Denis Landry was born in Azilda, Ontario, on May 16, 1919. He began his academic pursuits at the age of seven and matriculated from Azilda Public School #2 at fourteen with an eighth grade education. Landry was unable to continue formal academic pursuits due to economic reasons and began to work on the family farm where he pasteurized milk and took care of the animals. Landry married his wife Thérèse Paquette on January 6th, 1945 and they had seven children. In order to support his family Landry worked as a miner for Inco at the Levack Nickel Mine Deposit where he held many positions. Despite his work, Landry still found the time for his family, and his community.
Landry was a devote catholic and enjoyed religious music. Denis was a member of the “paroisse de Chelmsford” choir and when the “paroisse Sainte-Agnès” was formed in 1953, he became leader of orchestra and remained so for 20 years.
Landry was an important figure for the education sector in the Azilda - Chelmsford area. He played a significant role during the creation of the Roman Catholic Separate School Section No.1 in 1955. Landry was appointed trustee for the RCS.S No.1 from 1955 to 1956. Thanks to Landry and other trustees, the Roman Catholic schools in the No.1 and No.2 district merged in 1961 and two new Separate schools were created “l’école St-Patrick” and “l’école St-Dominique-Savio”. In 1965 Landry was appointed to serve as trustee for the Chelmsford Valley District High School Board to represent all the Separate Schools in the areas of Rayside Balfour, Chelmsford, Dowling, and Levack. He spent six years as a trustee with the Chelmsford Valley District High School Board, to ensure that Catholic children from the area have an opportunity to pursue their studies at the secondary level. In 1968, the Ministry of Education warned the school boards of its intention to establish larger administrative units. Landry was appointed by the Chelmsford High School Board to serve in the “ADD-Hoc” committee in order to prepare the documents needed to restructure the School Boards in Ontario. Denis was then elected to represent the Western Separate Schools in 1969. He was honored to serve as a representative for the Western Separate Schools for the following 12 years. Denis Landry’s 32 years of service as a trustee for Separate Schools, gave generations of French Catholic children in the Azilda, Rayside area the opportunity to learn and grow in a proper education system.
Landry retired from Inco after 43 years of service. After his retirement he went on to work as a Real Estate agent. He was a strong supporter of the French culture in the community. His passion for education, the town of Azilda and the French culture inspired him to write a book entitled “Azilda comme je l’ai connue”.
Landry was also a member of the “Coopérative funéraire” and the “Club d’âge d’or d’ Azilda” (one of the founding members). For the remainder of his retirement Landry continued to devote himself to his pastimes, his community and his family. Denis Landry passed away on May 6th 2008 at the age of 88.
Gail Carr was a student at Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University) from 1967 to 1970. She was a contestant in the Miss Canadian University Queen Contest in 1969. Her married name is Gail Murray.
Leslie Lasky was a student at Waterloo Lutheran University in Business Administration from 1964 to 1968. He lived in Willison Hall and served as a residence Don. In 1967, he was elected as student representative to the Selection Committee for a new president of the University.
Maureen Forrester (1930-2010), born in Montreal, Quebec, was one of the world's leading contraltos. After making her professional debut in 1951, she toured the world performing with virtually every major choir until the 1990s. In 1965 she began giving master classes. She was chairman of the voice department at the Philadelphia Music Academy from 1966 to 1971 and later taught part-time at the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta. Forrester was chair of the Canada Council 1983 to 1988, chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University 1986-1990, and in 1986 she was honorary president of the International Year of Canadian Music. Maureen Forrester received many awards and recognitions including 30 honorary degrees. She was named a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967, awarded a Canadian Music Council medal in 1983, received the Order of Ontario in 1990, and inducted into the Juno Hall of Fame. Wilfrid Laurier University named its recital hall in her honour and established a scholarship in her name.
Jacob 'Jack' Sebastian Heit was born on February 5, 1914 in Tramping Lake, Saskatchewan. He moved to Sudbury, Ontario, travelling by train at a cost of $6, and arrived on March 25, 1938. Heit took many odd jobs such as seasonal mail deliverer during the Christmas season in 1939 or work for Pioneer Construction in 1940. Other odd jobs included 'pick and shovel' work, farm work, house construction, cement drilling, and steel jobs. He worked for firms such as Red Brown Cement Products, Gustiana Company, and A.L. McGinn using his skills as a mechanic and blacksmith. He began his career at Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd in 1941 underground as a miner. He later became an Inspector for Mine Safety and First Aid. Heit was certified in basic Mine Rescue Training at the Sudbury Rescue Station in June 1948. By 1951, he received the Advanced Mine Rescue Training and in 1961 the Supervisory Advanced Mine Rescue Training. In May 1950, Heit was a member of the winning team of the inaugural First Aid Championship of Falconbridge Nickel Mines at a competition held in the Community Hall. Heit continued to compete in both local and Northern Ontario mine rescue competitions and won several times. Awards included the H.J. Fraser Trophy for defeating the top plant first aid team at Falconbridge.
Heit was also an avid volunteer with the Garson Volunteer Fire Department for 20 years (circa 1950 to February 1971). When Heit resigned from the fire department, he held the position of 'deputy fire chief.' He was also an amateur photographer and won 1st prize for the best photograph of the King and Queen's visit to Sudbury in 1939.
Jack Heit married Katherine 'Kay' Kraft (born March 4, 1918 in Allan, Saskatchewan) on February 5, 1940 at Christ the King Church in Sudbury, Ontario. They had five daughters, Diana (1941), Janet (1943), Marilyn (1947), Kathy (1948), and Susan (1954).
Heit retired from Falconbridge Ltd in 1976. He remained active in the community with bridge games, curling, and water skiing. For their 50th wedding anniversary, Jack and Kay Heit renewed their vows at the same church they were originally married.
Jack Heit passed away on November 5, 1999 at the age of 85 at Extendicare York in Sudbury, Ontario.
Flora Roy (1912-2008) was a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario from 1948 until 1993. Roy received her BA and MA from the University of Saskatchewan and her PhD from the University of Toronto. In 1948 she became a professor in the English Department at Waterloo College (now Wilfrid Laurier University), and served as Department Chair for 30 years. Roy retired from full time teaching in 1978 but continued to teach on a part-time basis until 1993. She received the Confederation Medal in 1967, Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal in 1978, Wilfrid Laurier University Language Arts Award in 1984, and the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association Distinguished Educator award in 1995. In 1988 Flora Roy received an honorary degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Jim Dufour was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1945. He moved to Sudbury for work at INCO in 1964 at the Copper Cliff Iron Ore Plant. After a year in Copper Cliff, Dufour was moved to Stobie Mine where he worked for the next 34 years. At Stobie, Dufour performed a variety of tasks over the years including working underground. For the last 15 years of his career, Dufour was responsible for scheduling and training miners at Stobie. He co-ordinated the instuctors for training new employees on the history of mining, terminology, current practices, and safety. After 35 years at INCO, Jim Dufour retired in 1999.
Jim Stapleton was a student at Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University) from 1961 to 1965.
John Hamilton Bush (1909–1977), primarily known as Jack Bush, was a Canadian painter best known for his Abstract Expressionist style. Born in Toronto, he lived in London, Ont. and Montreal during his early years. Jack Bush began his career in advertising, working in his father’s firm, Rapid Electro Type Company in Montreal. During this time, he studied at the Art Association of Montreal with Edmund Dyonnet and Adam Sherriff Scott. In 1928, he transferred to the company’s office in Toronto, where he took evening classes under Frederick Challener, John Alfsen and Charles Comfort at the Ontario College of Art. Bush’s early work as a painter was influenced by Comfort and the Group of Seven, and throughout the 1930s and ‘40s he produced largely landscape and figurative paintings. His first exhibition was with the Ontario Society of Artists in Toronto in 1936.
In 1934, Jack Bush married Mabel Mills Teakle, a family friend from Montreal, and together they had three sons, Jack Jr (b. 1936), Robert (b. 1938) and Terry (b. 1942). In 1953, dissatisfied with Canada’s place in the international contemporary art scene, Bush and several other Toronto abstract artists founded the group Painters Eleven. William Ronald, another member of Painters Eleven, and an artist who had worked in New York, introduced U.S. art critic Clement Greenberg to the group, which led to a lasting friendship between Bush and Greenberg. The contact with Greenberg in 1957 led to Bush’s international breakthrough in the early 1960s, beginning with his 1962 exhibition at the Robert Elkon Gallery in New York. Between the late 1950s and mid ‘60s, Bush painted in loose brushstrokes with diluted oils, staining paint onto unprimed canvas. In 1966, concerned by the health hazards associated with oil-based paints, he switched to water-based acrylics, less textured than oils but more brightly coloured.
In 1964, Jack Bush’s work was included in Greenberg’s Post-Painterly Abstraction at the Los Angeles County Museum, an exhibition that travelled to Minneapolis and Toronto. Along with Jacques Hurtubise, Bush represented Canada at the Bienal de São Paulo (Brazil) in 1967. In the year preceding his death in 1977 (from a heart attack), he received the Order of Canada. That same year, the Art Gallery of Ontario mounted a retrospective exhibition of his abstract works that travelled to several Canadian galleries. Jack Bush’s work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, London’s Tate Gallery and others.
Dr. Allon Peebles was born October 20th, 1900 in New Westminster. He graduated from UBC in 1920 and had a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia. Dr. Peebles taught economics at the University of California and at Columbia had worked with a committee in the United States on the costs of medical care. A medical and labour research economist, he was chairman of B.C.’s first Health Insurance Commission in 1936 and helped fashion the later B.C. Hospital Insurance Service. The 1936 Health Insurance Act was written by Peebles and Harry Morris Cassidy. In 1941, Peebles went to Ottawa as first executive director of the Unemployment Commission and was in charge of the labour department’s research and statistics. He wrote several books on medical facilities, insurance and care. After retiring from the labour department in 1947, Allon Peebles entered private business in Chatham, Ontario. He died in Ottawa on March 13, 1962.