Charles Leslie 'Les' Usher was the son of Thomas and Margaret Dorothy Usher. Born in Scollard Alberta, he grew up on the Usher family ranch in the Big Valley, AB area. He graduated from University School in Victoria B.C. in 1942, then completed the No. 1 Canadian Army Training Course. He served as 2nd Lt. in the field artillery during World War II. After the war, he returned to Alberta and completed an Agriculture degree from the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

In the 1970’s, Les served as Deputy Minister of Culture under Horst Schmid, and Peter Lougheed. He last worked as Manager of Program Implementation with Agriculture Canada before retiring in 1993. Highlights career of public service include: Deputy Minister of Department of Youth in Alberta; President of 4-H Clubs in Alberta and Canadian Council of 4-H Clubs; Member of Board of Governors & Senate at UofA; National President of IPAC in 1976; President of Alberta Forestry Association & Jr. Forest Wardens; President of Alberta Institute of Agrologists – Edmonton; and People’s Warden at All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral.

He continued to ranch on the family ranch on weekends and created the Rumsey Ecological reserve on former Usher Ranch lease land.

He married Lillian May Popoff in 1955 and had two children, Laurel and Thomas. Les died on September 9, 2018.

Richard Scott near was born in Esquesing Township, (near Halton) Ontario on June 5, 1887 and arrived in Carstairs, Alberta in 1908. Over the next few years, he worked on farms, dairies and also the D.R. McIvor general store in Cowley, Alberta. He homesteaded in the Orkney, Ghost Pine Creek area in 1911, was appointed a Commissioner for Oaths for Sarcee Butte/Ghost Pine Creek and was also an Insurance Agent for the area during the mid 1910s and 1920s. He was a member of the Carbon Lodge No. 107.

Lewis L. Osborne completed his PhD at the University of Calgary in 1981. He worked at the Illinois Natural History Survey, a research institution located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from ca. 1987-1993. He was also a professor in the university's Department of Urban and Regional Planning prior to 1987.

Suzette Mayr is an award-winning author, poet, editor and educator who was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1967. As a Canadian of German and Afro-Caribbean background, Mayr often explores issues of race, identity and sexuality in her writing through the stylistic use of humour, cultural mythologies and surreal imagery.

Her novels include Moon Honey (1995 NeWest Press), The Widows (1998 NeWest Press), Venous Hum (2004 Arsenal Pulp Press), Monoceros (2011 Coach House Books) and Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall (2017 Coach House Books). Her novel Moon Honey was nominated for the Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book and the Georges Bugnet award for Best Novel. The Widows was nominated for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean Region. Monoceros was the winner of the 2012 ReLit Award and the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Award, longlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was also nominated for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction.

A former President of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, Mayr has edited six literary anthologies, and collaborated with Calgary theatre company Theatre Junction and visual artists Lisa Brawn and Geoff Hunter. She has been a writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary and at Widener University, Pennsylvania. Mayr is currently is a Professor at the University of Calgary’s Department of English, where she teaches courses in creative writing and contemporary literature studies.

George James Morley was born in Ontario in 1927 and operated a retail appliance store in Toronto. After moving to Calgary with his family, Morley became involved with a wide variety of volunteer organizations that complemented his broad range of interests. He had strong interests in Canadian war history and was the founding president of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society, the past president of the N.W.M.P. Commemorative Association, and the director for The Red Coat Puppet Theatre; Morley authored the production “Westward Ride the Red Coats” that was performed in many Alberta schools.

Morley had a passion for comic art. His personal collection, that he began accumulating in the 1940s, includes clippings, comic books, and reference books, reference files on comic art and artists, and original artwork. Morley’s interest in war history is reflected in many of the strips he collected including G-8 and His Battle Aces, Navy Bob Steele, Flyin’ Jenny, and Captain Easy. He was also the founder and publisher of Strip Scene, a fanzine that celebrated the newspaper comic strip with articles, research information and artwork. Strip Scene was first published in 1977 and ran in print form for 25 issues through to 1984; long-time editor Carl Horak continues to maintain Strip Scene as a web presence.

Morley also carried this passion into his volunteer work with Calgary public schools as he worked extensively with students using his love and knowledge of comic art to encourage their own creativity. The George Morley Memorial Scholarship was established in his honour in 2004 to recognize students “with a high level of participation in the arts program."

George Morley died March 5, 2004.

Canadian bookseller. E. de Mille, née Orser, a sixth-generation Canadian, was born on August 1, 1919 on her grandparents' homestead at Tristram, Alberta. Attended high school in Alberta. Began working at Eaton's book department in Calgary in 1945, leaving as its head in 1956 to open Evelyn de Mille Books Ltd. By 1974, when the store was sold, E. de Mille established four other branches, making her the first woman in Canada to found a bookstore chain. In 1980 established Evelyn de Mille Technical Books, specializing in technical and reference materials. E. de Mille has always been actively involved in associations relating to bookselling and publishing, serving on the Board of Directors and as president of the Canadian Booksellers Association and as chair of the annual Canadian Booksellers Association conference in 1973. Other volunteer activities include working with the National Museums of Canada on creation of a publishing policy and as a director of the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation. E. de Mille has made generous donations to several Alberta organizations including a donation in 1985 to the University of Calgary Library of the collection Books on Books, to which she continues to add informative, interesting and rare items.

Canadian architect. Hugh McMillan worked with Rule Wynn & Rule (Edmonton) as a student, then as an Associate Member of the firm J.A. Cawston and Associates (Calgary) until 1960, when he went into practice with Allan H. Waisman and J.M. Ross under the name of H.W.R. McMillan and Associates (Calgary). In 1964, Jack Long joined the firm and the partnership name was changed to McMillan Long and Associates. After Long retired in 1969, the name of the firm was changed to Hugh McMillan Architects.

Canadian architect. Practiced primarily in Edmonton and region with some out of province work. His firm underwent a series of name changes (Stanley & Stanley, Dewar Stevenson & Stanley, K.C. Stanley & Company, and Ross M. Stanley) during the period 1948-1979. All categories of buildings are present in this collection, including private residences, churches, schools, theatres, office buildings, stores, University and Government buildings, etc.

Peter George Hemingway was born in Minster, England in 1929. He was trained at Rochester Technical College in Kent, then immigrated to Canada in 1955 in response to a Government of Alberta advertisement aimed at recruiting architects. After working briefly at the Alberta Department of Public Works, he entered into a partnership with Charles Laubenthal in 1956 before taking over as sole proprietor following the departure of Laubenthal in 1966. Over the course of his career, Hemingway completed over 200 projects, largely in the Edmonton area, including schools, hotels, offices, churches, shopping centres, senior citizen homes, and various residential homes and multi-family developments. Among his numerous projects located in Edmonton, significant projects include Coronation Pool (1970, renamed the Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre in 2005), Central Pentecostal Tabernacle (1964 & 1972), Edmonton Inn (1965 & 1973), Stanley Engineering Building (1968), Johnstone Walker Store (1964), and Muttart Conservatory (1976). Hemingway also designed several notable projects outside of Edmonton, including Market Square Kitchener (1972), Yellowknife Courthouse (1972), and Calgary’s Chinook Shopping Centre (1974). Hemingway was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1981, and he served as president of the Alberta Association of Architects in 1982. Hemingway was a frequent contributor to Canadian Architect and other architectural publications, particularly as an advocate for Prairie architecture and design. He received two Massey Medals in architecture in 1970 for his projects Coronation Pool and the Stanley Building, becoming the first Alberta architect to win a Massey Medal. In 2012 the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada recognized the Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre (formerly Coronation Pool) with a Prix du XXe Siècle as a landmark work of Canadian architecture. Hemingway died on May 15, 1995.

Canadian architect. Roger du Toit was born in 1939. He received his B.Arch. from the University of Cape Town (1963) and his M.Arch. from the University of Toronto (1966). After working for H.G. Huckle & Partners (London, England, 1963-?), he joined John Andrews Architects (Toronto) in 1966, becoming an associate in 1969 and a partner in 1970. In 1973, he established John Andrews International/Roger du Toit (Toronto). In 1975, he changed the firm's name to Roger du Toit Architects (Toronto). During the same year he incorporated du Toit Associates Ltd. To provide planning and urban design services. In 1980, he established a practice in Edmonton, then helped to found Cunningham du Toit and The Cunningham Partnership (Edmonton) that operated from 1981-1987. In 1985, the firm du Toit Associates Ltd. changed to du Toit, Allsopp, Hillier, a provider of urban design, landscape, architectural and planning services. Du Toit is a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (1969), the Ontario Association of Architects (1969), the Canadian Institute of Planners (1973), the American Institute of Certified Planners (1983), and the Ontario Institute of Landscape Architects (1985). Awards include: Canadian Architect Yearbook Awards, 1970, 1976, 1978; Excellence in Architectural and Engineering Design, Prestressed Concrete Institute of American, 1976; Significant Contribution to the Environment of Alberta, Alberta Association of Architects, 1983; Progressive Architecture Annual Design Awards, 1987; Award of Excellence, Canadian Architect Annual Design Awards, 1987.