This fonds contains records mainly related to Sylvia’s time as Lieutenant Governor, with correspondence, invitations, clippings, photographs and memorabilia. It also includes documents from her career as a physicist including correspondence, notes, and clippings. Clippings, photographs, and correspondence relating to Sylvia’s involvement in sports is included – predominantly curling and golf, but also fishing, baseball, basketball, and track and field. There is extensive photography and other materials documenting her travels around the world, as well as gatherings with friends and family.
Joe Griffiths, coach of the track and field team, and Orvald Gratias, captain of the team, stand outside a tent.
Bio/Historical Note: Orvald Arthur Gratias, a native of Kinistino, Saskatchewan, enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan (BSc ‘28; MSc ‘30) in 1925. During his five years on campus he competed in basketball, football and track & field. He excelled in discus and hammer throw and was captain of the track & field team in 1930. In 1928, the Sheaf named him Saskatchewan's most versatile athlete. Joe Griffiths later described Gratias as one of the greatest all-around athletes to wear the green and white. He received a Major Athletic Award in 1930. Gratias was president of the University Athletic Directorate and went on to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, studying particle physics. Gratias parlayed an MBA into a second career as a research analyst with the Montreal blue-chip firm MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier, specializing in market movements. Gratias died on 23 July 1996 in Ottawa at age 87.
