Miss Oktoberfest 1996.

The newspaper was founded in 1911 and ceased publication in 2010.

Born April 12, 1891 to William Thomas Pyke and Annie Warner, Edgar William Pyke was a high school classics teacher who collected coins to use for teaching examples for his classes. Raised in Toronto, he attended McMaster University until his schooling was interrupted by the First World War. Edgar enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on May 20, 1916 and was sent to France. He was wounded at Vimy in April of 1917 suffering a shrapnel wound to the left arm and chest. After being invalided back to Canada he recovered at the Central Military Convalescence Hospital before returning to his studies. He graduated in 1919 and was able to secure employment as a teacher of classics. On August 4, 1925 he married Ethel Morgan of England. Edgar died in 1981 and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.

Miss Oktoberfest 1993.

Miss Oktoberfest 1997.

In 1874 Robert Forbes of Scotland purchased the Randall, Farr & Co. Woollen Mill on Queen St. West in Hespeler. The company was incorporated in 1888 as R. Forbes & Co. Ltd. with Robert's sons George and James serving as president and company director respectively. In 1895 with the passing of Robert and James, George took over full operation of the company building it into the largest textile mill in the British Commonwealth. George continued to lead the company until 1928 when it was sold to the Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Co. Ltd.

President and owner of Robert C. Ragsdale Photogaphy 1952-1999.

Barbara Ripley Rahn (nee Myers) was born in Clarks Green Pennsylvania on November 17, 1916 to Marjorie (nee Clapp) and James Myers. Following her graduation from Oberlin College, she perused graduate studies in early childhood education at the Bank Street School for Teachers and later worked at schools across the United States. On May 10, 1941 she married Sheldon Rahn in New York City and together they had three children. The family relocated to Waterloo, Ontario in 1966 where Rahn served for six years as executive director of the YWCA of Kitchener-Waterloo, followed by supervising positions for Kitchener's first municipal day care centre and a regional home day care program.

Sheldon Lloyd Rahn was born on September 8, 1918 in just out side of Lanark, Illinois to Lloyd Nelson and C. Elizabeth (nee Carter). Following his from Cornell College, Rahn went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and a Master of Social Work at Columbia University, completed a degree program at Wayne State University. He married Barbara Ripley Myers on May 10, 1941 and together they had three children. The family moved to Waterloo, Ontario in 1966 where Rahn was the founding Dean of the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. Rahn died in Tavistock, Ontario on March 23, 2014 at the age of 95.

Colin Rankin, Hudson's Bay Company factor, was born July 29, [1826] in New Brunswick. He was married twice, first in 1856 to Rebecca Scott (1838-1870) and again in 1873 to Rebecca Deacon. Engaged by Sir George Simpson in March 1848, he became a Chief Trader for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1868, a Factor in 1872, and a Chief Factor in 1879. He was in charge of Mattawa Post for several years; left for Lachine in August, 1853; then to St. Maurice district; spent the winter at Kickendatch Post; was called to Montreal in August, 1854, and appointed to succeed Chief Trader Anderson in charge of Bersimis Post. In June, 1856, he was appointed to take charge of St. Maurice district, where the Company was erecting a Post and constructing new buildings. He was ordered to Montreal and appointed to Lake Superior district in 1860. In July, 1866, he was transferred to Saguenay district and there remained until November 1873, when he was ordered to take charge of Simcoe and Ottawa River districts. In 1873 he was appointed to Temiskaming district, until 1882, when headquarters moved to Mattawa, Ont. Mr. Rankin retired from the service in 1898. He was mayor of Mattawa and was a magistrate there as well (n.d.). He was also commissioned to be a Justice of the Peace in and for the North West Territories (1874). Colin Rankin died April 20, 1921.

Colin Scott Rankin was a Canadian lawyer born to Colin and Rebecca (nee Scott) Rankin in the St. Maurice District of Quebec on May 22, 1857. He was a member of the bar in Ontario and was working in Winnipeg, Manitoba as a barrister when he died at the age of 27 on August 21, 1883.

John Ireland Rankin was a Canadian mining executive born May 18, 1879 in Lindsay, Ontario to Colin and Rebecca (nee Deacon) Rankin. After graduating from the Lindsay Collegiate Institute he worked with the Bank of Ottawa. In 1914 he joined the N.A. Timmins Corporation, later becoming managing director. Over the course of his career he held director and executive positions at various companies including Labrador Mining and Exploration, McVittie-Graham Mines Limited, and Brompton Pulp and Paper Company. At the time of his death on September 4, 1961, he was the director of Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines and Noranda Mines.

Rebecca Anne Deacon was a homemaker and the second wife of Colin Rankin. Born March 23, 1850 in Dublin, Ireland to James and Catherine (nee Elliott) Deacon, she married Rankin at the age of 23 in 1873. She died in Montreal, Quebec on January 15, 1934 and was interred at Riverside Cemetery in Lindsay, Ontario.

Catharina Breithaupt Raquet was born in Buffalo, New York on February 18, 1847 to parents Liborius Breithaupt and Barbara Catharina Goetz, who had emigrated from Germany in 1843. Catharina married Jacob Raquet in New York March 3, 1864 and the couple had six children: William Jacob; Clara Maria; Edward David; Henrietta Catharine Philomene; Emilie Louise; and Joseph John Louise, living in Buffalo and the Detroit, Michigan area, where Jacob was a farmer. Jacob died March 11, 1886 in Detroit. The 1920 United States census has Catharina living in Santa Monica, California with her daughter Emilie. Catharina's death date is unknown.

Eleanor Rathbone was a leader figure in the British women's rights movement as well as being a member of parliament and a campaigner for the cause of family allowance. Born to social reformer William Rathbone V she worked for him after her graduation from Oxford investigating social and industrial conditions in Liverpool. In 1897 she joined the Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society and was Honorary Secretary and in 1913 co-founded the Liverpool Women's Citizen's Association. At the beginning of the Second World War she founded the charity now known as SSAFA which supports spouses and dependents of soldiers. When Millicent Fawcett retired in 1919 Eleanor took over as president of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship. After the society disbanded upon women receiving equal franchise, she became a member of parliament and was an outspoken critic of the government's policy of appeasement in the Second World War. In 1945 the Family Allowances Act, a lifetime social cause for her, came into effect and Eleanor died the next year in London.

The Ratz family was a prominent Mennonite family hailing from the Kitchener-Waterloo area. John Ratz was the first of the family to be born in Canada. He purchased a farm in Elmira in 1855 and was eventually elected the first Reeve of Elmira in 1887. John Ratz was a miller and owner of the Ratz Brothers Company as well as having a large amount of real-estate in the Elmira area. John Ratz had 10 children including George Ratz who was married to Clara Dunke in 1863 and had 6 children. One of these children, Elmer Ratz, was the executor to the estates of John, Clara, and George. Elmer was also brother to Herbert Ratz.

Christina Eidt was born June 30, 1834 in Germany.

Clara Dunke was born April 8, 1868 in Elmira, Ontario. She married George Ratz on September 8, 1863 and together they had six children: Leroy Henry, Elmer George, Ruth Elizabeth, Roswell, Reginald Guy, and Herbert. She died April 13, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario and was buried in Elmira Union Cemetery.

Ratz died March 29, 1974 in Hamilton, Ontario and was buried at Woodland Cemetery.

Henry Eidt Ratz was born April 30, 1877 in the Gads Hill area of Perth County, Ontario. He was the youngest of Henry and Christina (nee Eidt) Ratz's ten children. He was the mayor of Waterloo from 1935 to 1936, in addition to numerous terms as a Waterloo city councillor and Deputry Reeve, and as Warden for the County of Waterloo. Ratz married Margaret Hill and together they had two children: Gladys Ruby and Lloyd Henry. He died in 1954 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Ratz attended the Hamilton Central Collegiate Institute. He graduated with a B.A.Sc. in engineering physics from the University of Toronto, before obtaining an M.Sc. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ratz married Jean Isabel Fairles (?-1999) at Ryerson United Church on July 23.

John Henry Ratz was born November 9, 1830 in Woolwhich Township. He married Christina Eidt with and together they had 10 children. He died July 5, 1881 and was buried in Oetzel Evangelical Cemetery in the Ratzburg area of Perth County, Ontario.

Flora Josephine Green was born on October 3, 1890, in Ingersoll, Ontario, to William Collis Green and Ellen Bateman. She married George Elmore Reaman on July 22, 1914, in York, Ontario. They had one child during their marriage, Elaine Reaman. She died on December 25, 1981, at the age of 91.

George Elmore Reaman was an author, educator, lecturer and columnist. Born at Concord Ontario on July 22, 1889, he received his later education at the University of Toronto (B.A. 1911; M.A. 1913), McMaster University (M.A. 1916), Queen's University (B. Paed. 1917), and Cornell University (Phd. 1920). Employment included teaching at Moose Jaw College (1913-14), Woodstock College (1915), Educational Director of the Y.M.C.A., Toronto from 1920 to 1924, editor at the Macmillan Co. of Canada, Superintendent of the Boys Training School at Bowmanville from 1925 to 1932, principal of Glen Lawrence School, Toronto from 1932 to 1939, Head of the English Department, Ontario Agricultural College from 1939 to 1954 and Director of Adult Education at the University of Waterloo from 1957 to his retirement in 1967. In 1967 he was awarded a Centennial medal; in 1969 he received an honourary doctorate from the University of Waterloo.

G.E. Reaman was active in a number of organizations and held office in most of them: first Canadian president of the International Association for Exceptional Children, also first Canadian President of the International Platform Association. He was founder of several historical organizations, among them the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, the Ontario Genealogical Society and of the Huguenot Society of Ontario. He also published more than twenty books, the first of which was English for New Canadians, first published in 1919 and re-published over a period of 30 years. His historical publications include Trail of the Black Walnut (1956); Trail of the Huguenots (1963); Trail of the Iroquois Indians and History of Agriculture in Ontario, 1969.

G.E. Reaman married Flora Josephine Green in 1914 and had one daughter, Elaine. He died December 7, 1969.

The company was rebranded in 2009 as Reason Partners. Previously, the company was known as Holmes & Lee.

Saroja Reddy was a professor of physiology. She was born October 1, 1937 in Nellore, India to Adieseaiddy and Rukminamma Ketireddy. Reddy completed an M.S. in zoology (1959) and a PhD in physiology (1963) at the Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati India. She moved to Waterloo, Ontario in 1964 where she completed a post-doctoral fellowship. She joined the faculty at Palmer College of Chiropractic in the mid-1970s, where she spent the remainder of her career as professor of physiology. Reddy died September 21, 1999 in Davenport, Iowa following an automobile collision. Her husband, K.B. Subba Reddy (1933-1995), whom she married November 20, 1964, graduated from the University of Waterloo with a doctorate in chemical engineering.

Sir Arthur Shuldham Redfern was secretary to the Governor General of Canada from 1935-1946.

Alfred Rehder was curator of the herbarium at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plains, New York.