Alumni Notes

QSB alumni are a well-travelled bunch who seem to gravitate towards one another, as chance encounters in remote places attest. Have you ever encountered a fellow alum while lining up for opera tickets in Vienna, or when on a safari in Africa? Tell QSB Magazine about your out-of-the way rendezvous, and we’ll publish it in the next issue. It can be a recent story or an old favourite, as long as the setting is surprising or exotic. Anecdotes accompanied by photos taken at the site of the encounter, featuring both or all of you, are especially welcome. Our inaugural submission comes from former Commerce program Director Marjorie Peart, who retired in 2004. New Zealand is a land of wonders, as my husband Peter and I discovered during a five-week trip there this winter. Hiking up the South Island’s Franz Josef Glacier was a highlight of the trip, and encountering an ex-student at the top was one of the reasons why. The one-kilometer climb itself was challenging and the view magnificent on that warm and sunny day. (Although we had ascended to the “top” of the Glacier, there were still about 12 kilometers above us!) Of course, we were all eager to capture the amazing scenery with our cameras, and our fellow climbers were eager to share their impressions. I mentioned to the young woman next to me that we had the same camera.We were, as it turned out, both Canadians. This led to the discovery that we had more in common – namely Queen’s School of Business! During 1995-96, my first year at the School as Associate Chair of the Commerce Program, Stephanie Sloan was a 4th year Commerce student.We vaguely remembered each other, but since I had just arrived and she was just leaving, we’d had fewpersonal encounters. However, we did share the same warm memories that Queen’s and the Commerce program engender. Now we share the fact that we met in New Zealand hiking on a huge river of ice. Marjorie and her husband Peter live in Kingston where Marjorie is active in the local community. Stephanie lives in Newmarket, ON, and teaches at Aurora High School.

Keith (Casey) Campbell (BCom) passed away March 17 in Vancouver. He is survived by his wife Liz, his children Angus (Diane), Judy (Kim Davies), Mary Jo (Pat Heale) and Cathy (Dennis McNabb), as well as step-son Richard Scott (Masami) and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Following his graduation, he became a chartered accountant, working first in Winnipeg, then Vancouver, where he retired as a senior financial executive in 1986. Among many pastimes, he particularly loved racing sailboats and was a proud founding and lifetime member of the ZigZag yacht Club in Clearwater Bay on Lake of the Woods, ON, Chair of the 1967 Pan Am Games sailing event in Gimli, MB, and was an Honorary Life Member of the Royal Vancouver yacht Club.

William Hesler (BCom) CMA, passed away in November in Stoney Creek, ON. He was born in Welland, ON, and attended Welland High School before entering Queen’s. Bill was an avid sportsman who won his letter at Queen’s playing hockey and was also an Olympic-level swimmer. He was awarded a Military Cross during WWII for his exploits in chasing a tank with a pistol to save his men. Upon his return to Canada, he worked as an accountant, first at John Deere in Welland and, until his retirement, as the Treasurer of Ronark Developments in Hamilton. He served in the Canadian Army Reserves and as the Deputy Commanding Officer of the 57th Light Anti - Aircraft unit (Welland, Fort Erie, St. Catherines and Niagara Falls), retiring in 1956 with the rank of Major. He is survived by his wife Mary, son Robin and brother Richard (MD’47).

John (Jack) Urie (BCom) died Feb. 25, aged 95, just three days after the death of his beloved wife of 68 years, Dorothy (James). Jack was born in Guelph, but raised in Ottawa. Following a family tradition (father George, Meds’13; uncle Percy, Meds’19, and, later, his brother Norman, Meds’51), he chose Queen’s, and studied Commerce. After graduating at the height of WWII, he enlisted in the Cameron Highlanders and was shipped overseas. He landed in Normandy on June 8, 1944—D-Day plus 2— and the following day was hit by shrapnel and broke his leg when his motorcycle drove over a mine near Caen. For his D-Day service, he was awarded France’s Legion of Honour less than a month before his death. He was proud of his regiment and served for a time as Honorary Colonel of the Camerons. While back home recuperating from these wounds in hospital, Jack met Dorothy, a friend of his brother Norman. The couple married in 1946, then moved to Toronto, where Jack studied law at Osgoode Hall. After returning to Ottawa, he became a founding partner of the firm Burke- Robertson, Urie, Butler & Chadwick. Some of his accomplishments in a distinguished legal career captured headlines. He was an assistant counsel to the inquiry into the Gerda Munsinger affair, a 1966 sex scandal involving a federal cabinet minister and Munsinger, an East German spy. Three years later, he was on the legal team for St. Louis Blues rookie Wayne Maki, who was charged with assault after a fight with Boston enforcer Ted Green left Green with a shattered skull. Maki was acquitted when the court agreed that the attack was an involuntary reaction to Green’s provocation. The case is considered a landmark in the field of sports law. Jack, a lifelong sports fan, travelled to Russia with the Canadian delegation for the 1972 Summit Series. In 1979 he authored the federal Canadian Hockey Review, which examined hockey violence and the decline in skills that had eroded Canada’s standing as the No. 1 hockey nation. In 1973, he was appointed a federal court judge, a position that took him and Dorothy around the country. He remained on the Court as a supernumerary, retiring only in 2005. Jack cared for Dorothy at a retirement residence following her 2009 stroke. When she died on Feb. 22 of unexpected kidney failure, Jack was in the final stages of colon cancer. The couple’s three children, Jan Snell, Alison Banbury and David Urie, had all spent time alone with him just minutes before he died. The couple’s life together was celebrated on March 26 at a memorial service that included a Cameron Highlanders piper and honour guard.

Jean Evelyn (Brown) Ellis (BCom) died Nov. 2, 2011, in Kingston surrounded by her family. She was 91. Wife of the late Lt-Col. William Henry Ellis, BSc'39, and predeceased by her children Jean and Katherine, BSc'75, Evelyn is survived by her children David, Sc'68, MSc'69, Gordon, Arts'71, Ed'73, Susan, Arts'74, Robert, Artsci'88, MA'90, PhD'96, Nancy, BCom'77, and Peter, Sc'83, MBA'92.