‘56
ANNE RANKIN, née Robertson (BBA) of Halifax, NS, in 2019, drove to and from Halifax to visit family in Alberta and British Columbia. My plans to do it in 2020 and 2021 are now forgotten. Maybe next year? Instead of new experiences, I now think back to all the adventures I had as a young woman working for the federal government at a time when women were treated as unequal to males. In the 1970s, I went to sea on a trawler to determine whether or not a woman could work on one. Since the only way to really know is to do the work, I spent 10 days gutting fish. Women were considered bad luck, but we had the largest catch of any trawler fishing at that time.
I had some great experiences, such as being flown, by the province, in a single-engine plane to a fish plant for which they wanted me to help and later a company flew me in a helicopter to a couple of plants. It was an interesting time in the 1970s working with the fishing industry as it was undergoing a lot of change. I loved the challenges and the variety in my work. Although I would never cross a picket line, one union asked me to cross theirs as they wanted my help for a group of workers. Through volunteer work, I have a number of honorary memberships including one from California. Although I had worked for the province, a financial organization, and at various jobs in the federal government, I loved working with companies and unions best of all.
It was very different from anything else. Deals were made with a handshake until the paperwork could be done. Being a woman was not a problem. Sometimes it helped. When I was at UNB, I challenged a couple of things and got what I wanted despite being told initially that I would not. I learned that "can't" can become "can". During my working years, this proved to be most useful. Now I look back on all the interesting experiences - how some paved the way for women, how lucky I was to have a job that provided such satisfaction when jobs were saved or working conditions improved, how much freedom I had, and how many good memories I have. Now I have a small business that keeps body and mind working - a necessity as one grows older.
'65
ROBERT COOPER (BA) of Sault Ste. Marie, ON, was awarded the 2020-21 Award for Excellence in Teaching for the Part-Time Contract Faculty Unit. Robert was nominated by students who have highlighted and commended their tremendous contributions and efforts to teaching excellence.
'71
Eight members of the Phys. Ed. Class of 1971 held a fun-filled reunion week in mid-September in Shediac, NB. – the lobster capital of the world. A frosh week tea re-enactment, a lobster dinner and a grad dinner, complete with a bagpiper escort, were the highlights of the red and black focused gathering. In attendance were: DOLLY SILK, JANE (DOVE) JESSEAU, TRUDY (MACPHERSON) BRYDGES, LINDA (PARAGIS) HERON, MARILYN (MACKAY) ALLEN, JEANNIE (MCMULLIN) ARMSTRONG, JOAN
(MCCURDY) MCAREL, and LINDA MARION.
'77
TED JORDAN (BBA) of Nova Scotia, finally retired in December 2020 after 25 years working as a director and portfolio manager with ScotiaMcLeod. He has fond memories of a certain finance professor at UNB who challenged him and helped show him what he was capable of if he applied himself. It has been a great ride so far!
'79
ROB ACHESON (BEd) of Sumas, WA, USA, started with Canada Customs in Abbotsford, BC, as a customs inspector in 1992 and moved over to computer application development for Canada Customs a year later. He worked virtually as a computer programmer for the next 27 years — first for Canada Customs and Revenue Agency and then moved over to the Canada Revenue Agency when Canada Customs and the Canada Revenue Agency were split apart. He worked his way up through the ranks until he retired as a CS04 senior technical specialist. He now tends to a tree collection in the Fraser Valley.
'80
MICHAEL B. MURPHY (BBA, LLB’83) of Moncton, NB, continues to practise law in Moncton. He is married to
Moira J. Kelly (LLB’87) and has five children and two grandchildren. He practises motor vehicle personal injury law, and during his career had a stint in political life as attorney general and minister of health for a few years. He encourages friends, current and past, to contact him at mike@fortelawdroit.ca.
'81
BRIAN MCKENNA (BBA) of Pennington, NJ, US, was recently appointed president and CEO of the Iowa Heartlanders of the ECHL. The expansion team will play in Coralville/Iowa City in the 2021-22 season. Before joining Iowa, he served 16 years as commissioner of the ECHL and one season with the ORG Group in Beijing, overseeing their teams in the Russian Junior League (MHL) and Russian Professional League (VHL), which is the development league for the KHL.
'82
In 1992, our class set the bar high by having the largest turnout ever for a 10-year reunion – and we did the same in 2007 on our 25th! Let’s keep that tradition alive for our 40th reunion! June 2022 marks the 40 years since we graduated from UNB, and we invite all class members to join us in Fredericton for reunion festivities! In addition to the traditional UNB lobster dinner, we are planning special events for our class, including a Class of ’82 cruise on the St. John River. We are also open to any suggestions you may have for fun and interesting activities. Feel free to send your 40th reunion ideas, comments and/or questions to class president LYNN (FRASER) HRUCZKOWSKI at lynn.h@unb.ca or secretary-treasurer DAVID LEBLANC atlebldav@hotmail.com. And start planning now to be in Fredericton for Reunion 2022, June 2 to 5.
'83
JANICE JOHNSON-BOS (BPE, MPE’88) of Salisbury, NB, recently retired from the Anglophone East School District after a 22-year career as an elementary physical education teacher. Previously, she worked for 10 years in recreation positions. The New Brunswick Physical Education Society awarded her with the Garth Wade Career Award for 2021 in recognition of significant contributions to the community and the field of PE. She currently resides near Salisbury and has four grown children. Her first grandchild was born recently.
'87
SENATH PERERA (MA, PhD’91) of Sri Lanka retired from the University of Peradeniya as a senior professor in English in May 2021. He was conferred professor emeritus status by the institution a few months later. In addition to his teaching and research, Perera was chair of the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia), editor of The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities, and chair of the Gratiaen Trust, which administers the Gratiaen Prize founded by Michael Ondaatje to promote creative writing in Sri Lanka, during his 40 years as an academic. He remains bibliography representative (Sri Lanka) for The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, on the board of governors of Trinity College Kandy, and chair
of the Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLALS). He hopes to attend the triennial general meeting and conference of the parent body ACLALS to be held in Toronto in July 2022.
'89
PETER FITZGERALD (BA, LLB’94) of Mount Pearl, NL, on May 26, 2021, was appointed as private secretary to the lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland and Labrador and chief of protocol for the province.
'92
KENG KEH LIM (BSc) of Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, was awarded his PhD in mathematics education from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia on July 6, 2021
'01
JAMIE HEAP (BEd) of River Hebert, NS, in April 2021, published his 12th book,
Summer Road Trips & More: Best of Local Travel, Food & Drink, Sports & Entertainment in Cumberland-Westmorland Cos. and Beyond, a 100-page book consisting of short, non-fiction travel stories and reviews written before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, was published by Head of the River Publishing. In addition, Jamie completed a 6,500-word article on New Brunswick’s First Family of Wrestling, the Cormiers, which traces the roots of five brothers from the time they grew up on an Acadian farm in rural Memramcook through to Leonce Cormier’s (Leo Burke’s) induction in the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame this past May. This article appeared in the September 2021 edition of
the Westmorland Historical Society Newsletter.
'09
CHRISTOS PAPADOPOULOS (BSc) of Quispamsis, NB, after furthering his education at three other universities following his time at UNB (Dalhousie, UBC and Western) and working as an associate orthodontist in Moncton for four years, is returning to his hometown of Quispamsis, and opening his own orthodontic clinic, PapadopSmiles, this fall in the brand new KV Professional Centre. In addition to private practice, he also serves as the Atlantic regional chair for Smiles4Canada (a national non-profit that provides free orthodontic treatment to children in need) and as the secretary-treasurer of the Atlantic Orthodontists’ Association.
