Saint John High School
Alumni News
vol. 27 — March, 2012
21st Century
graduates
Profiles of four recent SJHS alumni
The majority of our alumni
graduated from Saint John
High School in the twentieth
century, however, approximately 3,000 students have
graduated since 2001 making
them 21st century graduates.
We approached four graduates who have had sufficient
time to pursue their postsecondary school goals and
asked them a few questions
Tiffany Sparks graduated from Saint John High in
2002. Tiffany was an honours
graduate who had completed
her French Immersion certificate and also took several
International Baccalaureate
courses. Following graduation from High School, Tiffany spent her first year at
UNBSJ and then transferred
to Saint Mary’s University,
graduating in 2006. Tiffany
completed a Bachelor of
Commerce with a major in
Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations and Minor in French.
Alumni News (AN) Where
did you get your first job? TS:
Atlantic Wealth Management
where I worked for one year as
an Office Assistant.
AN: Are you still in your first
job? TS: No I was there one
year.
AN: How has your career or
job developed since you were
continued on page 4
A year of anniversaries
Prince William Street location marks 80 years & Alumni Association celebrates 30
This photo was sent in by Elizabeth (Burnham) Lowe (Class of 1932). The photo was among her brother Nevin Burnham’s effects
(Class of 1932). She is fairly sure that it a composite photo of the grades 10 and 11 boys taken in 1929 or 1930. Most of the
individuals in the photo are unidentified. Nevin Burnham and G. Forbes Elliot are students in this photo.
by Richard Thorne
Editor
Eighty years ago in the
midst of the Great Depression
Saint John High School opened
its doors to the first class on
Prince William St. Various versions of Saint John High School
had existed from 1805 when the
Saint John Grammar School
was founded for boys and 1870
when the Victoria School for
girls opened its doors.
The first modern Saint John
High School, as a co-educational institution, was built on
Union Street and opened in
Alumni in the news......... 2
we get letters................. 6
features........................ 11
Donors........................... 15
Obituaries..................... 18
1896. By 1932, the Union Street
school was outdated and too
small and so ceased to be the senior high school after 36 years.
Here we are today celebrating
80 years in the Prince William
Street facility. Unlike the Union
Street school, the current Saint
John High School has been updated and added to at various
stages over the past 80 years.
The addition of the new wing
in 1963 – 64, the opening of the
pool in 1967 and the renovations
of 1986 all ensured that this icon
of public education survived
into the 21st century.
There are still graduates of the
Union Street Saint John High
School numbered among our
loyal Alumni and one member
of the first graduation class of
the Prince William St school,
Elizabeth “LIb” (Burnham)
Lowe, provided that wonderful
photo of the Union Street boys
taken around 1929. There are not
many casual photos remaining
from the period particularly one
with those wonderful sweaters.
Speaking of those sweaters,
several are still in existence.
Sam Davis, the late mayor of
Saint John, could not afford one
while he was at High School, but
his son, Gary Davis, has one. By
1999 Gary’s son, Gregory Davis
(1999), was occasionally allowed
to take the sweater for an outing.
Tradition combined with excellence and a willingness to
embrace modern changes has
kept Saint John High busy reinventing itself over the many decades. Happy 80th anniversary
for the Prince William Street
school and what better way to
celebrate than to have a Grand
Reunion of all Classes from August 3rd to 5th in 2012. •
40699549
If underliverable, return to:
Saint John High School
170 – 200 Prince Willian St.
Saint John, NB, e2l 2b7
2
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
Alumni in
the News
$20 million+ private donation Largest in UNB history
Richard Currie – Class of
1955 – opened the brilliant
sixty-two and a half million
dollar Athletic Complex of the
University of New Brunswick
in Fredericton in the fall of
2011. It is named after him—
‘The Richard Currie Center’—
in recognition of him as Chancellor of the University and as
a more than twenty million
dollar donor to the project,
the largest single private donation a New Brunswick University has received. “People
ask me”, says Currie, “Why
this building?” Well, it’s for
the young people going here
to realize the building is from
one of their own. It’s here to
say to them, look, after you
finish University if you’re willing to pay what I call the emotional price in time, effort and
so on, you can be a leader in
any field you choose. That’s
what it’s really here for, for
students to look and say, one
of us, right, one of us, there
it is.” When he became CEO
of Loblaws, its market value
grew by 350 times to $15 billion under his leadership. He
brought the midas touch to
the parent company, George
Weston Ltd., where share prices increased seven fold during
his tenure.
The centre is spelled “ER.”
Currie says this makes more
sense. “When I was a boy and
you looked up the hockey
scores for the Maple Leafs—
and it was all Maple Leafs
in those days—the guy who
played centre ice for the Leafs,
it was always spelled center.
Sometime in the early fifties,
it became to move to centre.
I like center better. It makes
more sense.” Curried enjoyed
his early working career in the
United States where the ER
ending is the accepted spelling. “I don’t want to be glib
about it, but I owe the Americans more than I owe the
English or the French. So my
American friends coming up
to see the Currie Center, they
think it’s pretty cool.” Currie’s
name is associated with many
downtowns,
endowments,
chairs, scholarships, and other acts of generosity. He was
named one of the Globe and
Mail’s top ten Canadian CEOs
of all time.
Forum for entrepreneurs
Jennifer Blackwood – Class
of 1972 – is president and owner of Business Health Matters Inc. The New Brunswick
entrepreneur’s forum is designed to promote innovation,
and is organized through the
Wallace McCain Institute for
Business Initiatives at UNB.
Jennifer said that her six year
old enterprise had benefitted
from mentorship provided
by business volunteers. She
wants to develop software that
will help to create a virtual
health and wellness program.
Top Tory for N.B.
Jason Stephen – Class of
1994 is a real estate agent in
Saint John. He was recently
elected Party President of the
Progressive Conservatives at
ARTIST CREATES MURAL
Gerard Collins – Class of 1975
studied art at St. Martins School
of Art in London, UK and in Dusseldorf, Germany. He has a degree
from the Nova Scotia College of Art
and Design in Halifax. He was the
winner of the prestigious Strathbutler Award in 2001. He recently
transformed a class room at Hazen
White-St. Francis School into a literary retreat by painting a mural on an
obsolete blackboard. Rowan berries
figure prominently, with branches of
mountain ash trees stark against the
background of a lake. “It’s a way of
the Annual General Meeting
in Fredericton. He told the
800 voting delegates that he
wants the party to be a movement that will attract more
young people, and to show
them that it wants to build a
better province. The Conservative Provincial government
will not face a general election
until 2014.
brightening up the place. It’s something to look at.” It was a labour of
love requested by Sue Anne Mackin,
a teacher at the school, and was completed in just three hours in acrylic.
“The room is a retreat for students
whose work is done and who want
to read, write, draw, play chess or
just chill out and view this beautiful
piece that Gerard has done”, said Sue
Mackin. Gerard Collins work can be
found in many collections including
the National Gallery of Canada, the Gerry Collins, Class of
New Brunswick Museum and the 1975
Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
Opera singers hit
high note
Owen McCausland and Jillian Bonner (Class of 2008)
are two young and rising
opera singers, who have followed similar paths. Both
graduated from Saint John
High School, where they were
enrolled in the school’s International Baccalaureate Music
program. The two shared the
stage on several occasions in
school musicals and McCausland once played the bassoon while Bonner sang during a 2006 recital at the Saint
John Arts Centre. Even after
they graduated, their paths
crossed. Both would go on to
study at Dalhousie University,
where they often shared a studio.
Now, their journey is about
continued on page 8
THE Grand
Reunion:
accomodations
Grads attending the Grand
Reunion from out of town
may want to avail themselves
of the special rates the Hilton
hotel (site of the final banquet) has provided. They have
set aside a limited number of
rooms at $99.00 per night, a
rate lower than any other offered by Hilton. We have been
provided with the following
contact information. Group
Code: SJHA12 Toll Free Number: 1-800-561-8282
For the full program of events
and registration form, please
refer to the insert in this edition of the Alumni News.
3
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
Principal’s
message
by Marijke Blok
Principal
February is a good month for
reflection. At Saint John High we
are recovering from the excitement of Christmas and the highs
and lows of exams, and settling in
with renewed purpose for the second semester. It’s the time of year
when Grade 12 students actually
turn into “seniors” who are ready
to take their next steps into the
world.
That is why it’s particularly
meaningful for us to consider the
impact of our Alumni on both
the day-to-day functioning of the
school and its long-term philosophical goals.
When Diane Bormke, Dr. David Moir, Harry Gaunce, Dennis
Knibb, Gladys Bell, Larry Hanson,
Linda Tobias, and Sheila French
became the charter members of
the Alumni Association in 1982,
they were engaging in a favorite
SJHS pastime – looking backward
and seeing forward. Their gift to
the future of the school reflects
those qualities: a strong sense
of history and tradition coupled
with the motivation and material
necessities to carry the school forward in the third millennium.
Through the ongoing support
and vision of the SJHS Alumni, we
are able to provide our students
with the educational experience
they will need for success in the
coming years. The generosity of
Alumni members and the dedication of the Alumni Board, enables
us able to purchase many of the
innovative tools pictured here. In
addition, thanks to Alumni funding of teacher professional development, we are assured of a highly-trained staff who are equally
able to provide for the demands
of IB curriculum and the needs of
our struggling students.
We are grateful to the thousands
of SJHS grads who have gone before and in many ways smoothed
our pathway. On behalf of Saint
John High students and staff: congratulations and thanks to our
Alumni Association on its thirtieth anniversary! •
Dr. David Moir retires as Alumni President
Thirty years ago the Saint
John High School Alumni
Association was established
during the first All Class
Grand Reunion. At that time
the constitution and by-laws
were established and a Board
of Directors, consisting a President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer along with
several directors, was elected.
Serving continuously as President since that time has been
Dr. David Moir (Class of 1948)
who has decided to step down
from this position. During
that time Dr. Moir has participated in many class reunions
and headed up all the Grand
Reunions held every five to
seven years. The Alumni Association has over that period
of time left signifcant “tracks
in the sand” both in its service
to the alumni itself and its
support for the school. David
Moir, whether participating in
a Variety Show in numerous
roles or carefully scrutinizing
how the Alumni donations
were spent or how bequests
to the Alumni Association
were carefully invested for the
long term benefit of SJHS, has
represented his fellow Saint
John High School alumni in
an excellent fashion. His has
been a job well-done. Please
accept the thousands of best
wishes and thanks from all
of the Saint John High School
Alumni. There will be an
annual general meeting of
the Saint John High School
Alumni Association to elect
the officers and directors of
the Associaton and to approve changes to the by-laws
of the Association held at 4:00
PM in the Dennis Knibb Auditorium at Saint John High
School on Friday, August 3rd,
2012. Happy 30th anniversary
to the Saint John High School
Alumni Association. •
Where the money goes
Requests to the Alumni
for Funding for $30,262.76
worth of funding for academic departments including Art – (colour printer and
art portfolio storage); SocialStudies – (Tool chest for storage of Geography samples
(aka rocks!); supplementary
and IB course texts; Site license for Active History;
and History DVD’S); Physics – (Blu-ray DVD player;
Wonders of theSolar System
DVD Set; assistance in the
setup of a Grade 9/10 Science
lab in room 326 used by literally every student attending SJHS and various other
teaching and lab supports);
French – (IPEVO document
cameras to help with literacy
strategies, IPEVO document
carrying case, French DVDs,
and various print and text
materials to support both
core and French Immersion
programs); Math – (With the
introduction of the new Math
curriculum into the high
schools more hands on learning activities and materials);
Biology – (Waterproof Digital
Camera; Earth Science Vernier; Lab Book, DVD’s, various lab supplies and a utility
cart); Phys Ed – (continued
support for reuseable gym
and pool supplies); English
– (Class sets of books to sup-
port choice and challenge in
various courses); Accounting – ( 12 copies of Accounting 1); Music (Bose Portable
Sound Dock); Entrepreneurship – (10 copies Creating
Ventures); IB Program – (ongoing support of $2000.00
for IB teacher’s required professional development. The
Province of New Brunswick
does not provide any funds
other than release time, but a
combination of support from
the New Brunswick Teach- Geolgy samples, aka rocks.
ers Association, the Saint
John High School Alumni, ensures that SJHS teachers
and from teachers personally have access to the best pracmake this required teacher tice world-wide. All of the redevelopment possible. This quests were granted. •
A note from the Editor
by Richard Thorne
Editor
The Alumni News is printing its 30th edition this year,
a year of anniversaries for
Saint John High School, the
Alumni itself and the Alumni
newsletter. We have a circulation in print of about 8,000
copies and a readership
which is somewhat larger.
Family sharing and the electronic copies available on
the Saint John High School
website, sjhigh.ca, make
sure that we stay connected.
On this, the occasion of my
fourth newsletter as editor, I
would like to pay tribute to
two people who have made
this newsletter possible over
the last thirty years. First and
foremost is Dennis Knibb
who constantly seeks out
news about our Alumni and
who also writes innumerable letters (by hand) to both
correspondents and donors.
What a pleasure to send
in a donation and receive
a hand-written letter back
from Dennis Knibb usually
with some tid-bit on recent
activities or a remembrance
of past events. The second
tribute is to the late Diane
(McAlpine) Bromke who edited and oversaw the publication of most of the earlier
newsletters, much of this in
a day when electronic com-
munications was in its infancy. More recently, I have
been joined by two former
graduates, Peter Josselyn
(1999) and Conan Tobias
(1991) who are composing
and proofing the copy and
arranging the newsletter for
publication. None of this, of
course, would be possible
without the on-going support of the Alumni. Those
wonderful donations which
flow in each year from that
tiny paper insert in the
Alumni News provide the
$10,000 for the printing and
distribution (mostly in mailing costs) that make the
newsletter a reality. Those
donations also provide an
additional and extremely
important $30,000 – $40,000
of support to the educational programing of Saint John
High School. In this day of
severe budget restrictions
on schools, Saint John High
School is able to continue to
offer quality programs with
modern technological support. No wonder our graduates are spread across the
globe with interesting and
varied careers as will be evident in the various stories,
news, and letters in the current edition of the Alumni
News. •
4
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
Passion and Purpose: 21st century graduatess
continued from page 1
Tiffany Sparks
first employed? TS: I now work
for a Managing General Agency, Financial Horizons, for another former SJHS graduate,
Chris Valardo (1986). I have
worked with him since day
one of the company. My role is
a life, new business, and contracting manager. I work directly with financial planners
from all over Atlantic Canada,
helping them maintain and
grow their businesses.
AN: Is this how you envisaged your future to this point?
TS: When I envisioned my future at graduation, I thought
that I would be a high school
teacher. My path took a different turn, but that doesn’t
mean it won’t easily take another twist. I have many different interests, so we’ll see
where they take me.
AN: Do you see your ambitions taking a different path
from what you first thought?
TS: Most definitely, I have so
many things that I still want to
do and I plan on learning and
growing every day for the rest
of my life. My experiences in
the past ten years have broadened my vision on the world.
AN: Any advice for those still
in school or still searching for
their career? TS: Take advantage of personal connections
and network as much as you
can. Sometimes it’s not always
what you know, but who you
know. Seriously consider all of
your opportunities and don’t
just take the first thing that
comes along.
Kate Harbinson graduated
from Saint John High in 2002
with an honours diploma.
For post-secondary training,
Kate entered Mount Saint
Vincent University and graduated in in 2006 with a Bach-
elor of Public Relations.
AN: Where did you get your
first job? KH: My first job was
at CauseForce Inc., which is
an event production company
in Vancouver, British Columbia that produces The Ride to
Conquer Cancer, The Weekend to End Breast Cancer &
The Underwear Affair—events
across Canada and Australia.
AN: Are you still in your first
job? KH: No, I was there for
four years and I now work at
Vancouver Film School.
AN: How has your career or
job developed since you were
first employed? KH: My first
job was very entry level. I was
responsible for the media
relations campaigns of four
events. During my time at
CauseForce Inc. the company
doubled in size and significantly increased my responsibilities. By the time I left, I
was responsible for overseeing the entire Western Region,
as well as launching our first
Australian event. My career
was heavily focused on media relations and the health
industry, specifically cancer
research. At the Vancouver
Film School, my current role
includes public relations and
marketing. Also, I now work in
a creative film industry, which
has its own dynamics and
challenges.
Kate Harbinson
AN: Is this how you envisaged your future to this point?
KH: To be honest, I had no
idea what to imagine for a
future. I’ve always set shortterm goals for myself and
once I’ve accomplished those,
I move on and establish new
goals, always challenging myself a bit more each time. Post
university it was experiencing
life outside the Maritimes, for
a minimum of three years. I
moved to Vancouver without
an apartment or a job, and I
found myself at CauseForce.
My next set of goals, was to go
as far in this organization as
possible. By my fourth year, I
was the Supervisor of Public
Relations for the entire western region of events. This led
to challenges, such as getting
our events on the front page
of every major newspaper in
the city, to driving a 24-foot
Penske across British Columbia. After four years I felt it was
time to move on and I found
myself at the Vancouver Film
School. The focus of my new
position is marketing, and
new skill sets were required.
A steep learning curve was
needed to supplement my
public relations background
AN: Do you see your ambitions taking a different path
from what you first thought?
KH: I always thought that I
wanted to work in the arts
field. I love music and felt
that my dream job would be
to work for a music label. In
my experiences thus far, I’ve
learned that my biggest passion lies with crisis communications and media relations,
specifically for events. Therefore, I do not believe my path
will lead me to a music label
but will likely take me back
into the not-for-profit world.
AN: Any advice for those still
in school or still searching for
their career? KH: There are so
many different fields within
any profession and it is important to recognize the diversity and opportunities that are
possible. Even if, like me, you
love to plan for the future, find
your balance and find a niche
that you are passionate about.
Try not to stress out too much
if things aren’t going exactly
to plan. Work hard, recognize
and utilize your strengths, and
there is a good chance things
will work out.
Adam MacDonald was a
2003 graduate from Saint
John High. Adam was a high
honours graduate and took
several International Baccalaureate courses. Following High School Adam went
to UNBSJ for the Saint John
School of Radiation Therapy.
He graduated in 2007 with a
Bachelor’s degree in Health
Sciences, majoring in radia-
tion therapy and a Diploma
in radiation therapy.
AN: Where did you get your
first job? AM: I got my first
job at the Saint John Regional
Hospital, department of Radiation Oncology.
Adam MacDonald
AN: Are you still in your first
job? AM: Yes, and no … I have
remained in the same building, but my role has evolved
over time into something new.
AN: How long were you
there? AM: Four years before
changing assignments
AN: How has your career or
job developed since you were
first employed? AM: When I
started out as a new graduate I was working as a Radiation Therapist on the oncology
unit, treating cancer patients
on a daily basis. I knew at that
time that I needed to keep a
fresh perspective of how being
a student impacted my work
ethic and to remember what it
was like to be a student in the
program. I forged some working relationships with the faculty of the school and pursued
being involved with student
teaching in every way I could.
Four and a half years later, I
am now the Programme Coordinator for the Saint John
School of Radiation Therapy.
AN: Is this how you envisaged your future to this point?
AM: I was always aiming at
becoming an educator within
a post-secondary institution,
but figured that this would
come later in life, perhaps
with a masters degree and
many more years of work experience, since it is within
a unionized environment.
Much to my surprise, I have
been promoted much earlier
than anticipated and I am loving every new learning opportunity that is presenting itself
because of this new role.
AN: Do you see your ambi-
tions taking a different path
from what you first thought?
AM: No, this is certainly where
I know I wanted to be in the
short term, I still see my ambitions taking me further; in fact
I am still looking to pursue
my original goals of gaining a
masters degree in adult health
care education.
AN: Any advice for those still
in school or still searching for
their career? AM: For those of
you who still don’t know what
you want to do for the rest of
your life, I say “That’s alright,
you don’t need to know, but
continue pursuing education
and professional development. Do something, anything; at this point your mind
is in the mode to work and be
done with school, but don’t
allow yourself to fall into the
mundane trap of “just working,” continue to learn and
develop your skills. Surprises
and new opportunities are
waiting for you around every
corner; do yourself a favour
and be prepared to snatch
them up when they present
themselves.
Paul Saulnier graduated
from Saint John High in 2004
both with a High Honours
and an International Baccalaureate Diploma. Paul received his first degree from
the University of New Brunswick (Bachelor of Science in
Computer Science) and then
completed his Master of Science in Computer Science
from the University of Calgary in 2011.
AN: Where did you get your
first job? PS: I worked at Innovatia in Saint John from
grade 11 through to when I
went to Calgary to pursue my
MSc (around five years). After
completing my MSc, I began
work as a software developer
for Cathedral Energy Services
in Calgary where I am a Business Analyst.
AN: How has your career or
job developed since you were
first employed? PS: I worked
for almost a year as a software
developer before being promoted to Business Analyst,
which came largely through
hard work and really pursuing
the direction I wanted my cacontinued on page 5
5
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
Address your letters to:
We get mail
Christina (Gray) Boyle,
Class of 1938 wrote from Garnett Settlement in June 2011: “I
graduated in 1938 and will be
92 in March, 2012. Dr. Alexander was our wonderful Principal. I then went to Saint John
Vocational and learned the
trade of Beauty Culture which
I practised until my late forties.
But I will never forget my old
school. I loved my teachers,
Ms. Dickson, Ms. Steeves, Ms.
Wilson and Ms. Estabrooks,
as well as a science teacher
whose name I can’t remember. I still attend Loch Lomond
Baptist Church every Sunday
and help with the music. Our
son Gary Boyle graduated from
Saint John High in 1975 and has
served on the Saint John Police
Force. He will retire this year.”
[Ed. Note: Subsequently, Gary
Boyle retired prior to Christmas and was his usual happy
self when I met him recently.
He wishes to be remembered
by Mr. Paul Hodges and the
other teachers whom he knew
in the early 1970s]
•
Edison Stairs, Class of 1943
wrote from Cobden, Ontario
in July 2011: “It is nice to get the
Alumni News from home. The
obituary of Colonel Jame Turnbull (Class of 1941) Peaked my
interest, and other too whom
I knew from entry to SJHS in
September 1938 at the age of
thirteen. After completing
Grade IX, I ill-advisedly left to
attend S. J. Vocational School
for a trade – mechanics. I excelled academically and my
mechanics was lacking. So
after a year, I left and worked
as a clerk at VBM (Vassie,
Brock, Manchester), a wholecontinued from page 4
Paul Saulnier
sale dry goods store on Kings
Street for five dollars a week,
including Saturdays. A friend
gave me a verbal butt-kick to
get back to SJHS for September 1941. I graduated in 1943
alongside Len Morgan, Eric
Teed, Graeme Somerville, Hazen Parent, Robert McGowan,
Robert Kelly and many others
including Miss Smarty Pants,
Mardi Long, Valedictorian.
Many remained in the Saint
John area to establish careers,
professional or otherwise, via
UNB or trade courses or work
connections. I remember
fondly certain teachers like
Cliff Hodgson—math expert
and professional photographer—who spawned my math
interest, and George Buckley,
the consummate stage master
and orator who set the standard for me to use in my military and civilian careers. There
was the Latin comic, Bill Seely,
and the youthful Forbes Elliot
who would become the VicePresident of UNBSJ. My delay
in graduating to 1943 made
me old enough to enlist in war
service, from September 1943
to September 1945. I entered
UNB in December 1945, a special year for veterans to roll two
years into one, with no summer break. I left in May 1947
and worked for a book-keeping
firm, and then as a line surveyor for Ontario Hydro. In 1949 I
chose to re-enter the RCAF in
the Institute of Aviation Medicine. The Ontario High School
Physics text has an illustration
of me experimenting in my
anti-gravitation suit for pilots
on a high speed curved path
(Photo taken in 1951). I served
thirty two year and in retirement have volunteered with
the Royal Canadian Legion.
reer to go in. This wasn’t easy,
as it meant taking on risks that
could’ve wasted lots of my
time, and taking on challenging projects.
AN: Is this how you envisaged your future to this point?
PS: Not really. I knew I’d likely
be involved with something in
computers, particularly web
or software development. I
didn’t expect to be in Calgary
until the opportunity arose to
Saint John High School Alumni
170 – 200 Prince William St.
Saint John NB, E2L 2B7
rthorne2@nb.sympatico.ca
As both my GP and I are against
the use of narcotics, that leaves
me with the pain. If I do make
it down home this summer for
the Grand Reunion, you will
probably see me pushing my
walker. I am looking forward
to getting to Saint John (health
permitting) as it will be my last
trip home. I’m originally from
Queens County so it will give
me a chance to bid a final farewell to all the old folks on the
Loyalist Family Rural Route
who still remember me as a
boy.
•
60th Reunion Class of 1943 from 2003. This photo includes Ed Stairs
I am a Past President, Youth
Education chairman involving
posters, poems, spelling bees,
essays and public speaking. In
the Year of the Veterans, I was
chosen Citizen of the Year for
my work with the school children. I will be eighty seven in
October, but not a write-off
yet!”
•
Donna (Patterson) Farkas,
Class of 1956 wrote from Lethbridge, Alberta in September, 2011: “I was in and around
Saint John in late July and early
August. The weather was excellent. I had my twelve year
old grandson, Cory, with me.
We did the tourist thing but
there is never enough time to
do it all. We cruised past Winter St. School (or what is left
of the site), Princess Elizabeth
and Saint John High so that he
could see where my education
began in Saint John. I enjoy
the News immensely, so thank
you’.”
•
pursue my MSc there. I didn’t
expect to work for an energy
company.
AN: Do you see your ambitions taking a different path
from what you first thought?
PS: Possibly. I have always
kept an open mind to move in
one direction, but not closed
myself to windows of opportunity on the way.
AN: Any advice for those
still in school or still search-
David L. Palmer, Teacher,
1967-68 wrote from Ankeny,
Iowa in July 2011: “I have enclosed a donation for your Association. I am currently entering my forty-seventh year
of some type of employment
in Education. I regard my one
year of teaching history at
Saint John High School as the
highlight of my career. Dennis
Knibb provided me a wonderful role model at the beginning
of my long career. My teaching
colleagues were equally as inspiring. Finally like the fabled
Mr. Chips, I recall the faces of
eager students.”
•
H. Fred Cook, Class of 1958
wrote from Kingston, Ontario
in January 2012: “I waited almost a year to see an orthopaedic surgeon. He told me I needed major back surgery, but the
odds were too great against it
being a success, since, in previous surgery, I had a metal
brace screwed into my lower
back. I had two choices: narcotics or living with great pain.
ing for their career? PS: Get
out and see as much of the
world as soon as you can. This
greatly improves your ability
to frame your perspective on
life and determine what paths
you want to take. Be open to
all opportunities, and always
look for them. In my case, I
was able to participate in a
5-month university exchange
in France at the last minute,
simply due to lack of interest
Arthur Kneeshaw, husband
of Constance (Cameron)
Kneeshaw (Class of 1942)
wrote from Sandringham, a
suburb of Melbourne, Australia in August, 2011: “Connie has
memory problems now so she
only scans the newsletter. But
I rather enjoy it, and find it to
be a great edition. Among the
donors I see a couple of friends
and relatives­
—names like
Norma (Stephenson) Barbour
(1948) in the United States,
and cousin Audrey (Watters)
Gunter (1936). My own high
school in Winnipeg puts out
an annual paper but pales in
comparison with yours. Your
recent note mentions “Life in
the Deep South.” Well Melbourne is in the South okay,
not far from Antarctica so we
get it wintery at times, no snow
but lots of 4°C or 5°C at night
and 15°C or so daytimes. I so
not miss the snow and freezing
cold or Canada, but I miss seeing icicles.”
continued on page 6
from other students. I have
no idea why. The world isn’t
against you, and nothing is as
bad as it seems, despite what
anyone tries to tell you. You
can take control of your life.
The problems you face during school will seem much
smaller later on, but the positive things you do to improve
yourself will always stay with
you. •
6
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
letters
joyable. Congratulations to
everyone. I look forward to
seeing you all next year.”
•
Margery (Robinson) Lazas, Class of 1959 wrote from
Green Valley, Arizona in August 2011: “How kind of you
to send me the Alumni News.
I was sorry not to be able to
attend my class reunion last
year. Two of my grandchildren
go to Saint John High – Thomas Emerson is entering Grade
XII and his sister, Noreen Emerson, is going into Grade X.
My son, only child, David Emerson , works for UNB in Economic Development Projects.
Even though I now live 3,599
miles distant in the desert,
Saint John remains home.”
James McGinnis (Grade
XI, 1975) wrote from his law
office in Edmonton, Alberta:
“I have once again read with
great delight the latest edition
of the Alumni News. The level
of support which the Alumni
provide to the school continues to astonish me. I was also
glad to catch up on the news
of some of my old pals like
Harvey Lomax, Rory Ervin
(and all his brothers), Dr. Gordon Hollway and Brent Bambury. The Alumni Association
is to be heartily congratulated
on all this great work.”
•
•
•
Carol (Wilson) Schultz,
Class of 1960 wrote from
Florida in July 2011: “I want
to again thank you for sending me the newsletter about
the reunions this past summer. It is so intriguing to read
about my classmates and others who have gone on to do
wonderful creative, compassionate and rewarding things
with their lives. I am so proud
to have known them. I was unable to make our class Fiftieth
Reunion this past summer as
we live in Florida and it is difficult to travel that far during
these times. However, my husband and I do hope to make it
to Saint John next summer for
the larger Alumni Reunion, so
hopefully we will be greeting
classmates then. The reunion
sounded wonderful and I
am sure everyone worked
overtime to make it most en-
the precision of an atomic
clock would phone her order
in on a Friday afternoon for
an evening delivery. She lived
on the third or fourth floor of
a lovely Victorian stone building and despite the heavy
lifting she always had a kind
word at the top of the stairs,
and she tipped. I read in your
most recent issue that she
was a SJHS graduate and had
recently passed away. [Irene
(Goodwin) Scribner, Class of
1937]. Reading this dislodged
a flood of memories from
those tough but honourable
days in the 1960s. I think that
it is the Alumni News' talent
to stimulate these feeling that
make it so readable. Facebook
can never replace you. Please
accept this small donation
of five hundred dollars as a
thank you for your excellent
work.”
Philip Down, Class of 1969
wrote from Toronto in July
2011: “What a joy it was to read
your most recent issue which
after a long day at work I was
heartened to receive and devour instantly. I departed
Saint John in the early 1970s to
begin what turned out to be a
number of careers, including
the British Royal Marines, the
Business Press in the UK and
Canada, and commercial real
estate in Toronto. I am Senior
Vice-President of John Lang
LaSalle Real Estate Services
Inc. Our two children have
grown, one married, one soon
to be. My wife, Diane, and I
look forward to and wish for
their success. Whilst at Saint
John High I worked after
school and week-ends with
a local grocer “Scott Brothers” on Pitt Street. They were a
wonderful family and gave me
grounding in business ethics
and practices that I appreciate
to this day. Amongst a number
of long standing customers
was a Mrs. Scribner who lived
on Queens Square and with
Madeline
(Kierstead)
Wright, Class of 1940, wrote in
July 2011 from Ottawa: “I have
received my 2011 Alumni News
and as usual I perused it word
by word. I looked for graduates of 1940 and was pleasantly surprised that some of
us had survived. When I attended by 60th Reunion I
met twelve people from my
years there. I also touched
base with Marjorie (Buckley)
Sheehan, 1939, who had been
my best friend in Graded III
at Glen Falls school. I treasure
my years at Saint John High.
They were Depression years
that did not give me the opportunity to go to University.
Both our children did, and
became educators. My three
grandchildren are in university on scholarships. They are
our claim to success. I will be
ninety in February 2012, the
last surviving member of four
children. My enclosed donation is memory of my sister
Irene (1941), my brother Donald (1944) and brother Harold
who was at Saint John Vocational but left before graduation to join the Army at age 17.
He later took the Government
program at Millidgeville and
completed his High School.
He passed away in November
2008. Congratulations to all
the people who make Saint
John High School such a wonderful school.”
•
Leslie (Todd) Brown Mastrianni, Class of 1966 wrote
from Barre, Vermont in January 2011 to report that she is a
specialist in academic skill development for students with
autism. In October 2011 she
was in the city giving a special
seminar on autism. She met
with retired Principal Dennis Knibb (1965 – 1992) and
with classmate, Carol (Baxter)
Moore (1966) at the Hilton for
Sunday tea. She later wrote:
“Even though you were our
Principal for only one year,
it was an important year and
you had such a positive influence on the school and the
whole city. It was so good to
be in Saint John again. As I
grow older I develop a growing appreciation of the beauty
of many parts of the city and
its rich history. I look forward
to seeing you and many of my
classmates at the Grand Reunion in 2012.”
•
Mary Lou (Fleming) Dewar, Class of 1953, wrote from
Calgary last November sending in a substantial donation
to the Alumni Fund. “This
year I am making an extra
contribution in memory of
two special women who, although students at Saint John
High School, did not graduate
and so did not become members of the Alumni. My sister,
Edith (Fleming) Stinson (1917
– 2004) and my friend Joan E.
White (1935 – 2004) were highachieving students who qualified to write the Matric Examinations, but both were forced
to drop out of school at the
end of Grade X in order to get
work and help support their
families. I wonder whether
there is now, over sixty years
later, a system in place at SJHS
to help students who are in a
similar situation.”
[Ed. Note: After consulting
with Principal Marijke Blok,
we wrote back to Mary Lou,
thanking her for her donation and reassuring her that
free breakfasts and lunches
are provided to needy student
and that special agencies like
the Saint John Foundation
make grants to those requiring
assistance. In January 2012,
the Telegraph-Journal ran this
story of Jonathan Mowery Comeau, a current SJHS student,
who is raising money to set
a Breakfast Program at Saint
John High. Returning to Mary
Lou’s biography, she was valedictorian of her class, finishing first in all three years and
winning the Governor General’s medal. She was secretary of the Student Council for
two years and President of the
Dramatic Club.]
•
Peter Fillmore, Grade XI
1953 wrote from Halifax: “You
have me listed among your
donors as 1953, the end of my
Grade XI year. It was the year
I left to go to Dalhousie University. I think 1954 might be
better as that would put me
among my classmates. In the
1953 Red and Gray Yearbook
you will find me with the
Grade XI boys. I’m also show
with the Chorus, the Band,
Badminton, Curling and Student Council. This was practically my first experience with
organized music, and after
forty years of teaching University Mathematics in Minnesota, Chicago, Indiana, Toronto,
Edinburg, Berkeley, Copenhagen, and Dalhousie (my last 25
years), music has again taken
over my life. I have served, or
am serving, on the Boards of
Opera Nova Scotia, the Nova
Voce Men’s Chorus and Musique Royale. I am currently
singing with Nova Voce, the
Symphony Nova Scotia chorus and he Walter Kemp Singers. It seems the musical seed
was well planted at Saint John
High.“ Professor W. C. Bowden
directed the Orchestra for fifty
three years.
•
Trish Gallagher (Teacher
of Music since 1998) wrote to
continued on page 7
7
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
letters
express gratitude to the Alumni: “Thank you for your 2011
donation to the Music Department. The new Bose dock
sound system is perfect. We
truly appreciate the on-going
support you have given to the
Music Program at SJHS”
•
Marjorie (Buckley) Sheehan, Class of 1939 wrote from
Moncton in October 2011 to
record with regret the passing of two more of the famous
Buckley family. Clair Buckley’s
obituary is posted elsewhere
in this newsletter. Marjorie
wrote “Clair was especially active in football and basketball.
His wife, Marilyn (Sinclair)
Buckley was a graduate of 1942
and resides in Victoria, BC.
Sadly, we lost another member of our family, our sister
Jennie (Buckley) Yeomans
David, Class of 1933 who died
in June 2011. To my knowledge the Buckley Family still
holds the record for the most
graduates in the same generation, seven, all brothers and
sisters.” [Note: The Blanchet
family, children of Paul and
Patricia (Harrison) Blanchet,
numbered nine siblings as
graduates; Paul ( 1956), Constance (1958), Cyrus (1967) ,
Cynthia (1969), Eleanor(1969)
, Linda (1970), Margaret (1972),
Michael (1973), Charles (1976).
James, Patsy and Peter attended other schools.]
•
Lewis McCavour (Class of
1975) wrote from Perth Australia: “I am on long service
leave. I think this is the only
country that has this. After
you have been working at a
school or business for ten
years you get ten weeks of free
paid holidays. I have just taken term four off with the two
weeks previous and Xmas for
six weeks as well. I did a trip
to Thailand, Cambodia, and
Vietnam. I liked it so much
that now I am going to live
in Vietnam and teach them
how to speak English, with a
Canadian accent, of course.
The government started a program over there two years ago
that the entire country will
be fluent in English by 2020,
and there are more jobs than
teachers. So off I go again. I
am now packing house, cleaning up finances, etc., so it has
probably not really hit me
yet, though this is no different
than the way I came to Australia, and 27 years later ... So
how long will I spend there?
Lewis” (Note: Lewis leaves
behind in Australia two adult
daughters so he will be back!
His mother, Joyce, father, Robert McCavour (Class of 1950),
and his sister, Kathy, live here
in New Brunswick.)
•
Teresa May (Yang) Johnston, Class of 1981, wrote: I
have moved so many times
and in different countries that
I have not kept up with all the
Alumni News. My last contribution to that newsletter was
when my favourite teacher
and friend Missy MacPherson
passed away and I wrote a tribute for her and started a scholarship in her name. Not even
sure if that is still on-going.
My life has changed so much
in the past 30 years including
three different last names that
it makes me a difficult person
to track down. I am now legally Teresa May, the name I used
as the author of my first book.
If you read my book you would
learn that Teresa is the name I
was baptised with named after the church St. Teresa, May
is my Chinese first name. So I
combined the two to make it
my legal name.
I wrote my book, Seeds in
the Wind, for the kids I was
teaching and because I saw
the impact and the positive influence it made on them that I
wanted to be able to share the
message with more children
around the world. If I could
make a difference in the lives
of one small group of children,
then I could surely make a difference in many more. The
message I want to get across is
that we are of one race ... the
Human Race! The book about
accepting difference is about
accepting all differences: culture, race, religion, gender,
and abilities.
I am donating a portion
of the proceeds back to the
foundation I started called
My Fairy Godmothers where
our mission is to help children
with broken hearts, children
who have suffered the loss of a
parent through death, divorce,
or disappearance. So I can
make a difference for many
more children in the world.
My brother Peter (Peter
Yang, Class of 1981) lives in
Vancouver with his wife and
two teenage kids, an 18 year
old daughter and a 14 year
old son. He is a school psychologist for the Delta School
District. My sister Margarita
(Margarita Yang, Class of 1983)
lives on Vancouver Island with
her husband and two daughters age 10 and 5. She works as
an associate quantity surveyor
and is part owner of a sustainability consultant firm in Victoria. Our parents have also
moved out west to beautiful
British Columbia.
The neatest thing about
social network in this age is
bringing people together, from
far away and from long ago.
That was how I got back to the
dream of publishing my book
... connecting with the students I taught. Just two days
ago, I had the most amazing
opportunity of seeing one of
my very best friends from high
school Blair Drummie (1981)
who connected with me on
Facebook. Then he happened
to post some pictures that he
was out West for the holidays
and when I saw that, I asked
where he was. He happened
to be in my city and we met
for drinks that evening. I got
to hug my best friend whom
I have not seen for 30 years. It
was truly the most remarkable
moment of the year! Wow we
just aged, we do not change!
Looking forward to hearing
from you soon.”
•
Norman Hamilton (Class
of 1979) wrote that “It was a
pleasure to see you guys again.
It was interesting ... later on
that evening, I was thinking
that you guys looked amazingly preserved, when it hit
me that you probably are only
15 years older than I anyway,
but as a kid in high school,
anyone who was a teacher and
around 30, seemed so old. Oh
how time has passed so quickly and things have been put
into perspective many times
over. Hard to believe that my
wife and I are now in our fifties and have 3 grandchildren.
I remember my 20th birthday
while at work, saying to the
guys, “I can’t believe I am 20
today ... where did the time
go?” This co-worker, who was
41, laughed so hard and then
his face sobered up, he pointed
a finger at me and said, “Son,
from now to 40 will be gone in
a heartbeat!” He was so right.
I hope we can see each other
again sometime. Feel free
to come and visit the farm.”
Norm Hamilton is a passionate hunter with over 35 years
of hunting experience. He has
a farm on the Nashwaak River
where he pursues the sport
of pheasant hunting­—exhilarating, exciting and rewarding to individuals, partners,
group and families of all ages.
(Norm’s words) Norm developed his fond love for hunting pheasants in the United
States of America and moved
back to Canada with the purpose of purchasing a farm and
sharing the joy of pheasant
hunting with the wider community. His company, River’s
Edge Pheasant Hunts offers
the opportunity for hunters
to use their own dog and selfguide or to be guided by Norm
with the use of his own resident black Labradors.
•
Ian Holloway (Class of
1978) wrote a quick note to
Richard Thorne, (teacher),
Doug Foster (Class of 1975)
and Paul Saulnier (Class of
2004 and Alumni Director)
as they welcomed Ian to Calgary: “Dear Richard, Doug
and Paul, Thanks to all of you!
To Doug: I’m sure that our
paths will cross frequently,
but I’m going to make a point
of getting in touch when I arrive. I graduated in ‘78, so we
didn’t quite overlap at SJHS—
almost, though. To Paul: it
might be fun to try to organize
something. Let’s reconnect in
the Fall? My plate is likely to
be pretty full for the Summer
and September. Thanks again.
Your notes were the SJHS spirit in action! Non sibi sed omnibus, as one of the pre-vita
vitalis mottoes had it. Ian” (Dr
Ian Holloway, QC, University
of Calgary)
•
Nancy (Ross) Lomax (Class
of 1982) and her husband Stephen Lomax, (Class of 1979)
always read the Alumni News
and enjoy reading the updates
about our fellow alumni. They
wrote: “We have been living in
Ontario for over 20 years now.
Stephen is employed with
Ontario Power Generation.
Nancy works part time in the
food service industry. We have
three teenage girls who are all
in High School. Our oldest is
in Grade 12, and our twins are
in Grade 10. We think often of
our years at SJHS and share
them with our girls. Stephen &
I celebrated our 25th wedding
anniversary two years ago. We
look forward to the next newsletter.”
•
Stan Cohen (Class of 1950)
emailing Paul Saulnier, wrote:
“Belated thanks for your email of December 28 forwarding the message from Dr. Fred
Colwell. Yes, I am the Stan Cohen he was looking for; we’ve
not been in touch for approximately 60 years. I was delighted to hear from Fred and
have responded to him at the
e-mail address you included
in your message. I await his reply. In the meantime, I would
appreciate your sending me
the dates of next summer’s
all-school reunion. I need that
info in planning my work and
vacation schedules well in advance. Many thanks, and best
regards to Dennis [Knibb].”
Mail your letters to:
Saint John High School
Alumni Association
170 – 200 Prince William St.
Saint John NB, E2L 2B7
rthorne2@nb.sympatico.ca
8
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
alumni in the news
to become as dramatic and
as surreal as any opera. The
two are preparing to attend
the University of Toronto’s
Centre for Opera Studies in
Italy for a five-week stint beginning June 16, where they
will immerse themselves in
Italian culture and language
while studying under internationally renowned faculty,
including New Brunswick soprano Wendy Nielsen. They
were among 66 students from
across Canada selected for the
program. In a sense, however,
their journey is just beginning.
Nielsen, who has performed
at the Metropolitan Opera and
Carnegie Hall as well as other
stages across North America
and Europe, describes McCausland as a “very promising young operatic tenor” and
Bonner as filled with “lots
of potential.” “It will be very
good for both of them in Italy,”
Nielsen says from her Cambridge-Narrows home. “I envy
them. I wish I had something
like that when I was young.
They are going to learn a lot.”
New book on first settlers
in N.B.
Eric McCumber – Class of
1972 earned two degrees in
Chemical Engineering at the
University of New Brunswick.
He spent more than thirty
years in the paper industry
retiring from Irving Paper to
live in Long Reach, NB. He
is President of the Kingston
Peninsula Historical Society
and recently organized an
impressive 400th anniversary
of the first European Settlement in New Brunswick at
Caton’s Island in 1611. Young
Frenchmen from St. Malo set
up a thriving trading post on
the Island, thirty-five kilometers up river from Saint John.
Captain Merville and Robert
Gravé traded in furs with the
Maliseet Indians. Lieutenant
Governor Graydon Nicholas
and Minister Trevor Holder
(Class of 1991) brought greetings from the Province.
Grad releases spiritual
album
Michael Biggar – Class of
1989 went to Seminary School
after High School, but instead
of becoming a pastor, has
become a popular musician
of Roots, Country and Soul
married to Linda Lee (Class of
1970) and lives in Niagara on
the Lake, ON.
Tipper retires as
Superintendent
Photo: Telegraph-Journal
Mike Biggar's career is gaining momentum.
styles. He works for Bayview
Credit Union in Sussex by
day and in the evenings gives
concerts and makes albums.
In 2011 he was nominated for
two Music NB Awards, this
was their second year and the
event was held in Moncton
in October. He won the best
spiritual album award “Fare
Thee Well This Christmas”. He
is now planning the release
of a new album in May and is
looking to travel outside the
Maritimes on concert tours.
Incidently, always a big man,
Michael has lost seventy-five
pounds, with his musical success.
Happy Family
Scott Lewis – Class of 1984
and Tammy (Fennell) Lewis
– Class of 1986 –are happily
bringing up a family of three
girls – Keelan, Allie and Sophie
in their Rothesay home. Scott
works for the Royal Bank.
Potash expansion for N.B.?
Keith Attoe – Class of 1968
– gained a degree from UNB
Saint John and then became
a Chartered Accountant with
DeLoitte. He worked in that
company’s Montreal and Toronto offices, before starting
out on his own. He is co-CEO
of Atlantic Potash and has
gained the support of Chinese
investors, who need fertilizers
to increase their agricultural
production. Attoe announced
last fall that four and a half
million dollars is being invested to explore the Millstream
potash deposit near Sussex,
NB. If mining is feasible there
is the possibility of a four billion dollar investment creating over a thousand jobs. “I
really think New Brunswick’s
time has come. The Province
has been largely ignored by
Bay Street. We seem to be not
on the radar screen, yet we
have lots of natural resources,
surplus labour and the port of
Saint John which is an amazing resource.” Keith Attoe is
Susan Tipper – Teacher
1978-1998 and Principal 19982003 – graduated from Millidgeville North in 1973 and
gained an Honours Degree
from Acadia University in 1977.
She taught Chemistry and Biology at Saint John High as Susan (Tipper) Petrovich. In 1998
she was appointed Superintendent of Schools for District
8 (Saint John). After eight successful years on the job she retired in July 2011. “At this point
in time I don’t have definite
plans. I am looking forward
to some days of rest and relaxation, but I’m not ready to
roll over and play dead. I am
open to opportunities that
might present themselves , especially in education which is
my passion.”
During her term as Superintendent, Susan cited two
highlights. “There’s the gains
in academic achievement. We
have moved from last to third
place provincially in Math assessment, and we have moved
above the provincial average in Literary assessments.
The other highlight has been
the PALS program – Partners
Assisting Local Schools. The
outpouring of support from
the local community restores
my faith in human-kind. It’s
amazing and overwhelming”.
(Ed. Note – within a few
weeks of her retirement Susan was hired as the Director
of the PALS program for High
Schools within District 8.)
Policeman honored
Stephen McIntyre – Class
of 1973 – has been honoured
in 2011 by being inducted into
the Order of Merit of Canada’s Police Forces. He joined
the Rothesay Regional Police
Force as a constable at the age
of twenty-three and moved
up the ranks, becoming Chief
in 1998. He is now the President of the New Brunswick
Association of Police Chiefs.
The Rothesay forces has one
of the highest rates of solving crimes, and one of the
lowest per capita costs for
policing services. After thirty
years with the force, McIntyre
shows no signs of retirement.
“I enjoy the challenges and I
enjoy the people I work with. I
feel sorry for people who don’t
enjoy their work.” He said that
being appointed to the Order
is humbling and flattering but
he doesn’t expect it change
him.
Historic uptown church in
jeopardy
Philip Huggard – Class of
1962 –has been a real estate
developer in Saint John for
many years. He acquired the
Centenary - Queen Square
United Church property in
1999 to save it from demolition. He converted it into a
performing arts venue and
called it “The Gothic Arches.”
Regrettably it has not been
profitable for concerts, and
only small time tenants use
part of the Wentworth Street
property. Placed on the market in 2006 for $649,000 it is
now listed at $392,000. If he
can’t find a buyer, Huggard
faces the possibility of demolishing the 129-year-old
property. It was the venue of
the SJHS first Grand Reunion
Church Service in 1982.
continued on page 9
9
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
alumni in the news
Former MP Wayne
recognized
Dragon Boat Racer
Elsie (Fairweather) Wayne
– Class of 1949 – was recognized at the inaugural Saint
John Honours Dinner held in
July 2011 at the Lily Lake Pavillion. Alongside her was Paul
Zed, a former Liberal Member of Parliament for Saint
John. Elsie was a member of
Common Council from 1977,
then Mayor of the City of Saint
John from 1983 to 1993, when
she was elected Conservative
Member of Parliament. Mayor
Ivan Court (Former History
teacher at SJHS 2003 – 2008)
said “They both gave their
best, and always put the city
ahead of themselves.”
Jon McQueen – Class of
1960 – The seventy year old
paddler returned from the
Pan American Games and
the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Tampa Bay, Florida with six gold
medals in his back pocket.
He was the sole Maritimer on
both teams at the International Racing events in July 2011.
MacQueen was among the 24
men that raced in the over 50
division. “I’m always trying
to stay active and stay strong.
I was at my High School reunion in the summer of 2010
with my girlfriend and I had
no trouble swinging to 'Great
Balls of Fire',” he said with a
laugh.
Athletic feat
Long-Distance Record
Matthew McNeil – Class of
2011 – entered Dalhousie University last September with
an impressive long-distance
track record. He placed third
in the Atlantic University Cross
Country Championships in
Fredericton. He moved on
to the Canadian University
Sport Cross Country event in
Quebec City. Bill MacMackin
(Class of 1983) served as McNeil’s coach at the Saint John
Track Club for several years
“Matt’s a solid kid and he’s
trained really hard. We spent
a lot of time preparing him
for being away at University.”
Matt is a first year engineering
student at Dal.
Valedictorian Tradition
William MacMackin – Class
of 1983 and Patti (Boyles)
MacMackin – Class of 1983 –
are the proud parents of the
2011 Valedictorian, Christopher MacMackin who graduated with the remarkable average of 99.8% in all his classes,
most of which were rigorous
International
Baccalaurate
classes. He goes on to study
Astrophysics at St. Mary’s University in Halifax and eventually he would like to work as
a researcher in Astronomy or
Astrophysics. He likes Physics
because it is logical and mathematical. Chris is the fourth
member of his family to graduate as Valedictorian of Saint
John High School. The other
Family in law enforcement
Gina (Spears) Burrows
– Class of 1983 – competed
in the 2011 Ironman World
Championship in Hawaii, after finishing second in the 45 –
49 age class Ironman Class in
Florida in 2010. It’s a grueling
ordeal: participants must run
the marathon distance of 42.2
kilometers, swim 3.8 kilometers and cycle 180.2 kilometers.
Gina will join 1,700 competitors in Hawaii. “It’s going to be
brutal and I just want to enjoy
it. I’ll give it everything I have.
This is the cream of the crop.
I’m trying not to get caught up
in all of that.” Gina is a nurse
living in Grand Bay-Westfield.
She is married to Earle Burrows (Class of 1981), who is
a physiotherapist. Their son,
Reid Burrows, finished second in the winning Saint John
High Cross Country Team in
October 2011.
photo: telegraph-journal
2011 Valedictorian Chris MacMackin with his parents, Patti and William and principal Marijke Blok.
three were in 1956 his maternal grandmother, Norma
(Staples) Boyles, in 1970 his
uncle Dr. Peter Boyles, and in
1983 his mother Patti (Boyles)
MacMackin.
Chris has balanced academic studies with student
activities – the Swim Team,
the annual School Musical,
the Red and Grey Yearbook
and the Science Club which
he started. Father Bill MacMackin said “Chris has been
good about managing the different activities he gets into,
so he doesn’t get overloaded.
He knows the things he likes
to do, and he does them well.”
He went to Thailand in the
summer of 2011 as a member of the five man Canadian
team, and then to Waterloo,
ON to attend the International Summer School for Young
Physicists. Principal, Marijke
Blok, described Chris as a “super scholar”.
Brains plus Brawn
Nicholas MacMackin –
Class of 2012 – Chris’s younger
brother, led his Cross Country Team to First Place finish
in the Senior Boys Provincial
Race in October 2011.
Prime Ministerial Portrait
Christian Nicholson – Class
of 1967 – is one of Canada’s
top portrait painters. He has
The Oram Boys- Christopher Class of 1975, James Class of 1978, Greg
recently completed an imClass of 1982, George Class of 1990 – were four of the five sons of Cy
pressive large oil painting of
Oram, Deputy Chief of the Saint John Police Force in the 1970s and then Jean Chretien, Prime MinisChief of the Rothesay Regional Police Force. All the boys went into Law
ter of Canada 1993 – 2004. It
enforcement. Chris, the eldest, is Staff Sergeant in Sarnia, ON, James
was tragically killed in a car accident in 1980, Greg is a Patrol Sergeant hangs in the South Corridor of
with the Saint John Police Force, and was recently on a peace keeping
the Parliament Building in Otmission in East Timor. George, the youngest, is Sheriff in the Judicial
tawa. When he first met ChreDistricts of Charlotte, St. John, and Kings Counties.
tien, the artist was surprised
by his height, over six feet. “I
thought you were 'the little
guy from Shawinigan.' I’m five
foot six. I thought you were
going to be my size.” Nicholson captured that sense of
stature in his official portrait.
After Saint John High, Nicholson studied at Mount Allison University and the Nova
Scotia of Art and Design. He
moved to Ottawa in 1975, and
has painted politicians, captains of industry, leading academics and top Canadian artists. One of his recent portraits
is that of Governor-General
Romeo LeBlanc which hangs
in Rideau Hall.
Inducted to Sports Hall of
Fame
Carolyn Savoy – Class of
1965 – was coached by Gladys
continued on page 10
10
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
alumni in the news
Carolyn Savoy flanked by two former players.
Bell (Class of 1931 and teacher
1943 – 1980). “She coached
me in volleyball, basketball
and softball. In these sports
we won every city and district
title from 1962 – 1965. We won
the Provincial Volleyball title
three years in a row, the Provincial Basketball title in 1965
and the Provincial Softball
title in 1964. I owe Miss Bell a
great deal in my philosophy of
expecting to win, and knowing how to win with class.”
Carolyn Savoy coached the
Dalhousie University Women’s Basketball team for thirty-two years 1977 – 2003 and
recorded 858 wins—the most
in Canadian Inter-University
sport history—sixteen of her
players have been named all
Canadians, and five have gone
on to become members of the
Canadian National Team. Her
team members have had a
one hundred percent graduation records. “I’m not a maker
of basketball players, but a
maker of people.” Dr. Carolyn
Savoy was inducted into the
Builder category of the Nova
Scotia Sports Hall of Fame in
2011.
2016 Olympic Games in the
Javelin Event. In November
2011, he was promoted to Tier
One Olympic Development
Program. He has his education paid for as well as a living
allowance. He is training at
the prestigious Chinook Track
and Field Club in Lethbridge,
AB. This takes roughly thirty
hours a week. Another forty
hours he spends studying at
Lethbridge College where he
is enrolled in the Culinary Arts
Program. Javelin is perhaps
the most grueling and technically demanding field sport,
requiring the athlete to turn
himself into a human sling
shot. Caleb took second place
in 2010 at the Canadian Track
and Field Championships in
Toronto.
Book launch marks 100th
Titanic anniversary
Olympic Hopeful
Caleb Jones – Class of 2009
– is continuing his effort to
join the Canadian Team at the
Sandra Keirstead Thorne
(Teacher and IB Coordinator at SJHS – 1970 – 2000)
launched in Belfast, Northern
Ireland this May her new book
on Captain William Pirrie
and his family called Deeds
Not Words. Her family, the
Pirries, controlled Harland
& Wolff from 1896 – 1924 and
along with hundreds of other
ships, designed and built the
RMS Titanic. Her grandfather’s cousins were the naval
architect, Thomas Andrews
and his uncle, the CEO of Harland & Wolff, William James,
Viscount Pirrie. Thomas Andrews perished in the wreck
of the Titanic and his body
was never recovered. Sandra’s
book, which was co-authored
with cousins, Clare Alford and
Maureen Morgan, was a study
of the wider family and their
various commercial interests
which included the Barbours,
the great linen milling family,
the Heyns who owned and
operated the Ulster Steamship Company which, in turn,
operated the Headline ships
into Saint John and Montreal
and the Sinclair and Kingan
meatpacking empires. The
book launch coincided with
family and Belfast celebrations connected to the 100th
anniversary of the launch of
RMS Titanic.
Lecturer in Theology
Rev. Dr. Christopher Craig
Brittain, Class of 1989 is Senior Lecturer in Practical
Theology at the University of
Aberdeen in Scotland. His
primary research interest is
in contemporary Christianity, which he explores from a
variety of differing perspectives and concerns. At the
theoretical level, he is interested in the ongoing debates
within Christian theology
over how Christian churches
relate externally to the communities outside them—both
in their secular and multifaith varieties. He approaches
this question by analyzing
the theological writing of key
contemporary
theologians
who wrestle with these issues
and continues to research the
concepts of “secularism” and
“political theology” in depth.
Chris visited Saint John in
August 2011 and kindly presented a copy of his latest
book Religion at Ground
Zero: Theological Responses to
Times of Crisis (Continuum,
2011).
Rower returns to winners'
circle
Ed Winchester – Class of
1988 – Rothesay native and
former national rowing team
member, got back on the water recently and returned to
the winner’s circle at the 47th
Head of the Charles Regatta in
Cambridge, Mass.
Ed Winchester, fourth from
left, was part of a team of former world-class rowers that
won the masters men’s title
at the Head of the Charles Regatta recently. Flying the flag
for the Kennebecasis Rowing
Club, along with fellow former
national team members, Winchester and company won the
masters men’s division threemile event. The Head of the
Charles race is run as a time
trial, with crews going off one
at a time, approximately 20
seconds apart.
“We started first and were
chased the entire way by the
Danes,” Winchester said. “We
won by one second, which
amounts to about seven or
eight feet total over three
miles.”
Since 1998, Winchester has
been a member of national
team composite crews that
compete under the Kennebecasis banner at the Canadian Henley and the Head
of the Charles. The Head of
the Charles, situated in Cambridge, Mass., is the world’s
largest two-day rowing event,
was first held on October 16,
1965. “Head” races, a class of
regattas, are generally three
miles long and boats race
against each other and the
clock. Winners of each race
receive the honorary title of
“Head of the River” or, in this
case, “Head Of The Charles.”
Capital campaign for children's theatre
Chuck Teed – Class of 1995
– local runner, writer and
professional musician, literally investing a lot of his own
sweat and energy in an ongoing capital fundraising campaign which, if successful,
will allow the upstart InterAction School of the Performing
Arts to purchase the Germain
Street Baptist Church building
as a permanent home. Teed,
34, who is slated to become
the head of the school’s music department, decided a few
weeks ago to run the 26.2-mile
Ben’s Smart Marathon by the
Sea on Aug. 14 as a fundraiser.
Branding his effort “Action
for InterAction,” he started
training and established an
online blog—http://actionforinteraction.blogspot.com—
to share his experience and
make others aware of the effort to establish a full-fledged
performing arts school in the
city. The blog includes a “how
to donate” link to the InterAction School of Performing
Arts.
The school is the vision of
Kate Elman-Wilcott (Class
of 1988), founder and artistic director of the InterAction
Children’s Theatre, which
has served southern New
Brunswick since 2001. Steady
growth has allowed it to expanded programming in music performance, dance and
film, while maintaining its
level of excellence in theatre
arts. A professional musician
for many years, he is a former
education co-ordinator for
Music Nova Scotia and, earlier
this year was the conference
manager for the East Coast
Music Awards in Charlottetown
Doctor named to research
chair
Anthony “Tony” Reiman –
Class of 1988 – was one of the
two new research chairs were
introduced at a news conference with a commitment of
$3.1 million over 14 years by
the provincial chapter of the
Canadian Cancer Society.
Dr. Anthony Reiman, a practicing oncologist at the Saint
John Regional Hospital, has
been named as the research
chair at the University of New
Brunswick. His research will
focus on clinical trials aimed
at improving care for patients
with cancer.
continued on page 11
11
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
alumni in the news
Premier David Alward said
“It shows that we’re able to
bring the very best and brightest to New Brunswick—Dr.
Reiman coming home and
Dr. Sandra Turcotte coming
to New Brunswick—and the
work that will go on in the future as we build a society that
is based on knowledge, based
on research, development and
innovation. This is an example
of what can be done in New
Brunswick.”
Moving forward, Reiman
said research is the key to better understanding the various
forms of cancer, earlier diagnosis and better treatment.
“I see it every day, as do my
colleagues, and we are faced
every day with the limitations of what we can do. We’re
certainly doing better than
we were 50 years ago and we
hope to be doing better in another 10 to 50 years.” He said
patients will be enrolled in
research studies and funding
will be funneled into the research. “Enrolling patients in
those research studies is how
I get my work done, so the two
things are very interlinked.”
Dr. Duncan Webster – Class of 1988
New research for rare
disorder
Young artist receives recognition
Dr. Duncan Webster – Class
of 1988 and Student Council
President – who is an infectious disease specialist and
medical microbiologist at the
Saint John Regional Hospital and his wife Anita have
a beautiful daughter, Maria.
You might know something is
wrong when you meet Maria.
But you couldn’t know that
beneath her wriggling frame
she has a genetic enzyme disorder so rare that she’s one of
only three people in the world
ever diagnosed with it.
The enzyme deficiency is
called CDG-1L. There’s no
treatment and no roadmap for
CDG-1L, a subtype of a rare
group of genetic disorders that
result in faulty glycosylation the cellular process of adding
sugar chains to proteins. The
glycoproteins produced by
this process are necessary for
the normal growth of cells, tissues and organs.
The hardest part for Duncan and Anita Webster is that
continued on page 14
Jared Peters – Class of 2000
– one of Saint John’s struggling young artists has scored
what he concedes could be a
breakthrough moment in his
fledgling career of just over a
year. “It could be. We’ll see,”
Jared Peters said to Mike Mullen, Telegraph-Journal
The 28-year-old was shortlisted in June as one of 15
semi-finalists in the coveted RBC Canadian Painting
Competition, with its winner’s prize of $25,000 and two
$15,000 prizes for honourable
mentions. “The big thing for
me is just being nominated;
just getting my name out there
on a national scope,” he said.
“I get to meet gallery owners,
curators and other artists from
across the country.”
Peters, who works in oils
on canvas, said the staging
of his first solo exhibit, Backgrounds, at the Ingrid Mueller
Art Concepts in Fredericton in
May qualified him to enter the
national painting competition
for the very first time.
He submitted a painting
called Tamed Horse, a black
horse on a grey field, and to
his surprise, got a call on June
15 saying he had been chosen
as a semi=finalist. “The signif-
icance (of the horse painting)
is I, historically, like horses,”
Peters said. “It is a rich kind of
narrative. They’ve had these
large themes associated with
them. They’ve been kind of
icons. Basically, (my painting) is a kind of safe picture
of a horse. (It’s) imposed on
this flat background, rather
abruptly, to destabilize these
historical meanings and narratives.”
As a child growing up on
the city’s lower west side, Peters said he loved to paint and
draw. But after high school, he
abandoned painting in favour
of taking an arts degree at UNBSJ. “Then, I finally decided to
go and get my fine arts degree
at NSCAD (University in Halifax), last year.”
Class of 1987 – 25 reunion
th
Program:
Friday July 20 to Sunday July 22, 2012
Friday evening – Wine & Cheese at the high school
Saturday afternoon – Family day & BBQ at the Carpenter Centre
Saturday Evening – Dinner & Dance at the Union Club
Sunday morning – Breakfast at Lily’s café
Contact – sjhsclassof87@hotmail.com
12
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
Public and Private Service Overseas
It was over forty years ago that I accepted a job to teach History at Saint
John High School. I spent my career here, met my wife who taught in the
same Department, and enjoyed a long and rewarding career. As the years
passed I noticed Alumni who had chosen quite a different path of service—one which led them to lands beyond Canada. I thought Alumni News
readers might be interested in the lives abroad led by students who chose
“a path less travelled.” –Richard Thorne
Andrew Halassy graduated from Saint John High
School in 1983. Andrew was
the youngest child of a family of six children. His father
and mother had been born
in Hungary and fled following the 1956 Revolution. Following graduation from high
school Andrew went to UNB
Fredericton and graduated
with double majors in Psychology and Sociology.
Alumni News (AN) Did you
go to work in Canada after
post-secondary training? AH:
No, at 24 I left Canada for a
volunteer position with Canadian Cross Roads International in India.
AN: Aside from holiday travel when did you first go overseas to serve in some capacity?
AH: In 1991 I left for India with
Canadian Crossroads International for 8 months.
AN: Why? AH: I saw a movie when I was 12 about three
nuns working for some poor
villages in South America and
since that time I thought this
would be something I would
like to pursue. I chose India
with CCI and got the placement I wanted.
AN: Why India? AH: Well, it
was a world unto itself, many
cultures, geography, and at
the time … not so developed
like it is now. I wanted the opposite of the West and India
did just fine.
AN: In what countries have
you served? AH: I have been to
over 36 countries now, at 47,
but those I worked in include,
in order: India, Japan, USA,
former Yugoslavia (Kosovo/
Bosnia), Sierra Leone, Guinea,
Liberia, Georgia, Tajikistan,
Haiti, Mozambique, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Chad and presently Afghanistan.
AN: Describe the type of service in which you have been
involved. AH I began teaching
English in Kyoto, Japan as my
first real job which allowed me
to save enough money to pay
off my UNBF student loans
and secure enough money to
do my master’s in Intercultural Management at the School
for international training in
Vermont, USA. I started out
working in community development work, peace building with youth in Kosovo,
community projects, women’s groups, youth groups,
etc. From there I worked in
peace building in West Africa
through the formation of Interreligious Councils and then
moved to Georgia with CARE
working as a community mobilization manager providing small grants to community groups that were formed
through our initiative; I would
say it was a form of democratization as it espoused the three
pillars of democracy: transparency, participation and
accountability of all three sectors, private, government and
civil. The rose revolution happened when I was in Georgia,
so it was a ripe time for such
programs.
From Development I moved
backward into emergency
relief and went to Haiti doing community projects after
a hurricane in 2004. Also we
moved into Disaster risk reduction programs which included contingency planning
so communities were better
prepared for possible future
shocks.
In Ethiopia I worked on Pastoral Programs which dealt
with livestock and nomadic
herders and their livelihoods
associated with this and how
drought and migration were
affecting this way of life.
Now, I work in Afghanistan
and assist civilians who are
negatively affected by coalition force activities (innocent
civilians) and provide livelihood support as well as medical referral and assistance.
AN: How has this changed
you? AH: Hmmm? I believe it
changed me in terms of allow-
ing me to see my own values
and assumptions, from a Western, developed, perspective as
just another culture among
many—especially since I took
on many of the attributes of
the cultures I have been in. I
think I have taken more than I
have given in my life thus far—
learning about myself and
others, ironic given my profession. As strangely as it sounds,
initially cultures and people
were very different at first but
as the years go by I see more
of a similarity between us all,
when all is said and done. In
the end, I think I have not lost
my Canadian, Maritimeness,
but it would be fairer to say I
gained in adapting to contexts
to such a degree that all places
now have become an experience I can adapt to—including home. Now, I can simply
pull from a tool-kit of experiences those tools I need specifically that I need to survive
and function without feeling
displaced or insecure in some
way or another.
AN: Regrets? AH: Given my
lifestyle I would say the biggest regret is that time passes
fast given all the distraction of events and experiences, which is life after all, I
guess. However, one forfeits
a sense of home—long-term
relationships take a back seat
sometimes given the travel
and work in insecure environs when your significant
other can’t join you. In addition, as time passes, when
you say to yourself, “just a few
years and then I will return
home”—doesn’t materialize
and 20 years passes, well, not
so easy to return home now?
And one begins to ask oneself
what the concept of ‘home'
even means. Regrets? Being
overseas when a parent dies
further dilutes the concept of
home.
In short, movement, constant movement … is a lifestyle full of excitement and
learning, however the sacri-
Andrew Halassy (right) in the field.
fice is the giving up sense of
place and how it defines your
place in it; you give up more
individuality for more individualism; youth loves the latter,
age seeks the former.
AN: Any advice for graduates
contemplating service similar
to that experienced by you?
AH: With a Canadian passport
you don’t have to go west to
find opportunity, go east! Volunteer first to see if you like
this kind of experience, Cross
Roads is a great start in this!
Canada World Youth, Katimavik, etc.
SIT in Vermont, a great
school for learning more
about this type of profession.
I got my first job with CARE
USA from a former SITer from
my faculty … SIT graduates
are out there and when they
see your CV with SIT on it, you
increase your chances of getting your foot in the door.
Assisting others is a work in
idealism sometimes … never
forfeit your needs when needed … take a break, reflect, give
what you can and keep the
rest.
Not sure what to study in
your undergrad? Go to the
Masters students doors in the
various faculty buildings at
the university of your choice…
read the cartoons and clippings they put on their doors
… if they make you laugh consider that faculty!
AN: What have been some
of the key influences on you
that have affected your viewpoint? AH: Teachers! Learned
that learning is not work when
presented properly—an understanding of their audience.
Parents! Friends! Poverty! Loss
of loved ones! Books: Jack
Kerouac, On the Road, Desolation Angels, Dharma Bums;
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha;
Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance;
Burger and Luckman, The
Social Construction of Reality; Ted Simon, Jupiter’s Travels; Fritjof Capra, The Tao of
Physics; Jon Krakauer, Into the
Wild; James Joyce, Portrait
of an Artist as a Young Man.
Documentary: Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth.
13
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
A meeting with Arab nomads in Darfur.
Rob Sancton is a 1992 SJHS
graduate who has worked
abroad for a number of years.
The Alumni News caught up
with him to ask about his experiences.
What year did you graduate
from Saint John High?
1992
Did you go to university or
further training directly from
High School and if so, what
university or training school
did you attend and what did
you take?
I completed my BA in Computing and Information Science in 1997 (Guelph).
I then worked in the private
sector in Australia, Canada,
Japan and South Korea, usually as the link between clients
and techies and their telecommunications software.
I had always been interested
in international service, but
I became focused on it after
a dinner with South Korean
colleagues in Seoul, during
which they explained that
even though the two Koreas
were still at war and they had
served in the military under
male conscription, they did
not hate the North Koreans.
This positive sentiment illustrated for me that not everyone involved in armed conflicts necessarily has a hatred
for the other side. To me, this
offered hope for a negotiated
settlement. I realized that I
wanted to be involved in the
resolution of armed conflicts
in one way or another. I knew
that I had a lot to learn, so I decided to go to graduate school.
In 2003, I completed my MA in
Peace Studies (Bradford, UK)
for which I studied, among
other things, how to help
fighters return to non-violent
and productive civilian lives
after the end of hostilities
and to thereby strengthen the
peace (known as DDR - disarmament, demobilization and
reintegration).
Aside from holiday travel
when did you first go overseas
to serve in some capacity?
Why?
In 2004, I worked at the
Pearson Peacekeeping Centre at the old Cornwallis navy
base near Digby. I did not have
to travel very far to have an international experience. At that
time, police, military and civilian personnel from all over
the world were being brought
over by the federal government for training courses in
human rights, basic peacekeeping, military-civilian relations and DDR. The courses
usually had upwards of 30 nationalities represented, often
including neighbours from
opposite sides of the same
geopolitical dispute.
Rob Sancton (1992) leads a classroom discussion.
During my time at the PPC,
I spent almost a month in
Macedonia to help in the delivery of a DDR course for military, police and diplomatic
personnel from five countries
in South Eastern Europe (the
Balkans).
In what countries have you
served?
I have served in Macedonia,
what is now South Sudan and
Sudan (Darfur region).
I was also sponsored by the
federal government to work
at the HQ of a global network
of grassroots peace organizations in Brussels, Belgium.
Describe the type of service in
which you have been involved.
I have served in Macedonia
and pre-independence South
Sudan. I am now serving in
the Darfur region of Sudan.
Any advice for graduates
contemplating service similar
to that experienced by you?
Take advantage of internships, if there are any (the one
that took me to Brussels has
since been cut by the federal
government) both for the experience itself and for the opportunity to meet like-minded
individuals at the same point
in their careers.
The private sector in Canada should not be ruled out as
a good place to prepare your
self for a career in international service. There, you will
likely learn a range of professional and technical skills,
including structured problem
solving and project management, which will serve you
well internationally.
If you are looking for domestic experience that might help
you find your first position
in international service, you
could consider working for
Elections Canada or Elections
NB during an election, or Statistics Canada during a census, and community groups
or government agencies that
help newly arrived refugees
and other immigrants settle in
Canada.
If you plan on working for
the federal government as a
consultant in Canada following your international service,
you should work for them very
early in your career. This will
give you an opportunity to attain a security clearance and
develop useful contacts so
that you are not an unknown
quantity in your own country
upon your return. This domestic experience will also
give you a baseline for how
government ‘should’ work,
assuming the Canadian approach is worth emulating, for
reference in your work overseas.
What have been some of the
key influences on you that have
affected your viewpoint?
Hearing stories about the
British side of my family’s connection to Asia prior to and
during World War Two and
having opportunities to meet
scientists and technical experts from around the world
during my childhood because
of my father’s work combined
to give me the sense early on
that the world is very small,
that people are fundamentally the same, and that I have
a strong interest in people’s
hardships and struggles wherever they may be.
While working in the private
sector, I was exposed to the
conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
While it may seem strange
that I focus my attention on
the men and women with
guns instead of on the victims of war, my focus is justified considering that there are
numerous historical and contemporary cases, from preWorld War Two Germany to
post-Saddam occupied Iraq,
in which unemployed fighters with weapons or military
skills are a source of instability
when they are unable to provide for their families or when
they feel socially or politically
marginalized, humiliated or
dishonoured. •
14
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
alumni in the news
continued from page 11
they don’t really know what
else to expect from the disorder that has left their daughter developmentally delayed,
unable to walk or talk, prone
to frequent seizures and with
cystic kidneys. It’s the unknown that’s devastating, he
says “Initially there was a bit
of a grieving process, because
all of those things you’d hoped
for your daughter, suddenly
there’s no way those are going
to happen. You know, you just
hope that she lives. You just
hope that she learns to walk
and maybe she’ll talk,” Webster says. “Those are not the
dreams that most people have
for their children.”
Being a doctor and researcher, Webster knows lots of people who hold little pieces of the
puzzle, geneticists and chemists who can offer possible parts
to the solution. Last February,
with the help of the Saint John
Regional Hospital Foundation,
Webster launched Foundation
Glycosylation. The trust supports research for therapies
targeting CDG as well as raises
awareness of the disorder. The
current aim of the foundation
is to raise enough money so
Webster can hire a graduate
student to devote full-time to
research.
Already the foundation has
raised more $15,000, which
will help get the initial research underway. The foundation’s first major fundraiser
will be held in early December, when the Port City Dance
Academy’s
performances
of The Nutcracker and The
Girl with the Shell will help
raise awareness and funds.
appointed Queen’s Counsel
David R. Colwell and James K. O’Connell (both Class of 1975) were appointed Queen’s Counsel in an announcement made by Lt.-Gov. Graydon Nicholas on October 9th, 2011. David practices as a family crown
counsel for the Department of the Attorney General in Saint John. Jim also practices in Saint John with Cox
& Palmer and has a general litigation practice with an emphasis on employment and personal injury law.
[Ed. Note: This article was a
small piece of a lengthy and
sensitively written report by
Natalie Stechyson, a reporter
at the Telegraph-Journal.]
New Executive Director of
Construction Association
Stephen Beatteay – Class of
1975 – was appointed recently
as Executive Director of the
Saint John Construction Association. He is replacing Patrick Darrah, who has served
in that position for several
decades. Pat Darrah is the father of Patricia “Trish” Darrah
(Class of 1980) and Sean Darrah (Class of 1982). Stephen
Beatteay has been a Director
of Worksafe NB, Worksafe NB
Appeal Tribunal, The New
Brunswick Labour and Employment Board and held offices in both provincial and
national Labour and Construction organizations. The
Saint John Construction Association is Canada’s oldest
trade contractors’ association
established in 1886.
New and natural ways to
fend off forest budworm
attacks
Dr. J. David Miller – Class
of 1971 – is a professor of biochemistry at Carleton University in Ottawa. He ha sbeen
researching the plague of the
spruce budworm attacks on
softwood trees for J. D. Irving
Ltd. of Saint John. In a re-
cent press release, he says he
has found a naturally occurring fungus in the needles of
trees like white spruce which
in instrumental in keeping
the budworm populations in
check.
“It turns out that many
plants have made a deal with
fungi, natural fungi, to live inside them,” Miller, an expert in
fungal toxins, said in an interview.
“In return for the bed and
board, the fungus makes
chemicals that do something
for the plant. It’s a deal between two organisms that can
live pretty well by themselves,
but there are benefits that occur for both when they get together.” He says these fungi,
called endophytes, are well
known in certain seaweeds
and in grasses. In fact, grasses
with endophytes are the preferred choice for golf courses
and lawns because their natural insect-fighting abilities
mean they don’t require as
much pesticide treatment.
“It turns out that trees do the
same thing,”Miller says.
Miller says conifer seedlings
get the fungus spores from the
forest floor, spread by the falling needles of larger trees. But
he says that infection method
has been disrupted by clearcutting for farms, urban development, forestry, fires and the
nursery incubation of seedlings.
“When the trees have endophytes in them, the budworm
doesn’t grow as fast – that
means there’s more time for
them to get sick, more time
for birds to pick them off, that
kind of thing,” Miller says.
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
donors
Faithful Contributors to the Alumni Fund
Over the past year from May 2011 to Feb 2012 the Saint John High School Alumni fund has received over
$38,500. We gratefully recognize the following 484 donors:
Addison, Jane (Cummings), 1970, Park Forest, Illinois
Allan, Pauline, 1936, Saint John, NB
Allan, Raymond, 1947, Saint John, NB
Anthony, Marjorie (Gilliland), 1940, Brampton, ON
Appleby, Norma (Carlin), 1940, Bristol, NB
Archer, Barbara (Arthurs), 1949, Hampton, NB
Armstrong, Diane (Huestis), 1949, Niagara-on-theLake, ON
Armstrong, Dr. J. Richard, 1947, Niagara-on-theLake, ON
Bailey, Ruth (Windsor), 1940, Saint John, NB
Baker, William, 1949, Berlin, NJ
Ball, Steven, 1969, French Village, NB
Bambury, William, 1949, Saint John, NB
Barbour, Norma (Stephenson), 1943, Manchester, NH
Bartlett, Marjorie (Wills), 1945, Fredericton, NB
Barrett, Sandra (Golding), 1973, Saint John, NB
Baxter, C.F. Noel (Chub), 1945, Stoney Creek, ON
Baxter, Jean (Smith), 1941, Sudbury, ON
Baxter, Joseph, 1952, Rothesay, NB
Beckingham, Gloria (Barr), 1948, Rothesay, NB (In
memory of Doug Beckingham)
Bell, James “Mike”, 1942, Halifax, NS
Belyea, Paul, 1956, Moncton, NB
Bewick, Douglas, 1942, Longmeadow, MA
Bewick, Dr. John, 1943, Saint John, NB
Biefer, Beryl (Beatteay), 1946, Nepean, ON
Bird, D. Charles, 1960, Guelph, ON
Bishop, Norma (Hatfield), 1946, Rothesay, NB
Bishop, William J. 1950, Rothesay, NB
Black, John R. H., 1970, Arlington, IL
Blagrave, Dr. Mark, 1973, London, ON
Blagrave, Sheila, Teacher, 1980 – 83, 1986 – 1988,
London, ON
Blake, Noreen (Keith), 1953, Montreal, QC
Blanchett, Paul, 1956, Fredericton, NB
Boniuk, Isabel (Tanzman), 1956, Clayton, MO
Boone, Dr. Sharon, 1981, Bowen Island, BC
Bourgeois, Patricia, 1957, Saint John, NB
Boyce, Glenna (Boyle), 1942, Saint John, NB
Boyles, Harry, 1956, Rothesay, NB
Boyles, Norma (Staples), 1956, Rothesay, NB
Breen, John, 1975, Oakville, ON
Brenton, Arthur, 1948, Ottawa, ON
Brien, Alfred, 1963, Saint John, NB
Brittain, Harry, 1957, Saint John, NB
Bromley, James, 1940, West Vancouver, BC
Brown, Cheryl (Fraser), 1984, Saint John, NB
Brown, Gordon, 1983, Saint John, NB
Brown, Jean (Malcolm), 1956, Fredericton, NB
Brown, Robert C., 1965, Burton, NB
Browne, Dr. Eric N.C., 1969, Pierrefonds, QC
Browne, Mary (Crawford), 1938, Saint John, NB
Bucklen, Mary (Boddington), 1946, Wytheville, VA
Buckley, Clair, 1941, Victoria, BC
Buckley, Delbert, 1942, Saint John, NB
Buckley, Marilyn (Sinclair), 1942, Victoria, BC
Buckley, Shirley (Snow), 1945, Saint John, NB
Bullock, Merle, 1945, Red Deer, AB
Burditt, George, 1939, Saint John, NB (In memory of
brother, Albert, 1939and sister, Dr. Anna Burditt, 1949)
Burley, Suzanne (Bonnell), 1971, Fredericton, NB
Burley, Wayne (1971), Fredericton, NB
Burton, Sheila (Hutton), 1967, Mississauga, ON
Burpee, Anne (Lewell), 1959, Saint John, NB
Burpee, Richard, 1959, Saint John, NB
Caines, Ronald (1966), Riverview, NB
Cameron, H. Allen, 1965, Calgary, AB
Campbell, Dr. Virginia, 1947, Saint John, NB
Carscadden, Stuart, 1936, Halifax, NS
Capson, Daryl, 1960, Bowmanville, ON
Carson, Dr. Douglas, 1954, Pittsboro, NC
Carson, Stephen, 1975, Rothesay, NB
Carson, William, 1948, Rothesay, NB
Carter, William, 1969, Clandonald, AB
Case, A. David, 1956, Rothesay, NB
Caulfeild, David, 1959, Ottawa, ON
Chapman, Marilyn, 1952, Toronto, ON
Chess, Margaret (Philpotts), 1945, London, ON
Chambers, Robert, 1954, Naples, FL
Chipman, Peter, 1963, Delta, BC
Chisholm, Marjorie (Hamm), 1939, Rothesay, NB
Chernoff, Renate (Fisher), 1946, Potomac, MD
Christie, Tom, 1976, Calgary, AB
Clarke, Dr. Margo (MacRae), 1967, Aldergrove, BC
Clements, Gwyneth, (Flemming), 1949, Mississauga,
ON
Clifford, Fred, 1966, Moncton, NB
Clewley, Janis (Simon), 1965, Saint John, NB
Cohen, Stanley, 1950, Chevy Chase, Maryland
Coleman, Audrey (Gray), 1933, Petitcodiac, NB
Colwell, Clark, 2001, Halifax, NS
Cook, H. Frederick, 1958, Kingston, ON
Covert, Mary Jane (Hartt), 1962, Halifax, NS
Corbett, Phyllis (Andrews), 1932, Pickering, ON
Costello, Eloise, (Allen), 1948, Quispamsis, NB
Cox, Ann (MacMurray), 1971, Bloomfield, NB
Cox, Charles, 1946, Utopia, NB
Cox, Glenna (Anderson), 1948, Utopia, NB
Craft, Kenneth, 1981, Saint John, NB
Craig, Dr. Donald, 1959, Rothesay, NB
Crammond, Marlene, 1975, Mill Village, NS
Cromwell, Bernice (Yurco), 1959, Quispamsis, NB
Cunningham, Gladys (Harrington), 1946, Toronto, ON
Currie, Richard, 1955, Toronto, ON (In memory of M.
Christie Beaton, 1955)
Cushing, Allison, 1967, Whitehorse, YK
Dagenais, Carolin (Browne), 1971, Beaconsfield, QC
Darling, Carol (Bryant), 1962, Saint John, NB
15
Davidson, Marianne (Pusch), 1961, Saint John, NB
Dawes, John, 1965, Regina, SK
Day, Bette (Knox), 1945, Long Reach, NB
Dewar, Beatrice Mary-Lou (Fleming), 1953, Calgary
AB
Dewar, Robert, 1966, Fredericton, NB
Dicks, Amy (Ellis), 1993, Saint John, NB
Dimmitt, Margaret (Bewick), 1941, West Hartford, CT
Doig, James F., 1942, Mahone Bay, NS
Dowd, Philip, 1969, Toronto, ON
Duncan, Donald M, 1942, Dartmouth, NS
Durrant, Phyllis (Warwick), 1935, Grand BayWestfield, NB
Duval, Donald H., 1943, Fredericton, NB
Dykeman, Jeanne (Belyea), 1947, Saint John, NB
Earle, Carolyn (MacCollum), 1955, Halifax, NS
Earwaker, Olga (Carter), 1941, Gatineau, QC
Edgecombe, John, 1954, Halifax, NS
Eldridge, Theresa (MacEachern), 1944, Saint John,
NB
Eliott, Irene (Graves), 1963, Toronto, ON
Elliott, Myrna (Cameron), 1948, Toronto, ON
Elliott, Dr. W. Ord, 1948, Brighton, ON
Ellis, R. Warren, 1941, Rothesay, NB
Elward, Margaret (Akerley), 1948, Saint John, NB
Emmerson, Beryl (Cunningham), 1948, Saint John, NB
Estabrooks, Mary Lou (Thorne), 1954, Regina, SK
Eye, Dorothy (Guild), 1940, Halifax, NS
Farkas, Donna (Patterson), 1956, Lethbridge, AB
Featherman, Sidney, 1965, Ottawa, ON
Fenwick, George, 1944, Parrsboro, NS
Ferris, John, 1955, Saint John, NB
Ferris, Carol (Dow), 1956, Saint John, NB
Fillmore, Peter A., 1954, Halifax, NS
Fidler, Claire (Stephenson), 1956, London, ON (In
memory of sister Nancy (Stephenson) Benn, 1950)
Flam, Sharon (Cohen), 1960, Montreal, QC (In
memory of Lorna MacKenzie, 1960)
Flewelling, Ethel (Wheaton), 1938, Saint John, NB
Flewelling, Jean (Watts), 1959, St. Andrews, NB
Foster, Robert, 1965, Halifax, NS
Fraser, John (Sandy), 1971, Kingston, ON
Fraser, Ruth (MacGowan), 1947, Halifax, NS
French, Sheila (Light), 1960, Saint John, NB
Fudge, Elsie (MacIntyre), 1936, Rothesay, NB
Fudge, Ralph, 1937, Rothesay, NB
Fullerton, Dorothy (Brown), 1939, Saint John, NB (In
memory of sister Jean (Brown) Tweeddale, 1941)
Fullerton, Paul, 1949, Moncton, NB
Furay, Agnes, 1944, Saint John, NB
Gabay, Dagmar (Teetsov), 1961, Vancouver, BC
Gadd, Peter, 1966, Miramichi, NS
Galbraith, Eleanor, 1943, Burnaby, BC (In memory of
Rose (Galbraith) Robin)
Galey, Elizabeth (Braman), 1953, Fredericton, NB
Garland, Rev. Canon James, 1957, Scarborough, ON
Garrod, Andrew C., Teacher, 1962-1978, Thetford
Center, VT
Gaunce, Glenna (Henderson), 1953, Cambridge
Narrows, NB
Gaunce, Harry, 1952, Cambridge Narrows, NB
Gibb, Robert, 1949, Saint John, NB
Gibbs, Robert J., 1947, Fredericton, NB
16
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
donors
Gilbert, Pat (Leach), 1958, Rothesay, NB
Gilbert, Warwick, 1952, Rothesay, NB
Gillis, Dr. Thomas, 1966, Calgary, AB
Givner, Eleanor (Elman), 1950, Halifax, NS
Godfrey, Grant, 1964, Saint John, NB
Goguen, Nancy (Bishop), 1957, Calabasas, CA
Goldberg, Dr. Benjamin, 1945, London, ON
Golding, W. Hoyt, 1954, Saint John, NB
Goldsmith, Francine (Calp), 1952, Saint John, NB
Goodwin, James, 1948, Orillia, ON
Goodwin, Joan (Fraser), 1949, Orillia, ON
Goss, Mary (Hovey), 1947, Saint John, NB
Graham, Dr. Judith, 1979, Sheet Harbour, NS
Graham, Paul, 1956, McDonalds Corners, ON
Grant, Olga (Bate), 1950, Rothesay, NB
Gray, Roberta (Ferguson), 1944, Saint John, NB
Gunter, Audrey (Watters), 1936, Saint John, NB
Haines, Harold, 1954, Fredericton, NB
Hamilton, Douglas A., 1943, Saint John, NB (In
memory of Haines, Marjorie (Purchace), 1949,
Fredericton, NB
Hamilton, Dr. H. Noel, 1941, Oakville, ON
Hamilton, Mrs. Irene, Saint John, NB (In memory of
husband, Lloyd Hamilton, 1943)
Hanson, Dr. Dana, 1966, Fredericton, NB
Harbinson, Barry (Principal), Saint John, NB
Harbinson, Donna (Conley), 1966, Saint John, NB
Hargrove, George, 1933, Sussex, NB
Harriott, Doreen (Cosman), 1944, Dartmouth, NS
Harris, Carol M., 1947, Saint John, NB
Harris, Edwin, 1950, Head of St. Margaret’s Bay, NS
Harris, Mary (Graham), 1944, Saint John, NB
Harrison, Richard S., 1959, Saint John, NB
Harrison, T. Evans, 1952, Deep River, ON
Hartt, Thomas, 1966, Oakville, ON
Hawkes, Ralph, 1955, Hartland, NB
Hazen, Ven. Dr. Harold, 1949, Saint John, NB
Hazen, Betsy (teed), 1954, Saint John, NB
Heenan, Francis Lee, 1978, Saint John, NB
Henderson, Elizabeth (McCormack), 1955, Toronto,
ON
Holder, Hon. Trevor, 1991, Saint John, NB
Holt, Kenneth, 1948, Saint John, NB
Horton, E. Estelle (Hatfield), 1942, Gales Ferry, CT
Howard, Alex, 1948, London, ON
Huestis, David, 1959, Saint John, NB
Hunter, Laurie, 1945, Ottawa, ON
Ince, Shirley (Whipple), 1944, Vancouver, BC
Ingalls, Jean (Stanley), 1940, Grand Manan, NB (In
memory of Grenville “Bumps” Stanley 1940)
Irving, John F., 1979, Saint John, NB (Isles
Foundation. Inc.)
Irving, Dr. William, 1965, Saint John, NB
James, Constance (March), 1941, North York, ON
Jeffery, Dr. John, 1961, Hampton, NB
Johnson, E. Douglas, 1980, South Freeport, ME
Johnson, Dr. Stephen, 1982, Quispamsis, NB
Johnston, Cecil, 1938, Saint John, NB
Johnston, Karen, 1967, Saint John, NB
Jones, Lawrence, 1948, Mississauga, ON
Jones, Lynn (Hawkins), 1980, Saint John, NB
Josselyn, Eric, 1937, Saint John, NB
Josselyn, Norma (Wyatt), 1940, Saint John, NB
Josselyn, Peter, 1999, Saint John, NB
Kee, Joan (Hopkins), 1957, Wellington, ON
Kee, Robert, 1956, Wellington, ON
Keith, George L., 1941, Saint John, NB
Kelly, Adrian, 1989, Moncton, NB
Kelly, David, 1966, Fredericton, NB
Kelly, Elaine (Warnock), 1957, Riverview, NB
Kelly, Harold, 1944, Leesburg, Florida
Kelly, Mildred (Weeds), 1948, Saint John, NB
Kennedy, George, 1946, Markham, ON
Kennedy, Joan (LeLacheur), 1937, Saint John, NB
Kerr, Lucille (Calp), 1947, Halifax, NS
Kierstead, Douglas, 1961, Sherwood Park, AB
Kierstead, Lynn (Kierstead), 1960, Sherwood Park,
AB
Kierstead, Marion (Magnusson), 1942, Carleton
Place, ON
Kierstead, Robert A., 1952, Saint John, NB
King, Thelma (Cameron), 1932, Saint John, NB
Kingston, G. Robert, 1946, Manotick, ON
Kirkpatrick, Janet (Wallace), 1952, Oakville, ON
Kirkpatrick, Kathleen (Murray), 1948, Saint John, NB
Klohn, Peter, 1976, Rothesay, NB
Kneeshaw, Constance (Cameron), 1942,
Sandringham, Australia
Knibb, Dennis (Principal 1965-1992), Saint John, NB
Knox, Dale, 1986, Saint John, NB
Knox, Wendy (Carpenter), 1985, Saint John, NB
Knox, John V., 1951, Grand Bay-Westfield, NB
Kurol, Valmar, 1967, Montreal West, QC
Larsen, Edward, 1971, Halifax, NS
Laskey, Donna (Wood), 1958, Saint John, NB
Lawson, Frank, 1948, Barrie, ON
Leary, Doreen (Mundee), 1948, Saint John, NB
Ledingham, Robert, 1941, Ottawa, ON
Lee, Frances (Ross), 1959, Bayswater, NB
Leefe, John, 1960, Liverpool, NS
Lees, Nancy (Jones), 1947, Scarborough, ON
Leggett, James R. 1952, Oak Bay, NB
Leonard, Barbara, 1944, Dartmouth, NS
Lemmon, Rt. Rev. George, 1949, Fredericton, NB
LeValliane, Josephine (Searle), 1943, Ottawa, ON
Lewis, Marshall, 1963, Pawleys Island, South Carolina
Linton, Irene (Briggs), 1949, Lower Sackville, NS
Lipsett, Frank, 1958, Woodstock, NB
Lively, Patricia (Herrington), 1973, Saint John, NB
Logue, Kenneth, 1939, Saint John, NB
Lomax, Nancy (Ross), 1982, Pickering, ON (In memory
of Preston Ross (1940)
Lomax, Stephen, 1979, Pickering, ON
Love, Joan (Hayward), 1940, Etobicoke, ON
Lowe, Elizabeth (Burnham), 1933, Rothesay, NB
Lutes, Anne (Maxwell), 1972, Moncton, NB
MacDonald, Edith (Robinson), 1952, Fredericton, NB
MacDonald, William E., 1948, Rothesay, NB
MacFadyen, Elizabeth, 1963, Charlottetown, PEI
MacGillivray, Dr. Richard, 1957, Thunder Bay, ON
MacGowan, Bruce S., 1950, Toronto, ON
MacIntosh, Dorothy (Currie), 1936, Ottawa, ON
Mackie, Edward, 1947, Rothesay, NB
MacKnight, Dr. Christopher, 1984, Halifax, NS
MacLellan, Jill, 1961, Saint John, NB
MacNamara, Hazel (Mollins), 1939, Saint John, NB
Madsen, Jane (Brown), 1960, Grand Bay-Westfield,
NB
Magee, William, 1943, North York, ON
Magnusson, Don, 1949, Calgary, AB
Mahaffey, Loretta (Lidstone), 1957, Fort Worth, Texas
Maher, Gerald, 1969, Quispamsis, NB
Main, B. Jean (Johnson), 1953, Apohaqui, NB
Main, Betty L. (Thomson), 1944, Apohaqui, NB
Manning, Dr. David, 1977, Waverly, NS
Marshall, Doris, (Thorne), 1944, Alliston, ON
Marshall, Gordon, 1951, Riverview, NB
Marshall, Ronald, 1944, Alliston, ON
Marshall, Shirley (Speight), 1949, Riverview, NB
Martin, Lois (Farris), 1946, Saint John, NB
Mastrianni, Leslie (Todd), 1966, Barre, VT
Matthews, William, 1956, Ottawa, ON
Maxwell, Beatrice (Atkins), 1943, Saint John, NB
McAlary, David, 1948, Victoria, BC
McCullum, Frederick, 1948, Saint John, NB
McGinnis, James, 1975, Edmonton, AB
McKnight, Paul, 1966, London, ON
McLean, Marilyn (Marr), 1941, Toronto, ON
McLellan, Annie (Canavan), 1949, Moncton, NB
McLellan, Judy (Parent), 1964, Rothesay, NB
McLeod, Nellie, 1933, Black River, NB
McPherson, Robert, 1939, Saint John, NB
McRae, Gerald, 1950, Saint John, NB
Meltzer, Stephen, 1978, Montreal, QC
Mersereau, Eileen (Gandy), 1941, Nepean, ON
Miller, Dr. J. David, 1971, Ottawa, ON
Miller, Joan (Walls), 1941, St. Martins North, NB
Mills, Donald, 1954, Saint John, NB
Milota, Louse (Hoffman), 1953, Kensington, CA
Mitchell, Bradley, 1977, Saint John, NB
Moir, Claire (Chambers), 1948, Rothesay, NB
Moir, Dr. J. David, 1948, Rothesay, NB
Mollins, David, 1963, Winnipeg, MB
Moore, Darrell, 1935, Saint John, NB
Moore, Gladys (Cooper), 1942, Saint John, NB
Morehouse, Dr. Rachel, 1975, Rothesay, NB
Mott, Roberta (Baxter), 1947, Saint John, NB
Muir, Elizabeth (Cobham), 1952, Rothesay, NB
Mundee, Joyce (Hatfield), 1941, Saint John, NB - In
memory of Lawrence Mundee, 1939)
Munharvey, Kathleen (Fitzgerald), 1940, Gatineau,
QC
Murray, Constance (Carlin), 1940, Ottawa, ON
Murray, Jennifer (Noble), 1987, Saint John, NB
Murray, Marion (Thompson), 1950, Stouffville, ON
Murray, R. Stuart, 1941, Nanaimo, BC
Murray, Scott, 1986, Saint John, NB
Myatt, Jean (Butland), 1940, Maxville, ON
Myles, Anna Claire (Mott), 1940, Rothesay, NB
Nase, Ruth (Conley), 1963, Saint John, NB
Nixon, Anne (DeForest), 1966, Richmond, QC
Nixon, Dr. Murray, 1953, Halifax, NS
Noble, George, l941, Fredericton, NB
Noble, Harold A., 1952, Saint John, NB
Noseworthy, Natalie (Jones), 1941, Saint John, NB
O’Dell, Margaret (Wheaton), 1949, Riverview, NB
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
17
donors
O’Dell, William, 1948, Riverview, NB
Oldfield, Beverley (Orchard), 1953, Saint John, NB
Orr, Constance (Wyman), 1948, Vancouver, BC
Oxley, Anne (Irving), 1988, Saint John, NB (Isles
Foundation Inc.)
Palmer, David, Teacher, 1967-68, Ankeny, Iowa
Palmer, Philip, 1967, Ottawa, ON
Parlee, Marjorie (Melvin), 1955, Saint John, NB
Parlee, Dr. Katherine, 1969, Hamilton, ON
Patrick, Marie (Beatteay), 1940, Fredericton, NB
Patterson, Marilyn (Wills), 1950, Kanata, ON
Patterson, Stephanie (Stears), 1974, Rothesay, NB
Pattman, Kathy, 1971, Saint John, NB
Paul, Brenda (Pattman), 1968, Surrey, BC
Pearson, Marilyn (Henderson), 1946, Renton, WA
Peer, Commander David, 1978, Hammonds Plains, NS
Penny, Robert, 1948, Plaster Rock, NB
Percy, Eleanor (Welsford), 1960, Hamilton, ON
Philip, Pamela (Campbell), 1954, West Vancouver, BC
Phillips, Robert, 1954, Saint John, NB
Pipes, Carol, 1960, Cole Harbour, NS
Power, Kathy (Walter), 1973, New Maryland, NB
Price, Eleanor (Breen), 1937, Saint John, NB
Quail, Carol (Stephenson), 1954, Navan, ON
Rae, Helen, 1927, Saint John, NB
Rae, Jill, 1968, Quispamsis, NB (In memory of John
Rae, 1930 and Gretta (Rae) Williams, 1932)
Read, Commander Robert, RN (In memory of Roland
Black, 1934)
Redding, John, D., 1976, Dieppe, NB
Reid, Margot (Ross), 1944, St. John’s, NF
Reid, Dr. Neil, 1944, Belleville, ON
Reynolds, Marilyn (Titus), 1963, Robesonia, PA
Rice, Jean (Izzard), 1939, Toronto, ON
Richards, Donna, 1962, Halifax, NS
Richardson, Paul, Teacher, 1968-70, New Zealand
Richardson, Ruth (Cox), 1942, Haverhill, MA (In
memory of Donald and Barbara (Cox) Ring, 1948)
Richardson, Wendy (McNaughton), 1969, Halifax, NS
Rickard, Michael, 1969, Burlington, ON
Ricker, Marion (Eccles), 1951, London, ON
Riley, Dr. Jennifer, 1989, Claremont, ON
Rising, Hugh, 1967, Kingston, ON
Robinson, Jane L., 1948, Fredericton, NB
Russell, Joan (Fanjoy), 1953, Guernsey, UK
Ryan, Darlene (Arsenault), 1976, Fredericton, NB
Sabean, Clara (Nelson), 1959, London, ON
Sadler, Barbara (Morris), 1976, London, ON
Sadler, Dr. Mark, 1971, Halifax, NS
Sadler, John, 1977, London, ON
Saulnier, Marjorie (Allen), 1952, Ottawa, ON
Savoy, Dr. Carolyn, 1965, Halifax, NS
Schell, Irene (Mersereau), 1950, Quispamsis, NB
Schultz, Carol (Wilson), 1960, Largo, FL
Scott, Robert M., 1955, Saint John, NB
Scott, Robert N. 1950, Fredericton, NB
Scott, Rob Jr., 1981, Saint John, NB
Scovil, Scott, 1982, Oak Point, NB
Scovil, Karen (Johnson), 1984, Oak Point, NB
Shanks, G. Donald, 1939, Dartmouth, NS
Shanks, Harold, 1941, Saint John, NB
Shaw, Beatrice (Hall), 1944, Saint John, NB
Shaw, Professor David, 1954, London, ON
Sheehan, Marjorie (Buckley), 1939, Moncton, NB
Shepherd, Norma (Andrew), 1939, Kelowna, BC
Sherwood, Marion, 1943, Saint John, NB
Sherwood, Milton, 1956, Grand Bay-Westfield, NB
Sigrist, Ruth (Delany), 1954, Bridgewater, NS
Silliker, Lois (Ramsdell), 1947, Kanata, ON
Simms, Richard, 1963, Oakville, ON
Small, Jane (MacLellan), 1989, Maces Bay, NB
Smith, Ann (MacCallum), 1957, Stouffville, ON
Smith, Carolyn (Cooper), 1949, Grand Bay-Westfield,
NB
Smith, Constance, 1948, Petitcodiac, NB
Smith, Derek M., 1954, London, ON
Smith, G. Steven, 1970, Saint John, NB
Smith, Ernestine (Doherty), 1946, Saint John, NB
Snodgrass, Barry, 1959, Saint John, NB
Snodgrass, Karen (Boyce), 1959, Saint John, NB
Somerville, Catherine (Vaughan), 1944, Saint John,
NB
Somerville, Graeme, 1943, Saint John, NB
Sorensen, Arlene (Carr), 1952, Crapaud, PEI
Spear, Russell, 1966, Dartmouth, NS
Spinney, Fred, 1942, Saint John, NB
Stairs, Edison, 1943, Cobden, ON
Steel, Mary Kay, 1958, Stella, ON
Steele, Margaret (Porter), 1939, Rothesay, NB (In
memory of friends and neighbours)
Stephen, Noreen (Barlow), 1946, Saint John, NB
Stephansson, Mary Ann (Stackhouse), 1967,
Alpharetta, GA
Stephenson, Margaret, 1953, Grand Bay – Westfield,
NB
Stephenson, Ted, 1952, Grand Bay-Westfield, NB
Stevens, Eleanor (Ward), 1938, Lindsay, ON
Stevens, Joyce (Flood), 1948, Orillia, ON
Straight, Audrey, 1946, Saint John, NB
Strong, Judith (Garnett), 1957, Lunenburg, NS
Sullivan, Dr. Herman, 1950, Rothesay, NB
Swazey, Vera (Warnock), 1940, Fredericton, NB
Swenson, Kathie, 1959, Halifax, NS
Tait, Patricia (Atkinson), 1965, Saint John NB
Tandon, Mona (Sachdeva), 1984, Gig Harbor, WA
Taylor, Barbara (Barnes), 1955, Portugal Cove, NF
Taylor, Frances (Watters), 194l, Montreal, Quebec
Taylor, Nina (Boyd), 1935, Saint John, NB
Thomas, Frances (Bushfan), 1960, North York, ON
Thompson, Jean (Speight), 1943, Saint John, NB (In
memory of sons, Dr. Elmer Thompson, 1969 and
Maurice Thompson, 1974)
Thorne, Richard (Teacher–Vice Principal 1970-2000),
Hampton, NB
Thorne, Ronald, 1939, Waterloo, ON (In memory of
Mayes (Hiltz) Thorne, 1939)
Thorne, Sandra (Keirstead), 1963 (Teacher 19702000), Hampton, NB
Thurston, Mary, 1943, Toronto, ON
Tilley, Frederick, 1941, Saint John, NB
Tilley, Isabel (Mitchell), 1940, Saint John, NB
Titus, Lorne, 1950, Long Reach, NB
Tobias, Linda (Henderson), 1960 , Rothesay, NB
Toole, Doris, 1954, Ottawa, ON
Totten, Constance (Parlee), 1938, Fredericton, NB (In
memory of Lloyd Totten, 1937)
Trecarten, Lew, 1949, Ottawa, ON
Trecarten, Norma (Shear), 1949, Ottawa, ON
Turnbull, Margaret (Carmichael), 1959,
Nauwigewauk, NB
Ullathorne, Hazel (Ducey), 1941, Scarborough, ON
Van der Voort, Ann, 1934, Victoria, BC
Vincent, Dr. Merville O., 1947, Kelowna, BC
Wagner, Barbara (Lewell), 1946, London, ON
Ward, Rev. Bruce, 1960, Eastern Passage, NS
Ward, R. Dwight, 1974, Milton, ON
Warnock, Brian, 1964, Wickensburg, AZ
Warnock, Carol (Montgomery), 1959, Pridis, AB
Warnock, Harris, 1957, Priddis, AB
Watters, Marilyn (Blackie), 1957, Mississauga, ON
Watters, Murray, 1959, Perth-Andover, NB
Wayne, Elsie (Fairweather), 1949, Saint John, NB
Webster, Donald, 1950, Kelowna, BC
Webster, Dr. Duncan, 1988, Quispamsis, NB
Webster, Joyce (Marshall), 1950, Kelowna, BC
Webster, Dr. Russell, 1958, Rothesay, NB
Weir, Barbara (Kierstead), 1958, Kingston, ON
Weir, Ronald, 1958, Kingston, ON
Weston, George, 1945, Port Perry, ON
Whitcomb, Ian, 1949, Saint John, NB
White, Shirley W., 1954, Saint John, NB
Whitehead, Janet, 1956 (Teacher 1962-1995), Saint
John, NB
Williams, Neil, 1945, Regina, SK
Williamson, Beverley (Whitehead), 1955, Gloucester,
ON
Wills, Dr. Roy, 1944, Saint John, NB
Wilson, Daryl, 1967, Saint John, NB
Wilson, Sharon (Thomas), 1969, Saint John, NB
Wilson, Paul A., 1954, Topsham, ME
Winchester, J. Dawson, 1946, St. Thomas, ON
Winslow, Louise (Muller), 1946, Saint John, NB
Wood, John, 1965, Calgary, AB
Wood, Ronald C., 1959, Sussex, NB
Wood, Ruth (Wheaton), 1964, Moncton, NB
Woolley, James, 1947, North Vancouver, BC
Worsfold, Norma (Ward), 1949, Grapevine, TX
Wright, Madeline (Kierstead), 1940, Ottawa, ON (In
memory of sister Irene, 1941 and brothers Donald,
1944 and Harold)
Yeomans, Bernice (Hubley), 1947, Edmonton, AB
Yeomans, William, 1947, Edmonton, AB
Young, Joel, 1981, Toronto, ON
Yurco, Emilie, 1955, Saint John, NB
In addition to the 484 generous donors listed above,
we wish to acknowledge the following contributors
who make a total of 487:
• Teed, Doyle, Saunders and Company, Chartered Accountants $1500.00
• Carrie Emma Wilson Trust $2240.00
• Anonymous donation of 468.00 through United Way, Ottawa
18
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
obituaries
Class of 1928
Helen Selick
Graduated from the old Union Street
building and worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a Film Distributor in
Saint John. Her father was a friend of
Louis B. Mayer who ran a scrap metal
business until he made his fortune in
the film industry. She also knew Walter Pidgeon when he was growing up
in Indiantown in the North End of
Saint John, before becoming a famous
actor. Helen spent mot of her life in
Saint John looking after family members after her mother died young. She
was part of the Jewish community who
were part of an unspoken rule segregating them from country clubs, tennis courts, and other social gatherings.
She lived in Montreal for a number of
years, but came back to a dwindling
Jewish community in Saitn JOhn. She
spent her last years in the Rocmaura
Nursing Home. She never married and
died in November, 2011 at the age of
one hundred.
Class of 1928
Dr. Robert Edwin
Washburn
Spent his first year
after
graduation
with the Canada
Permanent
Trust
Company on Dock
St., prior to the stock
market crash of 1929. He then was hired
as a Laboratory Assistant at the Provincial Laboratory at the Saint John
General Public Hospital, and received
his certification as a Medical Laboratory Technician. As a part of the war
effort, he entered the medical program
at Dalhousie University, graduating in
1947 and specializing in diabetic treatment. In 1965, he joined the Addiction
Research Foundation of Ontario first
in Sudbury and later in the Niagara
Counties Region. Upon his retirement
in 1977, he worked as a staff physician
with the Department of Radiotherapy,
at the Saint John Regional Hospital, and
the Church of St. John and St. Stephen
Nursing Home. He was a Past-President
of the Canadian Diabetes Association.
He died June 23, 2011, in his 100th year.
Bertha (McIntyre) Washburn (Class of
1930) predeceased him.
Dorothy Loughery
Class of 1929
Worked for many years with the federal government, retiring in 1972. During the Second World War, she served
with the Canadian Women’s Army
Corps in London, England. She died
on May 15, 2011 in her 99th year.
Class of 1929
Gene (Plummer)
Moore
Class of 1932
Winnifred (Darling)
Parlee
Gene worked as
a secretary until
her marriage, after
which she devoted
herself to her family
and homemaking.
She was an exemplary hostess, cook,
and Scrabble player whose credo was
“If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well”. She died as she lived, with
grace and determination. Gene died
peacefully, with her daughters by her
side, on January 15, 2012 at York Care
Centre in Fredericton.
Graduated from
the last class of Saint
John High School at
the old building on
Union Street, receiving the Governor
General’s Silver Medal. She became
a schoolteacher, teaching in various
schools in rural New Brunswick for
seven years. She then studied to become a registered nurse. She worked
at the Shriners’ Children’s Hospital in
Montreal, and the Veteran’s Hospital
in Saint John. She then married Laurence Parlee and brought up two sons,
Philip and Terrence in the Sussex area.
She died January 15, 2012.
Class of 1929
Mary (Hinchcliffe)
Ross
Born in Massachusetts,
Mary
grew up in Saint
John,
graduating
from the old High
School building on
Union Street. She was employed as a
legal secretary with the late Mr. Justice
Anglin, as well as the firm of Palmer,
O’Connell, Leger, Turnbull and Turnbull. She was a member of the N.B.
Federation of Naturalists. Mary died
on January 29, 2012 and is survived by
a son and two daughters.
Class of 1932
Bertha W. WoodHolt
She was born in
the city in 1915, the
only child of the late
Ernest A. and Bertha M. (Graham)
Wood. She was predeceased by her husband, Dean Holt
of England. She was a graduate of Saint
John High School in 1932 and received
a B.A. degree from a Quebec University in 1958. An artist and historian,
she wrote many opinionated letters
to the editor of the local newspaper.
She authored a number of research
papers and published books relating
to history and early genealogy of New
Brunswick. Bertha held membership
in numerous cultural associations. An
Anglican by faith, she attended Trinity Anglican Church. Surviving are
cousins Murray Knowles, Halifax, Jean
McCannal, Oklahoma, David Graham,
Fredericton, Mary Harris and Anna
Boyle, Saint John. The unexpected
death of Bertha Wood-Holt occurred
on May 11, 2011 at her residence 36 Sydney Street, Saint John, N.B.
Class of 1933
Lena May Earle
An outstanding
contributor to the
Alumni Fund, donating thousands
of dollars over a period of twenty years.
She lived on Orange
St. in Saint John and died there on December 6, 2011.
Helen P. Miller
Class of 1933
Born in Hamilton, Bermuda, Helen
was a member of the first graduating
class of Saint John High School at the
Prince William Street location, and
continued her education at the Provincial Normal School in Fredericton.
She taught in several Saint John area
schools before her retirement. Helen
was a member of St. Luke’s Anglican
Church and the Philip A. Ferguson
Chapter of the Order of the Eastern
Star. She is survived by her brother,
Frank L. Miller (Jane) and nieces and
nephews. She is pre-deceased by a sister, Virginia Miller, and by a brother,
Sydney Miller. She died July 19, 2011 at
age 95.
Class of 1936
Harold McQuinn
Harold was born
in Sussex but grew
up in Saint John.
He served overseas
with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
After the War, he
was employed by the Department of
Veterans’ Affairs. He retired in 1975 and
spent a great deal of time as a volunteer with the New Brunswick Museum
and with the Royal Canadian Legion.
He was a self-taught artist and also a
writer of local history in the Hampton
area. Harold died on June 22, 2011 and
is survived by a large family.
Class of 1937
Ronald Vernon
Stackhouse
Ron worked as a
manager for Canada Customs. He
served overseas as a
Lieutenant with the
Cape Breton Highlanders during World
War II, serving in Italy and Northwestern Europe, was a member of Silver
Falls United Church, the Carleton
Curling Club, and the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 69, Rockwood Park
Golf Course and played softball in the
1930s and 1940s, was an avid Seadogs
and Blue Jays fan. He is survived by
his son Denis Harvie of Jordan, ON,
brothers Fred (Marion) Stackhouse,
Harold “Hal” (Clara) Stackhouse, both
of Saint John, grandchildren Shannon,
Megan, Christopher and Leslie Harvie,
one great-grandchild, Blake Melody,
and special grand-nieces, Alexandra,
Caylin, and grand-nephew, Lawrence
Boyle Jr. In addition to his wife and
parents, Ron was predeceased by a
son, John Harvie.
Class of 1938
Robert Gordon
Baird, P. Eng.
Gordon
served
with the Merchant
Marine and Royal
Canadian Navy in
World War Two.
He gained an engineering degree from UNB and had
a successful career in manufacturing
in Ontario and Saint John. He retired
to Pocologan with his wife, Josephine
(Ross) Baird, Class of 1968. Gordon died
on July 4, 2011. In addition to his wife Josephine, he is survived by four daughters from his first marriage. Alanna
Baird (Class of 1973), Daphne (Baird)
Wetmore, (Class of 1973), Cindy (Baird)
Vihvelin (Class of 1975), and Heather
(Baird) McBriarty (Class of 1982).
Class of 1938
Marguerite (Hillier) Belyea
Died on February 5, 2012. She has
been a member of
the Brown’s Flat
Baptist Church and
of the Women’s
Missionary Society.
She leaves three sons, one of whom is
Barry Belyea, class of 1971.
19
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
obituaries
Class of 1939
Dorothy (Watson)
McPherson
Married Robert
McPherson in 1947
when he returned
from the war. She
was always very
active in sports,
especially tennis,
gymnastics, and ballet and continued
her passion throughout her life. She
was a volunteer for 25 years with the
Red Cross and Canadian Blood Services. She also helped with Meals on
Wheels and was an active member of
the I.O.D.E., especially during the war
years. She died July 24, 2011 and is survived by her husband and two sons,
Andrew McPherson (Class of 1968)
and David McPherson (Class of 1972
and teacher 1979 - 2011).
Class of 1938
Margaret (Clawson) O’Connell
After
graduation, Marg worked
for several years
before
marrying
George
Franklin
O’Connell in 1942.
When her husband
was injured in the war, she moved to
Newfoundland to be near him, returning to Saint John to raise three boys.
After 56 cherished years on Roderick Row, Marg moved to the Chateau
Champlain where she enjoyed her
friends and social activities. Her final
months were in the sanctuary of the
Turnbull Home where she received
unsurpassed care and attention. The
focus of Marg’s life was her husband,
children and grandchildren. Always
quick to smile and laugh, Marg had
a great sense of humour and loved a
good joke. Marg loved dogs. The pets
throughout her life were very special to
her. The death of Margaret O’Connell,
90, formerly of 232 Roderick Row, occurred at the Turnbull Home, Saint
John on Tuesday, August 2, 2011.
Class of 1939
Ruth Jean (Thorne)
Haney
Upon high school
graduation,
she
trained as a Certified Pharmaceutical Clerk at Dalhousie University
and worked in Saint
John. She then married Rev. W. Floyd
Haney in 1945. In her years as a pastor’s wife, many were touched by her
care and friendship—her generosity
was appreciated by so many! In the
1970s, she returned to work as a Pharmacy Clerk which she continued until
1993. Three years after her husband’s
death in 1994, she moved to Calgary to
be close to family already living there.
Family was very important to her and
most important to Ruth was her deep
faith and her commitment to prayer.
She died July 16, 2011 in Calgary, AB.
Class of 1939
Martha E. Secord
Born in Saint John
she was a daughter of the late Percy
and Abbie (Evans)
Gibbons.
Martha
was a member of
the St. James Ladies Guild and their
Couples Club. She is survived by her
three daughters: Jane Ough (Wayne),
Sally Secord Frits (Art) and Susan Ross
(David) all of Saint John; seven grandchildren; twelve great grandchildren;
several nieces and nephews. The death
of Martha Evelyn (Gibbons) Secord of
Saint John, NB, wife of the late Thomas
Secord occurred on Monday, May 23,
2011 at the Saint John Regional Hospital.
Class of 1939
Arthur Gordon
Plummer
After
graduation, Art joined the
Royal Canadian Air
Force as a pilot and
flight instructor and
served four years
overseas
during
WWII. Promoted to squadron leader
during the war, Art flew Lancaster,
Wellington and Halifax bombers. He
was awarded the Distinguished Flying
Cross by King George VI for bravery.
After the war, Art attended the University of New Brunswick where he played
varsity hockey and rugby. Art married
Doreen (Butler) Plummer (Class of
1943) in 1952 and were posted to Gimli,
Trenton, Summerside, Greenwood,
and Ottawa, with the Royal Canadian
Air Force. They then moved to Halifax where Art finished his civil service
with Canada Post as a regional planner. In 1963, Art and Doreen purchased
a family cottage on the Saint John River at Buckley’s Cove where they spent
every summer for fifty years. Art will
be remembered by all who knew him
as a humble man of strong moral character. A physically fit man, who played
golf, skated and walked daily. Art, in
his 90th year, died surrounded by family members on July 26, 2011.
Class of 1940
Ethel (Richards)
Cooper
Attended Mount
Allison University
after
graduation.
She was a charter
member of the H.M.S. Hood chapter,
I.O.D.E. and active on the Historic
Sites and Events civic committee, being responsible for the flagpoles and
blockhouse being erected on Fort
Howe. She also helped in the restoration of the Imperial Theatre. She was
an enthusiastic supporter of the New
Brunswick Museum and she specialized in marine history. She died June
25, 2011.
Dorothy (Guild) Eye
Class of 1940
Graduated from the Saint John
School of Nursing in 1949, after marrying George Eye, an RCMP officer.
She moved to Halifax in 1959 and later
worked at the IWK Hospital for Children, retiring in 1988. She died on October 2, 2011 and is survived by her two
daughters and her sister, Jean (Guild)
Webber (Class of 1939). She was a regular contributor to the Alumni Fund.
Class of 1940
F. Winnifred (Titus)
Gass
Born in Titusville,
“Bonnie” moved to
Saint John. In her
younger years, she
worked for T. McAvity and Sons and
then for CN Railways Freight Division. She died on December 5, 2011.
Class of 1940
Angus. M. Jamieson
Angus lived in
Arnprior and then
Almote,
Ontario
where he worked
as a bank manager.
He was a generous
contributor to the
Alumni Fund for
over 30 years. He
died on September 10, 2011 and is survived by his two daughters.
Class of 1941
Clair Allan Buckley
He ws the youngest of eight Buckleys to grduate from
Saint John High. He
joined the Canadian Army Infantry
Pictou Highlanders
leaving in 1946 as
a Lieutenant. Clair attended McGill
University graduating in 1950 with a
BSc. in Physical Education. He began a
long career with the YMCA working in
Montreal, Woodstock, Edmonton and
Halifax. Part way through his YMCA
career he attended Boston University
and obtained a Masters in Adult Education, allowing him to gain federal
employment in fitness and amateur
sport and working in Ottawa and Victoria. Upon retirement he founded a
consulting company, Clair Buckley
and Associates and volunteered for
the Canadian Cancer Society, eventually becoming President of the BC
& Yukon Division. He is survived by
his wife of 65 years, Marilyn (Sinclair)
Buckley (Class of 1942) and their three
children. He is also survived by his sister, Marjorie (Buckley) Sheean (Class
of 1939) who lives in Moncton, NB.
Class of 1941
Frank Russel (Bud)
Steele
Grew up in the
South End at a time
when the community was busy and
vibrant. Active in
Boy Scouts achieving the distinction of
King Scout. Bud served in the R.C.A.F.
428 Bomber Squadron (Ghosts) and
was stationed in England from 19421946. Most of Bud’s working life was
spent managing McLaughlin Tire in
Saint John followed by Firestone Tire
in Fredericton. In his youth he played
basketball, badminton and tennis, and
later curling and golfing. He became involved in lawn bowling, playing, coaching and umpiring. He held both provincial and national umpire qualifications.
Bud was an ardent gym devotee working out 2 or 3 times a week until he was
86 years old. He was a self-taught and
clever investor who actively traded in
the stock market and always had the
newest of gadgets. Bud was the best of
husbands, the finest of fathers, a man of
sterling qualities. He died on October
5, 2011 and is survived by his wife Elizabeth (Currie) Steele (Class of 1947) and
his three children, Elizabeth (Steele)
Meier (Class of 1967), Ellen (Steele)
Siekierski, and Peter Steele as well as
brother Richard Steele (Class of 1957).
Leona Joan Allaby
Class of 1941
Was formerly employed with Sears
and with Baxter Dairies. She was an
active member of St. Luke’s Anglican
Church, where she sang in the choir
and was a member of the Altar Guild.
She also taught swimming at Saint
John Vocational School through the
Red Cross for many years. Leona is
survived by her children. She died January 11, 2012.
Stanley Holmes
1941
He served with
the Royal Canadian
Air Force and then
went to work at
MRA Department
Store and Canada
Post. He died on
Mat 24, 2011.
20
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
obituaries
Class of 1942
E. Neil McKelvey
He is remembered by his loving
wife Joan McKelvey
who stayed by his
side for 63 years. A
veteran of the Second World War, Neil
served as a Private
in the Royal Canadian Artillery 4th
A/T Regiment (5 CAD), he continued
involvement with the forces throughout his life, and was appointed Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of 3rd Field
Artillery Regiment, Royal Canadian
Artillery from 1992 to 2009. After the
war, Neil attended Dalhousie Law
School. He enjoyed a celebrated legal
career. He became a senior partner
of McKelvey Macaulay Machum in
1955. The firm merged to create Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales, Atlantic
Canada’s largest law firm, in 1990. He
served since then as its partner and
counsel. Neil McKelvey gave a lifetime of service to the betterment of
Saint John and Canada. He served as
Chairman for the Saint John Port Development Commission, Chairman
for the Saint John Regional Hospital
Foundation, Director of the Saint John
Seafarers’ Mission, as well as countless
other organizations. He was also pastPresident of the Saint Patrick’s Society
of Saint John, ex-Commodore of the
Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club, and
board member of the Imperial Theatre. All his life, he remained committed to the legal profession. In 1969, he
became the President of the Saint John
Law Society. He served as President of
the Canadian Bar Association (19731974) and President of International
Bar Association (1978-1980). The Order
of Canada appointed him an Officer, a
merit of a high degree, in 1986 in recognition of his lifetime of community
service and international work. He will
be remembered as a loving husband,
father, and grandfather who warmed
the room with compassion, and kept
the conversation lively with his wit and
intellect. No memorial would be complete without reflecting with fondness
on the times he spent on the Saint John
River and with his family at their property in Wickham, NB. The family will
carry his memory with them always
and with it, life ‘will warmer, sweeter
be’.
Class of 1942
Georgia Elizabeth
Murchison
Georgina practiced nursing in
Canada and the US.
She was a member
of Trinity Anglican
Church. Georgia is
survived by her brother, David (Doro-
thy) of Saint John; sister, Shirley Shaw
of Saint John, plus numerous nieces
and nephews. She died Tuesday, July
19, 2011.
Class of 1942
Douglas W. Bewick
After
graduation in the middle
of World War II
served in the Royal Canadian Air
Force,
graduated
from the LeLand
Powers School of
Radio and Dramatics in Boston, MA
and the Hollywood Bowl Academy of
Theater Arts in Hollywood, CA. After
becoming a US citizen, Doug worked
as a theater director and producer in
Hollywood, CA and later worked as
staff radio announcer for WSPR. He
began a long and successful career in
advertising when he joined the Travelers Insurance Company 1955 and
then founded his own independent
advertising agency, Douglas Bewick
Advertising, in 1967. He retired in 1989
after the highly acclaimed agency was
purchased by Monster.com. He was
a Doug was a member of the Longmeadow Country Club and in winter
the Ha’Penny Bay Beach Club in the
US Virgins Islands where he spent
the last thirty winters. He was an avid
golfer. He is survived by brother John
Bewick (Class of 1943) and sister Margaret (Bewick) Dimmit (Class of 1941)
and well as by three daughters and
their families. Douglas was a generous
long-time contributor to the Alumni
Fund. He died on December 27, 2011 at
Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
Class of 1943
Donald McCrea
Duncan
He was a veteran
of WWII and was
employed with the
Nova Scotia Council Boy Scouts of
Canada as Provincial Executive Director retiring after 38 years of service.
Don was a founding officer of the Nova
Scotia Camping Association and the
founding President of Clan Donnachaidh in NS. In 1977 he was awarded
the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal. He
passed away on December 11, 2011 in
his 90th year.
Class of 1943
Doreen (Butler)
Plummer
Doreen became a
nurse and practiced
for one year in New
York City before
returning to Saint
John in 1948. She
married Art Plummer (Class of 1939) in
1952 and raised five children. She died
June 20, 2011 in Halifax.
Class of 1943
Charles Gerald
(Gerry) Flower
Attended
UNB
Fredericton
and
worked for his career at NBTel. He
was a member of
the “Men of Fundy
Barber Shoppers”
for over 30 years. He organized the
Sixtieth Reunion of his SJHS class in
2003. He died on June 12, 2011 and is
survived by sons David Flower (Class
of 1975), James Flower (Class of 1978),
and daughter Janet (Flower) Stanford
(Class of 1978).
Class of 1944
Sybil Melicent
(Spinney)Macauly
After
graduating from Saint John
High School, Mel
took a Business
Course at Saint John
Vocational School.
She then worked
for an accounting firm in Saint John,
and later for an affiliated firm in London, England, where her husband was
a student. She later returned to Saint
John. Mel loved books, music, and
was an accomplished pianist. She died
June 16, 2011 and is survived by five
sons.
Class of 1944
Jane Godwin
Jane was an active member of St.
James’
Anglican
Church, Lakewood,
where she taught
Sunday School for
many years. She
volunteered at the
Loch Lomond Villa and at Hospice
of Saint John. She died on December
20, 2011 and is survived by three children, Brad Goodwin, Paulette Godwin (Class of 1975) and Kevin Godwin,
(Class of 1978).
Class of 1944
Ruth Patricia (Sullivan) Gillian
Ruth had just celebrated her 65th
wedding anniversary with her husband
Richard
Rawson
Gillians.
Cherished mother of four and proud grandmother and
great-grandmother. She died in Kitchener, Ontario on July 14, 2011 at the age
of 84.
1944, Grade XII
Shirley (Price)
Setzke
After
graduation from Hampton Consolidated
School, Helen took
senior matriculation at Saint John
High. She became a
registered nurse in Massachusetts and
worked in eh New England States as
well as Saint John. She died December
9, 2011 in Saint John.
Class of 1946
Eldon Lawrence
Fletcher
After
graduation from Saint
John High, Larry
attended
Mount
Allison University
and graduated from
Nova Scotia Tech
with a degree in chemical engineering. He was a renowned innovator and
holder of numerous patents, working
for DuPont Canada as Senior Research
Scientist. Among his patents were
oven and microwave-safe plastics and
weed barrier materials. Larry was predeceased by his wife Leah Fletcher,
and is survived by daughter Joan,
son Edward, and his sisters Deanna
(Fletcher) McAllister (1957) and Carol
(Fletcher) Rankin (1959). He died on
August 1, 2011 in Kingston, Ontario.
Class of 1946
Valerie (Belyea) Somerville
Went to Normal School in Fredericton and taught in Saint John for a short
time. She moved with her husband
Bud to New Hampshire, and finally to
Florida where she died May 1, 2011. Besides her husband and two children,
she is survived by two sisters, Beverlie
Belyea, Class of 1956 in Masschusetts,
and Jeanne (Belyea) Dykeman, Class
of 1947 in Saint John.
Eva (MacKenzie) Starkey
Class of 1946
Went on from High School to train as
a registered nurse. She specialized in
neo-natal nursing in the United States.
She made frequent visits back to Saint
John from her home in Redona Beach,
California and especially enjoyed the
City Market, buying hundreds of dollars worth of dulse from Slocum and
Ferris. She died on November 10, 2011
and survived by several children.
Class of 1947
Jean Elanor Butler (Rinehart)
After graduation attended Business
College, working as a secretary for the
NB Department of Public Works and
the Royal Trust before marrying Bob
Butler (Class of 1946). His work with
21
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
obituaries
the YMCA too them to Sioux Lookout,
Etobicoke, Ontario, Dartmouth, Sackville, before finally returning to Saint
John, where they lived for most all of
the past 40 years. She died July 17, 2011
at her residence in Halifax.
Class of 1947
Harold James Dick
Died in Brockville
Ontario on June 24,
2011. His funeral
service was held
in Trinity Anglican
Church in Saint
John in July.
Class of 1949
Zora (Tracey Gould) Keddie
Class of 1951
Walter E. Kean
Class of 1957
Janice Jordan
From Saint John High Zora went on
to graduate in nursing from Montreal
General Hospital in 1952. She married
Ray Keddie and resided in McMasterville for the early years of their marriage. They then moved to Thamesford, Ontario where Zora was an active
volunteer fort the Canadian Cancer
Society. They enjoyed summers at
their cottage at Bay du Vin near Miramichi. Zora died in May 2011 and is
survived by her husband Ray and sons
Bruce and Ian and daughters Barbara
and Jane.
After graduation
worked at NB Tel for
his career. Since his
retirement, he was
sure to be found in
his garage where
many people would
drop in for a chat,
a repair, or for whatever was needed
that particular day. He really enjoyed
his daily coffee. Walter will be greatly
missed by his four sons Scott (Class of
1981) (Jill), Kent 1982 (Terri), Bill (1984)
(Sue) and Chris (1987 or 1988) (Liane).
He died December 22, 2011 at the Saint
John Regional Hospital.
After High School,
Janice
attended
Mount Allison University and Saint
John School of
Nursing. On her
marriage to the late
Robert J. Wilson, the
couple moved to Ontario. Jan owned
and operated Kent Bookstore in Lindsay with her daughter Cheri and later
the Country Corner Restaurant. She
died on December 17, 2011 and is survived by three children.
Class of 1952
Harold A. Noble
Served in the
Royal
Canadian
Navy and then as a
nuclear power plant
operator at Point
Lepreau. He died on
November 7, 2011.
Class of 1947
Inez (Thompson)
Dunfield
Class of 1950
Valerie (McKee)
McNeil
In High School
was best known for
his skills as a member of the Girls’ Rifle
Club. She became
a home economics
teacher in Moncton,
St. Stephen, and Sackville. She married Rev. Clinton Dunfield and died in
Moncton on October 29, 2011. She was
predeceased by sister Marie (Thompson) Fulton (Class of 1939) and brother
Maurice Thompson (Class of 1945).
After graduation,
Valerie worked for
NBTel in the stock
transfer office. She
retired in 1975 and
volunteered
with
the East Saint John
Food Bank, becoming president. She
died June 25, 2011 and is survived by
her husband, Donald, and son Mark
McNeil, Class of 1983.
Class of 1948
Dr. Arthur Chesley
An adventurous
soul and avid traveler, Ruth’s many
careers took here to
many cities including Los Angeles,
Chicago,
Boston,
Indianapolis, and
New York. She retired after a number
of years at the NB Community College
in Saint John. She volunteered with the
Food Bank, Cancer Society, and Heart
and Stroke Foundation. Ruth died January 19, 2012 and is survived by three
sons.
After graduation
attended Dalhousie
University
where
he obtained his
M.D. in 1955. His
postgraduate work
included an internship in surgery at
the Royal Victoria Hospital where he
met his wife, Doris, a student nurse
at the time. He proposed marriage to
her and acquired a lifetime partner
in his practice and endeavours. Dr.
Chesley became a Royal College Fellow (FRCSC) in urology in 1960. Prior
to retirement he was Professor of Urology at Dalhousie University. Returning to Saint John, he set up a urology
practise and gained a national reputation for his skill in diagnosing prostate
cancer. In 2001, he donated one million dollars to Dalhousie University
for a Prostate Cancer Research Chair,
which eventually came to the University of New Brunswick, Saint John with
the creation of the medical school in
2010. He was involved in the American
Cancer Society Research Project in the
1990s and received the New Brunswick Medical Society Order of Merit.
As a medical inventor, he developed a
special needle guide for prostate biopsies. Dr. Arthur Chelsey died October
25, 2011 and is survived by his wife and
three children.
Class of 1950
Ruth (Scott) Nesbitt
Class of 1950
Alden “Carroll”
Seeley
Worked for the
Canada Packers for
38 years. He died on
January 25, 2012 and
is survived by four
children.
Class of 1951
Donald James
Baillie
Donald worked
for the Bank of Nova
Scotia for more
than forty years. In
his youth, he played
baseball and basketball. He enjoyed outdoor adventures especially hunting and fishing.
He died July 5, 2011 in Hampton.
was employed by
NB Tel for over thirty-six years and was
a member of the
Association of Professional Engineers
of New Brunswick.
He was a generous
long-term contributor to the Alumni
Fund. He died November 1, 2011 and
is survived by his son, James Noble,
Class of 1983, and daughters Sandra
Noble-D’Entremont, Class of 1985 and
Jennifer (Noble) Murray, Class of 1987.
Faculty, 1955 - 1958
Dr. Joseph “Zack” Marshall
A distinguished basketball coach
and Phys. Ed. teacher at Saint John
High, Zack went on to become Brandon’s first Althletic Director and back
to his native Bermuda as Headmaster
of Warwick Academy, the oldest continually operated Secondary in the
Western Hemisphere. He died on May
21, 2011.
Class of 1956
G. Dawn Millett
Dawn graduated
from Saint John
High School in 1956
and from Saint John
Vocational School’s
Business Program
in 1957. She served
as a WREN with
HMCS Brunswicker. Dawn married
Robert Millett (Class of 1950), brought
up four children, and spent a lifetime
in life insurance, working for Dominion Life and Great West Life, retiring in
2001. She died on August 19, 2011 and
is survived by daughter Cynthia, (Class
of 1981) and sons Stephen Fritz Millett
(Class of 1980), Erik Millett (Class of
1983) and Jodi Millett (1989).
Class of 1957
Kenneth Hill
Robert Smythe
Class of 1957
He passed away on February 9th,
2011 in Miramichi. (reported by Geoff
Vail, Class of 1979 and former teacher
at SJHS)
Class of 1963
Linda (McCavour)
Welsh
Linda graduated
from New Brunswick
Teacher’s
College and the
University of New
Brunswick. She was
an artist and a poet
and also enjoyed gardening and playing the piano. Besides her mother, she
is survived by her sisters, Brenda McCavour (1969) and Debbie (McCavour)
Ruddock. She died January 20, 2012
after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s
Disease.
Class of 1963
Mary Jane (Watson)
Christie
Jane
moved
to Halifax where
she trained at the
Halifax Children’s
Hospital School of
Nursing. where she
met and later married John Christie. She practiced at
the Children’s Hospital and the IWK
for several years before leaving to raise
her family. She volunteered her services for the mentally and physically
handicapped. She died in July 2011 after a short battle with cancer.
22
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
obituaries
Class of 1964
David Randal Lewis
Died on October
31, 2011 and is survived by his wife
Joanne and his
three sons.
Class of 1966
Patricia Jean Davis
In 2005, Pat returned to her home
as the CEO of the
YMCA of Saint
John. The continued success of the
YMCA in Saint John
was very special to
Pat for it was at this YMCA that she developed the skills and personality that
made her the much loved and successful woman she became. Since her
return, she was an inspiration to many
women in the community. With the
support of her family, and throughout
her battle with cancer, Pat continued
in her efforts to ensure that a new and
modern YMCA facility would be built
for the community. Pat wanted everyone to know that her two greatest
pleasures in life were enjoying her loving husband and family and singing
barbershop with her friends in Harmony, the Pride of Niagara Chorus in
Ontario and the Saint John Sea Belles.
Pat is survived by Tom, her loving
husband of 40 years, her father William Emery Nase, and children Jamie
Davis (Arleen) and Jean Davis Fyfe
(Rick). She died at the Bobby’s Hope
House Residential Hospice October
15th, 2011, after a long and courageous
battle with cancer.
Class of 1967
LCDR Ret. John Stewart ockhart
Enrolled in the Naval ROTP program,
and then the Canadian Navy in 1967.
He obtained an Engineering degree
from the University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton, and served for 38 years as
a Marine Systems Engineering Officer,
with postings in Halifax; Royal Naval
Engineering College Manadon, England; Ottawa; St. Catharine's; and Victoria. He attended Senior Staff College
at Greenwich, England in 1984 as one
of two Canadians in a class of international Naval Officers. John served as
the Engineering Officer (EO) abroad
including a peacekeeping mission to
East Timor commencing in 1999. After
hanging up his uniform, he continued
to work for the Navy as an engineer
for another 5 years, retiring in 2010. In
retirement, he traveled the world with
his wife, Cheryl (Stevens). He relished
sailing, both racing and cruising, particularly the cruising trips in the Gulf
and San Juan Islands. He died January
2012 in Victoria, B.C.
Class of 1967
Ronald William
Keith
Was badly injured in his last year
at Saint John High,
losing the use of
one hand in an explosive experiment.
He took courses
at UNB Saint John and Carelton University, learning photography and
drawing. He worked at Chase Camera
and Fundy Cablevision, and set up a
photography business. He inherited a
great love of local history and genealogy from his father, Gerald Keith (Class
of 1926). Ron died on July 26, 2011 and
is survived by his sister Mary Keith
(Class of 1964).
Lorna Lotvedt
Class of 1969
Her friend Howard Hayson of Knoxville, Tennessee noticed the discrepancy between her obituary which
listed her high school of graduation
as Queen Elizabeth High and the fact
that she graduated from Saint John
High in 1969. Lorna attended Dalhousie University and did post-graduate
studies at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland. She took two years
off from studies to do volunteer work
with the world renowned Dr. Vanier,
working with persons with disabilities. She taught in Halifax, Gagnon in
northern Quebec and moved to Calgary in the late 1980s, Lorna taught
senior high school French at Western Canada High School for the remainder of her career. Robert Selby
remembered that Lorna “came to us
from South Portland Maine. Her long
blonde hair was the loveliest and she
was a brilliant student. In later years
when she passed through Saint John I
realized that this was a woman of great
intelligence and warmth.” Lorie Cohen-Hackett also wrote: “I met Lorna
at Princess Elizabeth School after she
and her family moved here from the
States, and we were in the same home
room all the way through Grade 12.
When we were organizing our 40 year
high school reunion, a close friend of
Lorna’s in Calgary responded to her
invitation by saying Lorna was now in
Halifax in a special care home. … Lorna was a very special person – funny,
smart and always on the go – and she
will be missed by everyone who knew
her." She died April 24, 2010 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
1970s Friend of SJHS
Dorothy M. “Terry” Gregory
“Terry” as all in Saint John knew her,
was born in Lismore, Victoria, Australia. During World War II Terry served
in the R.A.W.A. as a Communications
(Radio) Operator for the Royal Austra-
lian Air Force. Terry was involved in
many child volunteer Head Start projects to help make the lives of children
better. Her involvement in the community also included serving on the
Saint John Arts Council as their Secretary and she was the Saint John ticket agent for many years for the then
fledgling Theatre New Brunswick. Terry will be remembered by Saint John
High School alumni from the 1970’s,
for her tireless efforts to help them
master the art of theatrical make up,
and the door of her home was always
open to students who needed guidance and help. As an artist, Terry was
a member of Boston’s Copley Society,
where many of her oil on canvas works
have been exhibited. In her later years,
volunteered at the Saint John Regional
Hospital. She died January 14, 2012.
Class of 1977
Gerard “Boomer”
McHugh
Gerard was an
excellent
athlete
in High School,
in football, baseball, and hockey.
He went to gain
degrees in social
work from St. Thomas University. He
worked out of Saint John for the Social Development Department, Access and Assessment Unit, doing child
protection investigations. In 2001, he
moved with his family to Woodstock,
New Brunswick, as program delivery
manager for Fredericton, Woodstock,
and Perth Andover. His colleagues respected him. His wife, Noelle, praised
his parenting of their two children,
Erin and Joseph, “He taught us to be
better people. I always aspired to be
more like him.” Gerard was killed in
a car accident on June 14, 2011 and is
survived by his wife and children.
Class of 1984
Lorraine McAllister
After
High
School, Lori attended Modern Business College and
UNBSJ. She died on
November 27, 2011
and is survived by
her partner Glen Bizeau of New Maryland and two sons.
Class of 1984
Mark Miller
A tall and powerful graduate, Mark
enjoyed
sports,
played hockey and
was a keen golfer.
He was an excellent
father to his son,
Ben, and encouraged him in the Quebec Major Junior
Hockey League. He also supported
daughter Abby on the Girls’ Rugby
Team. Mark’s business career was in
sales, first for 17 years with Peter Tobias at Ben’s Clothing and Shoes Limited, then running his own clothing
store, Robert Marks. Recently, for ten
years he has been Sales Manager for
Saint John Toyota. Mark died on September 16, 2011, leaving his wife Sheila
(Hansen) Miller, Class of 1983, as well
as his son and daughter.
Class of 2002
Rory Patrick
Reardon
Born in Halifax
NS, on July 9, 1984,
he was the eldest
and only son of Edward and Donna
(Noade) Reardon.
Rory moved to Saint
John at the age of 3 months and loved
his new city. After graduation, he went
to the University of New Brunswick
to pursue a mechanical engineering
degree. He graduated in 2010 and received his engineering ring, one of his
greatest accomplishments of his short
life. Rory was a free spirit and made
every moment count. He was passionate about many things. He was an
accomplished bike mechanic and enjoyed mountain biking, alpine skiing,
fly fishing, and boating in Grand Bay
in the summer. Throughout his battle
with cancer, he never complained and
always had a positive attitude and an
infectious laugh that could lift your
spirits. His dry wit, gentle personality
and carefree demeanor endeared him
to many. As a tribute, his friends from
SJHS and UNB will be holding memorial services and planting trees in his
memory. He is lovingly remembered
by his sisters Sarah of Saint John,
Madeline of Edmonton, and Lydia of
Saint John. He died on July 25, 2011, after a long and courageous battle with
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
We also regret the passing of:
1933 Jennie (Buckley) David, June 2011
1934 Florence (Pyke) Wilson, April 2011
1939 Lena (Vincent) Henderson, July 2011
1939 Kathleen (Pollock) Herrington, April 2012
1941 Agnes (Morrisson) Collins, April 2011
1941 Doris (Whitney) Roberts, October 2007
1942 Georgia Murchison, July 2011
23
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
Saint John High : A Tradition of Excellence
When we published the History of Saint John High School in 2005 at critical piece of text
went missing. For many graduates of Saint John High School in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the
opportunities to participate in stage plays of various sorts were highlights of their “High
School” experience. The following passage begins on the bottom of page 105 and then “goes
missing” until the thread is picked up on page 110. The explanation is too ridiculously easy—
photos were placed over the text! Proofreading should include the sense of the passage not
just punctuation and spelling. A “thank you” goes to Dr. Robert Silver (Hamlet 1972) for first
noticing the gap in the text. Please accept our since apologies for failing to notice this error.
–Richard & Sandra Thorne
“By the mid-1960s the
main stage plays had included Shakespeare’s King
Lear, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It as well
as Miller’s The Crucible and
Elliott’s Murder in the Cathedral. Murder in the Cathedral
was staged in Trinity Anglican
Church marking a departure
from drama performances in
Room 3. The following year
Andrew Garrod mounted Peter Schaeffer’s Royal Hunt
of the Sun as an adventuresome production in the main
theatre. This served to blaze
the trail for full stage Shakespearean productions in the
1970s. Andrew Garrod was director and David Carter was
musical director for the Gilbert and Sullivan musicals as
well as the Broadway shows
West Side Story, Brigadoon
and South Pacific. The Drama
Club members sold tickets,
designed and put up posters, and sold refreshments at
the performances, in order
to fund these performances. Friendly rivalry between
homerooms helped ticket
sales as well as the reputation
of the performances which
produced their own loyal fans
who eagerly awaited the new
productions.
The early 1970s brought
about a new tradition of three
major productions a year.
The Little Theatre or “Room
3” plays, often a Restoration
Comedy, were performed in
the fall, the Shakespeare play
in late February and the musical in the spring. This tradition would last until 1975
when the students began to
direct and perform the Room
3 plays themselves.
The years from 1970 to 1978
were ones of high intensity
not only for the students but
also for the teachers who
headed up the large crews
necessary to create what were
often referred to as the “Metro
Goldwyn Garrod” productions. Bob Edwards on musical direction, George Fry on
set design, Jon Simpson on set
construction, Richard Thorne
on lighting, Sandra (Keirstead) Thorne on costumes and
other teachers on make-up,
props and stage crew, devoted hours of after-school
time to the productions and
to working with the students.
Sylvia Silver, Terry Gregory,
Sheila Ross and Judy Scott
also worked on the productions and gave expert help in
the areas of props, make-up
and choreography. Judy Scott
was a professional dancer and
choreographer in New York.
Andrew Garrod first brought
her in to choreograph West
Side Story and she returned
The Missing
Page
for numerous musicals during the 1970s.
Perhaps the dramatic highlight of those years was the
1974 production of Romeo
and Juliet. This production
was George Fry’s twentieth
production with Andrew Garrod but, as George Fry told a
Saint John reporter “because
of the new combination of Jon
Simpson as technical director and Sandra Keirstead as
costume mistress, they may
have “the best team yet.” The
production was performed at
the Playhouse in Fredericton
where it was adjudicated by
Professor M. Roland Laroche,
official screener for Theatre
Canada. His comment that
“not much more than they
gave can be demanded of a
group like the one that had
just finished its performance”
was a remark with which other reviewers readily agreed.
The performance won the
school a spot in Theatre Canada’s “Festival ‘74” in St. John’s,
Newfoundland in May. Romeo and Juliet was the only
high school production to be
chosen for the festival. The
students raised the money
for the trip to Newfoundland
and both they and their performance received extremely
good press. Andrew Garrod
won the Best Director Award
and Stephen Morgan won the
Best Supporting Actor Award
for his portrayal of Mercutio.
As Pat Treacher said in his review in the St. John’s Evening
Telegram “the whole evening
was quite startling and the
standing ovation, the first I’ve
seen in the Arts and Culture
Centre, was the least we could
do in recognition of a magnificent evening of theatre. Mr.
Garrod has much to be proud
of … ” •
top left:
West Side Story, 1975
Much Ado About Nothing, 1978 Pat Doiron (Verges)
and the late Jim Oram (Dogberry)
two foolish officers bottom left:
Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, 1975
with Richard Meltzer as Oberon
(centre) and Julie Guravich as
Titania (right) bottom right: King
Lear 1973 with the late David
MacKenzie (Gloucester), Stephen
Morgan (Edgar) and David Mitchell
(Lear).
top right:
24
Saint JOhn High School Alumni News – 2012
Join us for the Grand Reunion
Celebrate 80 years on Prince William Street
& the Alumni Association’s 30th anniversary
Friday, August 3 –
Sunday, August 5
Saint John High School
Grand Reunion
2012
Events include –
Friday, 3 August
• Registration, 10:00 am onward
• Family BBQ at the Irving Nature Park, 12:00 – 2:00 pm
• SJHS Alumni Association Annual General Meeting,
4:00 – 5:00 pm
• Alumni Wine and Cheese Reception, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
• Variety Show, 8:00 pm
Saturday, 4 August
• Breakfast at the City Market, sittings at 8:30 & 9:30 am
• St. John River Cruise, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
• Retired Teachers’ Tea, 2:00 – 4:00
• City Bus Tour (morning)
• Reception and Dinner at the Trade and Convention
Centre with Emcee Steve Murphy (Reception, 6:00
pm &
Dinner 7:00 pm)
Sunday, 5 August
• Ecumenical Church Service at Trinity Church (11:00
am)