Craig and Madill, and Horwood and White.

Throughout his career, John's major interests were research into historic building technology and architectural restoration, to which he has made significant contributions through writing and practice. John was a member of a variety of architectural heritage committees and spoke on television and the radio in connection with campaigns for local preservation. John also published a number of significant works related to architectural heritage conservation and in 1967 he published Building With Wood, considered by many to be an outstanding documentation of the empirical approach to the study of vernacular buildings in Canada and other parts of North America. John Rempel was also a well known speaker in Canada and the United States having spoken at the American Society of Architectural Historians, the Canadian Museums Association, and others. John also worked professionally as a heritage consultant for restoration projects across southern Ontario and was Chief Research Architect in Historic Building Technology for the reconstruction of Fort William and an architectural consultant during the establishment of Upper Canada Village.

In addition, John was the head of the Architectural Drafting department at the Danforth Technical School in Toronto and a lecturer at the Ontario College of Education. For his work John won numerous awards including a Senior Canada Council Fellowship and the Gabrielle Léger Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Heritage Conservation.

Results 1 to 100 of 4881