Showing 16941 results

Frances Elizabeth Stephens, co-founder of the Priory School in Montreal, was a member of a socially prominent Montreal family. She was born in Paris where her parents, stock broker Francis Chattan Stephens and Hazel Kemp, both children of wealthy politicians, were on an extended honeymoon. They returned to Montreal but when war broke out they left Frances’ 18-month-old brother, John Harrison Chattan Stephens, with her widowed grandmother, and Frances and her mother headed back to England where her father was a lieutenant in the 13th Canadian Battalion of the British Expeditionary Force. Her grandmother, Mrs. George Washington Stephens (née Frances Ramsey McIntosh), insisted that, regardless of the war, she must make her regular spring trip to Paris for the spring fashion collections. She and her grandson (with nanny and maid) went down with the Lusitania when it was struck by a German torpedo. Ironically, the ship Hesperian, bringing her body back to Montreal, was sunk by the same German submarine.
Meanwhile, Frances’ father contracted trench fever in France and was treated in a Red Cross hospital in Rouen. After the family returned to Canada with her father in poor health, he died of Spanish flu in 1918. Six-year-old Frances was with her mother in Toronto -- visiting at Castle Frank, the mansion of her maternal grandfather, Sir Albert Kemp, a Canadian MP and later military minister — when her father died. Her mother remarried in 1920 and travelled frequently; Frances would thus often be left in the care of a nanny or governess. After her mother converted to Catholicism and the family moved temporarily to England, teenager Frances was sent to a Catholic boarding school and became quite pious. Back in Montreal, she attended City House Convent of the Sacred Heart, graduating in 1930. She enrolled briefly at McGill University in arts but dropped out to marry Murray Gordon Ballantyne, son of Canadian senator Charles Colquhon Ballantyne.
Frances became a member of a group interested in education and made friends with Alphonsine Howlett with whom she embarked on a plan to start an English Catholic independent school for children 7 to 12. Her marriage in 1947 did not deter her, and the women began lessons in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood with 25 children with herself as principal. She later put up the funds for a down payment on the Sir Charles Lindsay house on The Boulevard; they moved the school there, with the two friends doing the cleaning and repairs themselves. Frances held that principal’s post until 1981, while raising four daughters and two sons. The Priory School, still on The Boulevard, now has more than 160 pupils plus a waiting list. On her 100th birthday she received a blessing from Pope Francis. She died four days short of her 102nd birthday.

Rhythm and blues singer and songwriter Hank Ballard (born John Henry Kendricks), born in Detroit, was one of the first rock ‘n roll singers of the 1950s. His father, Dove Ballard, died when he was seven and he and his brother went to live with his paternal aunt’s strict religious family in Bessemer, Alabama. He began singing gospel in t he church choir and was influenced by the country singing of Gene Autry. At the age of 15 he moved back to Detroit and began working for the Ford Motor Company. One of his co-workers was a member of a singing group, the Royals, and was impressed by Ballard’s baritone-tenor singing in the assembly line; he persuaded him to join the group in 1953. Not wishing to be confused with another group known as the Royales, they changed their name to the “Midnighters.” In 1954 Ballard wrote a song for the group entitled “Work with me, Annie” that was number one on the R & B list of hits for seven weeks; however, the FCC considered it too sexually suggestive and banned their “Annie” sequels from radio. Following their success, the group changed its name to “Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.” In 1959, Ballard wrote and recorded “The Twist” which caught the attention of Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand, the Philadelphia-based television show. Clark invited the group to perform but they were unable; instead, he asked Chubby Checker to cover it, and Checker went on to become a sensation in 1960 and again in 1962. This was the only R & B song ever to hit number one on the charts for two non-consecutive years. The group had several hit singles in 1962 but they broke up in 1965, and Ballard began a solo career. He appeared several times on James Brown’s Revue and recorded several tracks, including a duet on a James Brown album in 1972. He dropped from view for a while, then revived the Midnighters, first as a female group, then male. They performed and made some tours until 2002.

Uriah Ballard owned land in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1719. He was the son of Joseph Ballard, and the grandson of William Ballard.

Brad Balliett was raised in Westborough, Massachusetts. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 2005, where he studied composition with John Harbison, and holds an M.M. from Rice University. He is passionate about music and has focused equally on composing, playing the bassoon, and teaching. Currently, he holds the position of principal bassoon in the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, is a member of Signal and Metropolis Ensemble, and is the Artistic Director for Decoda, the first and only Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. He also teaches at The Peabody Institute, The Juilliard School, and Musicambia.

As a bassoonist, Brad has performed with prestigious ensembles such as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, the Houston Symphony, the New York City Ballet, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. He has also performed at various festivals including Marlboro, Tanglewood, Stellenbosch, Newport Jazz, and Lucerne. In addition, he has soloed with the Houston Symphony and Johannesburg Symphony Orchestras.

Brad is also an accomplished composer, having written orchestral, chamber, choral, operatic, and incidental music. He has received commissions from renowned organizations such as Carnegie Hall, the Cecelia Chorus, and the Brooklyn Art Song Society. Besides his professional engagements, Brad is involved in leading composition and songwriting workshops within correctional communities at various locations such as Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Allendale Correctional Facility, Lee Correctional Institute, Brooklyn Detention Center, San Quentin State Prison, Radgowski-Corrigan, and Bain Correctional Center. Furthermore, he is a member of the band/composer-collective Oracle Hysterical and has released several critically acclaimed albums with them.

Sir John Ballinger was born on May 12, 1860, in Pontnewynydd, near Pontypool, Monmouthshire, Wales.

He was the first librarian of the National Library of Wales. He attended the elementary school in Canton, Cardiff, but had left school by the age of fourteen. He received a year of private education and attended evening classes while looking for employment. In 1875, at the age of fifteen, Ballinger became an assistant at the Cardiff Free Library and later at the Swansea Public Library. In 1880, he was appointed librarian at the public library in Doncaster, Yorkshire. He built his reputation and began writing a column, "About books," in the local newspaper, The Doncaster Chronicle. Ballinger returned to Cardiff in 1884, becoming a librarian at the Cardiff Free Library. When the movement began to press for a National Library in Wales, Ballinger became its first librarian in 1909, a position he held until his retirement in May 1930.

Ballinger made a name for himself both as a librarian and bibliographer. Although he was not a Welsh-speaking Welshman, he must be credited with the formation of a good Welsh library in Cardiff. In 1922, he served as president of the Library Association and chairman of the Press Board of the University of Wales. Ballinger received an honorary M.A. from the University of Wales in 1909, a CBE in 1920, an honorary Fellow of the Library Association in 1929, a knighthood in 1930 and the Medal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in 1932.

In 1888, he married Amy Amelia Boughton (1864–1933). He died on January 8, 1933, in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales.

Edward Mahler Ballon was born on February 14, 1925, in Montreal, Quebec.

He was a Canadian businessman and educator. He attended Selwyn House School, St. Andrew's College, and McGill University in Montreal. He left McGill from 1943 to 1945 to serve as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. After returning to student life, he became president of the McGill Student Society and captain of the track team. Ballon excelled in running, particularly in the mile, and competed nationally and internationally. In 1950, he earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School. Later in his career, he served as Chairman of the Board of Selwyn House, spent thirty-four years on the Board of Governors of St. Andrew's, and held positions such as President of the McGill Graduate Society and member of its Board of Governors. Additionally, Ballon taught marketing at the University of Toronto Business School, served as an executive for the Hudson's Bay Company, and was Vice President of Retail Operations for Henry Birks & Sons for twenty years. After "retirement," he became the Executive Director of the Business Fund for Canadian Studies in the United States. Ballon had a passion for racquet sports, sailing, the monarchy, bridge, and maintaining long-term friendships. He was known by various titles such as The Admiral, Professor, and Sir Edward. He was remembered for his notable election campaign at McGill, his engaging yet sentimental poetry, his sense of fair play, right-wing politics, and his bold flirting.

In 1958, he married Heather and they had five children. Ballon died on April 26, 2014, in Toronto, Ontario.

William Hosea Ballou was born on September 30, 1857, in Monroe, Franklin, Massachusetts.

He was a geologist, author, and expert on fungi, fish, and reptiles. In 1879, he entered Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, focusing on the natural sciences. While there, he was a correspondent of Chicago dailies and an assistant literary editor of one of them. His first magazine article was published in the American Naturalist. He spent most of his life working for the U. S. Department of Agriculture. He was a Government naturalist in the Arctic expedition which rescued Major General A. W. Greely in 1884. He won the approbation and thanks of Queen Victoria for his work in making transportation of animals at sea safe.

He died on December 1, 1937, in Alpine, New Jersey.

Kenneth Balmer is a Canadian recreationist and author who was born in 1946. In 1969, he graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. degree and wrote a thesis titled "Park vs Parkway: A Study in Urban Land Use Conflicts." In 1978, he interpreted and prepared a report called "The Elora Prescription: A Future for Recreation," which was developed by a group of concerned recreationists for the Ontario Ministry of Culture and Recreation. In 1994, he published a paper titled "Outdoor Recreation in British Columbia: A Protected Areas Strategy for British Columbia: Background Papers" (1994). He is also the author of the book "Viral Foresight: Exploring the COVID-19 Change Imperative," published in 2020.