Showing 163 results

Authority record
Zimmerman, Adam
2003.8 · Person · 1927-2016

Adam Hartley Zimmerman, O.C., B.A., F.C.A. (1927 - 2016 ) was born in Toronto. From 1930 to 1941 he lived with his family in Youngstown and Niagara Falls, New York while his father worked with the Moore Corporation as a mining engineer. Adam moved back to Ontario to complete junior high school and attended Upper Canada College from 1938-40, Ridley College from 1940-44, the Royal Canadian Naval College 1944-46, and Trinity College, University of Toronto, 1946-50. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in General Arts with a major in Philosophy in 1950. He also served six years in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve rising to the ranks of lieutenant.

After graduation and a brief term with Proctor Gamble, Zimmerman decided to join Clarkson Gordon (now Ernst & Young), as a student-in-accounts from 1950-54; received his CA and worked as a Chartered Accountant (1956) and Audit Supervisor, 1956-58. Mr. Zimerman then joined Noranda Inc. first serving as an Assistant Comptroller at Noranda Mines (1958-61), and then Comptroller (1961-1966). He subsequently became Vice President and Comptroller (1966-1974), Executive Vice President (1974-1982), President and CEO (1982-87), Vice Chairman of Noranda Inc. (1987-1992), as well as CEO, Noranda Forest Inc. (1987-1991), Chairman (1987-1993), and Director (1987-1994), as well as Chairman (1983-1990) and Vice Chairman (1990-1993) of MacMillan Bloedel after it was acquired by Noranda Forests Inc. Zimmerman also served as an independent director of Algoma Steel and as a foreign director at Royal Dutch Paper Mills (when MB was a dominant shareholder). Zimmerman retired from Noranda Inc. in 1994.

Mr. Zimmerman has served on over 40 private and public sector boards throughout his career including directorships on the following Northwood Pulp and Timber Ltd.; Confederation Life Insurance Co.; The Toronto Dominion Bank; Battery Technologies Inc.; Economic Investment Trust; Maple Leaf Foods Inc.; The Pittston Co.; Southam Inc; and Hydro One (2002- ). He has had had many professional affiliations during his career including with: C.D. Howe Institute (Former Chairman & Dir.); Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (Fellow); Canadian Pulp & Paper Association (former Chairman); Canadian Forest Industries Council (former Chairman); University of Toronto, Faculty of Forestry (Advisory Board.); The Hospital for Sick Children (Honorary Trustee); The Hospital for Sick Children Foundation (Director); Roy Thomson Hall (Director); World Wildlife Fund Canada (Executive Committee); Zeta Psi; York Club; Toronto Golf Club; Craigleith Ski Club; Madawaska Club.

Publications: Who’s in Charge Here, Anyway?: reflections from a life in business, (Don Mills, Ontario: Stoddart; Distributed in Canada by General Distribution Services), 1997.

HONOURS: Distinguished Business Alumni Award, Univ. of Toronto, 1992; LL.D. (Hon), Royal Roads Military College; D.S.L., Trinity University, Toronto. Member of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Forestry; a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario; Past Chairman, Canadian American Committee; and board positions with the Mining Association of Canada; Canadian Forest Industries Council; Canadian Pulp and Paper Association and with Zeta Psi.

Wyness, Gordon Young
Person · September 16, 1912 - July 7, 2004

Gordon Young Wyness was born in Vancouver on September 16, 1912, to Gordon Armstrong and Emma Sanders Wyness. He had two older sisters, Frances Dorothy and Margaret Jean. After living in Vancouver and Winnipeg, in 1918 the family settled in Plenty, Saskatchewan, a town near Saskatoon that served the local farming community and where the elder Gordon Wyness owned the general store from 1918 to 1935.

In 1929, he completed high school and went on to study at the University of Saskatchewan, graduating with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1934. Following graduation, he could not find employment because of the Great Depression. He worked in his father's store until the business was sold in 1935, at which point he moved to Vancouver.

Between June 5 and October 8, 1936, he was employed by Philip M. Monckton, a B.C. Land Surveyor. His degree in mechanical engineering gave him qualifications for this type of work. As far as is known, triangulation surveys in northwestern B.C. were the focus of the work. The survey crew stayed in various locations including Burns Lake, Francoise Lake, Prince George, Quesnel, Pioneer Ranch (owned by the McInnes family and located in North Bulkley near Hazelton), and Vanderhoof areas. From photographs taken by Gordon Wyness, it seems that the crew led by Philip M. Monckton consisted of Jack Lee and Gordon Wyness. Wyness can be easily identified in these photographs due to his height of six feet four and a half inches. Monckton's wife, Lavender Monckton (nee O'Hara), also accompanied the group.

In 1937, after seriously considering becoming a pupil to Land Surveyor Philip Monckton, Wyness found employment in the standards department of Burns and Co. He worked in Burns's Calgary and Edmonton locations before being appointed head of the standards department in Vancouver. His time with Burns gave him both management experience and an understanding of the meat industry.

On May 31, 1941, he married Alison Reid and in June the couple moved to Brownsburg, Quebec, where he had accepted a job with the Dominion Ammunition Division of Canadian Industries Ltd. His positions between 1941 and 1945 were special assistant to the production superintendent, special assistant to the assistant works manager and supervisor of the process and product improvement and rate control department.

As the end of the war approached, Wyness explored other career opportunities. After considering various options, he decided to accept his father-in-law's proposal that he take over the management of James Inglis Reid Ltd., which he did in the fall of 1945. This family ham curing and provisions business was well established in Vancouver. Its slogan 'we hae meat that ye can eat' and reputation for quality products with a Scottish flavour including haggis, was well known in Vancouver and beyond. For example, F. W. Bunton who owned Fraser River Hardware in Prince George regularly ordered cured ham and bacon sent up by Greyhound bus. Wyness managed the business until it closed in 1986.

Gordon Wyness passed away on July 7, 2004.

Wood, Bertha
Person · 4 June 1919 - 19 April 2000

Bertha Wood was born Bertha Schenk on June 4th 1919 to parents William and Evelyn Schenk. Growing up, she was the 2nd eldest of 10 children.

In 1942, she enlisted in the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC) and served until her discharge on September 27th, 1945. She was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and received two medals for her time in service. During her service, she drove injured soldiers in an ambulance in France.

After the war, Bertha joined the Shaw Business School in Toronto, where she was educated in secretarial work. After completing her education, Bertha married James Wood on June 1st, 1951. Bertha worked at several locations in South River, ON and Toronto as a secretary, including the Robert Duncan Printing Company and Williamson, Shiach, Sales, Gibson & Middleton Chartered Accountants. In 1977, James and Bertha opened up the Lucky Dollar Food Market in South River, Ontario, which has since closed. James and Bertha had no children; they lived together until James’ death in 1996. After the death of her husband, Bertha moved to Sechelt, B.C. where she lived with the Hughes family until her death on April 19th, 2000 at the age of 80.

Wilson, John Owen (J.O.)
Person · 1898-1985

John Owen Wilson, Q.C. was born in Nelson 7 November 1898. He moved to Prince George with his family in 1914. He worked as an office boy at his father (P.E. Wilson)'s law firm until 1915, when he enlisted. He served at the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and the Battle of Passchendaele. After working on riverboats and as a surveyor, Wilson attended the University of British Columbia. He was called to the BC Bar and returned to Prince George to practise with his father in 1922. He married Ruth Pine in December of that same year. Wilson served as Secretary of the Board of Trade of Prince George and of the Agricultural Association in the following years. He also became involved with the Liberal Party of BC, serving as campaign manager for first Harry Perry and then Gray Turgeon. Wilson was appointed to the County Court of Cariboo 13 January 1939, and subsequently moved with his wife and three children to Ashcroft. As Cariboo County Judge, Wilson held court in Quesnel, Wells, Barkerville, Williams Lake, and Lillooet. He was appointed to the BC Supreme Court in 1944,and to the BC Court of Appeal in 1962. In 1963 he became Chief Justice of the BC Supreme Court. He retired from the Bench and returned to the practice of law ten years later. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1974. He passed away in 1985, and was honoured posthumously with the Law Society Award 19 November 1992. Material donated to the Archives by R.H. Guile who was J.O. Wilson's nephew ; he worked at Russell & DuMoulin with Wilson for ten years

Williston, Ray Gillis
2000.13 · Person · 1914-2006

Ray Williston (1914-2006) was principal of the Prince George Junior-Secondary School and a school inspector for the Prince George/Peace River area from 1945 to 1953. In 1953 he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Prince George and served as Minister of Education from 1954 – 1956 and Minister of Lands and Forests from 1956 – 1972 in the B.C. Social Credit government under Premier W.A.C. Bennett. In the latter role he encouraged the development of a pulp economy from unused forest resources in the interior of B.C. in conjunction with government hydro-electric projects. After leaving government he became Chair and President of the British Columbia Cellulose Company and held a number of directorships in B.C. and New Brunswick. In addition he did consulting for the Canada International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Williston Lake in Northern British Columbia is named in his honour.

Weller, Jean
Person · [19-?]-

Jean Weller was the wife of Dr. Geoffrey R. Weller, the founding president of UNBC.

Weller, Geoffrey R.
Person · 1942-2000

Originally from the U.K., Geoffrey R. Weller was born in 1942. He graduated high school in England in 1960 and then spent an additional year at Ann Arbor High School in Michigan, graduating a second time in 1961. Weller pursued a BSc in Economics at the University of Hull, graduating in 1964, and a master degree in Political Science at McMaster University, completing a thesis titled “Some Contemporary American Views of Democracy and the Third World: A Critical Appraisal” in 1967. He went on to hold teaching positions at Bishop’s University (1965-1971) and Lakehead University (1971-1990). At Lakehead University, Weller also became the Dean of Arts (1984-1985) and Vice-President (Academic) (1985-1990). Over the course of his career, Weller obtained visiting professor positions at: the University of Minnesota, Duluth (1973), the University of Ottawa (1977-1978), and Simon Fraser University (1995) and taught a summer course at Laurentian University (1979). Over his teaching career, Weller taught courses in Canadian politics, public policy, and comparative politics. In 1991, Weller became the founding president of the University of Northern British Columbia and held this position until 1995 when he stepped down and began teaching in the department of International Studies.

Weller’s early research pertained to Canadian labor relations, working first as a researcher for the Federal Task Force on Labor Relations in 1967 and subsequently pursuing an academic research project titled "Trade Unions and Political Change in the Province of Quebec 1921-1972.” In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Weller’s research turned to health policy in Canada and worldwide. From 1975 to 1980, Weller worked on his doctoral dissertation at McGill University titled “The Development of Health Policy in Ontario.” Though he ultimately never finished this degree, Weller published several papers on similar topics during this time, including: “From ‘Pressure Group Politics’ to ‘Medical Industrial Complex’: The Development of Approaches to the Politics of Health” (1980), “The Determinants of Canadian Health Policy” (1980), “The Conflict of Values and Goals in the Canadian Health Care System” (1978), and "Hygeia Versus Asclepius: Conflict within the Ontario Health Care System" (1979). Other projects on health policy in the 1980s included Weller’s research on the Canada Health Act of 1984 and collaboration with his colleague Pranlal Manga on a project looking at politics and health care in South Africa in 1983. Weller continued to conduct research on health policy into the 1990s.

Overlapping with his work on health policy, Weller explored politics and development in the Circumpolar North. From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, he engaged in several projects examining local government in the North and provincial ministries of northern affairs. Specific publications included: "Local Government in the Canadian Provincial North" (1980), "The Evolution of Local Government in Northern Ontario" (1980), "Provincial Ministries of Northern Affairs: A Comparative Analysis" (1982), and “Local Government Development in the Yukon and Northwest Territories” (1983). Later in the 1980s, Weller conducted research on politics in Ontario, publishing a 1988 paper titled “The North in the Ontario Election of 1987.” This interest in government and development in the circumpolar north reemerges in Weller’s work in the 1990s with an emphasis on economic development, seen in the publications “Regional and Economic Development in the Circumpolar North: early 90s to 2000” (2000) and “Economic Development Initiatives in the Circumpolar North: A Comparative Analysis” (1999).

Weller’s research interests in health policy and northern studies also overlap in many projects. Specifically, from 1983 to 1991, Weller’s research on health policy turned to examine health care in the circumpolar north. During this period, Weller held government appointments and community service positions on the Advisory Committee for the Health Promotion and Prevention Project of the Ontario Council of Health (1983-1984), the study advisory group for the Study on Health and Social Service Professionals in Northern Ontario (1989-1990), and the Thunder Bay District Health Council (1983-1988), on which he was also chairman (1986-1988). Research conducted in these roles dovetailed with academic research projects, including "The Politics of Health in the Circumpolar North” (1987) "The Delivery of Health Care to Underserviced Areas” (1991) and "Health Care Delivery in Northern Hinterlands” (1989). During this period, some of Weller’s research also examined the transfer of health care responsibility to Canada’s northern territories and local government among First Nations groups, specifically in his papers “Self-Government for Canada's Inuit: The Nunavut Proposal” (1988), “Devolution, Regionalism and Division of the Northwest Territories” (1990), "The Devolution of Authority for Health Care Services to the Government of the Northwest Territories” (1989), and “Health Care Devolution to Canada’s Territorial North” (1990).

Weller’s research in the field of northern studies also combined with research on environmental politics, higher education, and international relations. During 1981-1988, Weller collaborated with Douglas Nord on projects pertaining to environmental issues and politics in the Great Lakes region, including two research reports funded through the state of Minnesota and the Canadian Consulate-General in Minneapolis titled “Transborder Politics and Paradiplomacy: The Ontario- Minnesota Fishing Dispute” (1987) and “Canada and the United States: An Introduction to a Complex Relationship” (1987). Weller also pursued academic research in this area including a project titled “Water Politics and Policy in the Lake Superior Basin” (1988) and another collaboration with Douglas Nord "Environmental Policy and Political Support in Canada and the United States: A Comparative Analysis” (1981).
Also holding research interests in higher education, from the late 1983 to 1998 Weller explore aspects of circumpolar universities and their effect on the surrounding regions, resulting in publications such as “Universities, Politics and Development: The Case of Northern Ontario” (1988) and “Universities, Politics and Development: Northern Ontario and Northern Sweden” (1985). Weller’s interest in northern studies combined with international studies in research concentrating on foreign policy and security in the north. Publications in this area include “The Circumpolar North and Canadian Foreign Policy” (1989) and “The Arctic as an International Community” (1992). Weller also produced publications in the late 1980s through the 1990s dealing with security and intelligence in Canada and internationally.

In 1999, Weller was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Lapland based on his work on the circumpolar north encompassing Scandinavian countries and his research collaborations with Scandinavian scholars. Geoffrey Weller passed away in 2000. His legacy includes the establishment of the Lakehead University Centre for Northern Studies, the Northern Ontario Medical Program, and the Association of Circumpolar Universities.

Walsh, Ann
Person · September 20, 1942 - present

Ann Lorraine Walsh was born to Alan Barrett and Margaret Elaine (née Clemons) on September 20, 1942 and attended school in South Africa, England, Holland and Saskatchewan before her family finally settled down in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1953. She received her Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia in 1968 and soon thereafter moved to Williams Lake with her husband, John Walsh, where she worked in a variety of teaching positions including: classroom teacher, teacher-librarian, and college instructor at the former University College of the Cariboo (now Thompson Rivers University).

Ann Walsh had always wanted to write. She wrote her first book, Your Time, My Time, in 1982 after taking a short ten-day short writing course in Wells, B.C. with writer/poet Robin Skelton. Since then she has authored numerous books for children and young adults. Several of her historical fiction novels for younger readers are set during the gold rush in BC during the 1800s. She has also published a book of poetry, was the instigator and editor of three anthologies of short stories for young adult readers, and has done many readings and workshops for all ages. Walsh’s work for adults has been heard on CBC and has appeared in newspapers and magazines, both literary and glossy, around the world. She is a winner of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Award, the Forest of Reading Golden Oak Award, and was a Canadian Library Association Notable selection. She was also shortlisted for the Forest of Reading Silver Birch Award and the B.C. Book Prize.

Walsh is a member of the Writer’s Union of Canada (since 1990), the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (since 1986), the Federation of B.C. Writers (since 1984), Director Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (since 1990), The Children’s Writers & Illustrators of B.C. (since 1989) and is a founding member of the Williams Lake Writers Group (est. 1984).

Along with writing and teaching, Ms. Walsh was also a creative writing instructor at Island Mountain Arts in the summer of 1998; community correspondent for CBC Radio’s “Almanac” from 1992-1995 and served as convocation speaker for the University College of the Cariboo in 1994.

Ms. Walsh and her husband currently live in Victoria, BC.

Tompkins, Tommy
2000.4 · Person · 1920 - 1988

Tommy Tompkins was a former RCMP officer who was best known for his television and film work in the northern Canadian wilderness. He appeared regularly on CBC Television, including the show "This Land" and had his own CBC television show, "Tommy Tompkins' Wildlife Country" which are available through the National Film Board.

“Tommy Tompkins’ Wildlife Country” was a short series of 13 half hour programs, featuring Tommy Tompkins, outdoorsman and environmentalist, which aired at various times on the CBC from January to December 1971 and then repeated from February 1972 to June 1974. “Wildlife Country” chronicled animal life in remote regions of British Columbia and the Yukon, and also documented Tompkins' own methods of survival and travel through the wilderness during the spring and summer seasons when he lived in the bush alone, travelling without a film crew and often acting as his own wildlife cinematographer for the series. This series was the spin-off of a successful television special called “Tommy Tompkins: Bushman” which aired on the CBC in 1970. The executive producer for Tommy Tompkins' Wildlife Country was Ray Hazzan and the producer Denis Hargrave.

In later years, Tompkins gave lecture tours for B.C. Hydro, Fletcher Challenge, and Alcan, where he showed his films. He travelled with his pet wolf, Nehani. Through his celebrity Tompkins gained sponsorship from McMillan Bloedel which allowed him to take his films, lectures, and conservation message to school children all over the Province of BC. It is estimated that some years he was able to speak to over 100,000 children. In 1974 Tommy Tompkins was named a Member of the Order of Canada for his work in focusing awareness on the natural environment.

Tommy Tompkins died in 1988 at the age of 68.

Taylor, Walt
2002.9 · Person · 1919 - 2002

Born in Longmont, Colorado on 10 March 1919, environmentalist and social activist Walter (Walt) Taylor devoted a lifetime in the U.S.A. and Canada to the cultivation of peace with justice. During World War II he served in work camps as a conscientious objector to war, but ultimately went to prison for his stand against conscription. He turned away from graduate study in Physics to take a Master’s degree in Human Development at the University of Chicago.

With four children in their family, he and his wife Margaret (Peggy) Taylor (b. Lewiston, Maine, 7 August 1916) worked in a variety of social services, but were always seeking opportunities to encourage a fundamental movement toward peace with justice and sustainable environmental stewardship.

In the 1960s Philadelphia Quakers sent Walt as their response to a request from the Seneca Nation of Native Americans for help in defending the oldest active treaty in American history, the Treaty of Canandaigua which had been firmly negotiated with the Seneca Nation in 1794. In spite of a great nation-wide protest, that treaty was violated by the construction of the controversial Kinzua Dam (1961-1965) on the Allegheny River which flooded 10,000 acres of land and displaced 600 Seneca families out of their traditional territory. After moving to Summerland, British Columbia during the Vietnam War, Walt continued his active interest in the concerns of First Nations peoples and even worked for the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs in the 1970s.

Beginning in 1973 and running for several years thereafter, Walt directed an innovative project called “Imagine Penticton” through which the whole community of Penticton was invited to imagine itself the way it ought to be and to join Walt and his staff in bringing this collective vision to fruition. Taylor was also actively involved with the South Okanagan Civil Liberties Society, the South Okanagan Environmental Coalition and the Southern Interior Ecological Liaison – venues which allowed him to further his passionate advocacy for justice, peace and environmental sustainability.

His time in the Okanagan region of B.C., also provided Walt Taylor with the opportunity to become heavily involved with the British Columbia Man and Resources Programme – a 2 year public participation programme sponsored and organized by the Canadian Council of Resource and Environment Ministers (CCREM). The Man and Resources Programme originated in 1961 when natural resource ministers from across the country met at the “Resources for Tomorrow” Conference to discuss a natural resources policy for Canada. At that time, public interest in resource issues was low, so the main results from that conference were strictly governmental and technical. Man and Resources was concerned with all aspects of the environmental problem – social, economic, ecological – but it also sought to involve all Canadians in its investigation; therefore one of the fundamental goals of this Programme was to enlist citizen participation to discuss the whole question of development and the use of resources and how that should be balanced against protection of the environment. This mandate was to be accomplished through two phases: Phase I was undertaken in 1972 when community representatives from across the province came together locally, then regionally (Delta, B.C., Sept. 23-23, 1972) and finally nationally (Montebello, Q.C., Oct. 29-Nov. 4, 1972) to take on the task of problem identification. In 1973, Phase II was undertaken which required citizen participants to identify solutions and alternatives to the problems identified at the national conference at Montebello in 1972. The provincial conference was held in Naramata, B.C., September 20-23, 1973 while the national conference was held in Toronto, Nov.18-23, 1973.

In 1982 Walt and his family moved north to Smithers, B.C. where he continued to dedicate his life to grass-roots level, political and environmental activism in the Bulkley Valley - Telkwa - Smithers area. For the next eighteen years Walt Taylor, and his wife Peggy, were actively involved with the Northwest Study Conference Society, the Skeena Round Table on Sustainable Development, the Waging Peace Society, Project Ploughshares – Smithers, the Smithers Human Rights Society, the Gitksan-Carrier Tribal Council, the Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council, the Telkwa Educational Action Committee of Householders, the Bulkley Valley Anti-Poverty Group, and the Smithers Social Planning Committee, to name a few, through which they promoted a wide range of social rights causes including global peace, human rights and environmental sustainability to peoples, organizations and communities throughout Northern B.C.

Taylor, Hugh
2009.5.1 · Person · 1874-1921

Hugh Taylor was born in Quebec on 28 November 1874 to Thomas Dixon Taylor and his wife Lucy E. Bourchier. Thomas Taylor, of Ottawa, was a civil engineer, who predeceased his son; Hugh’s brother, Lieutenant Colonel Plunkett (wife Florence) Taylor of Ottawa, was a manager of the Bank of Ottawa. His nephew Edward Plunkett (E.P.) Taylor was a renowned Ottawa businessman, thoroughbred horse breeder and racer. Hugh Taylor received his formal education in Kingston, Ont. In 1896, he moved west to British Columbia first settling in the Kootenay region where he was engaged in the construction of the Crow’s Nest Railway and then later went on to Vancouver. In 1901, Mr. Taylor worked as a packer with a Mr. Singlehurst, who was operating a mining property near Kitselas (a little village used as a port of call for riverboats which used to exist just before the Skeena Canyon). Hugh Taylor had the distinction of loading and safely delivering to the mine, an immense steel drum of great weight – a task which was considered impossible at the time. In 1902, he became Secretary to T.J. Phelan, who was District Superintendent of the Dominion Yukon Telegraph Line which had its headquarters in Ashcroft, BC. The following spring, he married Miss Hermina “Minnie” Wessel of Saturna Island, BC and came north with his bride, taking their honeymoon trip on horseback all the way from Ashcroft to Hazelton in order to continue his work on the Telegraph Line. Together, Hugh and Minnie had eight children: Ellen, Violet, Lucy, Dixon, Arthur, Tom, Virginia and Hugh Jr. After arriving in Hazelton, he became associated with Chas. Barrett & Co. and was in charge of their mule train. In the fall of 1903, he went to First Cabin (at the end of the wagon road) to work as a lineman with the Dominion Yukon Telegraph Line, where he remained for several years. Mr. Taylor also staked one of the first farms in the Kispiox Valley and spent a number of years there with his family. He later became an telegraph operator at Kispiox as well as its postmaster, and owner/operator of a local store and ranch. During the boom days, he ran a stagecoach between Hazelton and the Kispiox Valley and to points north up to First Cabin. In 1914 the Taylors moved to Hazelton, where Hugh Taylor took a deep interest in sports and was known for successfully defending goal for the Hazelton men’s hockey team. Later, the Taylor family moved on to Fort Fraser where Mr. Taylor again worked as a telegraph operator. In 1917, upon his appointment to the position of Assistant District Engineer of the Provincial Public Works Department, the Taylors moved to the department’s headquarters in Prince George. Four years later during the course of his duties on an out of town trip to Vanderhoof Mr. Taylor became ill; he was escorted back to Prince George, where he passed away a few days later on 5 November 1921.

Taylor, Hermina
2009.5.1 · Person · 20 June 1878 – 3 February 1972

Hermina Agnes Wessel was born to John Wessel and Agnes Henry (Hamana) in Gastown on June 20, 1878. Mr. Wessel who hailed from Amsterdam, Holland, came to Canada as a mariner travelling by way of Cape Horn. He worked at the Hastings Sawmill in Gastown which was then managed by a man named Richard Henry Alexander. He married Agnes, daughter of Henry and Catherine Hamana, recent Hawaiian immigrants to Canada, and together they had three children: Hermina, John Jr. and Sarah, of which Minnie was the eldest.

In 1879, Minnie moved with her parents to South Pender Island where her father was installed as a shepherd with James Alexander, brother to the manager of the Hastings Sawmill. Her mother left their family after the birth of Sarah, the youngest Wessel child. Her father soon thereafter divorced his wife and entered both Hermina and Sarah into St. Anne’s Convent in Victoria, while her brother John stayed with their father on South Pender Island. John Wessel Jr. died at the age of 10.

In 1889 John Wessel moved to Saturna Island to work for Mr. Warburton Pike as manager of the Pike Ranch. Upon graduating from the Convent, Hermina moved back with her father where she lived until her marriage to Hugh Taylor in Victoria on November 20, 1902.

At the time of their marriage Hugh Taylor had a freighting contract to carry supplies for the construction of the Dominion Yukon Telegraph Line. So for their honeymoon, the two rode horseback in the pack train from Ashcroft to Hazelton. Arriving in the late summer, Minnie Taylor remained in Hazelton while her husband went on to Telegraph Creek. The next year they built their log ranch house at Kispiox, Mr. Taylor became the local telegraph operator and together they taught themselves the Morse code. At the birth of their second child, this knowledge of Morse code allowed them to communicate with Dr. Wrinch at the nearest hospital through their local telegraph operator in Hazelton!

In the spring of 1919 Hugh Taylor was appointed to the staff of the Public Works Department of the Provincial Government and so the family moved to South Fort George. Upon their arrival they stayed in the Alexandra Hotel until their household effects arrived by train. In 1921 Mr. Taylor died of pneumonia.

Minnie Taylor and her family lived in Prince George until 1935 when she moved to live with her daughter Lucy and family in Grand Forks. During the war years she lived with her son Dixon and family in Chisolm Mills, afterwhich she returned to the Lower Mainland where she again lived with Lucy and family until her death on February 3, 1972. She was survived by four daughters (Mrs. Ellen Garland, Mrs. Violet Baxter, Mrs. Lucy Burbidge and Mrs. Virginia Woods) and two sons (Arthur and Dr. Hugh Taylor Jr.). She was predeceased by her two sons Dixon (1962) and Thomas (1944).

Suri, Chander
Person

Chander Suri was the Regional District Planner for Fraser Fort George Regional District

Strachan, Bruce
Person · [19-?]-

Bruce Strachan was MLA for Prince George South and Minister of State for the Cariboo Region. He was a member of the Interior University Society and a strong proponent of the creation of a university in the North. In 1989, he became Minister of Advanced Education.

Stowell, Robert
Person · 1922-2018

Bob Stowell was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922 and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1942-1945. He started working for the Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company in 1947. In 1952, Bob Stowell and colleagues purchased a sawmill site at Tye, B.C. on the east side of Kootenay Lake. After the sawmill burned down, Bob Stowell worked for the Potlach Forest Sawmill in Lewiston, Idaho piling lumber. His following employers were the Weyerhaeuser sales department in Cleveland, Ohio and a logging company in Columbia Falls, Montana. Then he was hired by The Pas Lumber Company Ltd. in Minneapolis, Minnesota to work in their sales department. This job led to the opportunity to move to Prince George, B.C. in 1965 to manage forestry and logging at The Pas Lumber Co. (B.C.) Ltd. in Prince George. Bob Stowell worked for The Pas Lumber Co. (B.C.) Ltd. in Prince George from 1965 until his retirement in 1991.

Stowell, Bill
Person

Bill Stowell completed his BSF in Forest Management in 1977. Bill Stowell has had an active forestry career with companies across British Columbia. Between 1981 and 1986, Bill worked as Woodlands Manager for Babine Forest Products Ltd. in Burns Lake, BC. His following employment in 1991-1994 was with Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd. as a Log Trader in Merritt and Princeton, BC. He moved on to become a Log Trader with Tolko Industries Ltd. for the period 1994-2010. From 2010 onwards, Bill worked as a Fibre Manager for Fusion Fibre Ltd. in Merritt, BC. Bill Stowell also worked as Forestry Manager for Upper Nicola Band between 2014 and 2018.

Stewart, Roy
Person · [19-?]-

Roy Stewart was President of the Interior University Society at one time. The Interior University Society was incorporated in 1987 after organizational efforts initiated by Tom Steadman, Bryson Stone and Charles McCaffray. The society’s objectives were to promote the establishment of a university in Prince George, B.C., later to be known as the University of Northern British Columbia. The first president of the society was Prince George lawyer W. Murray Sadler. The Society launched a membership campaign in 1987, retained the services of Dr. Urban Dahllof to undertake a feasibility study, and conducted a survey to determine the support level in northern B.C. for a university. In October, 1988, the society’s proposals and studies were presented to the provincial cabinet. In 1989, an Implementation Planning Group was established, chaired by Horst Sander. The planning group completed its study and reported to the government in December of 1989, recommending a full-status university be established in the north.

Stevenson, Susan
Person · [19-]-

Susan Stevenson is an independent wildlife biologist and an adjunct faculty member at UNBC. She has been studying the effects of forestry practices on habitat for wildlife for nearly 25 years, mostly in the Interior Wetbelt. She is especially interested in wildlife that depend on habitat attributes found in old forests, and how they can be maintained in managed stands. Her interest in the Mountain Caribou and its habitat has drawn her into studies of the ecology of arboreal lichens. She is also interested in wildlife trees, coarse woody debris, and how they are affected by various harvesting practices. As well as conducting research, Susan is active in teaching and extension. She is a Wildlife/Danger Tree Assessor's Course instructor and a frequent guest lecturer at UNBC and the College of New Caledonia. She has prepared a number of extension notes and other publications for forestry and habitat managers and field staff.

Steadman, Tom
Person · [19-?]-

Thomas A. (Tom) Steadman, franchise owner of the Canadian Tire store in Prince George, BC, spearheaded the campaign to raise awareness about a University of the North and for the North, speaking at many community gatherings during the early years of concept development for what would become the University of Northern British Columbia. He was one of founding members of the Interior University Society (IUS) and was founder and chairperson of the IUS membership committee. Mr. Steadman was appointed to the Implementation Planning Group in 1989 and later became a member of the Interim Governing Council of the University of Northern British Columbia. More recently, he helped establish the Northern Medical Programs Trust and Chaired the UNBC Foundation.

Smith, Marcus
Person · 1815-1904

Marcus Smith was born in Ford, Northumberland UK on 16 July 1815. After a local education, he started work in railway construction in 1844. He worked his way up to become a railway engineer and was responsible for building 230 miles of railway. He also worked on railway construction in France and the United States before coming to Canada in 1850. Between 1850 and 1860 he was employed in survey and construction work on the Great Western Railway, Hamilton and Toronto Railway and the Niagara and Detroit River Railway. He was engaged in railway work in South Africa, 1860-1864. Returning to Canada, he was resident engineer for the Restigouche Division of the Intercolonial Railway from 1868 to 1872 under the Chief Engineer, Sanford Fleming.

When Fleming became Chief Engineer of the Pacific Railway in 1872, Smith was put in charge of route surveys from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. Smith was also acting engineer-in-chief between 1876 and 1878 during Fleming's absence. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was formed in 1881, Smith joined the CPR engineering staff, doing location work and inspecting contractors' work. Smith left the CPR in 1886 and became a consulting engineer and inspector for the federal government on projects such as railroads in the Maritimes. He retired from government work in 1893. Marcus Smith then did preliminary estimates for the Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal, Trans-Canada Railway and Hudson's Bay & Pacific Railway up to 1898. He died on 14 August 1904 in Ottawa.

Marcus Smith's most notable project was surveying a western route for the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1870s. His proposed route went through Prince George to Butte Inlet on the coast. His son Arthur Smith was Deputy Attorney General of BC before heading the Land Registry Office until his retirement in the 1930s. His daughter Anne Clarice worked as a social worker and was Secretary to the Canadian Council on Child and Family Welfare for a time.

Sedgwick, J. Kent
Person · 13 March 1941 - 6 December 2011

John Kent Sedgwick was born in Weston, Ontario on March 13th, 1941. In 1964 he graduated from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography. During this time, he also wrote an undergraduate thesis titled “Effects of Land Use on Night Temperatures in London, Ontario.” In 1966 he graduated with his M.A. in Geography from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. His M.A. thesis was titled “Geomorphology and Mass Budget of Peyto Glacier, Alberta.”

Kent Sedgwick came to Prince George in 1970 and held a position as a Geography Instructor at the College of New Caledonia. He was also a frequent guest lecturer for history courses at the University of Northern British Columbia, and later, from 2003 until 2009, an adjunct professor at UNBC for geography. His expertise was in physical geography, particularly glaciation, hydrology, weather and climate, and alpine studies, and historical geography as well as cartography. He also taught courses on wildland recreation. After teaching at CNC for nearly a decade, in 1983 he became a Senior Urban Planner for the City of Prince George. In his professional relationship with the University of Northern British Columbia, he also contributed to research on the Upper Fraser as part of the UNBC-led Upper Fraser Historical Geography Project between 1999 and 2002.

Alongside his professional work, Kent Sedgwick was extensively involved in the community. During his teaching career he conducted more than 50 field trips for students and other professionals, including the Federation of BC Writers (2000); the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers (2003); and the BC Heritage Federation (2003). He was also the treasurer and later the president of the Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route Association. Sedgwick also worked directly with the Huble Homestead / Giscome Portage Historical Society. Significantly, Sedgwick worked with the Huble Society, June Chamberland and Curle Witte to transcribe and edit the 1909-1919 diaries of Albert Huble.

He was a Member and Chairmen of the Heritage Advisory Committee for the City of Prince George from 1978 until 1983, and then was the secretary to the committee while employed in the Planning Division from 1983 until 2006. Through the Heritage Advisory Committee, he aided in many projects to protect and acknowledge local history and heritage. These projects included an inventory of heritage buildings in Prince George; research on the origins and desecration of the L’heidli T’enneh cemetery at Fort George Park; confirmation for rezoning various lots in Prince George; and developing tours of downtown Prince George. Kent Sedgwick also aided the Prince George Retired Teachers Association with conducting research on previous and current schools within Prince George and region.

Kent Sedgwick was well-known for his enthusiasm and passion in local history and for conducting meticulous research on the history of Prince George and the Central Interior. He had also compiled and edited works of local history, both on his own and aiding others in their writing. His own written works were recognized with the Jeanne Clarke Memorial Local History award in 1991 for his extensive efforts to preserve Prince George’s history. He received the same award for his book Giscome Chronicle: The Rise and Demise of a Sawmill Community in Central British Columbia (2008). Some of Sedgwick’s other published works include Lheidli T’enneh Cemetery, Prince George: A documented history (2012); Hotels, Hoteliers and Liquor Stores : The story behind a Prince George heritage building (2011); Monumental Transformation: The story of Prince George’s national historic monument (2009); Pan Am and All That: World War II aviation in Prince George, British Columbia (2008); and Reflections on Architects and Architecture in Prince George 1950-2000: An interview of Trelle Morrow (2007).

Kent Sedgwick passed away on December 6, 2011, after a long struggle with cancer.

Sebastian, Ron A.
Person · [19-?]-

Ron A. Sebastian is from the Gitxsan and the Wet'suwet'en Nations. His name is Gwin Butsxw from the house of Spookw of the Lax Gibuu Clan (Wolf Clan). In the early 1970s, Sebastian studied carving and design at the Kitanmaax School of Northwest Coast Native Art at ‘Ksan Village, Hazelton, B.C. His work, which includes wood carvings (masks, bowls, bent boxes, rattles, talking sticks, rhythm canes, murals and totem poles of all sizes), graphic art, and gold and silver jewellery, can be found in museums and private collections throughout North America, Europe and Japan. His larger pieces include three murals, carved together with Earl Muldoe, for the main lobby of Les Terrasses de la Chaudiere, new home of the Department of Indian Affairs in Hull, Quebec ; a cedar panel carved together with brother Robert E. Sebastian for a new school in Takla Landing ; a round mural carved for the Smithers Dze_l_K'ant Friendship Center ; and a totem pole carved for the front of the Two Rivers Art Gallery in Prince George. In 1992, Sebastian carved an elaborate pair of Chief's chairs and a talking stick with a base stand for UNBC. These carvings are used on special occasions (such as Convocation) by the President and Chancellor. The mace, ceremonial chairs and the doors to the University Senate were carved by Ron A. Sebastian, and were presented in early 1992, in time for the inaugural Convocation. The mace/talking stick includes thirteen traditional Indian crests, which represent all the tribes/clans of northern British Columbia. They are, from top to bottom: Wolf, Black Bear, Beaver, Wolverine, Caribou, Mountain Goose, Frog, Raven, Thunderbird, Fireweed, Killer Whale, Owl, and Eagle. In the centre is an additional human face representing all peoples. The mace/talking stick rests in a base of red cedar, carved in the form of a salmon, which is meant to indicate all the people in the region. The chairs include, at top and bottom, a human mask and sun, representing mankind but particularly students and counsellors, while the other symbols again represent the various First Nations peoples in the University’s region. The Chancellor’s Chair includes representations of the thunderbird, frog, beaver, grouse, fireweed, owl, eagle, and killer whale, with arm rests carved in the shape of a wolf. The President’s Chair includes representations of the grizzly bear, wolf, caribou, black bear, crow, frog, moose, and mountain goose, with arm rests carved in the shape of a raven.

Schreiber, Celia
Person

Celia Schreiber was an active member of the Mexican community in Prince George.

Schenk, Bertha
Person · [19-?]-

Bertha Schenk was from Georgetown, Ontario.

Sawicki, Joan Marie
Person · 18 September 1945 - present

Joan Sawicki was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1945 and spent her early years on a small family farm in Burnaby. In 1956, the family moved to Terrace, B.C. Upon high school graduation, Joan attended the University of Victoria earning a Bachelor of Education degree in 1968, majoring in History and Geography.

During her university years, Joan developed an interest in agriculture, environment and land use planning while working with the Canada Land Inventory, both in Victoria and Ottawa. She was a secondary school teacher in Williams Lake 1968-1969 and in Armstrong 1972-1973 before joining the Land Commission staff in 1973 to work on establishing the original Agricultural Land Reserve boundaries. Joan Sawicki married Gary Runka in 1978 and joined him as a partner in G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd. consulting firm in 1979.

From 1987 to 1990, Joan Sawicki served on Burnaby City Council. She chaired the environment and waste management committee and sat as a municipal representative on the Greater Vancouver Regional District waste management committee and the Metropolitan Board of Health.

After failing to win a seat in the provincial legislature representing the NDP in Burnaby-Willingdon during the 1986 election, Joan Sawicki was elected in that riding in 1991, and re-elected in 1996. Under the Premier Harcourt government, Joan Sawicki was appointed Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in March 1992, serving for two years. After leaving the Speaker’s chair, Joan served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Municipal Affairs (April 1994 to May 1996), focusing on the Georgia Basin Initiative and serving on the board of the International Centre for Sustainable Cities.

Upon re-election in 1996, Joan was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks (June 1996 to January 1998) and charged with the task of expanding BC’s beverage container deposit/refund system. She resigned from that position when her government invoked the Provincial Interest clause to allow exclusion of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve for a proposed development project at Six Mile Ranch near Kamloops.

In July 1999, Premier Glen Clark named Joan Sawicki to cabinet as Minister of Environment, Lands, and Parks, during which time she championed a Green Economy Initiative and Sustainability legislation. She retained her portfolio under Premier Ujjal Dosanjh until November 1, 2000 after she had announced she would not be seeking re-election in 2001.

Upon retirement from elected politics, Joan returned to land use consulting work through G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd. Upon her husband’s death, Joan completed their work opposing the loss of prime agriculture land due to the Site C dam. Joan served on the board of directors for Nature Conservancy of Canada, BC Region from 2004 to 2010 and continues to be active on environmental issues, including volunteering with BC Parks and other non-profit organizations.

Sasaki, Torajiro
Person · 8 Jan. 1914-5 July 1994

Torajiro Sasaki was born on January 8, 1914 in Mieken, Japan. He came to Canada in 1931 and lived in Vancouver, working in a greenhouse operation in Steveston, BC.

After Canada's declaration of war on Japan on 8 December 1941, the Canadian federal Government forcibly removed nearly 22,000 persons of Japanese ancestry starting in 1942. About 14,000 of those forcibly removed people were interned in isolated and declining former mining towns and hastily created camps in the West Kootenay and Boundary regions of the province. As the Internment camps were made ready, Japanese Canadians were moved to these camps through the summer and fall of 1942.

Torajiro Sasaki was one of those affected. On 7 February 1942, when he was detained and his property confiscated, his only possession of note (according to the British Columbia Police) was his Kodak camera. Torajiro was initially sent to Lempriere Camp and later to Red Pass internment camps, likely to work on the Yellowhead-Blue River Highway Project. The Yellowhead-Blue River Highway Project was a project of the Surveys and Engineering Branch of the federal Department of Mines and Resources. It ran from 1942 to 1944 and "employed" Japanese-Canadian males 18-60+ (mostly Japanese nationals) whether physically fit or not, originally living in West Coast of British Columbia. The project area spanned from the BC interior into the province of Alberta: Lucerne, Geikie, Yellowhead, Rainbow, Fitzwilliam, Grantbrook, Red Pass, Tete Jaune, Albreda, Blackspur, Gosnell, Lempriere, Pyramid, Thunder River, Red Sands, and Blue River.

When the war came to an end and the internment camps were dismantled, Torajiro Sasaki moved to Giscome, BC for work. At that time, there was a high demand for manpower at the many sawmills along the Upper Fraser River. As a single man, Sasaki was lodged in the bunkhouses and worked at Eagle Lake Sawmills. Torajiro's Kodak camera, which was held by the BC Provincial Police until his release, was finally returned to him in Giscome via a parcel shipment in 1946.

Sasaki and his family later lived on an acreage outside of Giscome. Torajiro Sasaki was a hobbyist photographer, filmmaker, and gardener.

Sanborn, Paul Thomas
Person · 1955-

Dr. Paul Sanborn is a Professor in the Faculty of Environment with the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at the University of Northern British Columbia. Sanborn joined UNBC in 2002 after eleven years as a regional soil scientist with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests. At UNBC, his research program has built on established local field studies of site productivity, nutrient cycling, and soil rehabilitation, and developing a new emphasis on the role of soils as a recorder of long-term environmental change in northwestern Canada.

Sadler, W. Murray
Person · [19-?]-

W. Murray Sadler, a founding partner of the Prince George law firm of Heather Sadler Jenkins, was the founding President of the Interior University Society and later became Chairman of the Interim Governing Council of the University of Northern British Columbia.

Rutherford, Mabel
2008.26 · Person · 1938 -

Mabel (nee Scholander) Rutherford participated in the Red Rock Community History Project in 2001. The Red Rock Community History Project was conducted by a team of UNBC students and coordinated by the Northern BC Archives at the University of Northern British Columbia. In their efforts to preserve a community's "collective memory" twelve oral history interviews were conducted with long-time Red Rock area residents to record their memories of life during the mid 20th century. Along with these interview, over 200 photographic images were also collected from them, many of which are found on the project website: http://nbca.library.unbc.ca/pages/archives/LivingLandscapes/ . Mrs. Rutherford’s mother Stephanie (Marcoll) Scholander is a sister to John Marcoll and Kate (Marcoll) Anderson, two individuals also interviewed as part of the Red Rock Community History Project. Mrs. Rutherford is a well-known artist who now lives in the southern interior of British Columbia. Her interview focuses on memories of plowing for spending money, farm life, World War II and her memories of joining the RCAF in the 1950s.

Rustad, Noreen
Person · [19-]-

Noreen is the daughter of Garvin and Bea Dezell. Garvin was a former mayor of Prince George. In 1992, Noreen received the Governor General Award for her community volunteer activities.

Rustad, Jim
Person · [19-?]-

Jim Rustad was the general manager and president of Rustad Bros. and Co. Ltd., a large sawmill and planermill that was started by his father and uncle in 1947.

Runka, G. Gary
Person · 2 Aug. 1938 – 26 July 2013

Gary Runka’s contribution to land inventory, agriculture, natural resource management and land use planning helped shape British Columbia land use policy over five decades. Best known for his guiding role in the creation of BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), Gary Runka was the first General Manager of the Land Commission and later Chair of the (renamed) Agricultural Land Commission. Throughout his career, Gary remained committed to field knowledge as the basis for understanding and resolving land and water use issues. Described by colleagues as “one of the most highly respected agrologists in our profession” and “one of [BC’s] most dedicated and influential land use planners”, Runka spent his 52-year career working on an incredible number of landmark projects in British Columbia.

Gary Runka was born August 2, 1938 and grew up in Baldonnel, near Fort St. John in the Peace River area of British Columbia. Growing up on a farm homesteaded by his parents, Bill and Velma Runka, Gary developed an early and deep connection to agriculture and the natural environment. Gary played baseball, hockey, curling and later in university, football. He married Celia Runka née Zitko (31 Dec. 1938 – 6 Feb. 2014) in 1962 and they had two daughters, Shaundehl Marie and Cayla Renee. The marriage ended in 1973.

Gary’s early employment included work on legal land surveys and a petroleum exploration survey. These experiences tweaked Gary’s interest and steered him toward a career in land science and management. He attended the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture majoring in Soil Science. Upon graduation, he took a position as Pedologist with the BC Department of Agriculture in Kelowna (1961-1966), mapping soils throughout the province and providing soil and land use interpretations for tax assessment, forest management, irrigation engineering and agricultural development. He briefly interrupted his career to complete a Masters of Science degree in Natural Resource Management and Land Use Planning from Cornell University, graduating in 1967. Upon returning to British Columbia and the BC Department of Agriculture, he was appointed BC Land Inventory Field Coordinator (Agriculture and Forestry) for the Canada Land Inventory program (1967-1973). In 1968, Gary became the owner of a cereal/forage seed/oil seed farm near Fort St. John, which included part of the family farm. He continued to manage this farm until generational transfer in 2005.

In 1972, the people of British Columbia elected an NDP government. Among the several significant programs the new government introduced, including a government-owned vehicle insurance company (ICBC), a provincial ambulance service and a community college system, arguably the most dramatic and controversial of all was the “land freeze” imposed on December 21, 1972 (OIC 4483/72). Intended to protect what remained of BC’s scarce agricultural land, OIC 4483/72 and its companion OIC 159/73 (January 18, 1973) halted further subdivision and non-farm use of farmland in BC. The subsequent passage of the Land Commission Act on April 18, 1973 began the process of designating approximately 47,000 square kilometres (18,000 sq mi) of land with the soil/climate combination to support food production as BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). At the time, it was considered the most progressive piece of planning legislation of its kind in North America and to this day, continues to remain a model looked to by many other jurisdictions that continue to lose their valuable agricultural land to non-farm development.

Gary Runka was appointed the first General Manager of the BC Land Commission via Order in Council 2570/73 on August 1, 1973, about 2.5 months after the appointment of the original five-person Commission. A combination of background, education and work experience made Gary uniquely qualified to guide the Commission through its formative years. He held this position until July 24, 1975 when he was appointed Member and Chair of the then renamed Agricultural Land Commission (OIC 2445/75), replacing W.T. Lane, the first Commission Chairman.

During this period, Gary married his second wife, Joan Marie Sawicki (18 Sept. 1945 – present). They had met while both were working with the Canada Land Inventory and Joan subsequently joined the staff at the BC Land Commission to work on the original ALR boundaries.

Gary never wavered in his dedication to safeguarding BC’s agricultural land resource. In 1979, when the government overruled the Land Commission and allowed the exclusion of over 250 acres from the ALR in Langley for industrial development, Gary stuck to his principles and resigned. The ensuing controversy damaged the reputation of the political leadership but was eventually regarded as one of the contributing factors to the continued survival of the ALR.

Upon leaving the Agricultural Land Commission, Gary established his own consulting firm, appropriately named G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd. Joan was a business partner in the company until her election in 1991 as an NDP Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, representing Burnaby-Willingdon. During Joan’s decade as an elected MLA, Gary’s daughter Shaundehl worked with him on Land Sense Ltd. projects.

Over the next 34 years, Gary worked with 681 clients, including all levels of governments, corporations, First Nations, non-government organizations, learning institutions and private individuals. Whether the project was land inventory, community planning, environmental assessment, policy development, land and water use regulation or resource use conflict resolution, Gary always approached planning from the ground up, combining his understanding of natural systems and ecological processes with his diplomatic skills at bringing people of diverse opinions together to solve problems in the long-term public interest. Gary was recognized as a skilled and respected facilitator of complex land use planning issues throughout his career. He left a great legacy to the land, water, and people of British Columbia by helping decision makers and communities make good decisions and establish good policies.

It was just such talents that The Nature Trust of British Columbia needed for an innovative project they undertook during the 1990’s. In an effort to conserve some of the unique biological resources of the South Okanagan, one of the three most endangered ecosystems in Canada, the Trust purchased a number of small private holdings along with three ranches that included substantial associated Crownland grazing leases and licenses. The big challenge then was to derive an overall management plan for the thousands of acres of secured habitat. Gary Runka was ideally suited to the task. After countless collaborative days and months spent sorting out land status designations, reaffirming resource capabilities and resolving competing objectives of diverse interest groups, the final product, which Gary coined "Biodiversity Ranches", was heartily endorsed by all of the stakeholders - including the ranchers who are still managing these properties today.

During the 1990s, Gary also played a key role in yet another ambitious BC land use planning initiative, the Commission on Resources and the Economy (CORE) and subsequent Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMPs). As facilitator for several of these processes, including in the East Kootenays, Bulkley Valley, Anahim and Charlotte-Alplands, Cassiar/Iskit/Stikine and, perhaps the most challenging of all, Central Coast, Gary’s legendary geographical memory, integrative abilities and diplomatic skills helped guide these multi-sector tables to consensus. British Columbians, both present and future, will forever benefit from the doubling of parks and protected areas that was one of the key products of this monumental planning exercise.

In July 2001, after 30 years of residency in Burnaby, Gary Runka and Joan Sawicki embraced a lifestyle change, moving to Stuie, BC, in Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park, while retaining an urban base at their Vancouver condominium. Gary and Joan continued their G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd. consulting work in addition to their involvement in numerous professional and grassroots organizations.

On July 26, 2013, Gary Runka died suddenly and unexpectedly while walking with Joan near their home in Stuie. At the time of his death, Gary was preparing his expert witness testimony in defense of the prime agricultural lands that would be lost with the building of the Site C dam near Fort St. John - a mere few kilometres away from the farm where he grew up. Gary was honoured posthumously for his contributions to sustainable land use in BC with the 2014 Land Champion award from the Real Estate Foundation of BC. Throughout his career, he was also the recipient of the B.C. Institute of Agrologists’s "Agrologist of the Year" award in 1978 and a Fellowship with the Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1990.

Ross, Stuart C.
Person

Created by Stuart C. Ross, Architect, PO Box 1804, 1896 Third Ave., Prince George, BC

Person · 19 August 1919 - 21 May 2010

Robert Gordon Rogers, OC OBC (August 19, 1919 – May 21, 2010) was the 24th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1983 to 1988.

Born in Montreal, he was a graduate of the University of Toronto Schools, the University of Toronto, and the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston. During the Second World War, he served with the 1st Hussars of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, landing on Juno Beach on D-Day in 1944. From 1991 to 1996, he served as Chancellor of the University of Victoria. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1990, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia.

Rogers, Dan
Person

Mayor of Prince George, 2008-2011
Manager of Public Relations for the Prince George Spruce Kings Hockey Club, 1996-1999

Robinson, Charles N.
Person

"Celebrities of the Army" was collected and edited by Naval Commander Charles Napier Robinson, and published by G. Newnes in 1902. It consists of a serial collection of lavish coloured portraits and short biographies of senior offices and major heroes of the South African Boer War.

Ringwood, Gwen Pharis
Person · 1910-1984

Playwright born in Anatone, Washington, 1910, died near Williams Lake, British Columbia , 1984 (where she had lived since 1953). Her father was a teacher in small community schools in southern Alberta. In 1926, the family moved to Montana and, in highschool, she acted in plays.

Ringwood graduated from the University of Alberta with an Honours English degree, working part time as a secretary for the Department of Extension's director of drama, Elizabeth Sterling Haynes , and then working at the Banff Centre for the Arts as registrar. It was in Banff that she wrote her first play, The Dragons of Kent in 1935. In 1938, while studying playwriting in North Carolina, Ringwood created the spooky one-act masterpiece Still Stands the House (premiered in North Carolina), one of the most frequently performed plays in the history of Canadian theatre. In 1939 the play won at the Dominion Drama Festival. She returned to Alberta in 1939 and was director of dramatics at the University of Alberta. In that same year she married John Brian Ringwood and they subsequently had two children.

Ringwood also wrote frequently for radio. She and Elsie Park Gowan were approached by CKUA to write a series of history plays, in order to reach an isolated Alberta audience with little opportunity for further education. The series, entitled "New Lamps for Old", featured the "great names" in history -- Socrates, Beethoven, Cromwell, Florence Nightingale, but focused more on their social and personal lives than on their heroic achievements.

While in Edmonton during the war, she received a grant from Robert Gard of the Alberta Folklore and Local History Project to write Alberta folk plays: Jack the Joker (Banff 1944), about the life of the colourful Calgary newspaper editor, Bob Edwards; The Rainmaker (Banff 1945), set in Medicine Hat during the drought of 1921; and Stampede (University of Alberta 1946), about the Black cowboy and rancher, "Nigger John". Her other plays include the satiric comedy about miserliness, Widger's Way (University of Alberta 1952); children's plays The Sleeping Beauty (Cariboo Indian School, Williams Lake, British Columbia, 1965), and The Golden Goose (Cariboo Indian School 1973); and a trilogy entitled Drum Song about the tragic lives of Native women based on Euripides' Greek tragedies (University of Victoria 1982). Her popular comedy, Garage Sale premiered at the New Play Centre - now Playwrights Theatre Centre in 1981).

Like Gowan, Ringwood also wrote historical pageants to celebrate community anniversaries: an Edmonton pageant on Methodist missionary John McDougall and chief Maskapetoon to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Methodist Church in 1940; Look Behind You Neighbour, with music by Chet Lambertson, for the 50th anniversary of Edson, Alberta in 1961; and The Road Runs North, commissioned for the Williams Lake centennial in 1967.

In 1941 she received the Governor General's Medal for Outstanding Service in the development of Canadian drama, and in 1982 published the first volume of her plays, becoming the first Canadian playwright to become anthologized. The theatre in Williams Lake is named in her honour, and an award for drama, given by the Alberta Writers Guild, is named for her.

Ramsey, Paul
Person · [19-?]-

Paul Ramsey is a Canadian academic and politician. A member of the New Democratic Party, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for Prince George-North in 1991 and re-elected in 1996, serving until 2001.
Ramsey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in English in the United States before moving to Canada to attend the University of British Columbia. Ramsey held teaching and administrative jobs at institutions in the United States and Canada before becoming an instructor at the College of New Caledonia in 1975. He entered politics via his involvement in the CNC Faculty Association where from 1987 to 1989, he served as president of the College-Institute Educators Association of British Columbia.
His first cabinet appointment was as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Forests. In September 1993 he was appointed Minister of Health and Minister Responsible for Seniors where he served until February 1996 when he became Minister of Education, Skills and Training. From June 1996 to January 1997, he was appointed Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks. In January 1997 he returned to the Ministry of Education, Skills, and Training where he remained until February 1998 when he became Minister of Education. On September 21, 1999 he was appointed Minister of Finance and Corporate Relations and on November 1, 2000 he added the role of Minister Responsible for Northern Development.
Ramsey is currently a Visiting Professor in Political Science at the University of Northern British Columbia and has a wife and two grown children.

Pugh, Rhys Alan
Person · [19-?]-

Rhys Pugh completed his Masters thesis in History at UNBC in 2004, which was entitled “The Newspaper Wars in Prince George, B.C., 1909-1918.”

Prince, Rose
Person · 1915-1949

Rose Prince was a Dakelh woman who has inspired an ongoing Catholic pilgrimage. Prince was born in Fort St. James in 1915, the third of Jean-Marie and Agathe Prince's nine children. Jean-Marie was descended from the great chief Kwah, while Agathe had been raised in Williams Lake by the Sisters of the Child Jesus. When the Lejac Residential School was built in 1922, Prince was sent there, along with the other children from her school. When Prince was 16, still attending school at Lejac, her mother and two youngest sisters died in an influenza outbreak. Devastated, she opted not to return home for the summers, staying on at the school instead. After graduation, she remained at the school, completing chores such as mending, cleaning, embroidering and sewing. Prince contracted tuberculosis, and was confined to bed by the age of 34. She died 19 August 1949, and was buried on her 34th birthday. Two years later, in 1951, several graves west of the Lejac Residential School were relocated to a larger nearby cemetery. During the transfer, Prince's casket broke open, and workers were apparently astonished to find Prince's body and clothing in pristine condition, despite the years that had passed since her death. Other bodies were examined, but even those who had died after Prince showed signs of decay. In 1990, Father Jules Goulet called for a pilgrimage to Lejac. Only 20 people gathered that first year, but by 2004, 1200 people were travelling to Lejac to honour the ordinary yet deeply spiritual life of Rose Prince.

Phipps, Alfred Hugh
2004.1 · Person · 1899 - 1974

Alfred Hugh Phipps was born on 27 December 1899 in Victoria, British Columbia. As a teen, he dropped out of high school to enlist as a soldier in World War I; however as he was still underage at the time, he served his tour in Canada instead of being deployed overseas. After the War, Phipps worked in the woods as a logger and in 1928 he began his surveying career as a transit man for professional provincial surveyor Frank C. Swannell. Apparently Swannell found Phipps to be a capable surveying assistant, axe man, huntsman and fisherman of amiable character, and so took him on as an articled student (a three year apprenticeship). While Phipps became a good field surveyor, because he had dropped out of high school he just didn’t have the education required to pass has BCLS (BC Land Surveyor’s) exams. Despite possession of official credentials, Swannell continued to hire Phipps on various expeditions both in 1931 and in the late 1930’s.

Not much is known about Phipps other surveying activities before the Bedaux expedition in 1934, but according to Swannell, Phipps worked for an unidentified surveyor in 1933, and in early 1934 did surveys for a mining company in the southern Interior of British Columbia. In his correspondences to Jack Bocock, the organizer of the Bedaux Expedition in 1934, Swannell spoke highly of Phipps’ skills and this endorsement may have led to Phipps being hired as a third surveyor for the Bedaux Sub-Arctic Expedition in 1934. This was a cross-country expedition from Edmonton to the west coast of BC, traversing across vast tracts of wilderness via (then) state of the art Citroon vehicles. Four months later the expedition was cancelled as the crew was unable to reach their objective owing to problems related to weather, gumbo, and hoof rot. After the Pearl Harbor attack of World War II, the surveying information gathered through the failed Bedaux expedition of 1934 was used to construct a road through BC to Alaska.

On the Beduax Sub-Arctic Expedition, Al Phipps made a very positive impression on Charles Bedaux, the initiator of the Expedition. Upon the conclusion of the expedition Bedaux offered Phipps a position in the Bedaux Company in South Africa. On 4 June 1935, Phipps left for South Africa to assume his new position of Assistant to the Engineers and was thereafter engaged in various consulting projects for Witwatersrand Gold Mines. During his time in South Africa, Phipps met his future wife, Dorothy Summers, the daughter of a wealthy local family. A few years later, Phipps worked for Bedaux’s in Glasgow, Scotland and eventually became Bedaux’s chief supervisor for pottery businesses in England that employed the “Bedaux system”: a factory efficiency system invented by Charles Bedaux. Phipps left the Bedaux Company upon the expiry of his contract, and returned to Canada on 10 December 1936 with his South African born wife.

In 1937 Phipps again worked with the Frank Swannell’s crew surveying land tracts on Vancouver Island. Two years later, Phipps was also part of the crew which accompanied Swannell on his last surveying expedition into northern BC. Phipps Lake in British Columbia was named after A.H. Phipps by Frank Swannell in 1936; Swannell later remarked that the survey of Phipps Lake was done in a day from their camp around Lamprey Lake. It is of note that Swannell also set up a triangulation station on the bluff that he called Phipps’ Bluff.

With the advent of World War II, Phipps served as a captain in the Canadian Intelligence branch, again within Canadian boundaries. In his later years Phipps was employed by the British Columbia Civil Service from which he retired in 1964. Alfred H. Phipps died in August 1974 at the age of 74.

Perry, Harry G.T.
Person

H.G.T. (Harry) Henry George Thomas Perry is considered a founding father of Prince George. –Born March 18th, 1889 in Whitwick, Leicestershire, England, he was educated at Coalville Belvoir Road Wesleyan School and at Loughborough Grammar School. Perry was married to the former Florence Annie Smith of Leicestershire, England. They had two sons, Frank (later Judge Perry of Prince George) and Sidney (pharmacist). - H.G.T. Perry came to Canada in 1910 and to Prince George, British Columbia in 1912, on the BX Sternwheeler. He first established Perry's Shoe Store (a menswear establishment) and later established a real estate and insurance business. He founded the local faction of the Liberal Party in Prince George & Peace River area. He was the first President of the Fort George District & PG Local Liberal Associations from 1912 until he retired to Victoria c.1958. He was elected School Trustee in Fort George (P.G.) from 1912-1914. In addition, Perry was a director for the Prince George Theatre Ltd. and Chairman of the Joint Committee for Incorporation of PG. - Perry first served as President of the Board of Trade (1914) before entering civic politics and served as Prince George Mayor (1917-1918; and 1920) before entering provincial politics. He was also the owner and editor of several regional newspapers, including the Fort George Tribune, The Prince George Citizen, The Nechako Chronicle and the Prince Rupert Daily News. Perry went on to provincial politics running for the Liberal Party and was Speaker of the BC Legislature for Fort George from 1920-1928 & 1933-1945. During his political career he served also as Secretary and Chairman of the Municipal and Agricultural Committees of the Legislature and was a Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1924 to 1928. Perry served also as Provincial Minister of Education from 1941-45. Perry also served as President of the BC Branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association in the BC Parliament and attended its overseas conference of delegates in the UK during King George V Silver Jubilee Year in 1935. - HGT Perry is best known as Chairman of the provincial government’s Post-War Rehabilitation Council (1942-45), the first of its kind in Canada. Mr. Perry left provincial politics after an election defeat in 1945. Known as the “golden tongue orator”1 HGT Perry is also remembered for other improvements he oversaw as a provincial minister: improving educational facilities and teachers salaries in rural schools; for establishing Home Economics and Spanish courses at UBC; for instituting the Cameron Commission; for advocating for the rights of the Japanese, and others, during WWII, and is known as “the man who saved and extended the PGE.”2 In addition to these accomplishments, he played an instrumental role for many infrastructure projects: development of a highway south to the Cariboo Region; building of the Peace River Highway; reservation of one million acres of land in Central B.C. for veterans; creation of a Library distribution centre; and the extension of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. Harry Perry died in Victoria, of a heart attack, in 1959 at the age of 70.

Perry, Frank S.
Person · 1917-2002

Frank Samuel Perry was a former newspaperman, Captain in the army, a lawyer, a Provincial Court judge, County Court judge and justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court.

Frank Perry, the son of Florence (Smith) Perry and H.G.T. Perry (Liberal MLA, Speaker of BC Legislature, Mayor of P.G., etc.) and brother to Sidney Perry, was born in Vancouver on November 22nd, 1917. Frank married Janet Horton (legal secretary) on May 29th, 1947. They had three daughters: Elaine Perry, Barbara (Perry) Desmarais and Leslie Perry. – Frank, in his mid to late teens was the editor of his father’s newspaper, The Prince George Citizen. At the outbreak of WWII, Frank joined the army and became a Captain. When he returned he pursued a career in law. He graduated from UBC and then opened up a law practice in Prince George. He battled with John Diefenbaker in court, a case which Frank lost, but helped to raise Diefenbaker’s profile.

In the 1950’s Frank, a City Barrister gave advice to Prince George’s mayor, Gordon Bryant. In 1956 Frank (with the Liberal Party) ran in the 25th British Columbia election. He lost to Ray Williston. In 1969, Frank was named Queen Counsel and a year later he was appointed a Provincial Court judge. In 1975, Frank was promoted to County Court judge in the Cariboo. In 1991, he became a B.C. Supreme Court judge. In 1992 Frank retired. Frank died in Prince George of heart failure on May 2, 2002.