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Strange, Davison, Thompson and Griffiths Families

  • sdtgfamilies
  • Family
  • 1860-2003

These papers were created by families of Theodore Strange, Andrew Davison, Thompson and Mary Ann Griffiths. Theodore Strange married Mary Ann Griffiths and together they had four children, Nita, Ella, Sims, and George. Strange worked in Winnipeg for a short while to earn money to buy land for a farm and relocated his family to Green Ridge in 1878. Theodore Strange died in October 1879 of pneumonia and complications from injuries received during the U.S. civil war.

The following year, the widowed Mary Ann Strange married Andrew Davison of Green Ridge. They had five more children, Mary, Llewie, Lizzie, Bill and Bert. Andrew Davison died in 1933 and Mary Ann in 1936; the farm was bequeathed to Bert and Bill Davison, neither of whom married. Upon their deaths, Theo Stancel Strange, the son of Sims Strange, inherited the farms. Lizzie married Thompson and had a daughter Edith Thompson. Edith lived on the farm most of her life.

Turner, D. Harold

  • turner_dh
  • Person

Born and educated in Winnipeg, D. Harold Turner taught speech, drama and children's literature in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. He was active in the Manitoba Festival of Arts as a committee chairman and adjudicator and in the Manitoba Historical Society and Drama League. He received the Centennial Medal for his contribution to drama in the Manitoba community. It was for his contribution to children's literature that D. Harold Turner will be remembered. His first publication, To Hang A Rebel, was a Children's Book Centre choice in 1978. He later published Quips and Cranks of George Ashton (1978) and Atomic Archers: Target Terror (1983).

Perkins, Kenn

  • perkins_k
  • Person
  • 1942-2022

Kenn Perkins was born May 29,1942. He completed high school at Miles Macdonell Collegiate and attended the University of Manitoba’s School of Art in the early 1960s. After leaving university, Perkins worked for four years in the camera department at Eaton’s where he gained knowledge about photography equipment. Perkins also took a summer job at Phillips - Gutkin and Associates Ltd., (PGA) where he painted animation cells and learned about animation from some of the highly regarded animators working there. During this time, he also constructed his first animation stand at home. He passed away on August 2, 2022.

Around 1968, Perkins began working at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature (now called the Manitoba Museum) writing and animating a film called “A Brief History of Astronomy.” The film was nominated for best Animated Short in the Canadian Film Awards.

After leaving the Manitoba Museum, Perkins took a six-week internship at the National Film Board of Canada in Montréal. When he returned to Winnipeg, he started Kenn Perkins Animation Limited (KPA) and concentrated on creating animated TV commercials (using classical animation techniques: inked and painted-on cells and shot on film). The business grew quickly and took on large customers such as K-Tel. The commercials produced by KPA began to win awards and receive recognition across Canada.

By about 1973, KPA was awarded contracts to create animated French segments to replace the Spanish content on Sesame Street. Throughout the 1970s, KPA became responsible for the majority of Canadian content for Sesame Street. To keep up with demand, Perkins actively recruited and trained animators to work for his company. Some of these animators went on to distinguish themselves at the highest levels, for example, Cordell Baker and Chris Hinton have been nominated for Academy Awards and several others moved on to successful careers at Spielberg’s DreamWorks,Warner Bros., Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Electronic Arts or became independent filmmakers.

KPA developed into a full service production company offering creative services and production of animation, live action, computer animation and graphic design. KPA was an early adopter of motion control robotics (computer controlled cameras), digital editing, VFX (visual Effects) and various combinations of those individual disciplines. In the 1980s, KPA became the sixth user worldwide of SoftImage (even before Disney used it). In 1994, KPA became known as Commvergence, and although it has reduced its production services it offers creative services like Graphic Design and Website design.

Hughes, Kenneth James

  • hughes
  • Person
  • 1932-2013

Kenneth James Hughes was born in 1932 in England. He was an artist, scholar, author, and professor of English at St. John's College, University of Manitoba. His books include "Signs of Literature: Language, Ideology and the Literary Text", biographies of Canadian artists Jackson Beardy and Kelly Clark, as well as work on Manitoba writers and artists, including Tony Tascona. Hughes died July 23, 2013 in Winnipeg at the age of 80.

T.B. Roberton

  • roberton_t
  • Person
  • 1879-1936

Thomas B. Roberton was born in Glasgow in 1879, where he worked as a printer in his youth. In 1910, Roberton left Scotland for Canada, settling first in Alberta and then in British Columbia for a time. In order to support his small family, Roberton held a variety of jobs, working by turns as a farmer, market gardener, worker in lumber camps, and printer. When Roberton moved to Winnipeg in 1916, he found a job as a writer and compositor for the Labour weekly The Voice where he worked until joining the staff at the Free Press in 1918. Over the next eighteen years, Roberton not only became assistant editor-in-chief at the Free Press, but gained national acclaim for his contributions to the newspaper’s editorial page. As well as writing well-received editorial columns on a variety of subjects, Roberton published The Fighting Bishop (1925), a book about the life of John Strachan, the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. Although nationally known for his writing, Roberton was a shy and private man, who spent his spare time going to films and listening to nautical yarns at the Cutty Shark Club. After Roberton’s sudden passing from stroke in January 1936, The MacMillan Company of Canada published a volume of his newspaper articles with the title T.B.R.: Newspaper Pieces. This volume, put together by Roberton’s long time colleague J.B. McGeachy, was a great success and was awarded the prize offered by Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada, for the best prose work other than fiction published in Canada in 1936. The award was accepted in Toronto by Roberton’s son George. A second volume of Roberton’s newspaper articles was printed by MacMillan in 1937 under the title A Second Helping of Newspaper Pieces.

Leroux, Scott

  • Person
  • 1988-2016

Leroux was born to Doug and Janice Leroux on February 16, 1988 in The Pas, Manitoba. Leroux’s creativity began at an early age, creating cartoon strips, Lego stop motion films and taught himself to play several instruments, most notably the bass and organ.  Scott Leroux was an artist of various art forms. and studied Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art from 2007-2014 graduating with honours. To help finance his studies Leroux planted trees during the summers, which would serve as inspiration in his art.   

While at the U of M, Leroux co-founded Chesterfield, a magazine dedicated to highlighting student art at the University of Manitoba. He dedicated himself to Chesterfield while helping run the operations. Leroux had a hand in everything from creating call adverts for student art, to layouts and editing, to acquiring funding through grants and ad space. His art works include photography, music, poetry, painting, music videos, films, mixed media art and scores. Leroux was incredibly involved in his community and much of his work is collaborative. He played with and jammed in several Winnipeg based bands, such as Uncanny Valley Girls and Savant Flaneur. Leroux was well known for often lending a helping hand to friends and other local artists in need of assistance with a project.   

Leroux’s art works have been put on display at the CSACE Gallery, The Edge Gallery, Aceartinc and Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts and published on the websites: Bandcamp, YouTube, Instagram, BlogSpot, Vimeo, SoundCloud.  

Scott Leroux passed away suddenly due to a heart condition on October 29, 2016 in Winnipeg. He was 28 years old.   

Delta Marsh Field Station

  • dmfs
  • Corporate body
  • 1960-2004

Located on the south shore of Lake Manitoba, the Delta March Field Station was a research and environmental education facility of the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Science. The Station bordered Delta Marsh which is one of the largest coastal marshes in North America, occupying approximately 18,000 hectares of land. In 1982, the marsh was officially designated as a Wetland of International Significance under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Ramsar Convention. It is also recognized provincially as a “Manitoba Heritage Marsh” and nationally as an Important Bird Area, due to the significant presence of waterfowl and neotropical migrants in the area.

Established in 1996 by Dr. Jennifer M Shay, Doctor of Philosophy in Science the Station was a member of the Organization of Biological Field Stations and the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network of Environment Canada. The property was also a part of a designated game-bird refuge and wildlife protection area, most of which was designated an ecologically significant area in 1987. The Station was based around Mallard Lodge which was a two-Storey hunting lodge built in 1932 on the estate of well-known Winnipeg athlete and businessman Donald H Bain. Mallard Lodge operated as the center of operations and housed university students doing research there. Other buildings were also constructed to be used as housing as well as for studying and analyzing data captured from the surrounding marsh. The Field Station provided students room and board, laboratory space, some general research equipment, such as boats and motors, drying ovens, power tools, bicycles, as well as data such as meteorological data from the station’s real-time climate station, plant and animal specimen. The students also had access to library books and the internet. Researchers studied different aspects of the marsh's ecosystem, as well as monitored daily weather and the water quality of Lake Manitoba. The Station was a place of education for all levels as school field trips and adult seminars and conferences were held there.

A decision was made in 2010 to only operate the Field Station during the summer as it was not considered to be financially sustainable on a year-round basis. However, after the facility sustained considerable damage in 2011 during a flood caused by unusually high-water levels on Lake Manitoba, the Station was closed permanently. Most of the buildings were demolished or hauled away in 2012.

Botar, Oliver

  • botar_o
  • Person
  • 1957-

Oliver Botar was born in Toronto of Hungarian refugee parents and raised in Northern Ontario and Edmonton. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in urban geography at the University of Alberta in Edmonton; and a Master of Science in urban and regional planning at the University of Toronto. He then completed first an MA and then a Ph.D. in art history at the University of Toronto.

He has taught modern and contemporary art and architectural history at several Canadian universities, with a focus on art in new/alternative media, Modernism between the world wars and curatorial practice. In 1996 he began teaching modern art history at the University of Manitoba and was appointed Professor in 2011. His research, writing and exhibition curating have focused on early-to-mid-20th-century art, architecture, photography and media art, with particular emphases on the early 20th-century Hungarian avant-garde. The nexus of Biocentrism and Modernism and the art and ideas of László Moholy-Nagy have been focuses throughout his career. He has lectured and has curated exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan.

He has published numerous articles, encyclopedia articles and book chapters and has held several major research grants and fellowships, including SSHRC Insight grants, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal and the Institut für Literaturwissenschaft in Berlin. His other books and exhibitions include: Technical Detours: The Early Moholy-Nagy Reconsidered, shown at and published by The Graduate Center – CUNY, 2006 and the Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs, as well as the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest; Biocentrism and Modernism (Isabel Wünsche, co-editor), Ashgate, 2011; and Sensing the Future: Moholy-Nagy, Media and the Arts, shown at Plug In ICA Winnipeg and at the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin in 2014-15. An accompanying book was published in English and German editions by Lars Müller in Zurich. At the Winnipeg Art Gallery he curated Starting with Rodin in 2016-17. He has also worked on Canadian art, publishing A Bauhäusler in Canada: Andor Weininger in the 50s (2009), An Art at the Mercy of Light: Works by Eli Bornstein (2013), and several articles, including an article for two exhibition publications at the McMichael Canadian Art Centre. He has been invited to contribute many lectures and articles in 2019, the centennial year of the founding of the Bauhaus, and curated the exhibition “Bauhaus (Canada) 101” at the University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery in 2020.

He has been involved with Hungarian Studies since the 1980s, and is past President of the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada. He is currently working on a book on art in Winnipeg/Treaty One Territory. Botar lives and works in Winnipeg.

Loxley, John

  • loxley_j
  • Person
  • 1942-2020

John Loxley was a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba. Loxley was a prominent economist, published extensively in the areas of community economic development, international development, and international monetary finance. He was concerned primarily with alternative economic theory and policy. His publications consist of fifteen books, and over one hundred and fifty papers and reports. He also served, in various capacities, on the following editorial boards: Journal of Development Policy and Practice, Journal of Developing Areas, Review of African Political Economy, Studies in Political Economy, Internet Journal of African Studies, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Canadian Dimension magazine, and Uchumi.

John Loxley was born in Sheffield, England in 1942 into a large working class family. He completed a Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) in Economics (1963) and a Ph.D. in Economics (1966) at the University of Leeds in England. His Ph.D. dissertation is entitled “The Development of the East African Monetary and Financial System, 1950-1964.” In the mid-1960s, he began his academic career as a lecturer in the Economics Department at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, during which time he also served as a research manager and an economist for the National Bank of Commerce Tanzania while performing duties as director of the Department of Economics and Planning at the Institute of Finance in Tanzania.

Loxley immigrated to Canada in 1975 to take the appointment of Secretary (Deputy Minister) of the Resource and Economic Development Sub-Committee for the Province of Manitoba. In July of 1977, he began teaching in the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba where he later served as head of the department (1984 to 1997) as well as the coordinator of Research, Global Political Economy Program for the Faculty of Arts (2002-present). In June 2014, he was appointed a part-time executive coordinator position on the Premier’s Advisory Council for Education, Poverty and Citizenship, while continuing to teach and advise Ph.D. students at the University of Manitoba, and fulfill his position as a lead researcher for the Manitoba Research Alliance (MRA) Partnership for Change project.

Over the span of his career, Loxley has served as economic advisor to governments in Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique, Manitoba, and during the incoming presidency of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. He also acted as an advisor for a number of international policy institutions, such as the African Capacity Building Foundation. In 2005, Loxley became a Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada. He received numerous awards and recognitions for his teaching, academic performance, and services to the broader community, such as the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Distinguished Service Award in 2008 and the Galbraith Prize in Economics and Social Justice by the Progressive Forum in 2010. In 2002, a symposium was held in his honour at the University of Manitoba, “Governance and Adjustment in an Era of Globalization: An International Symposium in Honour of John Loxley.” In 2005, a book of essays was published, “Globalization, Neo-Conservative Policies and Democratic Alternatives: Essays in Honour of John Loxley.” His biography is listed in Who’s Who in Canada.

Loxley held a life-long membership with the Manitoba Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives (CCPA-MB), a progressive policy organization that he collaborated with on numerous studies. He was the coordinator of the first Alternative Federal Budget in Canada and the first Alternative Provincial Budget in Manitoba. Loxley was a key founder and principal investigator of a $2.5 million SSHRC partnership grant with CCPA-MB that collaborates with academic researchers, inner-city and Aboriginal organizations, and government partners in Manitoba to examine community economic development, poverty and social exclusion in inner-city and Aboriginal communities. In addition, he was an expert witness for the First Nations Child and Family Society of Canada in a case before the Canadian Human Rights Commission on the underfunding of services to First Nations communities. He served as chair or an executive member on numerous board of directors in Manitoba, such as: Pollock’s Hardware Co-op Ltd (a community owned Winnipeg store), Ogijiita Pimatiswin Kinamatwin (“OPK” is an Aboriginal Youth Housing Renovation Project for ex-inmates), SEED Winnipeg (a community-based micro-lending institution), CHO!CES - A Coalition for Social Justice, the Society for Manitobans with Disabilities, Oxfam, the Manitoba Anti-Apartheid Coalition, and Manitoba Hydro.

According to an interview conducted by ARP Books with Loxley, his political awakening happened in a series of stages, beginning with his experiences and upbringing in industrial England where he learned to associate with the causes of labour, reject Conservative policy, and understand the purposes of the colonial liberation struggle. Later, he was introduced to progressive economics at the University of Leeds, a radical department in the 1960s. However, he explained that it was during his work in Africa (Tanzania and Mozambique) where he truly “discovered what radical politics and social and economic transformation were about.” In Africa, he was a part of the attempts to build socialism in the 1960s and 1970s, and it was also at this time that a series of banking reforms he proposed were implemented. Since then, Loxley has influenced policy and development in Canada and abroad, and as of 2014, he continued to actively work in-community with various stakeholders in the community, academe, and government to produce progressive policy change.

Loxley passed away on July 28, 2020.

Walz, Eugene P.

  • walz_g
  • Person
  • 1942-

Eugene (Gene) P. Walz was a professor in the Department of English and Film Studies Programme at the University of Manitoba. He was born on October 17, 1942 and graduated from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York in 1964. In 1966, he completed an M.A. at Indiana University and, in 1975, a Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts.

He started his teaching career at Frostburg (Maryland) State College in 1966 and became a part-time lecturer and teaching assistant at the University of Massachusetts in 1970. Gene Walz moved to Winnipeg in 1974, and became Head of the Film Studies Programme at the University of Manitoba. At the University of Manitoba, he also held the posts of Associate Head, Department of English (1983-1985), and Provost, University College (1997-2004).

Gene Walz is a writer, editor, consultant, filmmaker and a member of many professional societies and community advisory boards in the film industry. He was a member and president (1993-1995) of the Film Studies Association of Canada (1977-1995); a member of the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association (1987-1993; the Winnipeg Film Group (1982-1987); and Film Training Manitoba (1998-present?), plus many others.

Gene Walz is an author of many books and essays on film history and filmmakers. He published a book about a famous Manitoba Icelandic animator Charles Thorson, “Cartoon Charlie: the life and art of Charles Thorson” (1998), and edited two books on film history: “Flashback: people and institutions in Canada Film Industry" (1986), and “One Man’s documentary: a memoir about National Film Board” by G. McInnes (2004). As an authority on the Canadian film industry, Gene Walz also published many essays including, “Canadian and Manitoba films and filmmakers” and "Canada’s best features: critical essays”.

The famous French director, Francois Truffaut had always fascinated Gene Walz, who closely followed his artistic career over the years. His interest in Truffaut resulted in the publication of a reference book titled, “Francois Truffaut: a guide to reference” (1982).

As a writer and filmmaker, Walz never wanted to be viewed as just a critic of others in the film profession, but to actively engage in producing his own films. Writing the script for and directing “The Washing Machine”, a half-hour comedy-drama (story written by David Arnason), was a way to create his own work and experience the satisfaction of seeing his production from start to finish.

When the University of Manitoba School of Music staged the musical “You Can’t Beat Fun” (2002), Walz accepted the role of “President of Swingmore” and participated in the play as a cast member.

Professor Gene Walz retired from teaching at the University of Manitoba in 2012, and is very active on many film committees and advisory boards.

Peterson, Thomas E.

  • peterson_t
  • Person

Thomas E. Peterson was appointed professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba in 1976.

Frantic Films

  • franticfilms
  • Corporate body
  • 1997-

Frantic Films is a Winnipeg and Toronto based film company which produces films and television productions. It was founded in 1997 by Ken Zorniak and Chris Bond, who made an immediate impact working for Proctor & Gamble. In 1998 the company began creating CGI effects to replicate storms for Stephen Kings Storm of the Century. In 1999 their work on this production garnered them an Emmy nomination for visual effects which elevated the company’s profile. In 2000, Jamie Brown joined the company from Credo Entertainment becoming CEO and Executive producer. After the immense success of the series Pioneer Quest: A Year in the Real West a live action division was formed. In 2001 the company contributed the “Ventura Bank Explosion” sequence to the movie Swordfish, and this scene became the companies‘ calling card. Continuing the immense success of the Quest series Quest for the Bay became the highest rated series for the History channel in 2002.

Frantic’s VFX division worked on blockbuster film X2: X-Men United in 2003, while the live action division continued its streak of success with Klondike: The Quest for Gold earning further network topping ratings and rave reviews. Also, in 2003 Jeff Peeler assumed the role of Vice-President and headed the commercial division while the company expanded internationally to Los Angeles. As well, Jamie Brown earned a Lions Gate Innovative Producers Award. The company’s fluid dynamics software Flood was key for creating the Tar Monster in the 2004 movie Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. 2006 was an incredibly busy year which saw the company work on Superman Returns, Poseidon, X-Men: The Last Stand, Silent Hill, and Idlewild. Frantic’s television show Till Debt Do Us Part earned a Gemini Award for Best Lifestyle/Practical Information earning more praise for the liver action division. Two other television series earned Gemini nominations including Bomber Boys: The Flying Lancaster (Best Reality Series), and Ken Leishman: The Flying Bandit (Best Biography Documentary). Four other series premiered that year including Music Rising, Almost Legal, Devil’s Brigade, and Guinea Pig. Guinea Pig premiered on Discovery Channel to immensely high ratings earning a second season culminating in a strong year for both Frantic’s film and television endeavors.

The busy year paid off as in 2007 Frantic Films received two Academy Awards nominations for Visual Effects based on their work on Superman Returns and Poseidon. By 2008 Till Debt Do Us Part was still immensely successful as its 6th and 7th season are ordered. Guinea Pig continued its streak of success earning a third season. CEO Jamie Brown was honored with the Canadian Film and Television Production Association Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Till Debt Do Us Part earned another Gemini nomination. Forever Changed a production for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights earned international acclaim earning multiple Telly awards, a Cine Golden Eagle Award, a Summit award, and a DV award. Frantic expanded by acquiring Red Apple Entertainment adding over 150 hours of complete programming, and three shows in development. By 2009 Guinea Pig earns a Banff Television Festival Rockie Award. The animation team led by Bill Stewart contributed to the short film Runaway, the short receives numerous awards including the Petit Rail d’Or at the International Critics week in Cannes. By 2010, Frantic continued its streak of success as Todd & the Book of Pure Evil became the highest rated original premiere ever on the Space Network. The work also becomes a cult classic in the city Winnipeg where it was filmed. Frantic continued its success and it was in 2011 that the company decided to donate the archives from its productions to the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections. This included material from the companies’ founding until what was at that time the present day.

Since the donation in 2011 Frantic has continued to produce content. Todd & the Book of Pure Evil continued its stellar run into 2013 winning numerous awards. In 2012 the documentary The 13th Man became the highest rated documentary in the history of TSN, and it won the Canadian Screen Awards Best History of Biography Document Program or Series Award. Since 2015 Frantic Films has produced Still Standing which became the highest rated Canadian comedy that summer. The show has since won six Canadian Screen awards since its premiere in 2015 and continues to air today. Since 2015, Frantic has been working with CBC to record and broadcast the famous Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and by 2018 they had produced 10 seasons for the CBC. Since premiering in 2015, the Baroness Von Sketch Show has seen immense success gathering rave reviews in both Canada and the United States. The series has won 15 Canadian Screen Awards out of 18 nominations and will end its successful run after its fifth season.

In 2017 Kew Media Group purchased Frantic Films alongside other Canadian production companies. In 2020 with Kew Media Group experiencing financial difficulties CEO Jamie Brown financed a deal to purchase the entirety of Frantic Films and continues to head the company out of Winnipeg and Toronto. For Brown this marked the beginning of a new chapter for the company, and a new vision for 2020 and beyond. The company has seen immense success in the last decade and is a notable name in the Winnipeg film/television scene and will remain so for many years to come.

Eekman, Leon John

  • eekman_l
  • Person
  • 1880-1954

Leon John Eekman was born Leendert Jeens Eekman on December 12, 1880 in Brussels, Belgium to Thomas Adam (1844-1917) and Ibeltje Eekman, whose family at some time lived in the house in Brussels where Victor Hugo wrote “Les Misérables”. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Leendert Jeen Van den Berg. He immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s, settling in Victoria, British Columbia around 1905, where he worked as a draftsman and building inspector for the city until the 1950s. He married London-born Marion Dean Holdcroft (1887-1957) on November 8, 1910 and had three children: Walter Gordon Eekman, Allison Leonie Eekman, and Marjorie Isobel Ekman. He enlisted in the Canadian Infantry in September 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, and had prior military experience in the Second Boer War. He died from bronchogenic carcinoma and pneumonia on September 25, 1954 in Victoria, B.C.

Grad, Bernard

  • grad_b
  • Person
  • 1920 - 2010

Bernard Grad (1920-2010) was born February 4, 1920 in Montréal, Québec. He spent his early years living with his mother Raizel (Rose) and his maternal grandmother until his grandmother’s death in 1932. Grad entered McGill University in 1937 through a scholarship. In January 1941, Grad was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent to a sanatorium for almost three years. He returned to McGill University in 1943. He graduated in 1944 and immediately began graduate studies in Biology. By 1949, he achieved his Ph.D. with high honors in Experimental Morphology.

In 1946, he met his future wife Lottie Dainoff. They were married in 1948. They had three children together, Julie Ann, Roland and Willis. Their first child, Julie Ann, died at age three in 1957. Roland was born in 1960 and Willis in 1962. Lottie died in 2016.

Grad had several personal experiences of “bio-energy” during his childhood and young adult life. These experiences led to his work with Wilhelm Reich. Soon after obtaining his Ph.D. in 1949, Grad met Reich in Rangeley, Maine. This visit affected Grad strongly and when he returned to Montréal he decided to run his own studies on life energy parallel to his paid research in gerontology at the Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry at McGill University. Grad continued to visit Reich up to, and including, Reich’s trial in 1956.

In 1957, Grad began experiments with the Hungarian healer Oskar Estabany. In 1960, in order to gain funding from the Parapsychology Foundation in New York, Grad was asked to replicate his experiments with Dr. Remi Cadoret of the Department of Physiology at the University of Manitoba and to publish the results. Grad continued his work in healing as well as his work in gerontology for three decades. He became known internationally as a pioneer in healing studies.

Grad retired from McGill University in 1985 and then worked at the Université du Québec with the Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie Research Centre until 1993. After his formal retirement, Grad continued lecturing and research on healing. In the several years before Grad’s death, Deborah Gagne interviewed Grad with the aim of compiling the interviews into a book. In 2015, a limited edition pre-publication proof was circulated among family and friends titled On the Road to Healing and Biogenesis: Memoirs of a Scientist. The book is currently under consideration for publication and broader distribution. Bernard Grad died December 27, 2010 in Montréal.

Subud
Soon after the death of their daughter in 1957, Grad and his wife Lottie learned about Subud, an international spiritual movement headed by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo (also known as Bapak). By 1959, they helped open a Montréal Subud chapter. As part of the Subud practice, they later took the spiritual names of Raymond and Renée. Subud was part of their lives until their deaths.

Rudnicki, Walter

  • rudnicki_w
  • Person
  • 1925-2010

Walter Rudnicki was born on September 25, 1925 in Rosser, Manitoba. He received his B.A. from the University of Manitoba (1950) and M.A. in Social Work and Community Organization from the University of British Columbia (1952). Most of his life he worked relentlessly as a public servant and private consultant to improve the lives of Canadian Aboriginal peoples.
During 1944-1946, Rudnicki was stationed overseas with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and he drew many sketches of military life. Later on in his professional career, as a consultant to aboriginal people, he used his sense of humor and cartoons in his presentations and workshops.

The first years after his graduation, Rudnicki worked with the Department of Social Services in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. In 1955, he became the Chief of Arctic Division of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) where he was responsible for implementing social programs for Inuit people. In 1963, as the Chief of Social Programs, Welfare Division of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, he was responsible for developing policies to fight poverty. Rudnicki also worked within government as Secretary of the Social Policy Committee, in the Privy Council Office (PCO), and as a senior policy advisor for Cabinet Minister Robert Andras (1968-1970). In 1969 he left the PCO and became the Executive Director of the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and advised the Minister on housing and urban development.

In 1973, Rudnicki was fired from his position at the CMHC by the director, Bill Teron, for not following "cabinet confidentiality" in showing a confidential report about housing to the Métis community, but was later vindicated and won the first wrongful dismissal suit in Canada (1983). His dismissal is thought to have been connected to issues regarding Government Security Services and the existence of a "Black list". People on the list were public servants labeled "revolutionary" with left-wing beliefs who allegedly posed a danger to the Canadian Government.

After his dismissal in 1973 Rudnicki worked as a consultant to the Department of Health and Social Development, Province of Manitoba (1974-1977). In 1983, Clerk of the PCO Gordon Osbaldeston and Daniel Coates initiated the process of re-hiring Walter Rudnicki back into an appropriate position within the Federal Government. Rudnicki was hired by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to work on program planning and policy development. After 1977, Rudnicki was President of the Policy Development Group Limited (PDG), a private consulting firm that worked with prominent aboriginal leaders.

Rudnicki, as a public servant and a private consultant, worked with both the Government and aboriginal people and identified problems with their relationship. He passed away on March 7, 2010 in Ottawa. Walter Rudnicki (Eagle Shield) was a passionate advocate for aboriginal rights in Canada.

Gély, Gabriel

  • gely_g
  • Person
  • 1924 - 2020

Gabriel Gély was an artist and photographer. His artistic subjects primarily are Inuit and Inuit communities. Gély also played a pioneering role as a government advisor and promotor of Inuit art.

Gély was born in Paris, France on May 20, 1924. From 1942 to 1945, he was active in the French underground. After the war, in the late 1940s, Gély became fascinated with the Canadian Arctic and Inuit artefacts and, in 1952, he travelled to Canada to pursue this interest. By 1953, he was working for the Department of Transport (DOT) as a cook in Kanngiqtugaapik (Clyde River), Baffin Island.

From 1956 to 1960, Gély worked in several locations in southern Canada and the US for camera stores and photography companies. He then took a position with the National Museum in Ottawa as a museologist for their Arctic materials. From 1963 to 1988, Gély worked in various positions in northern communities in close relationship with Inuit.

Gély began painting as a self-taught artist while still living in France. He continued his artistic practice in Canada and became known for his portrayals of northern peoples. Gély's artwork can be found in private and government collections such as the Glenbow Foundation, the Imperial Oil Collection, the governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories, the Mendel Gallery in Saskatoon, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, and the Nunavut Legislative Building in Iqaluit and it has been shown in galleries in the North and across Canada.

While a youth in France, Gély purchased his first camera. During his time in Canada, Gély owned several other cameras. He took hundreds of photographs of Inuit documenting their daily lives and learned to develop the film himself. His photographic collection spans over 30 years from 1954 to 1987 and records life in many northern communities.

Gély died at his home in Selkirk, Manitoba on November 27, 2020.

Neville, William

  • neville_w
  • Person
  • 1940-

William Franklin Wymark Neville is a scholar and a politician. He was born on September 15, 1940, in Winnipeg Manitoba. Neville attended the University of Manitoba as a student, during which he served as president of the Student’s Union, until 1963, when he received a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree. He went on to read philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University as a Commonwealth and Rhodes Scholar. He graduated from Oxford with a B.A. in 1966 and a M.A. in 1971.

After Oxford, Neville became a professor in the departments of politics and history at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where he was also a founding member of the Canadian Studies Program.

Neville went on to serve as a research and administrative assistant to the Manitoba Deputy Minister of Labour for several short periods between 1963 and 1965; and in 1969 and 1970 Neville worked with former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on the Diefenbaker papers in the National Archives.

Neville returned to Manitoba to act as Chief of Staff to provincial Conservative leader, Sidney Spivak (then leader of the Opposition in the Manitoba Legislature), but after a bitter leadership battle, which saw Sterling Lyon emerge as party leader in 1975, and although Neville had the distinction of being the youngest delegate to the leadership convention (which chose John G. Diefenbaker as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1956), Neville decided to pursue an academic career rather than a political one.

However, while Chairman of the Winnipeg Public Library Commission, a battle with City Council over a plan to establish an independent citizen board stirred him to enter civic politics. With the support of the now-disbanded Independent Citizen's Election Committee (ICEC) behind him, Neville won the Tuxedo Heights ward in a 1979 by-election gaining more than four times as many votes as his two independent opponents combined.

Between the years of 1979 and 1989, as a city councillor, Neville chaired two important ad hoc committees on freedom of information and helped to introduce a greater measure of openness to a secretive city government. He rose to become one of the more influential members of council as a member of the powerful Executive Policy Committee from 1980 to 1982 and again from 1983 to 1986, when he voluntarily withdrew. In late 1988 he removed himself further from the decision-making centre by leaving the city's informal ruling caucus, the Independent Caucus, after a disagreement over the urban limit line against development. He was re-elected by acclamation in 1980 and 1983 and in a contested election in 1986 Neville represented the ward until his withdrawal from politics in 1989.

Neville also taught at the University of Manitoba as an Associate Professor in Political Studies from 1976 until his retirement in 2005. He has also been Assistant to the Vice-President (1976-1982), University Coordinator of Canadian Studies (1978-1982), Assistant to the President (1982-1996), Head of the Department of Political Studies, and Acting Head of Native Studies. Following his retirement in 2005, Neville was named a Senior Scholar in political studies.

During his time as city councillor, Neville also chaired the city’s Historic Buildings Committee (1980-1989), later serving as chair of the Manitoba Heritage Council (1989-2001), and as the Manitoba member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (1996-2004).

In 2001, Neville received the Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Campbell Award for University Outreach for "Enlarging and enriching relations between the University and the community". In 2002, he was awarded the Lieutenant-Governor's Medal for Excellence in Public Administration “in recognition for over 40 years of distinctive leadership in public administration" (selected by the Manitoba Branch of the Institute of Public Administration in Canada). He twice received Heritage Winnipeg's distinguished Service Award, and in 2006, he received the Gabrielle Leger Award, presented by the Heritage Canada Foundation "for services to the nation in the field of heritage conservation".

Currently, Neville is the author of a number of essays, chapters in various books, has written extensively for the Winnipeg Free Press and other periodicals, and is an occasional broadcast commentator on political issues for CBC Radio and Television.

Maynard, Fredelle

  • maynard_f
  • Person
  • 1915-1992

Fredelle Maynard (nee Bruser) was a journalist, public speaker, and academic. She was born in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan in 1922 to Boris and Rona Bruser (nee Slobinsky). Raised in rural Saskatchewan and Manitoba, at the age of nine she moved with her parents and older sister, Celia, to Winnipeg, Manitoba. After completing public school in Winnipeg, Maynard entered the University of Manitoba, where she graduated with and Honors B.A. (English) in 1943. She continued her education at the University of Toronto, obtaining her M.A. (English) in 1944. Maynard then moved to Boston, Massachusetts where she attended Radcliffe College (Harvard University). She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1947 with a Ph.D. in English Literature. During her stellar academic career, Maynard received many awards including: the Governor General's Gold Medal (1942); Arts Gold Medal (1943); Canadian Federation of University Women Fellowship (1943-44); Flavelle Fellowship, University of Toronto (1943-44); Whitney Fellowship, Radcliffe College (1946-48); Warkman Fellowship, Radcliffe College (1945-46, 1946-47).

Maynard began her professional career in 1945 as an English tutor and Radcliffe College, a position she held until 1947. From 1947 to 1948 she was an Instructor in English at Wellesley College. In 1948, Maynard accepted a position as Instructor in English at the University of New Hampshire where her husband was a professor. Due to a university policy that forbade spouses from working in the same department, Maynard's contract was not renewed.

Discouraged but not defeated, Maynard began a successful journalism career that would span four decades. She wrote about education, child care and development, health and medicine, and family relationships. Over the years, Maynard contributed to many publications, both popular and scholarly, including: Good Housekeeping; Ladies Home Journal; Parents'; The New Republic; Family Circle; Woman's Day; Chatelaine; Saturday Evening Post; Reader's Digest; Studies in Philology; the American Association of University Professors Bulletin; University of Toronto Quarterly; the Manitoba Arts Review; the Malahat Review; the Kenyon Review; Scholastic Teacher and many others. In the 1960s and 1970s, Maynard was a ghost writer for Good Housekeeping, writing both the Dr. Joyce Brothers column and the popular column, "My Problem and How I Solved It."

Maynard also managed to continue with a teaching career despite her earlier setback. She was appointed as a Lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire Department of Continuing Education in 1952, and in 1960-1961 served as an Instructor in English at the University of New Hampshire. Maynard found her way to the public school system, and after many years of substitute teaching was appointed as the Special Teacher and Consultant, Honors English Program, Dover High School. She served in this rewarding position from 1962-1967, inspiring several young students with their writing. Maynard also served as a College Board Reader; a National Examiner in English, CEEB; a consultant in Writing, Reading and Literature, NAEP; and as a Demonstration Teacher and Lecturer at the NEDA Summer Institute for Teachers of English (University of New Hampshire).

Maynard was also noted as an excellent public speaker. She gave seminars, workshops and lectures to many groups including: Canadian Association for young children; the Association of Early Childhood Education; La Leche League; Parent Cooperative Preschools; International Childbirth Education Association; Federated Women's Institutes of Canada; and the Ontario Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, among other. Maynard spoke to these groups about what she new best: family, children, health, and education. During the 1970s and 1980s Maynard was also the initiator and host of two popular Ontario parenting shows: Parents and Children , and The Parenting Academy .

In 1972, Maynard published her memoirs, Raisins and Almonds (Doubleday, 1972). The book, about a Jewish girl growing up on the prairies, was extremely well-received by the public. It spent many weeks on the bestseller's list, and was subsequently developed into a CBC television special, a one act musical (Calgary), a full length musical (Toronto), and a full length play (Saskatoon). Raisins and Almonds was followed by Guiding Your Child to a More Creative Life (Doubleday, 1973). In 1976, Maynard was contributing editor to The Parenting Advisor . Maynard's most controversial book, The Child Care Crisis (Penguin Books 1985, paperback 1986), was published in 1985. It created an uproar in the world of child care, especially from the women's movements. However, Maynard maintained both her position and her dignity throughout the furor. Maynard's last published book, The Tree of Life(Penguin Books 1988), is a poignant reflection of her life. She writes frankly about her relationships with her mother, sister, daughters, and, most telling, with her first husband, Max Maynard. At the time of her death, Maynard was working on a book about raising creative children.

In 1948, Maynard married her former English professor, Max Maynard. Fifteen years her senior, Maynard was a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire for most of their married life. He suffered with alcoholism for the entirety of their twenty-five year marriage. They had two daughters, Rona and Joyce, both of whom have followed literary paths with their careers. Soon after the 1972 publication of Raisins and Almonds the marriage dissolved. After the divorce, Max stopped drinking and moved to British Columbia, where he became a recognized landscape painter before his death. Fredelle met Sydney Bacon, a Toronto businessman. Bacon introduced Maynard to a world she had missed, and he remained her best friend and partner until her untimely death. Maynard moved to Toronto in the mid-1970s to be near Bacon, and spent many successful years there as an author, lecturer and radio-television broadcaster.

In 1989, Maynard was diagnosed with brain cancer. Typically, instead of despairing, Maynard threw a party and married her longtime companion, Sydney Bacon, in a garden ceremony on May 28, 1989. Maynard remained active, aware and involved in life until her death on October 3, 1989 at the age of 67.

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