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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.