if scientist ashley nemec-bakk (hbsc'14/msc'16/phd'20) has her way, astronauts will be travelling to deep space during her lifetime.

this vast unexplored region extending from the dark side of the moon to the very edges of our solar system has always captured the human imagination.

"i'm fascinated by anything to do with space," ashley says, "i love science fiction like star trek, star wars, and the dr. who series."

ashley graduated from lakehead with a phd in biology in 2020 and since then she's been a postdoctoral fellow at the university of arkansas at little rock.

then, in july 2022, she realized her long-held dream of doing research with nasa when she was awarded one of just three postdoctoral fellowships from the translational research institute for space health (trish).

"trish is a virtual institute that's partnered with the nasa human research program," ashley says. "their goal is to fund new studies that will enable nasa to send astronauts to mars, the moon, and other deep-space expeditions."

although she's part of trish's research team—a consortium made up of the baylor college of medicine in houston, the california institute of technology (caltech), and the massachusetts institute of technology (mit)—she is based at the university of arkansas.

"right now i'm looking at the health consequences of space travel, mainly on the cardiovascular system, to find ways to offset its negative effects on astronauts."

once a month, she meets with her colleagues from trish and from nasa's human research program to share their progress and exchange ideas.

from lakehead to the milky way

in high school, ashley was drawn to physics and math, but as an undergraduate student in applied molecular science at lakehead, she became interested in how the human body functions. this prompted her to specialize in biology for her master of science and phd, both of which she also completed at lakehead.

the connection between nasa and her work as a biologist revolves around the study of radiation. her graduate research, conducted at the northern ontario school of medicine, investigated the physical repercussions of radiation on humans.

this april, ashley is visiting new york's brookhaven national laboratory, the only radiation facility in the u.s. that can produce cosmic radiation.

"i wanted to see how low doses of radiation from ct scans affected pregnant women since the effects of radiation from medical tests still aren't known," ashley says.

her phd research looked at the impact of radiation on fetuses and, while doing this research, ashley's supervisor sent her to a radiation research conference.

"at the conference i was introduced to my current mentor, dr. marjan boerma at the university of arkansas, who has several nasa grants," ashley says. "she hired me as a postdoctoral fellow with the university's division of radiation health and department of pharmaceutical sciences."

not only dr. boerma was impressed by ashley's capabilities. last year, the committee on space research (cospar) flew ashley to athens, greece, for their 44th scientific assembly and presented her with a cospar outstanding paper award for young scientists. the award was given for a study called mitigation of late cardiovascular effects of oxygen ion radiation by γ-tocotrienol in a mouse model. ashley is the lead author of this article published in the life sciences in space research journal during her first post-doctorate with dr. boerma.

the dangers of deep space

astronauts are put through gruelling training to ensure that they're in peak physical condition, so we may not think of them as being susceptible to health issues. but space, and especially deep space, plays havoc with human health.

"the problem is that radiation in deep space is much higher than on earth," ashley says. "astronauts lose bone density and mass from cosmic radiation. on the international space station, astronauts exercise two or three hours a day in an effort to retain their bone strength because exercise can slow down and reverse bone loss."

in addition, radiation alters cells, which can induce cancer, accelerate aging, and lead to cell death.

"humans are adapted to living on earth where we have gravity. in space, you're not putting any weight on your bones so the movement of blood in the body slows and your fluid shifts towards your head because there's no gravity. also, different people will react in different ways to being in space. that's why it's crucial to do a lot of research before sending astronauts up there."

can the humble flax seed help astronauts stay safe?

other bodily systems besides the skeletal system are damaged by radiation, and exercise alone won't shield astronauts from it.

as a result, scientists like ashley are seeking out solutions. in her case, she's turned her attention to the role that antioxidants can play in keeping humans strong. her trish research project—the use of two new ground-based models of deep space travel to study the role of mitochondria and oxidative stress in cardiovascular effects—is experimenting with a natural compound derived from flax. to create the compound, the fats and fibre contained in flax seeds are removed. this work is building on the research ashley began during master's degree and its' objective is to document the effects of radiation and microgravity on the form and function of the heart, major arteries, and vasculature of the eye in male and female mice to ascertain if the flax compound can neutralize these effects.

"i'm employing ground-based models (studies you can do on earth) because we don't have a lot of humans going into space to gather data from," ashley says. "these models will be used to develop countermeasures, such as drugs, that will keep astronauts safe when they travel far from earth."

what she's discovered after exposing the cells to high rates of iron to induce oxidative stress in the cardiovascular system is that the flax compound is able to mitigate the stress.

"our ultimate goal is to have the astronauts take the compound in capsule form because capsules are small and would be easy to store on the space shuttle."

ashley herself would consider going on her own space adventure.

"if i had the opportunity, i'd go to the international space station because the earth's magnetosphere still offers some protection from cosmic radiation."

volunteering at an orthopedic fracture clinic influenced the path that jessica maher's life would take. she spent the summer before her first year at lakehead at the stevenson memorial hospital in alliston, ontario.

"it sparked my interest in medical research," says jessica, who's been part of several significant research projects since then.

when september came, jessica began the honours bachelor of science in applied life sciences program at lakehead's orillia campus, an hour's drive from her hometown of tottenham.

jessica with her parents at her lakehead graduation in june 2022.

"i've always been fascinated by how organisms work, and life sciences is the study of biology, chemistry, and physiology as they apply to living things," she explains.

jessica got more hands-on health-care experience at the royal victoria regional health centre (rvh) in the summer of 2020 when she was employed as a covid screener. her relationship with the hospital deepened the following summer after winning an rvh research award to help pinpoint barriers to running covid-19 clinical trials in community hospitals.

"most research takes place at large hospitals," she says, "but with covid there was a big push to do trials at smaller health centres."

in 2022, through the strength of her work, jessica was given another rvh award—the inaugural laura e. crook scholarship for community health research. as the scholarship recipient, she was able to participate in a project led by dr. matt orava seeking to identify links between childhood obesity rates and the neighbourhoods that youngsters live in.

"our research pulls together data from rvh's electronic medical records, the simcoe muskoka district health unit, and census data," jessica says. "we're still doing the data analysis, but we suspect that a child's neighbourhood strongly affects their chance of becoming obese."

they're investigating factors including family income, the presence of green spaces, good public transportation, and access to healthy food to see if they're connected to obesity rates.

by the time jessica embarked on her third year in lakehead's life sciences program, she had become very interested in the clinical aspect of medicine and began to consider a career as a medical doctor. a global health fellowship with the foundation for international medical relief for children solidified her desire to put her research into practice and have a tangible effect on patients' lives.

"i virtually shadowed a general practitioner, pharmacist, and psychiatrist in costa rica. seeing the disparities between costa rica's health care system compared to canada's intensified my interest in community health research and its power to shift medical care to a more holistic, preventative focus."

after her fellowship, things moved quickly for jessica. she received an early acceptance to the university of ottawa's medical school and graduated from lakehead this past june with a bachelor of science instead of her four-year life sciences degree so that she could begin her medical studies.

"i started at ottawa in september 2022 and i'm really enjoying everything that i'm learning—in the classroom, in the community, in hospitals, and in clinics."

although she is revelling in the world of medicine, jessica's favourite moments often involve spending time with her dog abby, who she adopted during the pandemic.

"being outdoors in nature with abby is my main stress reliever, and she loves going on walks in our neighbourhood because she gets to meet tons of dogs."

i arrived at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 in 1967 and was the director of computer services from 1976 to 1993 before retiring in 1996. today i am 88.

this is a history of what my colleagues in computer services achieved during my time at lakehead as i remember it. the key factor in their performance was the leadership of dr. bill tamblyn, lakehead's founding president.

after former director of computer services don watson (pictured above) and senior administrative programmer philip kempe retired from lakehead, they became best friends. "we played cribbage for many years at the 55+ centre and online," don says.

when lakehead's first computer—an ibm—arrived at the end of 1967, faculty were setting up their academic programs at a fast pace. dr. tamblyn had spent two years travelling the world to find qualified faculty, staff, and 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 .

the new computer was a collection of big, cable-connected steel boxes and computer staff began the work of making it operational. this was a time when innovative technology inspired novel approaches by computer centre staff, scientists, applied mathematicians, teachers, and administrative departments such the registrar's office and the business office.

supervised tours of the computer room would have been the only time that 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 would have been allowed in. admittance was restricted to the computer services director, operators, ibm staff, and technical staff responsible for software maintenance. "anyone entering the computer room had to sign oaths and insurance documents," don says. "taking anything into or out of the computer room was also prohibited."

as i look back, i am amazed at what computer centre staff achieved. for example, the operating system of the ibm was replaced by one that was intended for much more powerful machines. the method of making it work on lakehead's small computer was to remove any software routine that wasn't needed—i've never heard of any other university that did this. it enabled a university of about 2,500 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 to have one of the best student services anywhere.

there were those at lakehead who relished the opportunity to use the computer and those who didn't. since the university senate hadn't been told the computer was coming, many senators would have preferred that the money was spent on other needs. however, it certainly made a difference to the numerical analysis course i taught, as 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 could now tackle more complex and realistic problems.

printers fit for giants and computers that filled rooms

we had a printer the size of an upright piano, in the room next to the computer, with several keypunches that allowed 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 and faculty to prepare reasonably sized programs. the cards were read into a computer-processing queue and processed in the order of submission; the results came out on the printer. it was a fast service that depended on software developed by the university of waterloo.

mary-ellen, the senior operator pictured here, supervised all other operators and was in command of the whole computer—only she could start and shut it down. "if i remember correctly," don says, "its language of operation was binary and most of the other lights and switches were binary switches." surprisingly, being a computer operator didn't require a technical background.

apl, a brilliant new computer language, was one of the earliest examples of interactive computing that we take for granted today (apl is an acronym for "a programming language"). lakehead gradually began acquiring apl terminals and, by the fall of 1970, had 10 available for use. the computer centre hired the most capable 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 to help anyone learning or using apl.

the programming instructions looked like algebraic expressions, with considerably more operators than "+", "-", "x", "÷", etc., and there were no priority rules (like the bodmas rule). it was so simple that anyone who'd done some algebra could understand it.

apl brought excitement to classes visiting campus from local schools. the clattering as the computer output was printed by the terminal gave the impression that the computer was talking back and 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 far from home came just to enjoy the sense of conversation it gave.

alan mcewan—lakehead's first director of computer services who was hired in 1966—then bought a computer with more capacity and sold the one he had. this gave lakehead the most powerful computer between toronto and winnipeg and permitted the number of terminals to be increased until the maximum number of 24 was reached. this was almost certainly the largest group of terminals in one room anywhere in canada.

apl lasted several years at lakehead before the academic use of computers evolved from programming to using purchased software packages. as the cost of computers dropped, departments bought their own computers. a university store began selling whatever they needed.

ushering in the internet age

in the late 1970s, lakehead needed more up-to-date central computers. apl was moved to a small minicomputer and interactive word-processing services began on the same minicomputer. the most powerful minicomputer available followed and conversion from the ibm mainframe computer began. when the conversion was completed, dec (digital equipment computing) became the computer centre's computer supplier.

computer centre student employees help users at apl terminals in the 1970s.

later, a smaller minicomputer was added to run the unix operating system and lakehead brought the first internet service to thunder bay. the university of toronto (u of t) had received government funding to run cabling to its campus with the understanding that other ontario universities could connect to u of t through the telephone system.

the registrar and the chief business officer were given their own powerful micro-computers during this period. until this point, almost all universities programmed their own administrative computer systems, such as the registrar's records. but for lakehead to function as a good university, the administrative computer systems being developed needed to provide the best possible service at the lowest possible cost. a small team of about five people began a process called re-engineering to investigate the quality of what had been produced over 20 years and fix any problems.

a fulfilling career and inspiring mentors

the ibm keypunch machine above punched holes that encoded program data into thick paper cards. once a deck of punched cards was ready, they were inputted into a computer, which read the cards before a computer operator printed the output and handed it to the student who'd requested it.

阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 was lucky to have had 30 years of service from senior administrative programmer philip kempe who had the imagination to always see each project as a road to the future and made certain that he carried his staff with him. that made us a happy and productive group. as a result, systems were well designed and well integrated. eventually, there was only one centralized source of data and university departments stopped using paper records.

then, as the cost of computers dropped, departments and individuals bought their own computers. university computer facilities became just another service on the global internet—lakehead's computer centre directors had worked themselves out of a job.

my final task before my 1996 retirement was to search for an integrated administrative software package that would serve three small ontario universities—lakehead, laurentian, and trent—although i left before it was installed.

from the very beginning, lakehead's computer centre performed above its weight, just as the whole of the university did, then and now. quality performance today is usually built upon previous quality performance.

"i was lucky to find a job as a librarian at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 in 1970—the year the cities of port arthur and fort william joined to create thunder bay," lynn barber says.

lynn, who's originally from montreal, quickly built a fulfilling life in the north.

"it was the perfect time to be at the university because the staff and faculty were new and there was a strong camaraderie. it was like a family. you could pick up the phone and the switchboard operator would know your name."

lakehead also became a family for lynn in a literal sense—he met his wife barbara depaola, now a retired library technician, at work.

lynn's time in the paterson library was spent as a cataloguer.

"i prepared catalogue entries for books and other resources. often, this meant generating records out of whole cloth, especially when i was dealing with rare or little documented books and other media. for instance, i catalogued pamphlets printed in the 1800s by the fabian society, a british socialist group."

lynn's office was initially on the first floor of the library, right behind the card catalogue—a large filing cabinet filled with paper records on index cards (now replaced by computers), before moving to the basement and, finally, to the sixth floor of the library.

"the top floor was a great location—except for the pigeons—because our offices looked out onto lake superior," lynn says.

lynn was also a negotiator with the 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 faculty association. lynn and barbara's contributions to the university, however, have extended far beyond their professional lives.

for over three decades their compassion and generosity have helped 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 continue their education—including by creating three endowed student awards commemorating colleagues who've passed away.

"we've mostly donated in honour of people behind the scenes who supported the faculty and administration at lakehead," lynn says.

in 1991, the couple established the george i. dawosyr memorial award to celebrate one of lynn's closest friends and colleagues.

"i worked across from george in the cataloguing department," lynn says. "he was a happy-go-lucky guy and very knowledgeable about forestry. he'd also mastered five languages: russian, old russian, polish, ukrainian, and english. george was born at the end of wwi in what's now ukraine. he and his wife irene immigrated to canada in the 1950s after world war ii left them refugees."

in 2020, lynn and barbara established the levonna "bonny" wigmore memorial scholarship to recognize the contributions of lakehead's former paymaster, board of governors member, and executive member of the retirees' association of 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 .

"bonny had a way of keeping lu personnel together. whenever you had a difficulty with your contract or pension or received a promotion, she was extremely helpful and reassuring," lynn says.

most recently, in 2021, lynn and barbara established the linda phillips memorial bursary. linda was an outstanding secretary to five lakehead presidents during her 40-year-career at the university.

"linda assisted staff and the faculty," lynn says. "she was very efficient, outgoing, and knowledgeable. she always had the information you needed at her fingertips."

lynn says that it's been a privilege to acknowledge individuals who were important to him and barbara during their careers.

"we wanted to give back for the wonderful experiences we had at lakehead."

your kindness can empower young people. visit lakeheadu.ca/donate to make a gift to the george i. dawosyr memorial award, the levonna "bonny" wigmore memorial scholarship, or the linda phillips memorial bursary.

a short plane ride, rental car, an opposition rink, and many loyal lakehead alumni. a perfect night for varsity sports. the lakehead blue and gold scarf has returned to sporting events in places other than thunder bay and the desire of people to be back together is undeniable. the pride in the lakehead experience is undeniable as well.

after covid-19 cancelled the 2020-21 ontario university athletics (oua) season and a reduced games schedule was announced the following year, the 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 thunderwolves varsity teams came back in 2022 with an ambitious full-season schedule. alumni house staff and their on-the-ground ambassadors were quick to provide whatever engagement support they could.

i've personally seen games turn around based on the level of energy in the building," says alumni association executive director mark tilbury. "fans in the stands is a tremendous boost for our teams when they are 'the visitors.' having our alumni there makes it feel like a home game. we always encourage as many alumni as possible to attend games in their areas.

since 2015, the alumni association has been encouraging alumni to attend varsity women and men's sporting events at venues in southern ontario. at many events, cheers for the lakehead athletes drown out the home team. the varsity engagement program has been a huge success.

the alumni and annual giving office provides tickets and other swag. it is very interesting watching our alumni as they enter the various arenas. they are always amazed that we are giving away branded stuff. many already sport their lakehead scarves. but we have handed out a lot of new scarves this year, too. the enthusiasm is continually growing.

our regular season took our teams to cities all over ontario: sault ste. marie, sudbury, toronto, guelph, waterloo, and kingston. cumulatively, we had over 600 lakehead alumni and their families registered to come out and howl with the thunderwolves teams. many brought their children. we always take the opportunity to ask them where they want to go to school. most don't have a fast answer. we do! lakehead!

we are most impressed by how everyone mingles at these events—chatting about the positive experiences they had at the thunder bay and orillia campuses. we have had quite a few new "returnees" who are more than happy to join the various alumni chapters in different parts of the province as a result of turning up for a lakehead game.

recently, we had a unique experience.our ottawa chapter has been fortunate to have a strong connection to the nhl ottawa senators hockey club through the influence of its team doctor, dr. don chow (bsc'77) and his wife, dr. angela chow (bsc'77/hbsc'78).

as in former years, the chapter set up an event at a senators game in february 2023. the fact that the sens were playing the connor mcdavid-led edmonton oilers did not hurt the appeal. we had 45 people attend our event—one of our larger groups this year. as usual our swag table of scarves and toques was most appreciated. after the excitement of the game, the group met with dr. chow in the sens bench area where he made a special effort for us despite having to treat not one but two players who'd received significant injuries during the game.

the calm, professional—yet enthusiastic—welcome given by dr. chow made the event truly special. the chapter showed its thanks by presenting dr. chow with a unique thunderwolves sweater. who knows? it might be seen on the ice at a future sens practice rink.

our varsity teams have had an exciting finish to 2023. some highlights to note: the men's nordic skiers won their second straight oua championship banner, the men's basketball team lost a heart-breaking playoff match against guelph, and the hockey team finished first in the oua west before losing out to the windsor lancers in the playoffs. they compete for the bronze medal in the queen's cup, which may land them a berth in the national finals.

didn't see an email from us on where to pick up your free tickets? make sure we have your up-to-date email and phone number so you can receive your invitation when the varsity teams travel to your location! email the alumni and annual giving office at: alumni@lakeheadu.ca or use our online form here.

1980s

sister lorraine réaume (bed'88) was elected to a new general council of the adrian dominican sisters' congregation in adrian, michigan, and took office in october 2022. sister lorraine is a vicaress who's served in many posts including campus minister at siena heights university in adrian, pastoral associate with the hispanic ministry at our lady of guadalupe parish in anchorage, alaska, pastoral associate at ste. anne de detroit, formation director for the adrian dominican sisters, and co-director of the collaborative dominican novitiate. she has a master of divinity and a master of theology from the catholic theological union.

1990s

sandra vidotto (ifrm'94/hbsw'11/msw'13), a licensed independent social worker, joined the behavioral health team at the essentia health st. mary's-superior clinic in superior, wisconsin, in july 2022. sandra chose to be part of the clinic, which provides primary care and specialty services, because she believes in its core values and its commitment to putting patients first. sandra has an honours bachelor of social work degree and a master of social work degree from lakehead as well as a diploma in integrated forest resource management.

2000s

chris dube (bed'05/med'09) received a 2022 natural curiosity edward burtynsky award for teaching excellence in environmental education. natural curiosity is an organization that fosters indigenous perspectives in children's environmental inquiry and, every year, it honours three outstanding canadian educators for their exemplary environmental inquiry practice. chris is a science/outdoor environmental education teacher at lake superior high school in terrace bay, ontario, where he's developed the exciting hands-on multi-credit outdoor environmental science (oes). oes combines project-based activities with alternative assessment methods and indigenous ways of teaching and learning.

michael fox (hba'01) was appointed to the thunder bay community economic development commission's board of directors in september 2022. michael, who's from the weenusk first nation, is the president and ceo of indigenous community engagement—a national indigenous firm specializing in community consultation, negotiations, capacity building, and social research to help structure projects and financing for industry and indigenous clients. in addition to his honours bachelor of arts in political science from lakehead, michael has an mba from the university of fredericton and is currently a phd candidate in business administration.

christy radbourne (bed'01/med'10) was named the keewatin-patricia district school board's director of education for the 2022-2023 school year. in this new role, christy is drawing upon more than 20 years of experience—most recently as a student achievement officer with the ontario ministry of education. she's written many publications about indigenous and environmental education and was a course developer and instructor at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 for nearly a decade. christy has also worked for the lakehead district school board as a teacher, vice-principal, and principal. in addition to her bachelor and master of education degrees from 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜 , she's currently working toward her phd in education jointly with lakehead, brock, and the university of windsor.

jamie taylor (née byerley) (hbcom'04) began her position as the ceo of the thunder bay community economic development commission's (cedc) board of directors in august 2022. the cedc is thunder bay's lead economic development agency and champion for local growth. before becoming ceo, jamie was the regional services and relationships manager at the ontario ministry of transportation in thunder bay and the thunder bay area team manager at the ontario ministry of energy, northern development and mines. in addition, she spent nine years with the federal government's innovation, science and economic development canada department.

2010s

gary christian (ba'15/hba'16/mba'18) was appointed the executive director of the north superior workforce planning board (nswpb) board of directors in september 2022. the nswpb engages with community partners to create a regional workforce that's able to meet future and current social and economic demands across northwestern ontario. gary has also been a community development officer with the ministry of labour, training, and skills development and he has been recognized with several awards including the city of thunder bay citizens of exceptional achievement award and the canadian armed forces medal of service.

luana dessbesell (phd'19) has been appointed an assistant professor with the department of bioproducts and biosystems at aalto university in espoo, finland. luana, whose field of specialty is sustainable bioproducts innovation, has a phd in forestry from lakehead and undergraduate and master's degrees in forest engineering from the universidade federal de santa maria in brazil. prior to joining aalto university, luana worked with envertis consulting inc. in montreal where she was a bioeconomy transformation strategies project manager and a biorefinery and supply chain specialist. she was also a postdoctoral fellow at the École polytechnique de montréal.

2020s

jeff czetwerzuk (hbsw'22) was elected to the orillia city council in november 2022, only a few months after earning his honours bachelor of social work degree from lakehead. jeff is very passionate about his community and is a dedicated volunteer who's the current president of rotaract orillia (a club for young adults run by rotary international), a member of lakehead's alumni simcoe chapter, and a member of the georgian college alumni executive council. he also has a child and youth care advanced diploma from georgian college and has worked as a supported independent living worker at empower simcoe since 2017.

karissa kajorinne (bed'20), a women's basketball assistant coach at algoma university in sault ste. marie, headed to europe in the fall of 2022 to play basketball in coimbra, portugal, with the liga betclic feminina. she is a guard with the league's olivais futebol clube. karissa refined her basketball skills playing with lakehead and algoma university's teams as well as with the maritime women's basketball association. karissa has a bachelor of education degree from lakehead and two human resources certificates from algoma university.

in memoriam

sister cecilia mulcahey (ba'72) passed away on september 19, 2022, at the age of 94. she was born in sudbury in 1928 and entered the sisters of st. joseph of sault ste. marie in 1944, taking the name sister mary aloysius. after her novitiate, she expressed her love for children as a teacher and a principal. she taught in fort william and port arthur (thunder bay), sault ste. marie, sudbury, and nassau, bahamas. in addition, she ministered as a sacristan in the schools she served. after teaching for 25 years, sister cecilia completed a bachelor of arts in english at lakehead in 1972 before a call to minister to the sick prompted her to begin studies in clinical pastoral education. she returned to her beloved northern ontario to serve in the pastoral care departments of st. joseph's hospital in elliot lake and the sudbury general hospital. in 1993, sister cecilia "retired" from her pastoral care ministry and immediately began volunteering at the sudbury literacy program and as a relief receptionist at sudbury's family enrichment centre. in 2014, due to health issues, sister cecilia relocated to st. joseph's motherhouse in north bay. it was in the sacred heart chapel of the motherhouse that a prayer and wake service in her memory was held on september 26, 2022.

joseph winterburn (bsc'76/ltech'74) passed away on january 1, 2023, at the thunder bay regional hospital after a short battle with cancer. joe and his twin brother bert were born at the port arthur general hospital on january 1, 1949, and joe had the honour of being the first baby born in port arthur that year. after obtaining a bachelor of science in library services at lakehead, joe worked for several years at the thunder bay museum. then, in the mid-1980s, joe became the historic tinsmith at fort william historical park where he remained employed until his retirement in 2017. as well as a tradesman, he was responsible for delivering historic programming to schoolchildren and adults. joe's major passion in life was history and, in the early 1980s when he discovered re-enacting, he became a long-term member of the canadian corps of voyageurs, the forces of lord selkirk, and, briefly, a member of the company of fur dramatists. his ultimate trip was to waterloo, belgium, in 2015 for the 200th anniversary of the battle of waterloo. joe also had a great love for singing and was a proud member of the lakehead choral group where he sang for 20-plus years. a celebration of joe's life was held in the chapel of the harbourview funeral centre on january 12, 2023, before being interred at sunset memorial gardens.