Myrtle Vivian (Gryde) Rooney, known as ‘Myrt’ to her friends, was a student at Regina College during the 1931-1932 and 1932-1933 school years. ‘Myrt’ was active in various school programs; she wore the College “R” for athletics and was on the school’s Athletic Committee. In 1931-1932 Myrtle won First Prize in Religious Education and the Girls Senior First Prize in Athletics, she was runner up for the college tennis tournament in 1932, and won the tournament in June 1933, Myrtle also won an archery badge and the First Prize in General Proficiency in 1933. She was on the Senior Girl’s Basketball Team in 1932 and in 1933. She sang in the school Glee Club and in 1932, with students from Regina College, Luther College, Campion College and the Normal School, Myrtle took part in the Operetta “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” singing with an alto voice. Material in this collection includes one binder of memorabilia and photographs, 65 candid photographs offer a glimpse into the life of a female student in residence at Regina College in the 1930’s and one publication, Glimpses of the Last 50 Years (University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus). Also included is one letter (from 1933) between Myrtle Gryde and Florence Kirk. Florence Kirk was an instructor at Regina College from 1930-1932, Kirk would go on to teach English at Ginling College in China. The date range of this collection is 1931 to 1965, predominantly 1931 to 1933.
Television broadcaster, theatre artist, academic, and social activist Rita Shelton Deverell was born in Houston, Texas in 1945. In 1967 she moved to Canada and in 1972 began her career in television as the producer of a children's program.
In 1974 Rita joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a host for the program 'Take 30'. She came to Saskatchewan as an actress on the Globe Theatre School Tour in 1971-72, was a tenured Professor and Acting Director of the University of Regina's School of Journalism, and later became one of the founders of the Canadian television network Vision TV. She was Head of Production and noted for wearing a flower in her hair when she hosted programs.
Rita Deverell served as news and current affairs director for the Aboriginal peoples Television Network from 2002 to 2005, mentoring her Aboriginal successor, and was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2005 for "pioneering innovation and creativity" and for her "unceasing drive for social justice."
Rita has a doctorate from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, is the founding Chair of the Advisory Board of Canadian Multicultural Radio, has served as an adjudicator-at-large for the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, and is a board member of the Media Awareness Network.
In 2001-02 Rita was the University of Western Ontario's Reader's Digest Visiting Professor of Journalism, she was also a Visiting Scholar (with Neil Postman) in New York University's Department of Culture and Communication.
She is on the MacLean's Honour Roll of Outstanding Canadians, is a two time Gemini Award winner, is in the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, has been on the Board of the Obsidian Theatre Company in Toronto, was the first holder of the CanWest Global Fellowship at the University of Western Ontario in 2007, and Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University from 2009-2011.
Helen Hawley was born in 1937 and grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. After a fine arts course at Regina College studying under Ken Lochhead, Art McKay and Roy Kiyooka, she studied art history at universities in Toronto and Paris, France.
Since 1962 she has been a resident in England and is a professional artist who has exhibited widely in several countries.
As a poet, she has had several books published from which poems have been reprinted in anthologies. Some of her work tries to form bridges between Native and Non-Native Canadians, and in 1987 she was invited to send certain poems to that year’s North American Indian Conference of Elders where they were read aloud as part of the programme. The poem Concerto was published in her poetry book Gathering Fire by Thistledown Press in 1977. Although it was written before Caribou Factory was thought of, the themes are consistent. Caribou Factory was co-authored with Mary Thomas, whose contribution to the book where it regards First Nations people was invaluable.
Florence Kirk was a Canadian missionary and member of the English Department at Ginling College in Nanjing China. She, and her sister Lillian, were both on the staff at Ginling College, which was the first Christian women’s college in China. Florence was there before and during the Second World War, as well as the civil war that followed and the Communist takeover. She completed her Ph.D. in English at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
In 1991 at age 89, Kirk self-published her memoir entitled Sunshine and Storm; a Canadian Teacher in China, 1932-1950.
Florence Kirk was also the author of a short story “One Hundred Dollars”, 1975, co-author with W. Gordon Kirk for the Kirk Family Tree: from Scotland to Ireland to Canada: An Account of One Branch of the Kirk Family from the 18th Century to the Present; 4 articles in the Islander (Time-Colonist) Heigh-Ho, the Holly, 1983; Mistletoe – All Healer or Tree Thief; 1984, The Ginko Tree – a Living Fossil, 1984 and The Metasequoia - a Living Fossil, 1986; and 2 articles in Prime Time Organize Christmas to Recapture Joy, 1984; and China After Thirty Years, 1985.
She was also the final editor of The History of West China University, Chengtu, Szechwan, China in the early 1970’s and the author of a sonnet called A Walk in Nanking, 1984.
Myrna Ann Kostash is a journalist, essayist and writer of regional and national acclaim. She was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1944. She attended the University of Alberta, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 with a major in Russian. She then pursued graduate studies in Slavic language and literature at the University of Washington and the University of Toronto where she received a Master of Arts in 1968.
Kostash is the author of several books, All of Baba’s Children, Long Way From Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada, No Kidding: Inside the Life of Teenage Girls, Bloodlines: A Journey into Eastern Europe, The Doomed Bridegroom: A Memoir, The Next Canada: In Search of the Future Nation, Reading the River: A Traveller’s Companion to the North Saskatchewan River, Locating the Past/Discovering the Present, The Frog Lake Reader, Slice Me Some Truth, Prodigal Daughter, Unbound: Ukrainian-Canadians Writing Home and more recently, The Seven Oaks, a companion volume to The Frog Lake Reader.
Her articles and creative non-fiction have appeared in several anthologies, and extensively in periodicals such as Chatelaine, Maclean's, Geist, Border Crossings, Literary Review of Canada and Canadian Geographic. She has contributed radio, television, and film scripts to the CBC and the National Film Board, and has written stage plays. She has lectured widely in Canada and Europe and has taught courses, workshops, and seminars across the country. Kostash was Max Bell Professor at the School of Journalism, University of Regina for 1989 and 1990.
Kostash has recived numberous awards for her writing: in 1989 she received the Alberta Achievement Award, in 2008 the Writers Guild of Alberta presented her with the Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement. She was inducted into the City of Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame in 2009 and in 2010 she was awarded the Writers' Trust Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life. Kostash accepted the Wilfred Eggleston Award for Nonfiction at the Writers Guild of Alberta awards gala in 2011, where Prodigal Daughter, won for Best Nonfiction Book. In 2012 Kostash was shortlisted for the Kobzar Literary prize.
Myrna Kostash resides in Edmonton.
Eugene Stickland was born in Regina on September 24, 1956. He is the son of Leonard and Stella (Hunter) Stickland. He earned his Bachelor of Arts Honours in English at the University of Regina in 1980 and his Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from York University in 1984. He is the father of artist Johanna Stickland who currently resides in Europe. He currently resides in Calgary.
He was Writer-in-Residence at St. Mary’s University in Calgary from 2010 – 2016, where he continues to teach creative writing courses. From 2004 – 2009 Eugene wrote a feature weekly column for the Calgary Herald. He was Playwright-in-Residence at Alberta Theatre Projects from 1994 – 2004. He taught at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College at the University of Regina in 1990-91. Stickland was Playwright-in-Residence at Act IV Theatre Co. in Toronto from 1984 to 1987 and Communications Coordinator at Frontier College in Toronto from 1984 to 1989. He was a freelance writer for radio and television from 1989 to 1992. He was also a Resident Playwright at the National Theatre School in Montreal and as a Canadian delegate to the World Interplay Theatre Festival for Young Playwrights he traveled to Townsville, Australia.
His productions include: Appetite (2000), Closer and Closer Apart (1999), Noel de Force (Some Assembly Required French translation by Rene Gingras and produced by Campaign Jean Duceppe) (1999), The Hen House (1986), Quartet (1998), A Guide to Mourning, (1998 and 2000), Sitting on Paradise, (1996 and 1999), Excavations (1995 and 2000) and Some Assembly Required (1994 and 1999). Two plays: Sitting on Paradise and A Guide to Mourning were published at Red Deer College Press in 1999 and Some Assembly Required with Coteau Books in 1995. All Clear was written in 2004 and translated into Arabic in 2009 and another play, Queen Lear was produced in Istanbul in Turkish translation, presented by Kenter Theatre in 2009. It ran for over two years in Istanbul and throughout Turkey.
Other publications include Midlife (2002), Writer’s Block (2008) and Queen Lear (2010). His first novel, The Piano Teacher (2015) was awarded the W. O. Mitchell Award by the City of Calgary in 2016.
Awards include: the Betty Mitchell Award for the 1997-98 Season in the categories of Best New Play, Best Performance by a Supporting Actress (Val Pearson), Best Director (Bob White) and Outstanding Production of a Play for A Guide to Mourning; Governor-General’s Award Drama finalist for Some Assembly Required in 1995; and Alberta Playwriting Award for Excavations in 1995; W.O Mitchell Award for The Piano Teacher, 2016.
He is a former Board member of Frontier College in Toronto, past president of the Alberta Playwrights’ Network, a member of the Playwrights Union of Canada, as well as a Founding Member of the Auburn Theatre Practitioners Circle.
Geoffrey Ursell is an award-winning writer of drama for stage, radio, and television, as well as of fiction, poetry, and songs.
Ursell was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and grew up in Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. He received his B.A. (Hons) and M.A. from the University of Manitoba, and his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of London (England), where he studied with the acclaimed scholar Sir Frank Kermode. He once taught Canadian Literature and Creative Writing at the Universities of Manitoba and Regina, but he has been a full-time writer, composer, producer, publisher, and editor for over twenty-five years.
Geoffrey has written extensively for radio, including a five episode mystery-comedy series for CBC’s Morningside, as well as other mystery-comedy series for CBC Saskatchewan, and plays for Vanishing Point and Anthology. He has composed songs for stage and radio, and his songs were featured on a CBC television special, as well as being heard on Sunday Morning and As It Happens. He wrote the music and lyrics for the widely-produced Globe Theatre show, Superwheel (script by Rex Deverell), as well as for such plays as Black Powder: Estevan, 1931 (script by Rex Deverell), and Talking Back (script by Don Kerr). Ursell has also written or co-written several plays with songs for young audiences, including What Do You Wanna Bet?, The Willow Bunch Giant, and The Prairie Jungle Show.
Trap Lines, his first poetry collection, received a Commonwealth Poetry Prize Special Commendation. His second collection of poetry is The Look-Out Tower, and he also has a collection of short stories, Way Out West! His songs, poems, and stories have appeared in many Canadian periodicals and anthologies.
Ursell’s novel, Perdue, won the Books in Canada Best First Novel Award, and his stage plays have won three national playwriting awards. His first full-length play, The Running of the Deer, produced by the University of Alberta Drama Department and published by Playwrights Canada, won the Clifford E. Lee National Playwriting Award. Saskatoon Pie!, a musical comedy, published by Coteau Books, won Persephone Theatre’s National Playwriting Competition, and was later remounted twice and toured Saskatchewan with great success. It has since had many other productions.
Ursell has been Editor-in-Chief of Grain Magazine and is a founding member and publisher of Coteau Books.
Edith Margot Osborn (Neé Camp) was born in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, England in 1902 and received her education at St. Mary Cray, Kent. Her family moved to Rochester, Kent, where she worked as a civil servant for three years and met her future husband, Arthur George Osborn. Mr. Osborn’s first wife had died three years before, their daughter, Veronica, was 10 years old. Arthur and Margot were married at St. Barnabas church, Gillingham, Ken and Margot sailed for Canada on the “Empress of France”.
After a short stay in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Arthur opened a general store at Eldersley. One night in January the building next to their store caught fire and with no fire brigade or water, they watched their home and store burn to the ground. Arthur and Margot moved then to Regina. Arthur found employment at the new Hotel Saskatchewan and Margot took classes at the University of Saskatchewan. After seven years in Regina, Arthur died of pneumonia and Margot was left with four children between the ages of three and twelve.
By 1947, Margot knew that her work with the army in the Defense Department would soon end and she resigned. Margot went back to England for six months to visit her parents. After returning to North America, Margot visited a sister in New Canaan, Connecticut and then obtained a clerical job with the Christian Science Monitor organization in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1963 she was appointed secretary to the Christian Science Board of Education where she worked until retiring in 1969 to Victoria, British Columbia.
While living in Regina, Margot had begun to publish poetry and her play “Judas Incorporated” was produced by the Little Theatre Society there. While in Boston she continued to write plays and poetry and was working on a science fiction novel titled A Short Visit to Ergon, published by Marlowe House (a small publishing company which she and her son established). An edition of 2000 was sold out.
Between 1946 and 1990 Margot published 10 plays or poetry books.
Margot had a happy and active retirement in Victoria. She was a member and president of the local branch of the Canadian Authors’ Association, she traveled in Canada and abroad and while on a visit to Egypt she undertook research for her pageant-play on the life of Moses, “The Man Who Might Have Been King”. Margot’s poetry has been published in The Christian Science Monitor, Canadian Forum, Canadian Poetry Magazine, Regina Leader Post, National Home Monthly and other periodicals.
Margot Osborn died on January 19, 2006.
Dorothy Anna (Cohen) Goldman, was born in New York City on July 24,1904, she married Leon Goldman in 1926 and was mother to two daughters: Marilyn (Lyn) and Barbara, and a son, Arthur (pseudonym: Tony Thorn). During World War II Dorothy volunteered for the Red Cross and served on their executive board for forty-two years. She served on the board of the United Way for twenty-three years and for the Jewish community through the Hadassah-WIZO Organization of Canada both locally and nationally for many years. She was president and a Life Member of the Women’s Canadian Club of Regina, which later joined with the Men’s Canadian Club to form the Canadian Club of Regina. During her lifetime Dorothy received many honours and awards for her community work, including
an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from the University of Regina in 1991, and the Good Servant Award from the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. She was a long time promoter of cultural life in Regina, supporting music, theatre and the arts. Several University of Regina scholarships are sponsored by the Goldman family, in Journalism, Business, English, and Fine Arts. Dorothy passed away in February 1996.
Born in Birmingham and educated at Grove School in Tottenham, Shorthouse was a chemical manufacturer and novelist. His first book, John Inglesant, printed in 1881 became a success. The story was considered fascinating by its style, religious undertones and well-depicted scenes. Other novels by Shorthouse include The Little Schoolmaster Mark, Sir Percival, The Countess Eve, and A Teacher of the Violin, and an essay, The Platonism of Wordsworth. Shorthouse died in March 1903.