Carmel:
Born and educated in Ottawa, I worked for the Communicable Disease Center to earn money to train in medical technology in Toronto. I was offered a position at University Hospital in Saskatoon and decided to come for a year of “adventure”. The year has become a life time!
My work was very enjoyable and I took the opportunities to learn and take advanced courses as well as university classes. I was active in my work related organizations and my church. Friends introduced me to hiking, skiing and canoeing which became most enjoyable and Frank and I met through the Saskatoon Nordic Ski Club. We planned a canoe trip as a honeymoon.
I volunteered at our church in social justice and after retiring this led to volunteering at Egadzs Youth Center, representing the Multi Faith Social Justice Circle at the Communities for Children and the Saskatoon Anti-Poverty Coalition, and the Social Justice Advisory Committee to the Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon Frank and I also are members and volunteers at Guadaloupe Native Parish.
We live in Montgomery with a huge yard, a cottage and are members of a Good Sam RV group. I have met many wonderful, committed people throughout my time in Saskatoon and now look forward to living at Wolf Willow.
Frank:
A farm at Invermay in Eastern Saskatchewan was home to Frank until completion of high school.
Several jobs including a stint at the Thompson mine development project in Manitoba provided adequate funds to return to school. His introduction to electronics was the ‘Electronic Communications’ program at Radio College of Canada in Toronto. The credits from this program were later transferred to the 3 year Engineering Technology program at St. Laurence College in Kingston Ontario. Additional study brought qualification as Engineering Technologist (Electrical / Electronics).
The primary workplace during these years was the Chisholm Research Laboratory within the Department of Electrical Engineering at Queens University in Kingston, which was a great learning experience in itself as that sage institution had a very generous policy on all forms of staff training and class participation. This was a rapid growth stage for EE at Queens, and a young research oriented teaching staff brought many interesting projects to the Lab, (i.e. the Canadian Long Baseline Interferometer project on which Frank was a team member brought the Rumford Prize to Canada).
This work took him to many parts of Canada as well as a short stop in Australia. An opportunity at SED Systems in the mid 1970’s resulted in a return to Saskatchewan, more travel and permanent residence in Saskatoon. He went on to management and quality assurance consulting/auditing/system-implementation at various industries. A proponent of life-long-learning, Frank enjoyed his many years as a sessional instructor for the SIAST/PMAC program, and continues membership in technical societies of interest.
Carmel and Frank share many common interests including outdoor activities, environmental stewardship, travel, gardening and volunteering.