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Graeme Mount, PhD, moved from Montreal to Sudbury in 1969 to teach courses in Canadian, American, and Latin American history at Laurentian University. As an a academic, he published papers and books on topics relating to international relations, Canadian history, Canadian-American relations, Latin America, the Caribbean, and espionage. Upon his retirement in 2005, Mount remained actively involved in research on politics in Latin America as well as on the history of Northern Ontario.

Robert Fernand Boudignon (1917-2001) was born in Cheptainville, France. He moved to Toronto, Canada in 1923. Boudignon served with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps from 1940-1946, and the Canadian Army Reserve from 1950-1968. He married in 1948 and moved to Sudbury the same year. Boudignon worked for INCO until his retirement in 1982. Due to his interest in history, he participated in compiling information for a book on the history of French River.

Barbara Dunphy was a researcher interested in women studies. In 1998 she moved from Toronto to Los Angeles.

Gilbert H. “Gib” Gilchrist (February 14, 1922 – October 23, 2011) was a union organizer, educator, and activist. Gilchrist served in a variety of positions within the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) from 1957 until his retirement in 1983.

Born on Manitoulin Island in Spring Bay to Neil and Sarah (née McKechnie), he was the youngest of 9 siblings. Gilbert Gilchrist’s father died in 1924. Gilchrist attended the Grimethrope Schoolhouse for his primary education and earned his secondary school diploma in Mindemoya through night courses. In 1942 Gilchrist joined the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers and would serve as an instructor until 1946. In 1944 he married Donalda (Donnie) Beange from Gore Bay. He was the father of five children: Sarah, David, Alma, Lorna, and Sharon.

Gilchrist worked in the International Nickel Company (INCO) Frood Mines in 1941, prior to joining the military. Following the Second World War Gilchrist returned to Spring Bay to raise his family. In 1955 he worked for a short time in Kimberly, British Columbia for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (COMINCO) and returned to Ontario to work as a carpenter in Elliot Lake where he joined the Carpenters’ and Joiners Union. In 1957 Gilchrist was elected the founding President of USWA Local 5615 and in 1958 was appointed as the USWA Staff Representative. During this period, he wrote articles for the weekly USWA newsletter, Miners’ Voice and hosted a radio show. In 1964 Gilchrist relocated to Sudbury to serve as Senior Staff Representative of the new USWA Local 6500, where he was responsible for over 15,000 workers in the mining industry. He served three terms as President of Sudbury & District Labour Council. In 1970 he was Chief Negotiator and Coordinator for contract negotiations between INCO and USWA. He served in various other positions in the labour movement, including: USWA Northeastern Ontario Supervisor (1970); Canadian Worker Representative at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland (1974); member of the Industrial Training Council for the Province of Ontario (1976); and USWA Assistant Director for District 6 (1981).

Gilchrist was also an active member of the Sudbury community and lifelong CCF/NDP supporter. From 1972-1978 he was a member of the Board of Governors for Cambrian College; he was the Labour Studies Coordinator for Cambrian’s Labour Studies Institute from 1983-1989. Gib Gilchrist is the author of As Strong as Steel (1999).

In 1940, Norman D. Stephen was an employee of the Canadian National Railway in Capreol, Ontario. He joined the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT) and left a year later to serve in the Royal Canadian Navy (1941-1946). In 1951 he worked as an electrician for Canadian Comstock Co. at the Falconbridge Radar Station. Married (wife Sheila) and living in Skead, Ontario in 1953 he then began working for Falconbridge Nickel Mines and joined the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW), Local 598. He was a mine captain, steward, and financial secretary for this local at Falconbridge for a number of years between 1953 and 1971.

Frank Clifton Southern was born in Paris, Ontario in 1911. He married Jessie Grant Brown of Sudbury and had one daughter, Joanne.

Frank Southern moved to Sudbury in 1940 and worked at INCO’s Frood Mine as a driller, timberman, and scoop operator. His involvement with a union began in 1942 when he joined the United Copper Nickel Workers Union (UCNWU), a company-sponsored union. When the International Union of Mine Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW), Local 598 was certified, he joined that union. In 1963 Southern became a steward for the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), Local 6500, and in 1966 unsuccessfully ran for vice-president. He would oppose the Mine Mill (IUMMSW) until his retirement from INCO in 1976.

Frank Southern is the author of a handbook for mine supervisory personnel entitled The Psychology of Supervision (1951), as well as the book The Sudbury Incident (1981). He died in Sudbury in 1999.

Thomas (Tom) Hannaway, Sudbury resident, retired in 1973 from his work as a Mine Steward at the Copper Cliff Refinery and member of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), Local 6500. As first Chairman and then President of the INCO Pensioners and Widows Club, he was very active in the area of pension equity for INCO retirees. In 1975 he led a delegation to INCO’s head office and to Queen’s Park to demonstrate for changes to the Canada Pensions Benefit Act.

Harold Bennett (1890-1983) was the second President of Laurentian University from 1961-1963. Member of the Laurentian University Board of Governors from 1970-1972. In 1960, he received an Honorary Degree from Huntington University. He was Registrar at Victoria University.

Catharine Dixon (1927- ) moved to Elliot Lake in 1957, and, since then, has been a very active member of the community by serving on a wide variety of community boards, committees and organizations. While continuing to be involved in different activities of the United Church, she was elected to the first Public School Board in 1966. For the period 1980-1987, she also served as a member of the Elliot Lake Police Commission.

In the 1970s, Catharine Dixon worked as a reporter for the Sault Star. She wrote short histories of the United Church and of the Elliot Lake Police Force. In 1997, she published The Power and the Promise: the Elliot Lake story. Her latest publication is titled As It Happened: The founding of Elliot Lake Secondary School (2001).

Ernest James (Ernie) Checkeris (1925 -2014) was born in Toronto, Ontario to Greek refugees. He attended public schools in Toronto until grade 12, when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy to serve in World War II. Checkeris moved to Sudbury in 1945 where he was general manager and co-owner of Wahnapitae Lumber Building Supplies. In 1945 he was elected a school trustee in Dryden Township, serving in this position for 55 years until his retirement in 2000. As of 2011, he was the longest serving school trustee in Ontario’s history.

Ernie Checkeris has been highly influential in the field of education in Ontario, serving on numerous committees and councils. In addition to his work as a trustee, perhaps most notably, was his membership to the Ontario Provincial Committee of Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario, which published Living and Learning, better known as the 1968 Hall-Dennis Report. Checkeris’ involvement in education also included addressing issues facing schools such as labour relations, special education, racism, and violence, with specific attention given to the concerns of Sudbury and the needs of Northern Ontario.

In recognition of his work in education, Ernie Checkeris was made a lifetime member of the Ontario Public School Boards and the Canadian School Boards. He received many awards acknowledging his accomplishments including the Order of Ontario in 2000, an honorary doctorate in canon law from Thornloe University in 2001, and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal in 2003. The Ernie Checkeris Public School, in Sudbury, was named after him in 1989, and the Thornloe Theatre was renamed “The Ernie Checkeris Theatre” in 2011.

In addition to his work in education, Ernie Checkeris was active in his community. He was a supporter of the Junior Chambers of Commerce (Jaycees), Boy Scouts of Canada, and other youth organizations. Checkeris was also involved with Greek cultural organizations such as the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Community. A supporter of the arts, he attended Cambrian College where he studied pottery in 1980; his works include publicly displayed murals, as well as clay sculptures. Checkeris also published a collection his writings, Thanks Be to the Gods!: A Memory (Sudbury: Teen Tree Pah Publishing) in 2001.

Charles Kenneth Leith (1875-1956) joined the department of Geology and Geophysics of the University of Wisconsin, U.S.A. as a faculty member in 1902, and served as its Chair from 1928 until 1934, retiring from the university in 1945. He died in 1956.

Leith had a distinguished career as a teacher, researcher, and consultant. Even prior to his teaching career, he wrote many geological survey reports, and produced maps on the Sudbury region and Temiscaming, more specifically on the region of Cobalt. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and received the Penrose Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists in 1935 and of the Geological Society of America in 1942. His reputation was established with his work on the iron ores of the Lake Superior Region.

The research of Van Hise and Leith on Precambrian rocks of the Lake Superior district earned international recognition for the department in the fields of structural and metamorphic geology. The "Wisconsin School of Structural Geology" was introduced to Britain and Europe in the late 1920s by Gilbert Wilson, a Wisconsin alumnus, and carried on by Wilson's students and others. Leith served as the major advisor on minerals to the U.S. government during World War II, and helped in the procurement of uranium and thorium for the Manhattan Project. He was also an exceptional teacher; he received widespread recognition for his book Structural Geology, published in 1913, which was the first textbook on this subject.

[Biography from C.K. Leith Fund website, University of Wisconsin-Madison]

Gerald Goltz was born in Massey, Ontario where he now resides with his wife Eileen, a Laurentian University graduate and retired librarian. During his childhood, he resided in Westree with his family while his father worked as a section man for the CNR. After a move to Capreol in 1933 for educational purposes, Gerald went on to later graduate from Capreol High School in 1950. He graduated from the Teacher's College in North Bay in 1958. His university degrees are primarily in History and he received his Master's degree from Laurentian University. Later, he taught in New York, Bancroft and Pickering Township before settling within the secondary school system in Espanola, where he remained until his retirement in 1990.

Over the years, Gerald Goltz and his wife have remained active in local cultural activities. They have also maintained an interest for the area in which they live, which the postcard collection attests to.

Ricardo de la Riva, originally from Spain, earned a degree in medicine from the University of Ottawa and completed his residency in Ottawa, Ontario. In 1963, he settled in Sudbury, Ontario with his wife Adrienne.

From the moment they arrived in Sudbury, the de la Rivas became involved in their community, actively participating in cultural, social, and political life, as well as various leisure activities. Working as a general practitioner in Sudbury from 1963 onward, Ricardo de la Riva opened a practice in the downtown core and was also affiliated with St. Joseph’s Hospital. He kept the downtown office running until 2010. Throughout his career, his wife worked by his side, performing various duties to support the different positions he occupied.

Ricardo de la Riva was an avid soccer fan and founded Sudbury’s first junior soccer league in 1965. He is a life member of the Sudbury Regional Soccer Association.

In 1972, he ran in Sudbury’s municipal elections for the first time and was elected alderman for the Flour Mill and downtown area. He was re-elected for consecutive terms until 2000. He sat on the Sudbury Regional Council from 1973 until it was dissolved in 2000. Throughout his political career, he sat on numerous committees, associations, and groups. He fought very hard for many issues, including local economic development, education, culture, and heritage, while advocating for the vitality of his community and its citizens.

A strong advocate for the French language, he was among those who started the process which resulted in Sudbury officially becoming a bilingual city. In 2003, he wrote an open letter requesting that the Franco-Ontarian flag fly at Tom Davies Square. His many contributions to the Francophone community include helping establish a Francophone college in Sudbury and a Francophone daycare in the downtown area.

As city councillor for the Flour Mill and downtown Sudbury, Ricardo de la Riva directed many efforts to maintain the quality of life of his constituents. He spearheaded initiatives to promote cultural life, building restoration, Flour Mill neighbourhood enhancement, and economic development. He was the leading advocate for bringing the Farmers’ Market to downtown Sudbury, was directly involved in the renovation of the downtown public library, and supported the creation of residences and centres for the elderly. Furthermore, he worked to make the Junction Creek Waterway Park a safer area. Even after he retired from active political life, Ricardo de la Riva continued to strive for the economic growth of businesses in the Flour Mill as a member of the Flour Mill Business Improvement Committee (FMBIA).

Ricardo de la Riva received various honours including l’Ordre du mérite francophile from ACFO Sudbury in 2000 and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2002 for his outstanding and exemplary contribution to his community. In 2014, he was also inducted into the Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame as a founding member of the Sudbury junior soccer league.

William Thomas Meredith Ireton (1902-1986) was born March 4, 1902 in Lanark township, Ontario to John Graham Ireton and Lilian Maud Sheils. He married Gertrude Duncan of Smiths Falls and together they had one son, Verne.

After graduating in Pharmacy from the University of Toronto in 1925, Ireton moved to Connaught Station (northeast of Timmins on the south shore of Frederick House Lake) where he worked at the drugstore until 1929. Ireton then started work as an insurance salesman with the Confederation Life Insurance Company – his territory was Northern Ontario and Quebec. In the 1960s, Ireton was an active member of the Anglican Diocese of Moosonee. He died at the age of 85 in Smiths Falls, Ontario.

Élorie Trottier (1897-1986), fils de Onésime et Melvina (née Séguin) Trottier est né à Chelmsford, Ontario, le 7 août 1897. À l’âge de 20 ans il s’enrôle dans l’armée canadienne et en février 1918, part pour le manège militaire de Québec afin de continuer son entraînement. Membre de la Compagnie C, 22ème Bataillon Canadien-Français, c’est de Québec, qu’en mai 1918 il part pour l’Europe. Arrivé en Angleterre il rejoint les troupes canadiennes et poursuit son entraînement jusqu’en août de cette même année. Par la suite il est transféré en France, sur les champs de bataille de Cambrai et du Canal du Nord. En septembre, alors que l’Armistice est signé, il est en Belgique, d’où il se rend avec les troupes de l’armée canadienne, en Cologne.

C’est en mai 1919, qu’Élorie Trottier revient au pays. En 1920 il marie Sara Portelance et ils ont deux enfants : Léo et Anita. Cultivateur, il a aussi été commissaire d’école séparée, et conseiller au conseil municipal de Rayside de 1936-1939 pour ensuite être élu maire du Canton de Rayside de 1940-1944. Élorie Trottier est décédé le 11 février 1986.

Benjamin (Ben) Franklin Avery (1890-1965), third son and fifth child of William and Jane Avery (née Baldwin) was born October 21, 1890 at Aurora, New York. Avery graduated from Yale University in 1914 and obtained his Master in Forestry in 1916. Very active in sports, he played football and was the wrestling team captain. During WWI he served as Lieutenant with the U.S. Armed Forces (1917-1918), then returned to Canada. In 1921 he married Mary Adelaide Stone (1897-1991) in Sault Ste. Marie, daughter of Frederick and Grace Laura Maude (née Taylor) Stone of Chatham, Ontario. Ben and Mary Avery had 4 children: Daniel Dudley (1923-1965), Deborah (1925-2018), Frederick Stone (1927-2014) and Mary. In 1925, Benjamin Avery became a Canadian citizen. Involved in forestry, he first came to Canada in 1915 for a summer job in Sault Ste. Marie for the Spanish River Pulp and Paper Company and returned after his graduation to work full time. He worked for the company from 1919-1937. The company merged with Abitibi Power Paper in 1928. He later became assistant general manager of woodlands in 1934. In 1937 he accepted the post as woodlands manager for Great Lakes Paper Company, at Fort Williams. In 1946, until his retirement in 1959, Avery worked for KVP at Espanola, where he was elected a director of the company in 1946 and general manager and Vice President. Later, in 1951, Avery was elected President of KVP Company Ltd and General Manager of the Espanola plant. Avery originated the tree farms idea and was one of the first to express the need for proper cutting and reforestation methods. He has been a senior executive of many Canadian forestry and related trade and professional organizations. To name a few: in 1957 he was elected Chairman of the Executive Board of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association; he occupied the position of President of the Canadian Forestry Association (1959-1962); President of the Canadian Society of Forest Engineers; Chairman of the woodlands section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association; Vice president of the Ontario Forest Industry. After his retirement he became a member of the Laurentian University Board of Governors (1960-1965) and was the Chairman of the Founders’ Fund. In 1964 the institution awarded him an Honourary Doctorate (Doctor of Law). As a member of the Espanola community he was also involved in many groups and associations. In 1972 Laurentian University named the Physical Education Centre building in his honour: the Benjamin F. Avery Physical Education Centre.

Mary Adelaide Stone was born in 1897 to Frederick and Grace Laura Maude (née Taylor) Stone of Chatham, Ontario. In 1921, Mary married Benjamin Franklin Avery in Sault Ste. Marie. She and Benjamin had 4 children: Daniel Dudley (1923-1965), Deborah (1925-2018), Frederick Stone (1927-2014) and Mary. Mary Avery died in 1991.

Michael Gallagher (1948 - ) was born in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. He is married to Colette Naubert and has two children – Natalie and Patrick.

During Michael Gallagher’s formative years, he spent one year as a boarder at Sudbury’s Collège Sacré Coeur before returning to Sturgeon Falls to complete his secondary education. Following high school, Gallagher spent one year in Teacher’s College at Laurentian University. In 1970, he was accepted to the Ontario College of Art (OCA) in Toronto (now OCAD University), where he developed an interest in graphic design and commercial art. He graduated in 1974.

In 1972, Gallagher decided to take a year off from OCA. During this time, he joined his childhood friend André Paiement in Sudbury to work on the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (TNO) production of À mes fils bien-aimés – Gallagher both acted in the play and designed the programme. At the same time, Gallagher was introduced to the Coopérative des artistes du Nouvel-Ontario (C.A.N.O.). Established in 1972 by Pierre Bélanger, C.A.N.O. was a creative community of artists – originally based on a farm in Earlton, Ontario – whose goal was to promote the creation and dissemination of Franco-Ontarian arts and culture such as theatre, writing, music, and visual arts, in Northern Ontario. Michael Gallagher became a member of C.A.N.O. and spent time on the farm in Earlton, as well as in Sudbury working on TNO productions.

By 1975, Gallagher had graduated from OCA and returned to Sudbury. In November of that year, CANO musique was founded by André Paiement and four other members of the Coopérative des artistes du Nouvel-Ontario – Michael Gallagher, David Burt, Robert Dickson, and Marcel Aymar. CANO musique was a non-profit corporation with similar goals to its cooperative predecessor (namely producing and fostering Franco-Ontarian art), except that it focused solely on the art form of music. True to their cooperative namesake, CANO musique functioned based on equality with members taking on many roles within the self-managed group, and Michael Gallagher was no exception. In addition to being voted president at CANO musique’s inaugural board meeting, and with his previous experience doing sound for theatre productions, Gallagher initially took on the role of sound technician. Shortly thereafter, Gallagher also became artistic director and photographer for CANO, and created original artwork and design layouts for the group’s album jackets, posters, concert passes, and other promotional materials, as well as took photographs of the band during performances and promotional shoots. As the band’s popularity grew, so too did Gallagher’s responsibilities to encompass tour manager.

While Gallagher maintained these many functions for the group CANO, they were also offered to clients as part of the services provided by CANO musique. In this capacity, Gallagher developed album art and layout concepts for liner notes; created promotional materials and posters for TNO, Éditions Prise de parole, and radio stations CBON and CBC Sudbury (among others); and provided stage management for La Nuit sur l’étang and the Northern Lights Festival Boréal.

In 1985, following the release and tour of their final album, CANO dissolved. Michael Gallagher was living in Toronto, where he began working for the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture after spending three years at the Ontario Art Council’s touring office. By 2003, Michael Gallagher was Senior Communications Advisor for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. He is now retired and living in Toronto, Ontario.

Lina Agnes Jackson (1871-1958) was born 23 April 1871 in Simcoe, Ontario to Alex Jackson and Sarah Jane McCandliss. She married Ernest Oscar Duke (1880-1954) son of William Duke and Mary Ann Speers of Dufferin, Ontario in September 1908. The Dukes had four sons: Horace, Henry, Victor, and Lloyd.

Agnes was a gifted pianist and was enrolled at the Toronto Conservatory of Music during her teens. After marrying Ernest Oscar Duke, she and her husband both served as Anglican missionaries in Northern Ontario for three years. Ernest Oscar (E.O.) was a teacher and in 1908 was the principal at St John’s Residential School in Chapleau, Ontario. The pair also served at the residential school in Moose Factory. In 1910, the family moved to Camrose in Alberta where E.O. continued as a teacher. In 1935, he was elected as Social Credit member of the provincial legislature and he served for 14 years until 1949 when he decided to retire from politics. Lina Agnes and E.O. then moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where they both passed.

Shirley Kathleen Wigmore, B.A., M.L.S., M.Ed (1928-2014), daughter of Marjorie Fitzpatrick and Roy D.H. Wigmore, was born September 14, 1928 in Gowganda, Ontario. Her father, a mining engineer, graduated from Acadia University in 1923, and by 1925 was employed at the Castle-Trethewey Mine near Gowganda. It was here that Shirley Wigmore first learned of Frontier College’s labourer-teachers who worked alongside labourers during the day and provided literacy and citizenship education in the evenings, a subject that would inform her professional research later in life.

Wigmore attended secondary school at Kirkland Lake Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KLCVI), and went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature (1953) and a Master of Library Science (1966) at the University of Toronto, as well as a Master of Education in Adult Education. From 1953, Wigmore worked at the University of Toronto’s Ontario College of Education (OCE), first as assistant librarian, and then research librarian in education. In 1965, she took on the additional role of lecturer in education at the university’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), moving on to become chief librarian until her retirement in 1993.

Shirley Wigmore died in Toronto on November 14, 2014.