Ronald Finch of Billingshurst, West Sussex once resided in Canada as a young man. He collected these letters, most written by individuals with connections to his uncle’s family in Lanigan, Saskatchewan from 1933-1946.

Diane Helen Jones-Konihowski was born in 1951 in Vancouver and raised in Saskatoon. In 1967 she represented Canada internationally for the first time as a high jumper and javelin thrower. Jones-Konihowski won her first international medal, a high jump bronze, at the 1969 Pacific Conference Games. She represented Canada in the pentathlon at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Jones was a gold medalist in the pentathlon at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City; that same year she was named Canada’s Female Athlete of the Year. Jones-Konihowski graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1976 with a BEd. In 1978 she won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton and was named Canada’s Female Athlete of the Year for the second time in her career. In 1979 she won her second Pan American Games gold medal. Forced to miss the Moscow Olympics of 1980 due to the boycott that Jones-Konihowski strenuously opposed, she seriously considered going to the Soviet Union to compete as an athlete without a flag or nation. Jones-Konihowski eventually decided it was safer to not attend and athletically made her statement two weeks later at a pentathlon in Germany, winning gold, and beating all the Moscow 1980 Olympic medalists. During her career Jones-Konihowski ranked first in the world twice. Jones-Konihowski was awarded the Order of Canada in 1979 and inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. She was the recipient of the YWCA Woman of Distinction Sport & Recreation Award in 1988. In 1996 she was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Sports Hall of Fame. Jones-Konihowski has remained active in Canadian sports, having worked as a coach and sports administrator for many national athletic boards including Fair Play Canada, the Coaching Association of Canada, the Canadian Olympic Association, as well as the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. In 2000 Jones-Konihowski led Canada’s Olympic Team to the Sydney Olympics as the Chef de Mission. She was presented with an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the U of S in 2002. In 2005 Jones-Konihowksi was elected to the board of directors of the Canadian Olympic Committee. Jones-Konihowski is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (2020) and the Canada West Conference Hall of Fame (2021).

Joanne McTaggart, indisputably one of Canada’s premier runners of the 1970s, was born in Regina in 1954. She moved to Saskatoon for Grade XI and graduated from Walter Murray Collegiate, where she once won five events at the school meet. McTaggart also started to compete on behalf of the Saskatoon Track and Field Club. She was named to Canada’s national track team in 1972 while in Grade XI. She qualified for the relay team at the 1972 Munich Olympics but Canada didn't send a team. McTaggart enrolled at University of Saskatchewan (B.Ed. 1977) in 1974. In her rookie year with the Huskies, she won conference championships in the 40 yards and 300 metres. That same year she was Western Canadian Junior Champion in the 50 and 200 metres and the Canadian senior indoor 200 champion. McTaggart won 10 conference titles in her four years with the Huskies, highlighted by a world record performance of 38.2 seconds in the 300 metres at the 1975 indoor CWUAA (CIS) meet in Edmonton, Alberta. McTaggart qualified for the Canadian team at the 1975 Pan-American Games, won a bronze medal in the 4x100-metre relay and half an hour later, was invited to run the 4x400-metre relay where Canada held off the Americans and the Cubans to win the gold medal. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Joanne competed in the 200 metres and finished fourth in the 4X100-metre relay. McTaggart was inducted into the University of Saskatchewan Athletic Wall of Fame in 1984; the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame in 1994, and the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1996.

Dr. Donald McKay Newton was born 23 June 1932 in Cardston, Alberta. He was a gifted athlete in boxing, track & field and especially basketball. After completing his BEd/PE in 1954 at the University of Alberta, he went on to earn an MSc from Brigham Young University in 1957 and an EdD from the University of Northern Colorado in 1969. He later coached at the University of Saskatchewan from 1962-1966 and the University of Calgary from 1967-1970. He taught at the University of Calgary and was named Professor Emeritus upon his retirement in 1987. Throughout his career he was a powerful spokesman for the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (CAHPER), serving as national president from 1977 to 1978. He was honored with the Queen’s Medal for Outstanding Service and Leadership in 1977 and the R. Tait McKenzie Medal for Outstanding Service in 1980. Don Newton died 30 July 2019 in Sammamish, Washington at age 87.

E. Kent Phillips coached the Huskies football team from 1928-1937 and was an assistant coach from 1941-1943. Colb McEown was coach of the team in 1939, 1940, 1943, 1944 and 1945.

Robert Gibbons, a native of Balcarres, enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan (B.S. A, 1979) in 1972. He played from 1972 to 1976 for the Huskies football team and was named a conference all-star offensive lineman in the Western Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1974 and 1975. In wrestling, Gibbon won the CIAU heavyweight championship in 1977. Gibbons represented Canada at the World Cup in both 1976 and 1977. In 1978, he was named the most outstanding wrestler at the Canadian championships after winning titles in both freestyle and Greco-Roman categories. Later that year Gibbon won the gold medal in the super heavyweight class at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton. Gibbons was awarded the E. Kent Phillips Trophy in 1977 as male athlete of the year at the University of Saskatchewan.

Karen Kusler Young, a graduate of Maple Creek High School, enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan (B.S. P.E., 1975; B. Ed., 1977) in 1971. She was on the Huskiettes basketball team for five seasons, scoring 1,899 points for an average of 11.7 per game and grabbing 978 rebounds. Karen was in the top 10 in conference scoring each of her last four seasons and among the top 10 in rebounds the last three years. The Huskiettes won the Eastern Division of the WCIAU title in her rookie season and were 128-34 in her five years. She missed only four games. While a student at the University of Saskatchewan, Karen represented Canada at the World University Games in Moscow in 1973.

Georgia E. McConnell graduated from the School of Accounting in 1939.

Leslie Krasa graduated from the School of Agriculture in 1945.

Dorothy (McKenzie) Walton (1909-1981), a graduate from high school in Swift Current, enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan (B.A., 1929; M.A., 1931) in 1926. From 1926 to 1930, she won more than 50 championships at the local, provincial and intervarsity levels. Walton played on 14 U of S athletic teams and was the first female awarded the Oak Shield as the University's outstanding athlete. While a student at the University of Saskatchewan, she represented the school on the intervarsity debate team, was a member of the Athletic Directorate and served as vice president of the Students Representative Council. Walton moved to Toronto in 1931 where she took up badminton. In 1939-40, she became the first player to hold Canadian, United States and All-England badminton titles concurrently and was recognized as the premier player in the world. In 1940, she was runner up in voting for the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's athlete of the year. In a poll by the Canadian Press, Dorothy was named one of the top six female athletes in Canada for the first half of the 20th century. She was a founding member of the Consumers' Association of Canada and was president from 1950 to 1953. In 1973, Walton was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour. She is an inductee into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.

Ernest Francis Laughton Whitmore was born in 1904 in Winchester, England. He immigrated to the Saskatoon area with his parents in 1911. He graduated from Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon and then attended the University of Saskatchewan, earning an LL.B. with Great Distinction in 1925 and the Wetmore Scholarship in Law. Whitmore was called to the Bar in 1928. He married Mary Anne MacLean of Saskatoon. After graduating, Whitmore practiced law in Saskatoon with the firm of Sibbald, Caswell and Whitmore. Whitmore was also solicitor for Saskatoon City Hospital from 1935 to 1936 and a legal adviser to the United Farmers of Canada, Saskatchewan section. Whitmore began teaching classes as a lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan in 1929. He was appointed an Assistant Professor in the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan in 1939 and was granted a full professorship in 1943. He was appointed King’s Counsel in 1951. He taught at the University of Saskatchewan until 1956, when he left to join Regina law firm MacPherson, Leslie and Tyerman as an Associate Counsel. Whitmore was regarded as a well-known legal expert in Saskatchewan. His obituary in the Saskatchewan Bar Review notes “ ‘Ernie’ Whitmore will be remembered by scores of his students for the meticulous way in which he organized his material, his encyclopaedic knowledge of the case law and for his willingness to spend hours of his time discussing legal problems with his students.” (Volume 29, Issue 3, September 1964, p. 142) Whitmore died on August 16, 1964 at the age of 60.

Donald Keith McNamee was born in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, in 1938. He earned a BA from the University of Saskatchewan, and both an MA and MFA from the University of Ohio. He returned to the University of Saskatchewan, where he taught Art and Art History for twenty years. In 1985 he left the University to establish his own business, doing independent architectural design. In addition to his career as an artist, McNamee was a fixture in Saskatoon's gay and lesbian community. Meetings at his house were used to help start the first gay organization in Saskatoon, the Zodiac Friendship Society (later, the Gay/Lesbian Community Centre of Saskatoon). In the early 1980s McNamee was one of the founding members of the Coalition for Human Equality (CHE), formed to respond to perceptions of homophobia in the provincial Conservative government of the time. McNamee was instrumental in the Coalition, and was particularly effective in the 1992 campaign to urge the NDP government to amend the human rights legislation to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. He died of cancer in Saskatoon on 2 July 1994.

A.R. Greig was one of the first professors appointed at the University of Saskatchewan and also served as the Superintendent of Buildings. Born December 18, 1872, raised and educated in Montreal, Greig graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University in 1895. After graduation, he became successively the Chief Draughtsman of the Mechanical Departments of the Canada Atlantic Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway. In 1906, Greig entered upon his career as an academic with his appointment as Professor of Agricultural Engineering at the Manitoba Agricultural College in Winnipeg. In 1909, he accepted two appointments at the University of Saskatchewan: Professor of Mechanical Engineering, held until 1937, and Superintendent of Buildings, held until 1939. From 1939-1943, he was Acting Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta. Greig died on July 21, 1947.