Monika Kehoe was born in 1909 in Dayton, Ohio. She was a specialist in applied linguistics and its applications to bilingualism and second-language learning. She was educated at Mary Manse College (B.A. 1932) and Ohio State University where she received her PhD in English in 1935. She was Professor of English at Marianopolis College, Montréal from 1964 to 1971. During this period she co-authored The Laurel and the Poppy with McGill Professor Margaret Gillett, and contributed to Applied Linguistics: a Survey for College Teachers (1968). She passed away in San Francisco in 2004.

John Keir was born on February 2, 1780, in Bucklyvie, parish of Kippen, Scotland.

He was a Presbyterian clergyman and educator. In 1799, he entered the University of Glasgow but did not graduate. He taught school during training in divinity at the theological hall of the General Associate Synod in Whitburn (1803-1806). About 1807 he was licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow and in 1808, attracted to the colonial missions, he sailed to Nova Scotia to serve at the Secession congregation in Halifax. In 1810, he was assigned to Prince Edward Island where he was ordained at the Princetown (Malpeque) congregation. He was also active in the promotion of education, especially a mission to encourage sabbath schools on the Island. By 1827 the Prince Town Female Society, established in 1825 in Keir’s congregation with his wife as a treasurer, was purchasing books for such schools. In 1822, he presided over the creation of a school at Princetown and became its rector. The school was recognized as the district grammar school in 1825. He also established a library for his parishioners. In the 1850s, he was president of the first Literary and Scientific Society on the Island and a member of the provincial board of health. In 1843, Keir was named Principal Professor of Theology at the Presbyterian Divinity College for the Lower Provinces. In 1852, he received an honorary degree of D.D. from Amherst College, Massachusetts. He was the author of the book "Course of Study in Systematic and Pastoral Theology and Ecclesiastical History, for Students Attending the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia" (1857). His house in Malpeque, Prince Edward Island, is registered as a Canadian Landmark and is known today as Keir House.

In 1808, he married Mary Burnett. He died on September 23, 1858, in Truro, Colchester County, Nova Scotia.

George Keith was born on December 29, 1779, in Netherthird, Scotland, and died on January 22, 1859, in Aberdeen, Scotland. His parents were James Keith and Isabella Bruce. With his younger brother James, Keith travelled to North America in 1799 as an apprentice for Forsyth, Richardson and Company, a partner in the New North West Company (sometimes called the XY Company). Keith married an Indigenous woman named Nanette, the daughter of James Sutherland, a clerk for the North West Company. Between 1807 and 1838, they had six daughters and three sons, and in 1844, before sailing for Scotland, he formalized his marriage by Christian rite to protect the interests of his family. He served in the Athabasca country until 1806, where he joined the North West Company after its merge with the New North West Company. From 1806 to 1815, Keith was stationed in the Mackenzie River department, where he worked under John George McTavish and then under Simon McTavish, becoming a partner in the North West Company in 1813. In letters addressed to Roderick McKenzie (1761-1844, fur trader), Keith described in detail the geography around his post on the Liard River, and after 1810, the geography of the west end of Great Bear Lake and the Mackenzie River. He also recorded his observations on the Athapaskan peoples. From 1816 to 1821, Keith served at Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, on Lake Athabasca, assuming charge of the Athabasca department in 1817. Following the coalition between the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821, Keith was named chief factor and given charge of the English (upper Churchill) River district, based in Île-à-la-Crosse (Saskatchewan). After his leave of absence in 1826 and 1827, he was placed in command of the Lake Superior district, based in Michipicoten (now known as Michipicoten River, Ontario). Except for another furlough in 1832 to 1833, he remained at his post until 1835, when he was transferred to Moose Factory (Ontario). Keith returned to Michipicoten for a period between 1839 and 1843, before taking a two-year leave of absence and then retiring to Scotland in 1845.