Search for "black history"

His early life and career were marked by a series of geographical displacements. Born in England, Collins developed a passion for French architecture. During World War II, he joined the Yorkshire Hussars as a trooper and served as an intelligence officer in the Middle East and Italy.

Roger Matton. Composer, teacher, ethnomusicologist, b Granby, Que, 18 May 1929, d Quebec City 7 Jun 2004.

Ian E. Wilson, archivist, Librarian and Archivist of Canada from 2004 to 2009 (b at Montréal, Qué, Apr 1943).

Cecil Scott Burgess, architect, professor (b at Bombay (Mumbai), India 4 Oct 1870; d at Edmonton 12 Nov 1971). Cecil Scott Burgess helped bring English Arts and Crafts architectural and design ideals into Canada. His public lectures provided a bridge between the profession and the public.

Judy Fong Bates, writer, teacher (born at Kaiping County, Guangdong, China 22 Dec 1949). Judy Fong Bates IMMIGRATED to Canada with her mother in 1955. Meeting her father in Allandale (now Barrie), Ontario, Fong Bates discovered she and her parents were the only ASIAN citizens in the area.

Frédéric Back, OC, CQ, animator, illustrator, muralist, teacher, activist (born 8 April 1924 in Sarrebrück, France; died 24 December 2013 in Montréal, QC). Frédéric Back was one of Canada’s most celebrated animators and a pioneering environmental activist.

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.

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.

Carl Reginald Morey, musicologist, teacher (born 14 July 1934 in Toronto, ON; died 3 December 2018 in Toronto). ARCT 1953, B MUS (Toronto) 1957, M MUS (Indiana) 1961, PhD (Indiana) 1965. Morey studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music and music history and literature at the University of Toronto. A Canada Council doctoral fellowship in 1963 enabled him to work in Italy on his dissertation 'The late operas of Alessandro Scarlatti.' He taught 1962-63 at Wayne State University, Detroit, and 1964-70 at the Music Department at the University of Windsor (1967-70 as its head). He began teaching as an associate professor at the University of Toronto in 1970, became a full professor in 1977, and was dean 1984-90 of the Faculty of Music and concurrently chairman of the Graduate Department of Music. In 1991 he was appointed Jean A. Chalmers professor of Canadian music and director of the faculty's Institute for Canadian Music. Morey retired from the university in 2000.

Maryvonne Kendergi.

Adolphus Egerton Ryerson, Methodist minister, educator (born 24 March 1803 in Charlotteville Township, Norfolk County, Upper Canada; died 18 February 1882 in Toronto, Ontario). Egerton Ryerson was a leading figure in education and politics in 19th century Ontario. He helped found and edit the Christian Guardian (1829) and served as president of the Methodist Church of Canada (1874–78). As superintendent of education in Canada West, Ryerson established a system of free, mandatory schooling at the primary and secondary level — the forerunner of Ontario’s current school system. He also founded the Provincial Normal School (1847), which eventually became the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Ryerson also served as principal of Victoria College, which he helped found in 1836 as the Upper Canada Academy. He was also, however, involved in the development of residential schools in Canada. This has led to increasing calls to rename Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) and other institutions named in his honour.

Max Wyman. Writer, critic, educator, administrator, actor, b Wellingborough, England, 14 May 1939, naturalized Canadian 1979; honorary D LITT (Simon Fraser) 2003. Max Wyman studied piano and theory as a youth and began his career in journalism with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph at 14.

Katherine Mary Govier, CM, writer, editor, administrator, teacher (born 4 July 1948 in Edmonton, AB). Katherine Govier has published 10 novels and three short-story collections, as well as two acclaimed collections of travel writing. A Member of the Order of Canada, she has received the Toronto Book Award and the Marian Engel Award. She has served on the boards of the Toronto Arts Council, the Canadian Council for Civil Liberties and the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing. She has also taught at Sheridan College, Ryerson University and York University.

​François Ricard, O.Q., literary critic, essayist, editor, professor of literature (born 4 June 1947 in Shawinigan, QC).

Géza de Kresz. Violinist, teacher, conductor, b Budapest 11 Jun 1882, naturalized Canadian 1930, d Toronto 2 Oct 1959. He studied 1892-7 with Alajos Gobbi and 1897-1900 with Jenö Hubay at the National Cons in Budapest, graduating in 1900.

Marvin Duchow. Musicologist, composer, administrator, teacher, b Montreal 10 Jun 1914, d there 24 May 1979; B MUS (McGill) 1937, Diploma in Composition (Curtis) 1939, BA (New York) 1942, MA musicology (ESM, Rochester) 1951, honorary D MUS (Chicago Cons) 1960.

Graeme Gibson, CM, writer, cultural activist, teacher (born 9 August 1934 in London, ON; died 18 September 2019 in London, England). Graeme Gibson was a noted Canadian author and conservationist. His novels Five Legs (1969), Communion (1971), Perpetual Motion (1982) and Gentleman Death (1993) were widely acclaimed. He also published the environmentally conscious The Bedside Book of Birds (2005) and The Bedside Book of Beasts (2009). A committed bird watcher, he helped found the Pelee Island Bird Observatory. He was also instrumental in forming the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Book and Periodical Development Council and the Writers’ Trust of Canada. He was a former president of PEN Canada and the longtime partner of Margaret Atwood.

After the 1968 Soviet invasion, Skvorecky and his wife, the actress-novelist Zdena Salivarova, came to Toronto, where Skvorecky served as writer-in-residence at the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO for a year and in 1971 joined its English department, where he taught literature and film until 1990.

Françoise Aubut-Pratte (née Aubut), organist, educator (born 5 September 1922 in St-Jérôme, QC; died 8 October 1984 in Montréal, QC).

Quenten Doolittle, composer, violinist, violist, teacher, conductor (born 21 May 1925 in Elmira, New York).