Margaret Harquail

Sister Margaret Harquail (MBA), died April 28, aged 94, in Sydney, N.S., the last surviving member of her immediate family. In 1940, she entered the Congregation of Notre Dame, a religious order founded in Montréal in 1659. Sister Margaret began her teaching career as the head of a high school business program, then moved to Mount Saint Bernard College as bursar while continuing her studies at St. Francis Xavier University. The first woman to graduate from Queen’s MBA program, Sister Margaret subsequently joined the staff at Xavier College in Sydney, eventually establishing a School of Business at its Sydney Campus, a feat she later replicated at the University College of Cape Breton (UCCB). She was instrumental in establishing UCCB as a university (now the University of Cape Breton—UCB), and was a founder of Women’s World Finance in 1989, the first Canadian affiliate of Women’s World Banking. In 2012, Sister Margaret was honoured when UCB dedicated the Harquail Gardens in recognition of her contributions to the university and named her a ‘Pioneer, Visionary and Builder of Business Education’. Among the invitees were Sister Margaret’s nephew, then-Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Minister of Labour Lisa Raitt and the Chancellor of the University, Annette Verchuren.