Showing 7283 results

Thomas Henry (Harry) Smith was a teacher at Port Arthur Collegiate Institute who had a strong interest in the history of local education at the Lakehead.

Karl Olafson was born in Sioux Lookout, Ontario in 1930, the son of Swedish immigrants. His father had come to Canada for employment with the Canadian National Railways, and Karl spent his early years as one of the 'railway children'. He left home to obtain his early schooling in railway school cars, and then schools in Winnipeg and Sioux Lookout. Following bouts of illness which delayed his schooling, Olafson had only achieved a grade seven education by the age of 16 when he was forced to leave school after his father became ill. Olafson contracted tuberculosis at 17 and spent months in the Fort William Sanatorium and later the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Winnipeg. It took him eight years to achieve his goal of working for the C.N.R. which he accomplished by bypassing the mandatory company medical examination. Prior to working for the C.N.R he worked as a taxi driver in Winnipeg, a Forest Ranger in Northwestern Ontario, and a drapery installer. He spent 30 years working for the railway and later wrote his memoir A Sentimental Journey.

Cecil Seaman was an enthusiastic contributor to the Thunder Bay community and served many organizations including the Boy Scouts of Canada, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Trinity United Church. He served as secretary for Lodge 650 and as founding President of Lodge 10. He also volunteered in the community with Meals on Wheels and the Cancer Society. Cecil worked at Saskatchewan Wheat Pool for 49 years before he retired from the position of Director of Electrical Services. While working at the company as an electrician's helper, Cecil designed/invented a trough bending design used in grain handling. Whether he was successful in receiving a patent for the design is unclear. Cecil died in Thunder Bay at the age of 90 on Jan. 14 2003.

Joseph Placide Theodore Bertrand was born in the Ottawa Valley in 1880 and came to Thunder Bay in 1900. He became an active member of the lumber industry and travelled Northwestern Ontario extensively. He also had a passion for history, shown in his published book Highway of Destiny, as well as the posthumously published book Timber Wolves, which was a mixture of history and his firsthand knowledge of the lumber industry. Bertrand died in 1964 at the age of 84.

Basil Ellery was born in 1914 and died in 1998. During the Second World War he worked in the Great Lakes shipping industry, mainly in Thunder Bay and Owen Sound/Midlands. After the war he moved into one of the various neighbourhoods built by the War Time Housing Initiative.

Benjamin Cowan was born in May 1911 in Fort William to Jacob Cowan, the eldest son of his father's second marriage, and sixth of nine children. The Cowans were early members of Thunder Bay's Jewish Community, their father was an immigrant from Odessa and their mother's sisters from England. Cowan attended school in Port Arthur before going to the University of Toronto where he received a BSc in 1932 and a MSc in 1933. He worked in the pulp and paper industry from 1927 to 1942, before he served as a Lieutenant with the 1st Canadian Medium Artillery Regiment during WWII. Following the war Ben Cowan and Eli Cowan founded E&B Cowan, an engineering consulting firm for the pulp and paper industry. The firm later grew to an international scope and was the source of many innovative improvements to pulp processing. Following a long career in engineering, Cowan died in Thunder Bay on February 25 2000.

Gordon Burkowski is a Thunder Bay native and second-generation Canadian Car employee, having followed in the footsteps of both parents. Educated at Lakehead University, McMaster University, and Oxford, he served in both union negotiations and human resources.

James Peter Lyzun was born August 9 1945 and spent his childhood growing up in Oshawa, Ontario. He graduated as an aeronautical engineer from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1967 and worked for Dehavilland Aircraft for several years on projects such as the Buffalo Aircraft and the Hydrofoil. He moved to Thunder Bay in 1970 to attend Lakehead University where he met and married his wife Denise in 1972. In 1973 he began a new career in teaching elementary shop classes for the Lakehead Board of Education. Lyzun retired in December 2002. Of his many interests, Lyzun was notably an aviation historian with a high degree of knowledge for the field. He published numerous works in aviation magazines and through other local organizations. He completed a manuscript for a book on Thunder Bay's aviation history in the late 1990s, but died prior to its publication. His book was later updated and organized by Dr. David Kemp of Lakehead University and published in 2006 by the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society. Lyzun died on January 28 2003 from cancer at the age of 58.

After completing postgraduate studies in dermatology at Columbia University, Dr. Ricky Schachter joined the staff of Women’s College Hospital (WCH) in 1946. She operated two weekly dermatology clinics out of the hospital’s outpatient department. The clinics proved to be so successful that a division of dermatology was established within the year with Dr. Schachter as its head.

Under her leadership, the WCH’s dermatology program grew from a small outpatient clinic to Toronto’s largest and most diverse academic dermatology program. When WCH achieved its status as a fully affiliated teaching hospital with the University of Toronto, Dr. Schachter became the first woman to head an academic division of dermatology in Canada. Former colleague Dr. Neil Shear explained, “Her energy, commitment and vision stimulated students to enter the field of dermatology.”

Dr. Schachter is also remembered for her commitment to developing new and innovative approaches to patient care. Her greatest professional success came in 1976, when she established the Phototherapy Education and Research Centre (PERC) at WCH. It was the first program of its kind in Canada to provide complete psoriasis care in an ambulatory setting.

Dr. Schachter was also a founding member and first president of the Toronto Dermatological Association and in 1978 she became the first woman in Canada to lead specialists in dermatology when she was appointed President of the Canadian Dermatological Association. During her career, she also received the Lifetime Achievement Award of Merit from the Toronto Dermatological Society in 1989, the Order of Canada in 1998 and Canadian Dermatology Foundation Practitioner of the Year in 2005.

Dr. Schachter remained head of WCH’s dermatology program until her retirement in June 1985. Her passion for the field was apparent through her outstanding ambition and care for her work, students, and patients. In recognition of her leadership and contributions to WCH, the Ricky Kanee Schachter Dermatology Center officially opened on November 1, 1991.

Dr. Florence Marguerite "Peggy" Hill was born in Toronto on May 24, 1919. In 1936, she enrolled in the University of Toronto on a scholarship to study Arts. In 1941, she graduated with a Master's in Psychology. She then worked for a year as a psychologist in the Juvenile Court system.

In 1942, F. M. Hill joined the Canadian Women's Army Medical Corps, where she was in charge of personnel selection. While in the military, she achieved the rank of Captain, and in 1944 she served a tour overseas in England.

After being discharged in 1946, F. M. Hill returned to the University of Toronto. As a veteran, she was entitled to a free education and could now afford to attend medical school. She graduated with a medical degree in 1952 and was awarded that year's gold medal for the highest academic standing in the Faculty of Medicine.

From 1952-1957, Dr. Hill completed postgraduate training in internal medicine, specialising in kidney disease. In 1957, she became the first woman to be appointed Chief Resident at Toronto General Hospital. She also became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Canada in 1957.

Dr. Hill joined the Department of Medicine at Women's College Hospital as a staff physician in 1958. In 1965, she became Physician-in-Chief of the Department of Medicine. She would remain Physician-in-Chief until her retirement in 1984. During her time at Women's College Hospital, she turned the Department of Medicine into a strong clinical and teaching unit. She also served on the Women's College Hospital Board of Directors (1966-1982, 1990-1997).

In addition to her activities at the hospital, Dr. F. M. Hill was appointed to the University of Toronto as an Associate Professor in 1965, and was promoted to full Professor in 1968. She was named Professor Emeritus upon her retirement in 1984.

Dr. Hill became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1958 and served for many years as an examiner in Internal Medicine for the College. She was a founding member of the Canadian Society for Nephrologists and was a member of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada and the American College of Physicians. In 1968, Dr. Hill was the first woman appointed to the board of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

In 1994, Dr. Hill was awarded the Order of Canada for her work in teaching and patient care.

Dr. F. M. Hill died in her home on January 15, 2012, at the age of 93.

Wally Duffield was a member of the Lakehead Search and Rescue Unit for 40 years. Duffield was the second president of the Lakehead Search and Rescue Unit.

Marion Poutanen hails from Northwestern Ontario. Having attended high school in Fort Frances she later moved to Thunder Bay. She co-authored with Elsie Di Blasio, A Time and Place 1909-1970 History and Memoirs of the General Hospital of Port Arthur School of Nursing.

Pat Eisenbach and her husband, Bob, were friends of Wendell Beckwith and Roselyn Chaltry-Minar. Living in Thunder Bay, the Eisenbachs were closer to the Beckwith Camp than most other associates of Beckwith’s after the latter’s death. Some of the responsibility for maintaining the camp shifted to them.

Robert K. Dewar was born in Calcutta, India in 1898 to a Presbyterian minister, and moved to Canada in 1912. Dewar graduated from Truro Nova Scotia's Agricultural College in 1916, then received his B.Sc. from Edinburgh University in 1920. He received his MD from Manitoba University in 1923. As a young man Dewar served in WWI in the 47th Infantry Battalion (Nova Scotia Highland Brigade) and was stationed in France from 1916-1920. He practiced medicine and served as Fort William Alderman from 1951-1956 and was active within the Liberal Party. Dewar passed away in 1965.

Ralph H. Parker became "Canada's youngest announcer and radio-operator" in the 1930s when he worked as the first official broadcaster of the CKPR radio station located in the Royal Edward Hotel in Fort William.

Roy H. Piovesana was born in Fort William, Ontario in 1942. He was educated at Fort William Collegiate Institute and Lakehead University where he received his Master of Arts in History in 1969. He taught history at both Westgate and Hammarskjold High Schools, and lecturer at Lakehead University. Piovesana served as president of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society from 1979-1983, and was the archivist for the Thunder Bay Roman Catholic Diocese. From the age of 15, Piovesana played the saxophone professionally, later joining the Roy Coran Big Band. In 2015 he came a Fellow of Lakehead University during the school's 50th anniversary. Roy passed away on Jan. 20 2020 at the age of 77.

Patricia Vervoort (née Mulcahy) was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Mar. 26 1942. During her years in the United States she studied English, Art History, and Library Science. She married Gerry Vervoort in 1965 and the couple relocated to Thunder Bay in 1970 when he was offered a professorship at Lakehead University. Patricia also joined the University's faculty as an Art Historian from 1975 to 2006. Vervoort had a special interest in architecture and the preservation of historical buildings and served on the board of the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee composing essays on the preservation of buildings around Thunder Bay. She was awarded by the Ontario Association of Architects for her achievements in 1995. She passed away on May 8 2013 having left her research to the Thunder Bay Museum.

Robert Carlson claimed to be subject to CIA brainwashing experiments while prisoner between 1968-1974.

Lynne Moss-Sharman was born April 4 1947, and grew up in Hamilton, Ontario. After leaving an abusive relationship and the birth of her daughter she opened a photographic gallery at the Wesley Community Centre in Hamilton. Through the gallery she helped create the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers Association. Moss-Sharman moved to Thunder Bay in 1987 and began working at Definitely Superior Art Gallery and also began attending Indigenous healing circles in the community. While participating in the healing circles she was able to uncover memories of medical experiments she underwent as a child during the Cold War and began documenting her trauma through drawings. Her sketches of doctors, experiments and tools used were later employed in claims made by other survivors of similar trauma. Moss-Sharman later completed a degree in Social Work at Lakehead University, and used her knowledge to assist children and become an advocate for trauma victims in the community. Lynne passed away on Mar. 14 2014 in Thunder Bay at the age of 66.

Ray Leslie McMahon was born Sept. 22 1917. He was a navigator in the 419th Squadron (The Moose) of the RCAF during WWII. The majority of his bombing runs were conducted at night. While a part of his squadron he received several battle honours. After the war he lived in Fort William working as a repairman for Buchanan and Johnson Electrical. McMahon passed away on Feb, 28 1991 at the age of 73.