Showing 12 results

People and organizations
Yorkton (Sask.)

Houston, C. Stuart (Dr.), 1927-2021

  • Person
  • September 26, 1927 to July 22, 2021

Stuart Houston was born on September 26, 1927 in North Dakota where his parents, Dr Sigga Christianson Houston and Dr. Clarence Joseph Houston practiced briefly before relocating to Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

Stuart completed his medical degree at the University of Manitoba and spent eight years in General Practice in Yorkton. Stuart then specialized in Radiology (now Medical Imaging) at the University of Saskatchewan with one year in Boston, pursuing a particular interest in pediatric radiology. He returned to a faculty position at the University of Saskatchewan where he stayed for his professional career. He served a term as chair of the department but particularly enjoyed his term as editor of the Journal of the Canadian Association of Radiologists. He served on the Council of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and was the only professor in the College of Medicine to have been named honourary president of the Student Medical Society three times.

Stuart's interest in ornithology began as a boy in Yorkton, fostered by an amateur naturalist, Isabel Priestly and subsequently by his work for Ducks Unlimited. He maintained a lifelong commitment to ornithology, mainly expressed through banding birds. To 2014 he had had banded 150,283 individual birds of 211 species, with 3,945 recoveries of 84 species, the highest number of species recovered of any Canadian bander. Over decades he cultivated a large network of people dedicated to the protection of birds. He was an active member of the Saskatoon and provincial Natural History societies and participated extensively in their activities. His work in ornithology included four books on Saskatchewan natural history and 311 articles in ornithology and natural history journals, and culminated in 2020 with the publication with Frank Roy and Alan Smith of the definitive book on the Birds of Saskatchewan. He remained keenly involved in his most recent project, banding and wing-tagging turkey vultures.

Houston was also an historian, writing 13 books with historical subjects including early Canadian explorer naturalists with the Franklin expedition, biographies of pioneer Saskatchewan doctors and Saskatchewan's early achievements in health care (Steps on the Road to Medicare).

Stuart married Mary in Dilke, SK in 1951. She died in 2019. They had 4 children: Stan, Margaret, David and Donald.

Houston received many honours including D. Litt and D CnL degrees, Saskatchewan Order of Merit, Officer of the Order of Canada, and innumerable other awards, local, national and international, in all three spheres of his activities.

Stuart Houston died on July 22, 2021.

McLaren, Lorne A., 1928-2009

  • PA 330
  • Person
  • 1928-2009

Lorne Aubrey McLaren was born on August 17, 1928 in Saltcoats, Saskatchewan to Aird McLaren and Mildred Vaughan. He attended Aston School and received his secondary education in Saltcoats.

McLaren joined the Morris Rod Weeder Company in Yorkton, Saskatchewan in 1951 as a partsman and became president in 1979. McLaren served as a trustee on the Yorkton Public School board and was provincial finance chairman for the Progressive Conservative Party.

McLaren was first elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature in 1982 and served as a Progressive Conservative MLA for the Yorkton constituency until 1991. McLaren served in the Grant Devine Government as Minister of Labour (1982-1985). He was Minister Responsible for Labour Relations Board (1982-1985); Workers' Compensation Board (1982-1985); Workers' Advocate (1982-1985); Minimum Wage Board (1982-1985); Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (1982-1983); Saskatchewan Power Corporation (1982-1985) and Crown Investments Corporation (1983-1985).

McLaren's Cabinet appointments were discontinued on December 16, 1985, when Premier Devine shuffled his Cabinet and reduced the number of ministers from 23 to 19. McLaren did not seek re-election in the 1991 provincial general election and Clay Serby (NDP) became the MLA for the Yorkton constituency.

Lorne McLaren died in Regina on January 4, 2009.

Lorne McLaren and his first wife, Audrey Hillis, married in 1951 and had four children: Blaine, Tenley, Bonnalyn and Coralee. McLaren was divorced in 1984 and later was married to Barbara McLaren.

Shewchuk, Ruth Catherine, 1923-2004

  • PA 470
  • Person
  • 1923-2004

Ruth Catherine Shewchuk (nee Dulmage) was born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan on February 9, 1923 to George and Harriet Dulmage. She attended school in Melfort and Yorkton and graduated from the Regina General Hospital as a registered nurse in 1946. In 1948, Shewchuk was sent by the Canadian Red Cross to close the Red Cross Outpost Hospital at Paddockwood, which had been the first of its kind when it opened in 1920. Use of the hospital had waned with the rise of publicly funded health care in the region. She served as the head nurse for six months, and took a number of photographs with her box camera to commemorate the experience. During the remainder of her career, she mainly served as a maternity nurse, but at various times also worked with Public Health, the Victorian Order of Nurses, and the Salvation Army. She was a strong supporter of the Red Cross, Girl Guides, Eastern Star, and McClure United Church in Saskatoon.

In 2000, Shewchuk and her colleague, Betty Elliott, head nurse from the Buffalo Narrows Red Cross Outpost Hospital, coordinated a reunion of staff and community that supported the two Red Cross outpost hospitals. The reunion took place in 2002 in the former Paddockwood Hospital, which had been converted into the home of local artist Anita Shaw (current as of 2010). The event featured the donation of a replica of the original Paddockwood Hospital to the Red Cross Archives, and received local press coverage. Shewchuk and Elliot then compiled and distributed copies of a scrapbook containing reprints of her original photographs along with additional memorabilia from the hospitals and the reunion.

Ruth Shewchuk died on February 19, 2004 in Saskatoon. She and her husband, Nick, had two children: Jan and Joan.

Results 1 to 10 of 12