A Lovely Letter From Cecie

History

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Raised in B.C.’s Nicola Valley, John Graham Gillis is a Vancouver cardiologist and historian. His mother, Gertrude, was a younger sister of Wallace Chambers.

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Jim Elliot was born in a coal-mining town. He attended eleven different schools as his family moved from mining camp to mining camp. Following six years at the University of Alberta, Jim graduated and was ordained as a United Church minister. The next forty years were split between Alberta and British Columbia as he worked in rural areas, suburbs, First Nations communities and finally as head of a large inner-city mission in the downtown eastside of Vancouver. On retirement he moved to the Sunshine Coast, spent some time volunteering with the local hospice community and then joined a writing group. He and his wife, Geniene, have five children and eight delightful grandchildren.

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Jan Krijff was born in the Netherlands in 1947 and immigrated to Calgary in 1968. After obtaining his B.A. in Economics, he graduated from the University of Leiden with a Masters degree in History. In 1993, Jan published 100 Years Ago, Dutch Immigration to Manitoba in 1893 and in 2003, Een Aengenaeme Vrientschap (An Amicable Friendship). Greetings from Canada: Postcards from Dutch Immigrants to the Netherlands 1884 1915 was published by Granville Island Publishing in the spring of 2013. He currently lives in the Netherlands with his wife, Karen Green.

Herman Ganzevoort is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Calgary. His publications include Letters of Willem de Gelder 1910-13: A Dutch homesteader on the prairies; Dutch Immigration to North America; A Bittersweet Land, The Dutch Experience in Canada, 1890-1980; The Last Illusion, Letters from Dutch immigrants in the Land of opportunity 1924-1930.

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Steve Floris was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1920. Miraculously reunited with his pre-war love Eva after WWII, he marries her and they flee to Austria. Eventually they escape to Canada and move to Vancouver where they owned and operated the famous Ferguson Point Tea House. Steve now divides his time between Vancouver, Toronto and California.

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Sally Rogow has a keen interest in stories of heroism. Her experience working with children with disabilities gave her many opportunities to witness the courage of young people facing adversity. She has written books and articles on language development, literacy, play and social development as well as books for children and adolescents, such as “Lillian Wald: The Nurse In Blue” and “Rosa Minoka Hill, Native Woman Physician.” Sally has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, an M.A. from Columbia University, an M.A. from Michigan State and an Ed.D. from the University of British Columbia. She is a native of New York, but now makes her home in Vancouver, B.C.

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Jan Krijff was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to Canada in 1968. He has a BA in Economics and a Master’s degree in History. Jan has previously published 100 Years Ago: Dutch Immigration to Manitoba in 1893, Een Aangename Vriendschap (An Amicable Friendship) and Greetings from Canada: Postcards from Dutch Immigrants to the Netherlands 1884-1915. The latter received an honourable mention for history in the Indie Fab awards.

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Author Sylvia (Shorthouse) Crooks was born and raised in Nelson, where she experienced the war years as a young child. She holds a B.A. in English and History and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of British Columbia. She was a faculty member for sixteen years in the UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies where one of her areas of expertise was reference and research services.

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Rear Admiral Stuart F. Platt (retired) served under President Reagan as the Navy’s first Competition Advocate General. A decorated Vietnam veteran, he also received the distinguished service medal for leadership in rebuilding the modern 600-ship Navy. His book The Armament Tide: Re-Arming America received praise from government officials. He has been quoted in over 150 publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

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Pnina Granirer has exhibited widely during the 52 years of her life in Vancouver. Her works are found in numerous private and public national and international collections, such as the Glenbow Museum (Calgary, Alberta), the Yad Vashem Museum (Jerusalem, Israel), the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, BC, the Two Rivers Gallery (Prince George, BC), the Richmond Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario), Museo Eugenio Granell (Spain), the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Chile) and more.

In 2014 Pnina was included in the extensive encyclopedia of international surrealism by Arturo Schwarz, Il Surrealismo: Ierie Oggi (Italy), and in Jose Miguel Pérez Corrales’s anthology, Surrealismo: El Oro del Tiempo (Spain), in a 5-page chapter.

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Luther Schuetze was born to German immigrant parents in Brazil, educated in basic medicine and theology in Germany, and worked for years on farms on the Canadian prairies. He was married with three sons and another on the way when he was called by the United Church to be a minister in Little Grand Rapids. He and his family later moved to Oregon, then to B.C. Luther lived in retirement in Penticton until his death in 1979.

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Sylvia Crooks was born and grew up in Nelson, BC. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, with a BA in English and History, and a Master’s degree in Library Science. She worked in public libraries in Vancouver and Burnaby before joining the faculty of the UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, where she taught reference and outreach services for 15 years before retiring in 2002. Her book Homefront & Battlefront: Nelson, BC in World War II was given an honourable mention in 2005 by the BC Historical Federation. She currently resides in Vancouver.