Class Notes

has been elected Vice President of the Alberta Teachers' Association after four years as President of Calgary Catholic Teachers. 

was short-listed in the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her story Nuala Nu was one of 25 chosen from almost 8000 entries.

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and Gail Konanur (Hayes), BA’78, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on August 28, 2025.

has been appointed to the Order of Canada in 2025 to recognize the lasting impact he has made in the commercial real estate industry and to numerous health care, education and community causes. Chris was also awarded the King Charles Coronation Medal for his service and leadership with The Heart & Stroke Foundation (Canada).

retired from RBC Dominion Securities after 35 years in portfolio management. He is looking forward to time with his band Randall Pee Coltrane and The Hard Livers, power boating on Kempenfelt Bay with his wife Marcy and preparing for the arrival of his first grandchild.

has her exhibit From There to Here: Walking for Tomorrow at the Maclaren Art Centre until October 26, 2025. This work is an ecological, material response to mass consumerism and litter affecting bodies of land and water.

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won the national PhotoNews Canada Day photo competition in July 2025. His new book Discovering Wildlife in Toronto's Don Valley is now available as well.

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purchased their first home in Canada.

passed away peacefully at home on August 6, 2025. She was the Gold Medalist of her class. She is survived by her husband, Douglas, BA'58. 

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released her first self-published book Fogbound: A Heroic Bush Pilot Named Gunnar – a true story about her late uncle's flight career in the Arctic.

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died at his home near Seattle at age 94. He was born in a CPR camp in Canal Flats, AB, had a successful career with IBM, raised four kids and was a world traveller, lifelong learner, gifted writer and devoted father and husband.

joined Factorial, an HR software based in Barcelona, as the Head of Content in 2025.  

begins the Dental Assisting program at the University of Alberta in fall 2025.

received the Dr. Peter B. R. Allen Lifetime Achievement in Health Award from the Province of Alberta on July 24th, 2025. Dr. Pasieka is an endocrine surgeon based in Calgary.

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joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in 2025 for a new career following 19 years working with King's University College.

passed away on August 7, 2025, at his home in Ottawa. Bob was a devoted husband, father, grandfather and respected pension policy leader. A longtime advocate and consultant, he helped shape Canadian pension reform and education, earning a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025.

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joined The Manely Firm P.C. as a managing estate planning attorney.

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was nominated for a Juno Award for "Best Underground Dance Single" in 2024 with his production/DJ duo Smalltown DJs.

released her fourth work of fiction, Our Forever Place, under her pen name Maren Hill. A retired chiropractor, she now writes women's fiction, romance, and children's literature.

A group of MBA'72 alumni came together in summer 2022 for a 50th reunion celebration. [L to R] Hugh Willis, David Mitten, Gregory Katchin, Mac Benoy and James Hodgins.

and John Noel, were granted a US patent for "Phase-change Material and Method for Producing Same".

began a new role in 2024 as a patient care coordinator for a sexual health clinic. 

passed away on July 20, 2022, after a long teaching career in Petrolia, Ontario. Read more.

retired from a project management career and is now traveling the continent with the goal of visiting 52 cities, 39 states, and 8 provinces.

Bolu Ogunyemi, BSc’08, and Jennie Coleman, MLIS’98, were named to the 2023 Globe and Mail Changemakers List, honouring emerging business leaders across Canada.

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passed away peacefully in Toronto, Ontario on February 16, 2025 in her 94th year after a four-year struggle with vascular dementia resulting from stroke.

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published Cinema's Original Sin: D.W. Griffith, American Racism, and the Rise of Film Culture. The book details the history of Griffith's racist epic The Birth of a Nation from 1915 to the Trump era.

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moved into a new home in BC after completing qualitative research on pro-environmental behaviour at Western.

became a sculptor after almost 30 years in the telecommunications industry. His sculpture of Terry Fox was installed at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.  

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won the Pottersfield Prize for Creative Nonfiction for his debut memoir, Hell of a Ride, about a 7,000-kilometre solo bicycle trek across Canada in support of mental health initiatives. The book comes out March 15, 2024.

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was selected as this year’s emerging laureate by the Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award in 2022.

and Amar Gupta, MBA’17, founded the functional coffee company brüst in 2018 and have recently partnered with Denis Shapovalov. Read more here.

and Allan Svirsky, BMOS'22, founded Rondah AI and raised $120K from Techstars powered by J.P. Morgan. Rondah AI is used by dental practices across ten states and five provinces.

released her first children's novel Maya Plays the Part, featuring autism representation in a story with musical flair.

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and Amar Gupta, MBA'17, founded brüst protein coffee and were featured on CBC's Dragons' Den in January 2024. They received three offers and closed one deal with Arlene Dickinson to fund their functional coffee business. brüst is now available at Costco, Loblaws, and through retailers across Canada.

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published a third graphic novel in the original series The Demonhuntress.

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released Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: A Path to Reconciliation in Our Divided Times in September 2024. The book reflects on an epic 13-month, 53-city, 26,403-mile road trip across Canada and the United States. 

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married Zoey Kapusinski in Toronto, ON, in April 2024.

won the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award (Non-Fiction) for Hell of a Ride: Chasing Home and Survival on a Bicycle Voyage Across Canada. The book was also a runner-up for the Evelyn Richardson Award, Nova Scotia's highest honour for non-fiction. 

passed away on January 28, 2025 in Castlegar, British Columbia. He was an instructor at Selkirk College.

won the 2022 Prairie Fire McNally Robinson Booksellers Short Fiction Contest for his story Excavations, which will appear in the summer edition of Prairie Fire.

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was inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in May 2025 as builder of the game in Ontario and across Canada. 

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recently got married.

was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Canadian Institute of Planners, the highest honour of the Institute, in recognition of excellence, exceptional achievements and service to the planning profession in Canada.

recently was married.

was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal recognizing many years of community involvement in the arts and in conservation issues in Uxbridge, ON. Wynn was cartoonist for the Western Gazette in the 1950's.

is the artist and internationally recognized calligrapher behind @peakpaperco. Her guided grief journal titled Forget You Not from Blue Star Press & Penguin Random House releases in February 2024.

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published Immigrant to accompany her paintings featured in the 'Immigrant' exhibition. Read more here.  

was hired as an assistant professor of instrumental music education at the University of Saskatchewan.

and classmates celebrated a Medway Hall reunion in August 2024. 

published Culture Clubs: The Real Fate of Societies in July 2022.

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was named on the 100 Top Women to Watch of 2024 from Canada International Black Women Excellence at the Black Pearls Gala.

started working as a clinical research coordinator for Axiom Real Time Metrics.

passed away December 19, 2022, at his home in Durham, North Carolina. A partner to his wife of 58 years and father to eight children, Winston was a distinguished professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Penn State University.

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published her first book, Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future, in July 2023 through W.W. Norton. The book is a global exploration of the eight remaining species of bears and the dangers they face, from polar bears in the Arctic to the spectacled bear of the Andes.

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published a book on the crisis of meaning in society amid several chaotic world issues.

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passed away in May 2021 after a successful 55-year law career.

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passed away unexpectedly on August 10, 2022. Will's close friends from King's University College are establishing a memorial lecture in his honour.

retired as a marine geoscientist from the Geological Survey of Canada in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. His career in geophysics took him to many remote parts of onshore and offshore Canada, always in the company of outstanding colleagues.

and family welcomed their first child, a baby boy on February 9, 2024.

has been elected as the rector of the University of Chile.

launched Fonds pour la démocratie Matthew R. Scanlan Democracy Fund Inc., a private foundation based in Ottawa that donates grants to charities.

and fellow grads John Sprowl, Ed Zaborski and Bryan Rothery celebrated their annual golf reunion in July 2025, a tradition that began in 1981.  

passed away peacefully from acute Lymphoma on December 2, 2021 in Ottawa. 

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was promoted to Assistant Principal at Corvallis High School in Corvallis, OR,USA and was selected as scholar in the prestigious Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms program. 

joined the Department of Justice Canada as counsel.

has been nominated for a Theater Library Association of New York City’s annual award for his book, Al Christie: Hollywood’s Forgotten Film Pioneer. The award recognizes performing arts scholarship that demonstrates exemplary use and interpretation of library and archival collections.

passed away on February 23, 2025, at the age of 77. He will be remembered fondly for his ability to captivate those around him with his stories, his love of reality TV, current events, history, and the stock market, as well as his unyielding dedication to his work, and his ever-present sly sense of humor and dry wit.

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was named one of 25 people to watch in 2025 from the Global Gaming Business magazine for leading the first North American research center focusing on sports wagering and gambling.

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and wife Jette Thomas (nee Petersen), BA’64, celebrated their 60th anniversary on August 24, 2024.

passed away on May 8, 2025 in Arizona. He received his PhD in 1996 from Indiana University Bloomington and made significant contributions in Instructional Design, problem-based learning, constructivism, and fostering student ownership. 

was appointed as the Finance Committee Chair/Secretary/Treasurer for Head Injury Rehabilitation Ontario. In 2023, George has also been appointed Chairman of Specialty Risk and Intelligence Services Inc., a consulting agency.

self-published a novel called Closer to Indigo in September 2022. Set in Victoria, BC, the story takes us through the months that lead to the lead character’s pilgrimage in Spain.

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was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Toronto Arts Foundation in September 2022. 

launched The Ultimate Entrepreneur's Handbook in June 2024, a how-to guide on starting and growing a business.

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married Harjot Bhandal, BMOS'16, in May 2022 in Hamilton, On. 

returned to London after two years and started a new job at Western in University Advancement in 2023.

passed away on April 1, 2024 at age 94. After Western, Bill attended the University of Chicago, ending with a Ph.D. in New Testament and Early Christian studies. He had a successful career as a university professor. Bill was an avid reader of all subjects, particularly music and nature.

is the president of SXULTRASONIC Group, an innovative research and development enterprise based in Shenzhen, China. In 2023, the company was named Top Drug Discovery and Solutions Provider in Asia-Pacific, awarded by Pharma Tech Outlook magazine.

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joined the Board of Directors of Wesley,—a non-profit offering support ranging from child care, homeless support, supportive housing, employment services and refugee settlement within Hamilton, Brantford and Halton.

passed away in March 2023. John had a long career in engineering and worked in Milwaukee, Toledo and Baltimore before returning to London, Ontario. He enjoyed tennis, golfing, skiing, trap-shooting, hunting and telling stories.

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received the 2023 Civic Accessibility Award from the City of Pickering for significant contributions to the well-being and advancement of people with accessibility requirements.

was selected by The Women Leaders magazine as one of 20 Most Inspiring Women Leaders of 2022.  

passed away in December 2022. Cherished by his family, William had a successful 37-year career with Toronto Dominion Bank.

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won the New Quarterly's 2024 Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest for The Isabel Letters, an essay about his correspondence with Canadian writer, Isabel Huggan, BA'65. Both Geoff and Isabel will appear together at the Wild Writers Festival in Waterloo, November 1-3, 2024.

published The Anguish of War, a two-volume set about the war dead of Windsor and Essex County. 

is pleased to be working with Grand River Hospital as a business analyst and as a part-time system analyst at St. Joseph’s Health Care London.

published The Lost Tradition of Dvořák’s Operas: Myth, Music, and Nationalism in October 2023. The book examines Antonín Dvořák’s operas and vindicates and validates him as an often-overlooked opera composer. This research began at Western.

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passed away in London on February 9, 2024. Betty taught in the Department of Secretarial Sciences and was an executive assistant for two Western presidents. She retired from Western in 1988, receiving the designation Professor Emerita. Betty had a reputation as a perpetual optimist, always looking on the bright side, as evidenced by her ever-present smile. She will be missed by her loved ones.

purchased their childhood home in Ontario in 2024.

has been appointed as the 14th president at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology, effective January 2023.

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operates four businesses in science and health-care fields, as well as manufacturing industries in China.

married the love of her life in August 2022.

is hosting a 40th class reunion on Homecoming weekend, Sept. 27 to 29, 2024. Please contact ldferland@comcast.net and linda.sinnaeve@hotmail.com for more information.

got into a master's program for physiotherapy in 2024.

won a Cannes Lions award for the second year in a row with OLG. The program celebrates creative campaigns in the lottery and gaming sector.

passed away on July 10, 2024, after more than 40 years as a practicing clinical psychologist. 

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became a Canadian citizen in April 2024 after six years in Canada and three years with Western University.

purchased their first home in Glen Cairn, London, ON.

published his first book The Book of Benjamin from Palimpsest Press in October 2023. This literary essay on names, birth and grief is the testament of both a son and a father, contrasting genealogy with larger communal narratives. 

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