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Sonja Behrens (née Peterson), pianist, teacher (born 13 April 1938 in Medford, Oregon; died 24 February 2012 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania). B MUS (Willamette), M SC (Juilliard) 1962, PhD (Boston).

(Albert) Richard Johnston. Teacher, administrator, composer, editor, critic, b Chicago 7 May 1917, naturalized Canadian 1957, d Calgary 16 Aug 1997; B MUS (Northwestern) 1942, M MUS (ESM, Rochester) 1945, PH D (ESM, Rochester) 1951. His first teacher was Ruth Crazier-Curtis.

Ann (Frances) Golden. Contralto, teacher, b Ottawa; L MUS (McGill) 1958, B MUS (McGill) 1968. Among her singing teachers at the École Vincent-d'Indy and McGill University were Bernard Diamant and Jan Simons.

Otto Joachim. Composer, teacher, violist, violinist, b Düsseldorf 13 Oct 1910, naturalized Canadian 1957, d Montreal 30 Jul 2010; hon LLD (Concordia) 1994. Joachim's father, Emil Joachimsthal, was an opera singer. Joachim studied the violin 1916-28 at the Buths-Neitzel Conservatory.

Frederick Grinke. Violinist, teacher, b Winnipeg 8 Aug 1911, d Ipswich, Suffolk, Eng, 16 Mar 1987; FRAM 1945. After studies with John Waterhouse and others in Winnipeg, Grinke won a Dominion of Canada scholarship to the RAM in

Marcelle Guertin. Teacher, musicologist, pianist, b Montreal, 28 Sep 1949; B MUS piano (Montreal) 1971, MA musicology (Montreal) 1976, diplôme d'études approfondies theater and cinema (Paris) 1982, PH D. musicology (Laval) 1985.

John Norman Emerson, professor, archaeologist (b at Toronto 13 Mar 1917; d there 18 Nov 1978). As a Huron-Iroquois specialist, he was the first in Canada to establish a continuing training program for Canadian archaeologists.

Robert Turner (Comrie). Composer, radio producer, teacher, b Montreal 6 Jun 1920, died Winnipeg 26 Jan 2012; B MUS (McGill) 1943, M MUS (Peabody College) 1950, D MUS (McGill) 1953.

Joseph Francis Dion, Métis leader, political organizer, and teacher (born 2 July 1888 near Onion Lake, SK; died 21 December 1960 in Bonnyville, AB). Dion was central to the shaping of modern Indigenous political organizations on the Prairies. He became a farmer (1903) and teacher on the Kehewin reserve (1916-40). In the 1930s he worked with Jim Brady and  Malcolm Norris  to found what is now the Métis Nation of Alberta (1932; president, 1932-58) and the Indian Association of Alberta (1939). Serving in the executives of First Nations, Métis and Roman Catholic Church organizations, he travelled, lectured, recorded living traditions (published as  My Tribe the Crees, 1979) and managed a Métis dance troupe. A relatively conservative reformer, Dion promoted the idea of Indigenous self-help through local agricultural development and the preservation of traditional culture.

Ernestine “Ernie” Jean Russell, gymnast, coach (born 10 June 1938 in Windsor, ON). Ernestine Russell was Canada’s best female gymnast of the 1950s. She was the first woman to represent Canada in gymnastics at the Olympic Summer Games, at Melbourne in 1956. She was also the first Canadian gymnast ever to medal in an international competition, at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, where she won four gold medals and two silver. She won 46 gold medals at the Canadian Gymnastics Championships between 1954 and 1960. She also had a successful career coaching women’s gymnastics at the NCAA level and with Team USA. She has been inducted into the Canadian Amateur Athletic Hall of Fame and the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

The practice of slavery was introduced by colonists in New France in the early 1600s. The practice was continued after the British took control of New France in 1760 (see British North America.) For about two hundred years, thousands of Indigenous and Black African people were bought, sold, traded and inherited like property in early Canada. Slavery was abolished (made illegal) throughout British North America in 1834.

(This article is a plain-language summary of slavery in Canada. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry on Black Enslavement in Canada.)

Thomas “Tom” Henry Bull Symons, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRGS, teacher, historian, university president, author (born 30 May 1929 in Toronto, ON; died 1 January 2021 in Peterborough, ON). Thomas Symons was founding president of Trent University (1961–72) and founding vice-president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada(1978–84). He is perhaps best known as chair of the Commission on Canadian Studies (1972–84).

Marcelle Gauvreau, Quebec scientist, botanist, educator, administrator, writer and journalist (born 28 February 1907 in Rimouski, QC; died 16 December 1968 in Montreal, QC). A botanist by profession, Marcelle Gauvreau made her mark as a teacher, writer, journalist, administrator and faithful collaborator of Frère Marie-Victorin (Conrad Kirouac). Through her books, articles, talks, the school she established, and her desire to promote public interest in plant life, she encouraged many Quebecers to learn about plants and to love nature in the 20th century.

René Dionne, professor, bibliographer, historian of Québec literature (born 29 January 1929 in Saint-Philippe-de-Néri, Quebec; died 29 December 2009 in Ottawa, Ontario).

Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools created to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Schools in the North were run by missionaries for nearly a century before the federal government began to open new, so-called modern institutions in the 1950s. This was less than a decade after a Special Joint Committee (see Indigenous Suffrage) found that the system was ineffectual. The committee’s recommendations led to the eventual closure of residential schools across the country.

Martha Eva Salcudean (née Abel), OC, OBC, professor of mechanical engineering (born 26 February 1934 in Cluj, Romania; died 17 July 2019 in British Columbia). Salcudean was a leading authority on computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer. In 1985, she was named chair of the department of mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia. This made her the first female head of a Canadian university’s engineering department. Salcudean dedicated much of her academic career to forging research and development partnerships. She fostered collaboration between universities, government agencies and industry groups in sectors such as mining, pulp and paper and aeronautics.

Margaret Elizabeth Parsons, pianist, teacher (born 26 October 1914 in Hanna, AB; died 17 July 1991 in Toronto, ON). LRSM 1927, LAB 1929, ATCM 1931, LTCM 1932. 

Mary Lindsay "Molly" Sclater, teacher, author, organist-choirmaster (born 28 December 1912 in Edinburgh, Scotland; died 31 March 2002 in Jackson's Point, ON). ATCM 1938, ACCO ca 1938, B MUS (Toronto) 1939.

Despite this, his father withdrew Antoine from the conservatoire in October 1841 and took him and his older brother on a concert tour to promote his music business, first to the USA, and then to the French provinces, Italy, Austria, and Germany.

Antoine Dessane, organist, pianist, cellist, teacher, composer (b at Forcalquier, near Aix-en-Provence, France 10 Dec 1826; d at Québec City 8 June 1873). Founder of the choral Société musicale.