Charles Wyndham "Chuck" MacNeil was born on 2 December 1944 in New Glasgow, N.S., son of Edgar William MacNeil and Elizabeth Adelaide (Weir). He was educated at East Pictou Rural High School and Mount Allison University (B.Sc., 1964). He later attended Dalhousie University (MD, 1969). He practiced as a family physician in Yarmouth, 1969-1981, and in Sherbrooke from 1981 on. From 1982 to 1984 he was a municipal councillor for the Municipality of the District of St. Mary's. In 1966 he married Elizabeth Alison Fleming of Stellarton, N.S. and they had four children. MacNeil was elected to the Nova Scotia Legislature in 1984 as MLA for Guysborough and re-elected in 1988. He served as a member of several legislative committees, including Education (1985), Law Amendments and Veterans Affairs (1986), Economic Development (chair, 1987), Community Services and Public Accounts (1990-1991). In 1988 he was chairman of the Progressive Conservative Caucus and later chairman of the Caucus Committee on Youth. On 23 December 1988 he was appointed minister of lands and forests, and was also appointed minister of mines and energy in February 1991. Under his direction the two departments merged in September 1991 and became the Department of Natural Resources. On 24 February 1992 he was appointed minister of finance. On 25 May 1993 he was defeated in the provincial election. Throughout his career MacNeil has participated in numerous organizations including the YMCA, Guysborough Progressive Conservative Association, and the Canadian and Nova Scotia Medical Societies. Dr. MacNeil died 18 June 2022, New Glasgow, N.S.

Cora de Jong Greenaway, C.M., D.F.A., D.Hum.L., F.R.S.A., teacher, broadcaster, history researcher and author, was born in Medan, Indonesia 4 July 1915 to Klaas and Bernardine Antoinette Louise (Calkoen) de Jong. She was educated at universities in Europe until the German occupation of Holland in 1940, when she became active in the Dutch Resistance and subsequent liberation of Holland. On 7 July 1949 Cora de Jong married British Major William (Bill) Greenaway, MC, and together they immigrated to Canada and settled in Paradise, Nova Scotia. From 1956 to 1979 she worked for CBC Radio as a freelance broadcaster on cultural and heritage subjects. She was a founding member of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia in 1959. In 1963 she became a teacher and vice-principal of Dartmouth Academy private school in Dartmouth, NS until 1979. In 1960 she discovered the painted 19th century wall murals of the “Croscup Room” in Karsdale, NS, now preserved as part of the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada. Subsequently, Dr. Greenaway received funding from the Canada Council and became a full time researcher on historic interior decorative painting. She discovered and documented examples in private homes (including folk artist Maud Lewis), published several articles, curated an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (1986), and lectured nationally and internationally, from 1980 to the late 1990s. In 2011 she published the book Painted Dreams, the culmination of her life’s work on the subject. She received multiple awards, including the Order of Canada in 1996. Dr. Greenaway died in The Hague, Netherlands, February 2, 2017.

Donald Roy Wiles (1924-2022), amateur linguist and chemistry professor, was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada in August 1924 to Neil Douglas Wiles (1899-1983) and Hilda M. (Vaughan) Wiles (1896-1986). Educated in Amherst, then Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick he earned a Bachelor of Science degree 1946, and Bachelor of Education degree 1947. Before his career in chemistry took him to Norway, the United States, and Western Canada, he spent the summer of 1946 visiting his mother’s family in Martin’s Point, Lunenburg County. Both sides of the family could trace their roots back to the “Foreign Protestants” who first settled Lunenburg. While there he recorded the German language spoken by the elders of that community and wrote down some of the German customs persisting there. After earning his Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States in 1953, he worked at the University of British Columbia 1955-1959, then joined the Chemistry Department faculty at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario from 1959 until his retirement in September 1990. He continued teaching occasional courses in chemistry until just before his death on July 13, 2022 in Almonte, Ontario.

Aubrey Earle Lavers was born at Hantsport on 8 January 1889, the son of George Edward and Odessa Alberta (Earle) Lavers. He attended school in Halifax, finishing at Grade 8. Thereafter, he went to work as a pattern maker and joined the army on 12 October 1917, serving until 1919. He served with the 11th Siege Battery in France where he was slightly gassed and had a shrapnel wound. Upon his return to Canada he worked for a year as a pattern maker in Halifax and then went west to settle in Winnipeg, where he worked for the CNR in Transcona as a coach carpenter for 33 years. He died on 9 July 1964 in Winnipeg.

Charles Balish was born 15 January 1896 in Beirut, Lebanon. He emigrated to Nova Scotia, settling in Lockeport and married Eva May Knickerson (born 11 November 1900 and died 11 November 1980) of Cape Sable Island. The Balishes ran a general store which may be seen on the 1938 Lockeport Lockout film. Mr. Balish documented events which were important to the growth of his family, his community and his province. Charles Balish died in February 1986.