Famous Residents
On this
page, we will highlight those persons who were Riverview residents and
went to gain city-wide, province-wide, nation-wide or international fame
in some endeavour. For your nominations, please fill in the following
information: Your name; Your email address; the name of the person you
are nominating; the email address and/or telephone number of the person
you are nominating; a three-paragraph (maximum) explanation of why you
are nominating this person, listing the person's claim to fame.
Send this information to
Famous Residents nominations.
Bill Mason
Dr. Sybil Shack
Dr. Gordon Ritchie
WALTER LEGGET RITCHIE, Q.C.
Remembering Bill Mason
by Don
Munro
The
painting “After the Game” was the work of the most talented artist that
ever came out of Riverview or
Winnipeg.
Not only could Bill Mason paint, but he produced movies such as “Death
of a Legend,” “Paddle to the Sea,” and many more. He was nominated twice
for Academy Awards. Bill was also an excellent teacher and paddler in
white water canoeing. His accomplishments are world renown. The Canadian
government honoured him by commemorating a postal stamp in his honour in
1998. The picture “After the Game” was painted by Bill when he was in
his early twenties about 55 years ago. His models were his nephew Bob
Tipping and Don Munro. Both Bill and Bob are now deceased but Bill’s art
is still in demand. Recently in an art sale in eastern
Canada,
his paintings were sold out within an hour. One could look up additional
information on this gifted and talented man by going online to
www.paddle.mb.ca/MRCA/Mason/Mason.html or
www.redcanoes.ca/bill/index.html the Bill Mason Scholarship Fund
annual scholarship of $1,000 to a worthy outdoor recreational or
environmental studies student at a Canadian college or university
www.paddlingcanada.com/scholarship.
Go
back to the glory days of hockey – Leafs vs. Canadiens - with an art
print of ‘After the Game’ – depicting the Riverview Community Centre of
years ago. Now available for $60.00. Approximate Size 16 x 20. Call
475-5674 to make arrangements to pick up your copy. Proceeds from the
sale of this print will go to the Riverview Community Centre.
Dr. Sybil Shack was
a Riverview resident.
Sybil Shack was born in Winnipeg on April
1, 1911 in a bedroom behind her maternal grandparents store on Pritchard
Ave. She showed great promise academically and was awarded an Isbister
Entrance Scholarship to the University of Manitoba at the age of 14. She
graduated with a B.A. in 1929 and attended Normal School to become a
teacher the following. Teaching jobs were scare as the Great Depression
took a firm hold of the Canadian economy. For two years she supported
herself writing editorials for Weekly News the Independent Labour
Council newspaper, taking general assignments for the Western Jewish
News marking papers or giving private tutorials. She also found
placements as a substitute teacher. Finally at the point of giving up on
her chosen profession, she wrote what she refers to as her desperation
letter and secured a job at Foxwarren, Manitoba. After three years in
rural Manitoba she returned to teach in Winnipeg. In 1945 Shack
returned to the University of Manitoba winning the Gold Medal in the
Bachelor of Education program. She received a Masters of Education the
following year. Between 1950-1952, she took post graduate courses in
supervisionW and administration at the Ontario College of Education. She
was principal of several schools starting with Sargeant Park School in
1948 and retired as the principal of Kelvin High in 1976. For thirty
years she was involved in school broadcasts over television and radio
with the C.B.C. In 1969 she received an Honorary Doctorate (LLD) from
the University of Manitoba. Shack is the author several books including:
Armed with a Primer published by McClelland & Stewart. The two- thirds
minority was published by the Guidance Centre, Faculty of Education,
University of Toronto in 1973. Four years later the same publisher
printed Saturday's stepchildren. In recent years Dr. Shack has worked
with Dr. Rosa Bruno-Jofre on early Manitoba education. Shack was a
leading proponent of pay equity for female teachers and called for
government-supported nurseries to aid working mothers. She is the past
president of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, was a member of
the Advisory Board of the Centre on Aging at the University of Manitoba
and was the only lay person on the Manitoba Judicial Council. Shack has
been the recipient of several awards. She received the John M. Brown
Award for contribution to education in 1976. She received three awards
in 1983, the YMCA's Women of the Year Award for Community Service, a
Citizen of the Year Award from the City of Winnipeg-Knights and a
Person's Award. In 1984 she was became a member of the Order of Canada
and Provost of the Buffalo Hunt. In 1987 she was elected a fellow of the
Ontario Institute for Secondary Education. She received a Manitoba Human
Rights Achievements Award in 1995 and entered the Winnipeg Citizens'
Hall of Fame in 1996.
The following was written by Hon.
Francis C. Muldoon” (ret.), Federal Court of Canada Chair, Manitoba Law
Reform Commission (1970-1977):
Sybil Shack, O.C., died on January 22, 2004 at the age
of 92. She had been national president of the Canadian Civil Liberties
Association, a director of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and
president of the Manitoba Teachers Society. She was dedicated to the
causes of the status of women and human rights. She wrote
authoritatively and knowledgeably on topics educational. Sybil left her
papers to the University of Manitoba, a magnificent gift, which
elucidated her many contacts in life, as well as many insightful aspects
of her philosophy and character.
Sybil resided for years with her aged and
revered mother, and her adopted brother, John Hirsch, of Manitoba
Theatre Centre fame. Sybil’s mother twice invited the members and
secretary of the Commission to a memorable dinner, obviously prepared
with much care and affection on the part of both women.
Along with the care and affection which
were two of Sybil’s notable qualities, resided a powerful intellect.
Once fairly informed, she was a quick study in regard to the law’s
intricacies, and rarely, if ever, required a second explanation of them.
So intently did she seek to expand her knowledge, that she expressed
herself content to have acquired a better knowledge of law and equity.
Sybil Shack contributed much to the
intellect and insight of the Commission. She was a solid participant in
the 30 formal Reports and many “informal” Reports of the Commission
during her terms of office. She was a law reform Commissioner in the
best sense of that designation.
Dr. Gordon Ritchie
Dr. Gordon Ritchie is a former resident
of Riverview who made many important contributions to the field of
medicine, in particular, radiology.
Gordon graduated as a medical doctor in
1948 from the University of Manitoba and then earned his specialist
qualification in radiology with a Diploma of Medical Radio- Diagnosis (DMRD)
from the UK in 1954. Later, he was awarded two further designations,
Fellow of the Royal College of Physcians (FRCP) in Canada and Fellow of
the American College of Radiology (FACR) in the United States.
His hospital appointments included
Medical Superintendent of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Chief
Radiologist of the Shriners’, Grace and St. Boniface Hospitals in
Manitoba, and, Director of Radiological Services in Victoria, BC. He
also was an Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba.
Gordon held many offices during his
medical career, such as President of the Manitoba Division of Canadian
Association of Radiologists (CAR), Chairman of Victoria’s Nursing
Education Committee and Hospital Education Committee, and President of
Pacific Northwest Radiological Society.
His research and publications were
extensive, and included such topics as digital diagnostic imaging, foot
deformities, digital chest imaging and computerized imaging. He also
gave many presentations on radiological topics, both in Canada and the
USA.
Over the years, Gordon was instrumental
in the development of plans to design and equip the Department of
Radiology / Medical Imaging at St. Boniface, Grace, Victoria General,
and Royal Jubilee Hospitals. His education, hospital appointments,
research, publications, committee participation and presentations are so
numerous that it is impossible to truly credit Dr. Gordon Ritchie on his
contribution to medicine.
WALTER
LEGGET RITCHIE, Q.C.
Another Morley man makes good.
Born in Vancouver, Walter, at the age of
six weeks, was brought by his parents to the Riverview area where he
resided for the next 35 years (Arnold, Morley and Clare Avenues). As a
youth in Riverview, Walter delivered papers, worked in the vegetable
gardens behind the King George Hospital, and played and coached baseball
for the Southenders.
He worked and studied his way to become
one of the leading trial lawyers in Western Canada. He graduated with
Honours in Law from the University of Manitoba in 1953 and was later
called to the Bars in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. He was a
student at the law firm of Dilts, Baker, Laidlaw and Shepard, and on
graduation, became a member of that firm. In 1961, he was admitted as a
partner in the law firm then known as Thompson, Dilts, Jones, Dewar, &
Ritchie. From 1973 to 1990, he was managing partner of that firm, now
known as Thompson Dorfman Sweatman. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in
1967 and in 1986 he was elected a Fellow of the International Academy of
Trial Lawyers, the only Manitoban to have been so honoured. Ritchie’s
area of expertise is competition, civil litigation, municipal and labor
law. He has appeared before numerous Boards and provincial and federal
courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He is particularly proud
of the fact that he succeeded on three separate cases before the Supreme
Court, acting on behalf of the union in one case, management in another,
and objecting employees in another.
In other activities, he was Chief
Electoral Officer for Winnipeg South in the 1958 Federal election, and
in 1980, was appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council as Chairman
of the Elections Commission of the Province of Manitoba under The
Elections Finances Act. In 1961, he was a founding member, director,
and officer of Breezy Bend Country Club, and served as its counsel. He
has served on numerous boards and foundations.
Walter is a (Ret.) Honourary
Colonel of the 17 (Winnipeg)
Medical Company of the
Canadian Armed Forces.
Walter and his wife, Pat
(retired lawyer), have three children, Walter Jr., Heather, and Ian and
five grandchildren.
Quite some feats for a
Riverviewer and he still practices law.
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