ForsythHon

ACTR/ARTC Honours LOUISE FORSYTH with the Association’s 2^nd Lifetime Achievement Award, Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 31, 2004

Like many illustrious Canadians, Louise Forsyth began her career in Saskatchewan. As a student at the University of Saskatchewan, she saw and sometimes acted in productions at the old Hangar Building – the “temporary” building which was still housing the Department of Drama when I came 40 years later. She stayed in residence with Ann Saddlemyer, and I remember Louise and Ann reminiscing about the Spartan conditions in residence, including the provision of scrub boards for cleaning their clothes. To this day, I’ve never been certain whether conditions in the residence were quite that primitive, or whether I was having my leg genially pulled by two old Saskatchewan hands who were having a bit of fun with a newcomer to the province.

After graduating with a BA in French and German, Louise followed a fine old Saskatchewan tradition and left the province, completing graduate work in French at the University of Western Ontario where she was subsequently hired, and served as a professor from 1966 through to 1991. She published and taught extensively in the areas of French and Quebec Theatre, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Canadian Theatre, breaking ground in each of these relatively new disciplines. She was one of the key supporters of our association in its early days.

In 1991, Louise broke with tradition and returned to Saskatchewan, serving as Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor in the Departments of French, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Between 1997 and 2001, she maintained a national profile as President-elect, President, and Past President of the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada. Upon “retirement” in 2003 she was honoured by her university with the title of Professor Emerita, the Alumni Award of Achievement, and the Teaching Excellence Award.

In addition to all these achievements in her professional life, Louise was also married for over 40 years to George Forsyth with whom she had four children. George, who also ended his career in Saskatchewan, came to a couple of our meetings with Louise. He left us all too soon, and is still sorely missed by those of us who had the privilege of knowing him.

My colleague Don Kerr once said that he considered Louise Forsyth to be one of “wisest” people he knew, and I think Don got it exactly right. Her scholarly and administrative record is impressive, but what strikes me even more forcefully, is her extensive teaching record and the enormous number of young people that she has mentored and developed over the years. In addition to the young scholars she has encouraged into print for the first time, she has advised and supervised over 54 graduate students during her career and is still serving on advisory committees.

Louise also works to make the world a better place for women, twice taking awards in Ontario for the Advancement of Learning Opportunities for women, and earning the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award in London, Ontario in 1986. She is a feminist and, in the deepest, fullest, richest and wisest sense of the word, she is one of the best humanists that I know.