Eric McCormack (1938-2023) was a Canadian author, reviewer, and academic. He grew up in the small industrial community of Bellshill in Scotland where his his father worked in the steel mill. Eric McCormack obtained a Masters Degree in English Literature from the University of Glasgow. In 1966 he left Scotland for doctoral studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. In 1970 he accepted a teaching post in the English Department of St. Jerome's College (Now St. Jerome's University) at the University of Waterloo, where he specialized in seventeenth-century and contemporary literature.
As an author Eric McCormack began his career writing short stories which appeared in small literary journals including Prism International, West Coast Review, Malahat Review, and The New Quarterly. In 1987 his first book Inspecting the Vaults was released. This is a collection of nineteen short stories, thirteen of which had been previously published in literary magazines. His first novel, The Paradise Motel, was published in February 1989. Eric McCormack became the focus of considerable media interest and his books were translated into many foreign languages. His next novel The Mysterium was released in 1989, and First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, was published in 1997. The Dutch Wife was published in 2002 and his final work, Cloud was published in 2014. Eric McCormack also frequently reviewed for The Globe and Mail. His works to date have received much critical acclaim.
Eric McCormack had won and/or been nominated for many prestigious literary awards. In 1988 Eric McCormack was one of two recipients of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the Canada Caribbean Region for his work Inspecting the Vaults. He was awarded the Spring Book Award by the Scottish Arts Council for his novel The Paradise Motel in 1990, and in the same year he was one of the nominees for the People's Prize for Fiction. In 1997 the author was short-listed for the Governor-General Award for his work of fiction First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. In 1999 Eric McCormack was awarded the Literacy Award at the Eleventh K-W Arts Awards Ceremony.
Eric McCormack also read at many international and national literary festivals including Harbourfront, Vancouver, Ottawa, The Eden Mills Writers' Festival and the Elora Writers Festival. He also gave readings at the University of Waterloo, at other universities, in local public libraries, in bookstores, and at other venues.
(Source : GA 117, Series 1, Files 1-1, 1-3 to 1-5, and 1-7 to 1-8 )

Julia McCarthy was born in Toronto in 1964. In 1987, McCarthy graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Waterloo. In 1988, she audited a course in Developmental Psychology from Seattle University. And between 1991 and 1994, she audited select courses in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychology from the University of West Georgia.

McCarthy lived in the United States of America for ten years, most notably in Alaska and Georgia where she was guest lecturer in English and Psychology at the University of West Georgia (1992). She also lived in Norway and South Africa before returning to Canada and settling in Upper Kennetcook (East Hants) and the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. While in Nova Scotia, McCarthy worked as a freelance writer, teacher of creative writing, editor, and potter. As a potter, McCarthy was the owner of Mudaphors Studio (in Nova Scotia). McCarthy was married twice, first to Richard Alapeck and later to Dr. Graham Stewart.

In 2002, McCarthy published her first book Stormthrower. In 2010, she published her second book Return from Erebus for which she won the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Award in 2011. In 2017, McCarthy published her third anthology All the Names Between which was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry at the 2017 Governor General's Awards and was awarded the J. M. Abraham Poetry Award (formerly the Atlantic Poetry Prize).

Julia McCarthy died in 2021.

Martha Faith "Faith" Gribble was born in Chudleigh, Devonshire, England on October 31, 1874. She married widower William Snider (1845-1915), former mayor of Waterloo, in York, Ontario (now Toronto) on January 15, 1902. Together they had three children: Ralph Edward, Elsie Louise, and Gertrude Mabel. Widowed by William in 1915, she later married Wilbert James McArthur. She died in Langford, British Columbia on April 8, 1963.

Burton Clare Matthews was a professor and university administrator born December 16, 1926 in Kerwood, Ontario. Matthews received a B.S.A. from the University of Toronto in 1947, a A.M. from the University of Missouri in 1948, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1952. From 1961 to 1962, he studied at Oxford University as a Nuffield Foundation Post-Doctorate Fellow. Matthews began his academic career at the Ontario Agricultural College as an assistant professor of soil science in 1952 becoming an associate professor in 1956 and a full professor in 1958. From 1962 to 1966, he was the head of the department of soil science.

In 1966, he was appointed Vice-President (Academic) at the University of Guelph. In 1970, he was appointed President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waterloo and was reappointed for a second six-year term in 1975. From 1982 to 1984, he was the chairman of the Ontario Council of University Affairs. From 1983 to 1988, he was President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guelph.

Dr. Matthews died January 2, 2004 in Waterloo.

Wilson Alexander Martin was the oldest child of John Alexander and Jessie Martin. Wilson graduated from the University of Toronto in economics and then worked at the Waterloo Trust and Savings Company. In 1939, he entered active service at the rank of Sergeant and worked on the staff of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. He was eventually promoted to the rank of Major. In 1942, he married Dorothy Elaine Pequegnat and they had two daughters, Margaret Christine and Nan. After the war, he had a career in industrial engineering and then management at the Dominion Rubber Company in Kitchener and Montreal.

William Jamieson (Jamie) Martin was the second son of John Alexander and Jessie Martin. He graduated from the University of Toronto in political science and economics in 1939 and in 1941 he enlisted in the army. He was appointed to the Canadian Armoured Corps and began training in Brockville as a Cadet. During the war he was part of the Elgin and then the 1st Hussars regiment and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. On June 11, 1944, his regiment was involved in a battle at Le Mesnil Patry, northwest of Caen, France, and Lt. Martin was killed in action. He is buried in the cemetery at Beny-sur-mer in France, and there is a memorial stone for him in the Grove Cemetery in Dundas, Ontario. He was engaged to Muriel Clift who worked as a military nurse in Europe during the war.

Walter Martin was a Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Waterloo.

Martin was born in Durban, South Africa in 1920. Following the outbreak of World War II, he left school to join the Durban Light Infantry and was stationed in North Africa. His detachment was captured in 1942 and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Italy. In 1943, Martin and five fellow soldiers escaped the camp but were quickly captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. He was released from the camp at the end of the war and returned to South Africa.

Martin was an activist against apartheid and ultimately decided to leave South Africa due to the country's racist policies. He immigrated to Canada with his wife and children in 1961.

In Canada, Martin accepted a position with the agricultural college in Guelph, ON. He joined the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo in 1962 and held the role of professor since 1969. In 1980, he received the Distinguished Teacher Award.

Martin's research and scholarly expertise centered mainly on the writings of Jane Austen, Henry James, Alice Munro, Joseph Conrad, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Elliot and D. H. Lawrence.

Paul Edgar Philippe Martin was born on August 29, 1939 in Windsor, Ontario.

Prior to entering politics, Martin was the CEO and owner of Canada Steamship Lines (later CSL Group).

He served as a Liberal Member of Parliament from 1988-2008. He also served as Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec from 1993-1996 and as Minister of Finance from 1993-2002.

In 2003, Paul Martin succeeded Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as leader of the Liberal Party.

Following the 2003 federal election, Paul Martin took office as the Prime Minister of Canada. He served as the 21st Prime Minister of Canada from December 12, 2003 to February 6, 2006.

When the Conservative Party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election, Martin resigned as leader of the Liberal Party and retired from politics shortly after.

Mary Ann Kabel was born to Arthur Harold Kabel and Hulda May Sauder in 1920. She married John Gartshore Martin in 1946, and they had 3 children: Cathryn Jean, John Jamieson, and David Alexander.

Maria Martha Louise Breithaupt was born in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario on December 15, 1903 to parents Albert Liborius and Lydia Louisa Anthes. Maria was trained as a nurse and worked in that profession in Kitchener. She married Hugh Emerson Martin of Toronto on June 4, 1938. Maria's death date is unknown.

John Gartshore Martin, Col. DSO, MID, Q.C., was an officer in World War II and later became a lawyer in Kitchener, Ontario. The youngest son of John Alexander and Jessie (Wilson) Martin, John studied at the University of Toronto and was employed at the Waterloo Manufacturing Co. Ltd. until he enlisted in the Canadian army in 1941. At that time, he was posted to the Highland Light Infantry regiment as a reinforcement officer with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Before enlisting, he was a member of the Scots Fusiliers of Canada and trained with them at Niagara, Brockville, and Camp Borden. He also worked on staff at a military school in Vernon, British Columbia before being posted overseas in September, 1943. In 1944 he was transferred to the Lincoln and Welland Regiment (infantry), which participated in the landing at Normandy and the Allied advance through Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany. Martin was promoted to the rank of Major and was awarded several medals, including a Distinguished Service Order and mention in despatches. After returning to Kitchener in 1946, he married his fiance Mary Ann Kabel (daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Art Kabel of Kitchener) and enrolled in law school at Osgoode Hall. Upon graduating in 1949, he practiced law in Kitchener and retired as a senior partner of the law firm Clement, Eastman, Dreger, Martin & Meunier. Martin was involved in community service at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and several organizations in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. He and Mary Ann had three children: Cathryn Jean, John Jamieson, and David Alexander.

John Alexander Martin, O.B.E. (1880-1959), son of Rev. William M. Martin and Christena Jamieson, was an industrialist from Waterloo, Ontario. John, known as Alec, received a BA from the University of Toronto in 1902, and worked for the Canada Cycle & Motor Co. and the Russell Motor Car Co. before becoming manager of the Tire Division at the Dominion Rubber Co. in Montreal in 1917. In 1919 he became general manager, and in 1928 he began as vice-president. During World War II, he served in Ottawa as Deputy Rubber Controller for Canada from 1941 to 1945, at which time he assumed the position of Rubber Controller until 1947; he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his work in this capacity. Martin was involved in community service in several local organizations including St. Andrew�s Presbyterian Church; he was also a founding member and president of the Ontario Society for Crippled Children. In 1912, Martin married Jessie Gartshore Wilson, and they had three children: Wilson Alexander, William Jamieson, and John Gartshore.

Jessie Gartshore (Wilson) Martin was a homemaker in Waterloo, Ontario. In 1912, she married John Alexander Martin, and they lived for a time in Vancouver before moving to Toronto and then Waterloo. They had three children: Wilson Alexander, William Jamieson, and John Gartshore. Jessie was the daughter of Richard and Margaret Wilson. Richard Todd Wilson ([1839?]-1927) was a merchant and manufacturer from Dundas, Ontario. He married Margaret Gartshore (1844-[193-]), daughter of John Gartshore (a miller in Fergus, Ontario) and Margaret (Moir). Richard and Margaret Wilson moved to Toronto in 1914. They had six children: Richard Steel, Anna Jacqueline, Alexander Douglas, Marion Forrester (called Merne), Margaret Helen (More) (called Madge), and Jessie Gartshore.

Hildegard Marsden (nee von Boetticher) was a the Dean of Women and a lecturer in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages University of Waterloo. Marsden was born in Germany in 1920 and moved to the United States with her family. In 1941 while attending Randolph College in Virginia her family was deported back to Germany where she worked in a censoring office in Berlin. After the war Marsden worked a liaison between the German government and the Americans and British and during this time she met her future husband British officer Horace Marsden. The couple immigrated to Canada in 1951 and settled in Waterloo Region with their three children. Marsden began taking classes at Waterloo College and was the first woman in the region to return to university as a mature student with children. In 1959 she graduated with her BA from Randolph College and went to on to obtain an MA from the University of Waterloo. She was appointed a lecturer in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages in 1965 and in 1967 she was appointed Dean of Women. Marsden died April 24, 1988 with interment at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Robert Bruce Mantell was a Scottish Shakespearean actor who appeared in performances in Ireland, England and the United States, including on Broadway. In theatre, he was most noted for his performances of King Lear. In 1915, he switched from the theatre to films and began to work for Fox. He died in New Jersey, aged 74.

Minnie O'Hara Maines was born in Madoc, Hastings County, Ontario in April 1901 where her great-grandfather had been a settler. She married Fred Maines of Toronto on November 9,1922. Together they moved to Kitchener in 1935 to pursue business interests, where Maines died on February 6, 1984. Maines was an executive committee member with the Kitchener-Waterloo Council of Friendship. She was buried at Woodland Cemetery.

Frederick James Thompson Maines was born in ca. 1888 in Tweed, Ontario. He married Minnie O'Hara of nearby Madoc on November 9, 1922. Maines was educated at Victoria University, Toronto and was ordained to the ministry while serving with the YMCA overseas during the WWI. After the war he served as Boys' Work secretary for the Hamilton YMCA and as general secretary of the YMCA in Hamilton and Galt. He served for five years with the YMCA War Services during WWII. He was minister of the Church of Divine Revelation in St. Catharine's, Ont. from 1930 to 1935. In 1935 he and Minnie moved to Kitchener, Ont. to pursue business interests. He died April 13, 1959.