Beginning in the 1960s a group of University of Waterloo students were heavily involved in progressive politics and advocacy. This included protesting the war in Vietnam, disenfranchisement, high book prices, and a lack of funding for the library, as well as supporting striking newspaper staff of the Peterborough Examiner. During this time many of these students began living together in self-described hippie houses which served as meeting places for like-minded individuals. In 1969 fourteen of these students moved into a home at 196 King Street South in Waterloo that was dubbed the "Gabriel Dumont Memorial Co-op" and later the "Gabriel Dumont Memorial Commune". In the Spring of 1970 a group of students, former students, and student journalists began to put together a proposal for a community newspaper. When it was determined that typesetting and printing the paper would be a challenge, they also decided to establish a cooperative typesetting shop with the belief that "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one". In June of 1971 Dumont Press Graphix was opened. The press was financed by a combination of loans, funding from friends and family, and money from the Industrial Development Bank. The press was owned be an employee's association that had decision-making control on a one member-one vote basis. Over the next few years, approximately 15 people worked at Dumont at any given time, although this number changed seasonally and with employee's other commitments. The press did take on commercial work and printed for organizations such as Amnesty International, Conestoga College, University of Waterloo Federation of Students, GLOW, Hysteria Magazine, Imprint, Panned Parenthood, and more. However, noncommercial work was central to the political philosophy of the press. Politically aligned organizations (referred to as 'New Left' in a Dumont publication from 1976) were able to use the shop on a cost recovery model. Although the organization never released a political statement outlining all of their communal beliefs, in general members were involved with labour work, anti-racism work, feminist movements, the commune movement and more. There were at time internal strife in the organization around beliefs, and around the balance between running a commune and work getting done. The press officially closed in 1989 although it had suffered through years of unrest and financial difficulties before that date. Members of the press and friends continue to meet for reunions.

He attended Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario and completed a summer internship program at the K-W Record in 1992. He now resides in Malibu with his wife Bianca.

Margery Ruth Spelman was born to Walter Bishop and Ruth Schantz Spelman on September 26, 1915. She studied at Northwestern University and obtained an M.A. from the University of Chicago, going on to teach biology at the University of Cincinnati. She married Eugene C. Dresser (1914-1977) June 17, 1941 at the summer home of her parents in Champlain, New York. Margery died December 2, 1991 and was buried in Champlain at the Glenwood Cemetery.

Lucy Doyle was a well-known newspaper reporter and amateur historian. Her career at the Toronto Telegram began in the 1890's with work as a 'copy girl'. She eventually became a reporter, drama and music critic, gossip columnist, and editor of the women's page at the Telegram. Among the highlights of her newspaper career was the opportunity to cover the Prince of Wales' tours of Canada and the United States. She spent her later years doing research for several planned but never published books, including a biography of the Prince of Wales and a work about the history of Scarborough. For 18 years, she occupied a log cabin on the grounds of the Guild of All Arts in Scarborough, Ontario, as the guest of Spencer and Rosa Clark.

James Downey was born in Winterton, Newfoundland in 1939. He graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and attended the University of London as a Rothermere Fellow where he earned a Ph.D. in English Literature. Downey began his career at Carleton University. There, he held a series of academic and administrative posts including Vice-President Academic and President pro tempore.

From 1980 to 1990, Downey was President of the University of New Brunswick. During that period, he also served terms as President of the Canadian Bureau for International Education, Chair of the Association of Atlantic Universities, and Chair of the Corporate-Higher Education Forum.
From 1990 to 1993, Downey was Special Advisor to the Premier of New Brunswick; Special Advisor to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada; and co-chair of the New Brunswick Commission on Excellence in Education, which published two reports that guided educational reform in that province.
James Downey was President of the University of Waterloo from 1993 to 1999. During his presidency of the University of Waterloo, he also served terms as Chair of the Council of Ontario Universities and Chair of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
After stepping down as president of the University of Waterloo, he founded and directed Canada’s first centre for the study of co-operative education, located at Waterloo; led an annual seminar for new university presidents sponsored by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada; and from 2007 to 2010 was the founding president of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.

Among Downey's awards are nine honorary degrees; the Symons Medal for outstanding service to higher education in the Commonwealth, received from the Association of Commonwealth Universities in 2000; and the David C. Smith Award for contributions to universities and public policy in Canada, received from the Council of Ontario Universities in 2003. In 1996, Downey was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. And, in 2005, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Royal Military College of Canada.

Downey's publications include The Eighteenth Century pulpit (Oxford University Press, 1969), Fearful joy (McGill-Queen1s University Press, 1973), Schools for a new Century and to live and learn (reports of the New Brunswick Commission on Excellence in Education, 1992, 1993), and Innovation : essays by leading Canadian researchers, edited with Lois Claxton (Key Porter Books, 2002).

James Downey died in March 2022.

Lydia Dotto was born in 1949. In 1971, she graduated with an Honors degree in journalism from Carleton University.

Dotto worked as a general assignment journalist for the Edmonton Journal in 1969 and for the Toronto Star between 1970 and 1971. From 1972 to 1978, Dotto was a staff science writer for The Globe and Mail. In 1978, she became a freelance science and environmental journalist and writer, publishing in varied media and publishing several reports and books. During that time, Dotto was also a partner at Dotto and Schiff Science News Service, co-director of Canadian Science News (a weekly syndication service), and president of the Canadian Science Writers Association.

In 2004, Lydia Dotto focused her work on wildlife photography, travelling across Canada, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States of America. And publishing in Canadian Wildlife magazine, WILD magazine, On Nature magazine, and Muskoka magazine, among others.

Lydia Dotto also worked as a teacher, including classes on environmental communications for ten years at Trent University.

During her professional years, Lydia Dotto published numerous reports and books, including, among others:

• The ozone war (1978),
• Planet Earth in jeopardy: environmental consequences of nuclear war (1986),
• Canada in space (1987),
• Asleep in the fast lane: the impact of sleep on work (1990),
• Losing sleep: how your sleeping habits affect your life (1990),
• Blue planet: a portrait of Earth (1991),
• The astronauts: Canada's voyageurs in space (1993),
• Storm warning: gambling with the climate of our planet (1999),
• Le ciel nous tombe sur la tete: sommes-nous entrain de risquer le climat de notre planete? (2001), and
• Thinking the unthinkable: civilization and rapid climate change (2006).

Lydia Dotto passed away on September 17, 2022.

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Doten (April 1, 1827 – January 15, 1913) was a prominent American lecturer, poet and trance medium. Lizzie was well known for her supposed ability to channel poetry from Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Burns and William Shakespeare. Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts both of her parents were Mayflower descendants. Two of her brothers would go on to lead the first two Union companies to deploy from Plymouth during the Civil War. Active on the lecture circuit from 1864-1880 she would speak in trances as well as lecture on topics including religious freedom, women's rights (including suffrage and equal pay), and abolition. Doten retired from lecturing in 1880 and in 1902 married her long time companion Zabdiel Adams Willard (1826–1918). They lived in Brookline, Massachusetts until her death in 1913.

Robert (Bob) Starbird Dorney was an ecologist with a focus on environmental management. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in Veterinary Science and Wildlife Management with an interest in diseases of wild animals. He worked first as a conservation biologist in Wisconsin with the State Conservation Department and at the University of Wisconsin, during which time he wrote on ruffed grouse, raccoons, squirrels and rabbits. He then moved to Latin America and for three years was a science advisor on renewable natural resources to the countries involved in the Pan American Union.

In 1967 he was hired by the University of Waterloo School of Urban and Regional Planning as a professor in the area of applied ecology, environmental and resource management, where he remained until his death in 1987. He educated students, politicians, developers and the general public on the value of the science of ecology in improving the design and livability of urban environments, a private as well as a public commitment. As a founding member of the Waterloo Region's Ecological and Environmental Advisory Committee, he contributed to the identification of environmentally sensitive areas for inclusion in the Region's master plan, while at his home he developed a mini-ecosystem of natural vegetation which was studied by students and gardeners alike. Dorney was also a founding partner of Ecoplans Ltd., an environmental planning consulting company, and author of The Professional Practice of Environmental Management published posthumously in 1989. The Robert S. Dorney Ecology Garden, a naturalized garden next to Environment 1 on the grounds of Waterloo's main campus, was established in his honour in 1998.

The Doon School of Fine Arts was opened in 1948 at the former home of Homer and Pheobe Watson by Ross and Bess Hamilton, who purchased the property in 1947. An agreement was struck between with the University of Waterloo in 1963 resulting in fine arts instruction at both schools. The Doon School of Fine Arts operated until 1966 when it was closed due to lack of funding.

Reverend Robert Richard Arthur Doolan was a graduate of Cambridge University and served as deacon of the Church of England.

As an agent of the Anglican Church Missionary Society, he arrived on the Nass in British Columbia in 1864 to evangelize the Nisga’a.

Miss Oktoberfest 1982.

Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Ltd. came into Hespeler in 1928 when the company purchased the R. Forbes Company Ltd. mill at what is now Queen St. West in Cambridge. The company would operate in Hespeler until 1959 when it went into receivership and was purchased by Silknit. As the largest woollens and worsteds mill in the British colonies at the time, the factory played a large role in the history of Hespeler, at one time employing almost one third of all citizens of the village.

During and immediately after WWII the mill employed a large number of women employees from both the Hespeler area as well as those who were brought in to work from Newfoundland and Northern Ontario. These women lived in boarding houses or dormitories provided by the mill and many of them stayed in Hespeler after the war, forever changing the village.

Production ceased permanently at the mill in 1984 and one third of it was destroyed shortly afterward in a fire. Today the portion of the mill that still stands is rented by retail stores. In 1986 Kenneth McLaughlin and three graduate students began to conduct oral history interviews with workers from the mill who were still living in the region, including those women who came from Newfoundland and Northern Ontario.

Dominion Rubber Systems was formed as an offshoot of the Dominion Rubber Company in order to separate sales and distribution from manufacturing. In 1926, all of the divisions of the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company (of which the Dominion Rubber Company was the local division) were renamed Dominion Rubber Company.

The Dominion Life Assurance Company was established in 1889. In 1912 Dominion Life moved to their new head office at 14 Erb Street west, a building formerly owned by the Ontario Mutual Life Assurance Company. In 1956 the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company of Fort Wayne acquired controlling shares, but continued to operate the company under its incorporated name. The company was bought by Manulife in 1985.

Ross Vernon Dixon was an entrepreneur and philanthropist in Kitchener, Ontario. He had a career in industrial relations and his entrepreneurial interests included construction and investment businesses. Dixon was born in Toronto in 1914, and attended the Hillcrest Private School (now Hillfield Strathallan College) in Hamilton. During the 1930s, his family moved back to Toronto where his father started a sporting goods business. Dixon worked for his father for almost ten years, during which time he formed a company to manufacture felt crests for sports uniforms and took extension courses in business administration from the University of Toronto. During that time he also met Doris McRae Whiting from Orillia, Ontario, and they were married in 1942.

Dixon began his career in industrial relations in 1940 when he was hired as Assistant Personnel Manager at Research Enterprises Limited in Leaside, Ontario. In 1944, he became Personnel Manager at Otaco Limited in Orillia, Ontario. In 1947 he accepted the position of Industrial Relations Manager for the Dominion Rubber Company, Footwear Division, in Kitchener, and in 1959 he became the Director of Industrial Relations for the company (which eventually became Uniroyal Canada). Throughout his career, he was an active member of the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, serving as president from 1959 to 1960.

Shortly after Ross and Doris moved to Kitchener, he formed the Westmount Construction Company, which built around 150 homes in Kitchener and Waterloo during the 1950s and 1960s in the area surrounding the Westmount Golf and Country Club. Around 1953, he also formed Westmont Enterprises Limited as a holding company for the Westmount Construction Company and several other interests in which he was involved.

Dixon retired from Uniroyal Canada in 1977 and became a local agent for the Morgan Trust Company, and a year later formed Ross Dixon and Associates. In 1990 he sold a majority interest to a holding company and Ross Dixon Financial Services was formed. This company eventually had thirty franchises in Ontario.

Ross and Doris Dixon were active philanthropists in their community, supporting many charitable organizations as well as providing scholarships for students at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo through the Ross and Doris Dixon Charitable Foundation. Ross served as a member of the Board of Governors of Wilfrid Laurier University for eight years. In 2002, Ross and Doris Dixon received honourary degrees (LLD) from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Edith Louise Anthes was a homemaker born in Guelph, Ontario on , August 1, 1901 to John Isaac Franklin Anthes and Cyrena H. Simmonds. She married Ralph Waldo Emerson Dilworth of Toronto, Ontario on April 2, 1938 in Montreal at the home of her mother. Following their honeymoon, the couple settled in Toronto. Edith died in 1986 and was entombed at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

William Dickson was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1769. Dickson was a legislative councillor of Upper Canada, politician, colonizer and founder of Galt, Ontario. He immigrated to Canada in 1792 and later became a lawyer in Niagara. In 1815, after having served as an officer in the Canadian militia in the War of 1812, he was named a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. It was also in 1815 that he purchased the township of Dumfries and began the process of bringing in settlers. From 1827 to 1836, he lived in Galt, Upper Canada. He returned to Niagara in 1836 and died there February 19, 1846.

Vincent Dewell was born about 1813 in Broome, New York. He had a wife named Harriet (nee Ogden) who was born in 1811 and died in 1901. They had four kids together, Daniel [1849-1882], Cyrus [1836-?]. Mahala [1834-?], Franklin [1851-?]. According to a 1851 census of Canada West (Ontario), Durham County district, Dewell was a farmer and his wife was a weaver.