Claire Coates (1928-1994) was born in Ottawa, attending Glebe College. She graduated in Honours Biology from Queen's University in 1953 with the Tri-Colour Award of the Alma Mater Society. She secured employment as a technician with DRB Suffield, conducting research on pesticides; subsequently, she became a laboratory technician at AECL Chalk River, assisting in research on the effects of radiation on certain species of insects. In 1957 she married, moved to Peterborough, where she became a Children's Aid Social Worker; after various other moves, Ms Coates settled in Woodbridge in 1969. Here she would remain until her death in November of 1994. The contributions of this individual to Woodbridge and the Vaughan community were considerable: she was the founding president of Vaughan's University Women's Club; founder and chair (1972-1989) of Woodbridge Area Recycling (and as such helped to initiate recycling in Vaughan); archivist and officer of the Woodbridge Agricultural Society; director and contributor to HELP Community Information Service (the predecesssor of Vaughan Information Services); member of Heritage Vaughan and other municipal advisory committees; an advocate of educational reform; co-author, with Janet Berton, of two histories of the Canadian Federation of University Women; executive member of the CFUW; four-time vice president and director of the National Exhibition Association, etc.