Born in Winnipeg, Margo Oliver (1923-2010) was a well-known food editor, cookbook author, and employee of General Mills. She earned a degree in home economics from the University of Manitoba in 1950 and then relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota for graduate work. There, she began working with General Mills in the Betty Crocker Kitchens. When General Mills expanded into Canada, she was appointed the country’s first Betty Crocker spokesperson. In this role, she travelled across Canada, educating cooks on various radio and television programs. Oliver was the food editor of Montreal-based Weekend Magazine from 1959 to 1979 and later worked for Canadian Weekend and Today until her retirement in 1982. She also produced seven cookbooks, including Margo Oliver’s Weekend Magazine Cookbook (1967), which was a bestseller. Oliver was posthumously inducted into Taste Canada’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
Cecil O'Neal was Director of Productions at Stratford Festival from 1975 to 1985 and went on to teach theatre at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 1988. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 2011.
Richard Dario Pagani (1930-2004), the son of Italian immigrants, was born in Guelph and attended Sacred Heart Catholic School and Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute. In 1954, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. After working in Milan, Italy for nearly a year, he helped form the architectural firm Huget, Secord and Pagani in Guelph. Pagani was employed by H.G. Acres of Niagara Falls in the late 1960's and later became president of D.L. Pagani Ltd. He worked closely with his father, Dario Pagani, one of Guelph’s leading contractors, and would go on to design a number of schools, business, and homes in Guelph, including the College Motor Inn, Guelph Police Headquarters (1959), College Avenue Public School, St. Bernadette School, the Omark (Blount) headquarters, and the Westminster-St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church.
Born in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1950, Cecelia Paine received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois in 1972. She completed her Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan in 1980. Paine began her remarkable career working for a Chicago firm until 1974, when she moved to Ottawa, Ontario. For the next 16 years, Paine worked for two landscape firms as well as the National Capital Commission. In 1982, she created the firm Cecelia Paine and Associates Inc., thus becoming one of the first female landscape architects in Canada to work under her own name.
Paine made significant contributions to the conservation of Canadian heritage landscapes that protect and reflect cultural identity in the built environment. Her work on the revitalization of Sparks Street Mall is one of her most recognized projects. Other projects include the Mackenzie King Estate in Gatineau Park, Quebec, the Queen’s Park Legislative Assembly grounds, Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, the grounds of Rideau Hall in Ottawa, and the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village in Alberta. She also served as an advisor for conservation of Parque del Este in Caracas, Venezuela, and directed a survey and evaluation of over 100 golf courses designed by Stanley Thompson.
In 1990, Paine moved to Guelph and became a Professor in Landscape Architecture in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph. From 2006 to 2014, she also served as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. She became Professor Emeritus and Associated Graduate Faculty in 2018.
Professor Paine’s work has been acknowledged with numerous prestigious awards. In 2006, she was the recipient of the University of Guelph Faculty Association Teaching Award. In 2004, she received the President’s Award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA). Her work has also been recognized with numerous National and Regional Citation Awards for Planning from the CSLA. For a time, Paine was President of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OSLA) and was founding editor of CSLA’s national professional journal, Landscapes Paysages. She has also served on the board of the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation.
Dean Palmer is a photographer from Guelph, Ontario.
Canadian cookbook author and entrepreneur. Born Jean Shirley Elford in Irma, Alberta, in 1927, Paré developed a passion for cooking from her mother. Paré’s culinary career began out of necessity when she opened a café in Vermilion, Alta., to support her family after her divorce from her first husband, Clarence Lovig. Her second husband, Larry Paré, was a frequent customer of hers and championed her entrepreneurial ambitions. In 1963, she opened a catering business which she ran for 18 years, developing a reputation for her popular desserts. She published her first book, “150 Delicious Squares,” in 1981 with her son, Grant Lovig, through their own company, Company’s Coming Publishing Ltd., after being rejected by several book publishers. The decision to self-publish proved auspicious. “150 Delicious Squares” was a hit, selling nearly 1.5 million copies, and launching Paré’s career as a professional cookbook author and successful businesswoman. At the time of her retirement, in 2011, she had sold over 30 million cookbooks from her Company’s Coming series (which listed more than 200 titles) making her one of the best-selling cookbook writers in the world. She died in 2022.
Florence Partridge was a graduate from the Macdonald Institute in 1926, with a two-year Associate Course. In 1932, Partridge completed a Certificate course in Library Science at the University of Toronto, and shortly after became an Assistant Librarian at OAC. She became the Chief Librarian in 1944, and remained in this role till her retirement in 1971. As Chief Librarian she worked for the OAC, the Federated Colleges and the University of Guelph.
Originally from Creston, British Columbia, Arthur Penson became involved in theatre in the mid-1960s at the University of Victoria where he was studying to be an art and music historian. He became involved in the then-amateur community theatre company Bastion Theatre. Relishing work in the theatre, he continued his studies at the Kootenay School of Art. While there he won a scholarship to the Pasadena Playhouse in California. He has a long-standing connection to Neptune Theatre in Halifax, the Stratford Festival, and the Great Canadian Theatre Company and has designed for theatres across the country as well as theatres in England (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry) and Ireland (Abbey Theatre, Dublin). Branching out from theatre, Penson has also designed for opera companies such as Opera Lyra Ottawa and dance troupes such Le Groupe de la Place Royal in Montreal.
Born on Walpole Island First Nation in Southwestern Ontario