Victor Benjamin Meen (July 1, 1910-1971), often referred to as V. B. Meen, was chief mineralogist at the Royal Ontario Museum from 1964 until his passing in 1971. Receiving his post-secondary education at the University of Toronto, Meen earned his B.A. in 1932, M.A. in 1933, and Ph.D. in 1936. His M.A. thesis focused on the plagiocase series of minerals and his doctoral work described the crystallization of vein quartz. In 1937, Meen married Thelma Irene Stables and together they had three daughters. An Assistant Professor and subsequently Professor at the University of Toronto from 1936 until 1959, Meen also conducted research expeditions with the Ontario Department of Mines and the National
Geographic Society, among other organizations. Meen began his work at the Royal Ontario Museum of Mineralogy as a scientific assistant in 1936 and rose to become head of the Earth Sciences Division of the Royal Ontario Museum from 1959 until 1964. One of Meen's most significant projects was his exploration and documentation of what he referred to as Chubb Crater (now officially named Pingualuit Crater), a meteorite crater in the far north of Quebec. After some initial exploration in 1950, Meen returned in 1951 on a joint expedition between the ROM and the National Geographic Society. Meen documented the geological makeup of the crater and confirmed that it was indeed a meteorite crater and not an extinct volcano or other structure. Meen was the author of numerous articles and four books about geology, mineralogy and gemmology. His most well-known publication is Crown Jewels of Iran, co-written with A. D. Tushingham and published by University of Toronto Press in 1968. Meen and his wife presented limited edition copies of the book to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Empress Farah Pahlavi in December of that year. Translations were published in several countries, including a Farsi translation published in Iran.
Chris McGowan (1942-) is a Curator Emeritus of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum. Born in England, McGowan received his PhD at the University of London. After receiving his doctorate, he became a Curator in Vertebrate Palaeontology with the ROM, later cross appointed as a Professor of Zoology at the University of Toronto. McGowan retired in 2002.
Loris Shano Russell was born April 21, 1904 in Brooklyn New York; his mother, Matilda Shano, was from Newfoundland and his father, Milan Winslow Russell was from New York. At the age of four, Russell and his family moved to Calgary, Alberta where he grew up. Russell received a BSc in Geology from the University of Alberta in 1927, and two graduate degrees from Princeton University: an MA (1929) and a PhD (1930).
Russell worked as an assistant palaeontologist with the Geological Survey of Canada from 1930-1936, an assistant geologist in 1937. Russell was then an assistant director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Paleontology. During the Second World War, Russell served with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, and was transferred to the Canadian Militia after the war, retiring with the rank of major.
Russell served as the director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Paleontology from 1946 to 1950, before working at the National Museums of Canada in multiple roles: Chief, Zoology Section (1950-1956); director, Natural History (1956-1963); and acting director, Human History (1958-1963). Russell once again returned to a newly amalgamated ROM to lead the Life Sciences division in 1963, and a year later was appointed the museum’s chief biologist along with a professorship in geology at the University of Toronto. Russell officially retired in 1971 but continued to work out of his office in the ROM daily. He would also return to Alberta for fieldwork each summer well into his eighties.
Russell's discoveries concerning dinosaurs and early mammals were particularly important. His 1965 paper, “Body Temperature of Dinosaurs and Its Relationship to Their Extinction,” marked the first time someone suggested that dinosaurs might have been warm blooded. An interest in material history also led him to research oil lamps, making original and fundamental contributions to the history of lighting and material culture in 19th-century North America. The books resulting from this research include A Heritage of Light (1968), Handy Things to Have Around the House (1979) and Every Day Life in Colonial Canada (1980).
Russell died in Toronto on July 6, 1998 at the age of 95.
Sylvia Hahn was born May 2, 1911 in Toronto, Ontario. She was the daughter of Gustav Hahn and Ellen Smith. Hahn attended Havergal College and later graduated from the Ontario College of Art (1929-1932). She was awarded the Governor General’s Medal for achievement at her graduation.
In 1934 she joined the Royal Ontario Museum’s Display Department. During her time at the ROM Sylvia Hahn made identification drawings for the museum's catalogue, 11 murals, models of jewels in the museum's collection (which were sold in the gift shop), a reproduction of a mural originally on the walls of an Etruscan tomb (for which she attempted to capture the original colours before air and moisture faded them), and the decoration of the Athens Gallery (including detail work on a model of the Acropolis). Sylvia Hahn retired from the ROM in 1976.
Sylvia Hahn was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists, The Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers, and the Toronto Metal Crafts Guild.
She is represented in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada (no. 5118, no. 40451).
Sylvia Hahn died on January 2, 2001 in Whitby Ontario.
Charles Sutherland Elton (1900-1991) was an English zoologist and animal ecologist. He is associated with the development of population and community ecology, including studies of invasive organisms. Elton was educated at Liverpool College and Oxford University, where ehe graduated in zoology in 1922. Elton worked for the Bureau of Animal Population, University Museum, Oxford.
James Edwin Cruise was born on June 26, 1925 in Port Dover, Ontario. He attended Port Dover High school and Simcoe High School. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force between 1943 and 1946 achieving the rank of Flying Officer at his discharge.
Following his military service James Cruise obtained a B.A. in biology from the University of Toronto in 1950, a M. S. from Cornell University in 1951, and a Ph. D. in plant taxonomy from Cornell University in 1954. He taught at Cornell University, the State University of New Jersey and Princeton University before going to the University of Toronto as associate professor in the Department of Botany in 1963. He later became the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. Cruise became Director of the Royal Ontario Museum in 1975. He served as Director for 10 years.
Cruise died in 2021 at the age of 97.
Gilbert H. “Gib” Gilchrist (February 14, 1922 – October 23, 2011) was a union organizer, educator, and activist. Gilchrist served in a variety of positions within the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) from 1957 until his retirement in 1983.
Born on Manitoulin Island in Spring Bay to Neil and Sarah (née McKechnie), he was the youngest of 9 siblings. Gilbert Gilchrist’s father died in 1924. Gilchrist attended the Grimethrope Schoolhouse for his primary education and earned his secondary school diploma in Mindemoya through night courses. In 1942 Gilchrist joined the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers and would serve as an instructor until 1946. In 1944 he married Donalda (Donnie) Beange from Gore Bay. He was the father of five children: Sarah, David, Alma, Lorna, and Sharon.
Gilchrist worked in the International Nickel Company (INCO) Frood Mines in 1941, prior to joining the military. Following the Second World War Gilchrist returned to Spring Bay to raise his family. In 1955 he worked for a short time in Kimberly, British Columbia for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (COMINCO) and returned to Ontario to work as a carpenter in Elliot Lake where he joined the Carpenters’ and Joiners Union. In 1957 Gilchrist was elected the founding President of USWA Local 5615 and in 1958 was appointed as the USWA Staff Representative. During this period, he wrote articles for the weekly USWA newsletter, Miners’ Voice and hosted a radio show. In 1964 Gilchrist relocated to Sudbury to serve as Senior Staff Representative of the new USWA Local 6500, where he was responsible for over 15,000 workers in the mining industry. He served three terms as President of Sudbury & District Labour Council. In 1970 he was Chief Negotiator and Coordinator for contract negotiations between INCO and USWA. He served in various other positions in the labour movement, including: USWA Northeastern Ontario Supervisor (1970); Canadian Worker Representative at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland (1974); member of the Industrial Training Council for the Province of Ontario (1976); and USWA Assistant Director for District 6 (1981).
Gilchrist was also an active member of the Sudbury community and lifelong CCF/NDP supporter. From 1972-1978 he was a member of the Board of Governors for Cambrian College; he was the Labour Studies Coordinator for Cambrian’s Labour Studies Institute from 1983-1989. Gib Gilchrist is the author of As Strong as Steel (1999).
Robert Elliott (1858-1902) was a poet and naturalist born near Plover Mills, Ontario. He lived most of his life on a farm near London, Ontario, where he recorded many bird observations. He contributed to Thomas McIlwraith’s “Birds of Ontario”, among other publications. Elliott died on December 19, 1902, near Bryanton, Ontario
E.B.S. Logier was a herpetologist, artist and natural historian. He worked in the Department of Ichythyology and Herpetology at the Royal Ontario Museum, and was the author of The Reptiles of Ontario (1939) and The Frogs, Toads and Salamanders of Eastern Ontario (1952.)
Eugene Bernard Shelley Logier was born on February 27, 1893 in Dublin, Ireland to Eugene Adolphe Logier and Emily Shelley Seale, who worked as Civil Engineers. Logier was the second born of four children (Ruth, Emily and Alexander or Theo.) He spent his early childhood living in Clontarf East, Dublin. In July 1906, his father immigrated to Canada, with Logier and his siblings following with their mother in October of the same year.
Logier became associated with the Royal Ontario Museum in 1915 at the age of 22, and by September 1916 he was appointed part-time as an artist. He worked 10 month contracts between 1917-1921, before he began working full-time in 1921. Logier became an Assistant Curator in 1947, Associate Curator in 1950 and Curator in 1959 all for the Department of Ichthyology and Herpetology. He retired from the ROM on June 30, 1961.
He married Beryl Bruce in 1933. They had one daughter, Sybil Shelley Logier.
Logier died in Toronto on March 16, 1979.
Theodore Allen Heinrich was born in Tacoma, Washington, on 15 June, 1910, but grew up principally in the area of Berkley, California. He was educated at the University of California, where he graduated in 1931 with a major in philosophy and minors in art, history and English. Following his completion of post-secondary studies, he embarked on extensive travel in Europe and the Mediterranean, and was predominantly interested in architecture and art.
In 1932, he began graduate studies at Cambridge University (King’s College), to graduate with a Masters degree in art and architectural history in 1936.
During the Second World War, Heinrich was junior officer on the Intelligence staff of General Eisenhower, and served for two years as Deputy Chief, Enemy Communications Section of G-2, where he worked in the area of the use and administration of intelligence concerning strategic operations regarding the German-controlled railway system, or Reischbahn.
After the war, from 1945 to 1950, he remained in Germany in connection with the recovery and restitution of looted works of art. He was also involved in assisting German authorities in the rehabilitation and reorganization of war-damaged museums, libraries, archives, monuments as well as organizing art history seminars.
Returning to the United States, Heinrich was Curator of Art Collections and Senior Fellow for Art History at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, for 1951-52. From 1953 to 1955, he was Associate Curator of Paintings and Curator-in-charge of drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. There, he was involved in various projects to rebuild areas of the galleries, as well as publishing several museum books. From 1955 to 1962, he was the Director of the Royal Ontario Museum.
He was employed as professor of art history for the last twenty years of his life, beginning with his position as Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, for the academic year 1964-65. In 1966, he began a full professorship at York University, which he held up to the time of his death in 1981.
Oiva W. Saarinen (1937- ) was born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. After completing his elementary and secondary education in Sudbury, he received an Honour’s B.A. in Economics and Political Science and his M.A. in Geography from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. He then acquired a Ph.D. in Geography from University College in London, England. He was a Full Professor of Geography at Laurentian University in Sudbury until he retired in 2003, at which time he was granted Professor Emeritus status.
His research interests have centered on the historical geography of Sudbury, the study of single-enterprise communities in Canada, and the Finnish community in North America. He has published extensively in journals, written numerous book reviews, and published an award-winning book titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Historical Geography of the Finns in the Sudbury Area which was released by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in 1999. He has presented papers at numerous conferences, including at Finnish Immigrants in the Decade if Depression (1929-1939), which was held in Thunder Bay in March of 2004. He is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Finnish Studies.
As a Professor at Laurentian University from 1962 to 2003, Dr. Saarinen served on a wide variety of university committees. He served as Chair of the Geography department in 1970-1971, and was the President of the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) in 1980-1981. He is actively involved in many local Finnish organizations, such as the Knights of Kaleva, the Sudbury Suomi Lions Club, and the Finnish National Society. In recognition of his work on behalf of the Finnish community, the Government of Finland in 2001 awarded him the Knight of the Order of the White Rose, 1st Class.
Oiva Saarinen is married to Edith, and they have two children, Kai and Kristen.
Mick (Michael) Ellenwood Lowe (1947-2021) was born September 23rd in Omaha, Nebraska to Jack and Grace Lowe. He had two daughters, Julia and Melanie.
Lowe spent the first twenty-three years of his life in Nebraska, attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1965-1969, where he also worked as a staff writer and columnist for the student newspaper, The Daily Nebraskan. In 1970 he decided he did not want to be part of the Vietnam War by resisting the draft and emigrating to Canada. Originally settling in Vancouver, he co-founded The Grape (Western Voice) and worked as a staff writer at The Georgia Straight from 1970-1972. Afterwards, Mick moved eastward and continued his education at the University of Calgary, where he served as editor for the student newspaper, The Gauntlet. After graduating from University of Calgary in 1974, he started working as a freelance writer for The Globe and Mail from 1974 over a long period stretching into the late 1980s. He also spent time in broadcast journalism, first as a staff reporter for CBC Radio News, and then in 1978 as a founding producer of CBC Radio Morning North in Sudbury.
During this time, he also began writing for The Northern Life and Northern Ontario Business. In addition, around this time Mick began volunteering with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 6500, serving as an advisor to Dave Patterson during his campaign to become director of USWA District 6-Sudbury. By 1987, Mick had established himself as a freelance writer with prominent newspapers and periodicals such as The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. While still working for the Globe, Lowe wrote the book Conspiracy of Brothers: A True Story of Bikers, Murder, and the Law (1988) which received the Arthur B. Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada for best non-fiction work. He is also the author of One Woman Army: The Life of Claire Culhane (1992) and Premature Bonanza: Standoff at Voisey’s Bay (1998). In addition, Lowe worked as a lecturer in journalism at Cambrian College from 1988-1990, and again with a brief stint in 2002. From 2004 to 2007, Lowe worked in communications for the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) at the Eastern Campus in Sudbury at Laurentian University.
In May 2008, Mick suffered a massive stroke which forced him into retirement in the autumn of 2008. He passed away April 17th, 2021 in Sudbury.
Louise Herzberg was born ca. 1937 in Sydney, Australia to Carl Frankel and Alma Frankel. She obtained B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Sydney where she trained as a teacher and worked as a teaching fellow until 1963 when she moved to the United States to attend the University of Illinois for graduate studies in special education. She met her husband Paul Herzberg there, and they married. In 1966, they moved to Toronto where her husband Paul worked as a professor of psychology. Herzberg had a stroke in 1979 where during her recovery she gained an interest in the history of the Don Valley. In 1996, she wrote a biography of William Brodie entitled, A Pocketfull of Galls. Herzberg was also interested in nature, art, and photography.
Herzberg died in Toronto on September 24, 2015.
LEAF Sudbury is a local branch of a national non-profit organization called Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). It works in accordance with the national organization’s mission, which is “to advance substantive equality for all women, girls, trans, and non-binary people.” The organization focuses on litigation, law reform, and public education.
The idea of creating a LEAF branch in Sudbury started in September 1989, with the determination of Mary Lue Hinds, a member of the national organization. She contacted Mary Chrow, Director of Development at the head office, who discovered that three women from Sudbury had supported LEAF: Trish Hennessy, Anne Cole, and Carmen Simmons. Following Ms. Chrow’s visit to Sudbury to meet all four women, the founders developed plans for LEAF Sudbury. A decade later, in 1999, LEAF Sudbury signed an agreement with LEAF National and became an official branch of the organization.
Since its inception, LEAF Sudbury has organized many important fundraising events. The event with the highest attendance, the Person’s Day Breakfast, celebrates the day when Canadian women were deemed “persons” by the Privy Council of Great Britain, in October 1929. Among the guest speakers who have participated in this event: Marie Poulin, Dr. Lorna Marsden and Dr. Nancy Olivieri. Some of the funds raised at the Person’s Day Breakfast are used for the LEAF Book Project to purchase books, magazine subscriptions and videos dealing with women’s issues. At the outset, twenty-one French and English high school libraries in Sudbury benefited from this fundraising, until the money raised was later donated to the Greater Sudbury Public Library.
In 1995, LEAF Sudbury approached the local branches of the YWCA and the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW), to ask for their collaboration in creating an event called Celebrate Women, which takes place every year around International Women’s day. It gives the public of Sudbury an opportunity to meet a best-selling female author and discuss her book. The three organizations also acted in concert to have the Amphitheatre at Bell Park named after Grace Hartman, the first woman mayor of Sudbury, and one of the founders of the YWCA and CFUW in Sudbury.
The Sudbury Branch of LEAF ceased operations in 2018.
Canadian artist Albert George (Bert) Weir (1925-2018), the son of Emily and Percival Weir, was born in 1925 in Sandwich, Ontario. With his first wife Elena Zebrauskaite (1919-1995), he had three daughters. After serving in the navy during World War II, he worked in Northern Ontario lumber camps. Following these years, Weir attended art school. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art (OCA) in 1952. After his graduation, Bert returned to Northern Ontario, moving to McKellar with his young family. Together they lived an “off-the-grid” lifestyle and opened Loon Studios in 1974. Years later, he would move back to Southern Ontario, teaching art at W.D. Lowe Vocational School in Windsor. He would reside there for the next 13 years. Weir was also heavily involved with the youth of different communities – he directed summer studios at McKellar, led summer art programs in Southern Ontario, and he even taught art to underprivileged students in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 2002, after the death of his first wife Elena, Weir would remarry fellow artist Joy Allen.
Bert Weir had a close connection with nature. The way he lived his life and the subject matter of much of his art reflects this connection. Frequently Bert would take part in canoe trips, in places such as Waswanipi, Algonquin Park, Rupert River, and Quetico. He would construct canoes, and shared these skills with students. Bert Weir has been involved with countless exhibitions, displaying his art in Windsor and London, Ontario, with features in Toronto Galleries. He is the recipient of over a dozen awards and grants for his art. From the 1970s to the 2010s he took part in over 50 solo exhibitions, along with 16 group exhibitions. As well, he has been the subject of a book celebrating his work titled: The Art of Bert Weir. A man of many interests. Bert spent much of his life enjoying the outdoors, spending time with family and teaching others. Weir passed away on March 29, 2018, at the age of 92.
Dale Calder did his graduate training (both A.M. and Ph.D.) in Biological Oceanography at the School of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary in Virginia (USA). After holding a National Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, National Museums of Canada in Ottawa (1968-1969), he returned to Virginia and to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, for four years (1969-1973) as an Associate Marine Scientist. From 1973-1981 he was an Associate Marine Scientist at the Marine Resources Research Institute, South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department, in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. In 1981 he joined the staff of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) as Associate Curator-in-Charge of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology. In 1991 he was appointed a Research Associate of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo, and from 2000 to 2006 he served as a Commissioner on the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Other academic positions include the College of William and Mary in Virginia (Assistant Professor of Marine Science, 1970-1973), the University of Virginia (Assistant Professor of Marine Science, 1971-1973), the College of Charleston (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology, 1974-1981), and the University of Toronto (Associate Professor of Zoology, 1983-2003).
William Hincks (ca. 1793-1871) was a Presbyterian and Unitarian clergyman as well as a natural historian. Hincks was born in Cork, Ireland, on April 16, 1794, and spent much of his career as a social reformer, advocating the abolition of slavery, and promoting a shorter work week. He emigrated to Toronto in 1853 to take up a position as Professor of Natural History at University College. While there, he published his catalogue of birds of ‘western Canada' (now Ontario). He served as editor of the journal of the Canadian Institute, as well as contributing numerous papers on natural history and other topics. He went on to become president of the Canadian Institute. The specimens he accumulated while at the University of Toronto later became part of the Royal Ontario Museum - Library and Archives's collections.
Samuel Wilmot (1822-1899) was appointed a Fishery Officer under the Department of Marine and Fisheries on July 1, 1868, and later became the Superintendant of Fish Culture for the Dominion of Canada. Wilmot lived in Newcastle, Ontario.
James Bremner Ronaldson (Jim) Tester (1913-1994) son of James and Elizabeth Tester, was born in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1937, he married Doris Teeple in Timmins and they had 2 children: John and Erla. Known as a union leader and a humanitarian, Tester was also a columnist at the Northern Life for 20 years until he retired in 1993 due to illness.
Tester graduated from Riverdale Technical School as a mechanical drafting specialist in 1929. From 1930-1935, he worked for Lake Shore Mines (Kirkland Lake, Ontario) as a junior draftsman, and as a machine apprentice. By 1932, his interest in unions began, but he was blacklisted by the mining companies for union activity, and later discharged. Until 1940, Tester worked for the Consumers Cooperative Movement in the Kirkland Lake and Timmins areas, where he eventually became the Educational Director of the Workers’ Cooperative. During WWII, he worked as a machinist in Southern Ontario, and by 1941, he helped to organize a union for skilled workers at General Motors in Oshawa. He was elected as the Chief Union Steward, and was a co-founder of the Skilled Trades Council of the Canadian Autoworkers Union. In 1951, Tester was hired by Falconbridge Nickel Mines in the Sudbury area as a millwright and machine mechanic. He was a member of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW), Local 598, from 1951 until his retirement in 1976. Tester was involved with the IUMMSW on many levels. He participated in contract negotiations in 1955, 1956 and 1959. From 1969 to 1974, he was President of Local 598 (then representing the Falconbridge workers) and led the union negotiating teams. During these years, Tester was also active on the international labour scene, specifically with trips to Cuba, Scotland and Norway. During his retirement, he was the Secretary/Treasurer of the Falconbridge Pensioners Association.
Tester also served the larger Sudbury community. From 1974-1989 he wrote a weekly labour column in the Northern Life newspaper titled “On the Anvil.” From 1974-1975, he was a member of the Board of Governors at Laurentian University. In 1982, he was an instructor at Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology. He was also an active member of the Sudbury and District Committee on Pollution, Chairman of the Steering Committee of Pensioners for Sudbury Regional Tax Reform, and one of the founding members of the Coalition for Responsible Local Government.
Jim Tester died December 29, 1994 after a long battle with cancer.
Charles Kenneth Leith (1875-1956) joined the department of Geology and Geophysics of the University of Wisconsin, U.S.A. as a faculty member in 1902, and served as its Chair from 1928 until 1934, retiring from the university in 1945. He died in 1956.
Leith had a distinguished career as a teacher, researcher, and consultant. Even prior to his teaching career, he wrote many geological survey reports, and produced maps on the Sudbury region and Temiscaming, more specifically on the region of Cobalt. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and received the Penrose Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists in 1935 and of the Geological Society of America in 1942. His reputation was established with his work on the iron ores of the Lake Superior Region.
The research of Van Hise and Leith on Precambrian rocks of the Lake Superior district earned international recognition for the department in the fields of structural and metamorphic geology. The "Wisconsin School of Structural Geology" was introduced to Britain and Europe in the late 1920s by Gilbert Wilson, a Wisconsin alumnus, and carried on by Wilson's students and others. Leith served as the major advisor on minerals to the U.S. government during World War II, and helped in the procurement of uranium and thorium for the Manhattan Project. He was also an exceptional teacher; he received widespread recognition for his book Structural Geology, published in 1913, which was the first textbook on this subject.
[Biography from C.K. Leith Fund website, University of Wisconsin-Madison]