CLARA THOMAS ARCHIVES














Inventory of the
Margaret Norquay fonds











Inventory #F0176






The digitization of this finding aid was made possible - in part or entirely - through the Canadian Culture Online Program of Canadian Heritage, the National Archives of Canada and the Canadian Council of Archives.



FONDS LEVEL DESCRIPTION



Fonds/Collection Number:F0176
Title:Margaret Norquay fonds
Dates:1900-2007, predominant 1943-2007
Extent:7.9 m of textual records
ca. 110 photographs
ca. 200 audio cassettes
2 video cassettes
Biographical Sketch/
Administrative History:
Margaret (Dillon) Norquay (1920-2014), writer, teacher, broadcaster and pioneer in distance education, was born in Toronto to a well-educated family of modest means. She was educated at the University of Toronto where she earned her Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) in 1943, and her Master of Arts (Sociology) in 1950. During 1943-1944, Norquay served as Executive Secretary, Rural Adult Education Service, MacDonald College, Quebec which provided education services via radio for farm families. From 1944 to 1946, Norquay was a welfare officer with the Canadian Women's Army Corp (CWAC). In 1947-1949 she served as Recreation Director for the Dunnville Community Recreation Council and this work provided the basis for her M.A. thesis entitled "A Study of a Community Recreation Council as an Agent of Social Change", a sociological study of the economic and political changes which took place in the textile town of Dunville, Ontario. Norquay married a United Church minister in 1949 and began to raise her own family in Mayerthorpe, Alberta. Returning to Ontario, she was a researcher, writer and broadcaster between 1963 and 1967 for "Take 30", a CBC programme co-hosted by Adrienne Clarkson. Between 1967 and 1971, she worked as a professor of sociology for Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. She was the founding director of CJRT-FM's Open College program whose first course was offered over radio in January 1971. From 1972 to 1974, she was Director of Studies for Ryerson and Open College in addition to her teaching duties, and continued as director of Open College until 1987 at which time she became a consultant for the Ryerson International Development Centre. She was also program director for CJRT-FM from 1974 to 1985. Throughout her life, Norquay has remained interested and active in community involvement, chairing or volunteering on several committees and projects. From 1964 to 1972, she chaired the Community Committee on Immigrants of the Social Planning Council, and from 1963 to 1973 was the volunteer director of the Earl's Court Community project in Toronto. From 1987 onwards, she chaired the Committee for Intercultural/Interracial Education in Professional Schools (CIIEPS). She also played an active role in the Project for Development Supports Communications in Northern Thailand as well as many other community and interculturally based endeavours. In 2008, Norquay's work "Broad is the way : stories from Mayerthorpe" was published as part of the Wilfrid Laurier University Press life-writing series and provides interesting glimpses of the life of a young minister's unorthodox wife. Norquay passed away 11 January 2014.
Scope and Content:

The fonds consists of Margaret Norquay's records pertaining to her graduate studies, her work with the Open College project, and to her community involvement with several committees and organizations, as well as personal files related to her family. The fonds is arranged in the following series:

S00110Open College files
S00111MA Thesis files
S00112Take Thirty scripts
S00113A Prospect in Development Support Communications in Northern Thailand files
S00114Committee for Intercultural / Interracial Education in Professional Schools files
S00115Social Planning Council: Community Committee on Immigrant Children files
S00244Canadian Pensioners Concerned
S00379Project and writing files
S00380Personal files
S00381Earl's Court Community Project
Restrictions on
Access and Use:
Some restrictions may apply.
Finding Aid: Series-level descriptions with corresponding file lists are complete at this time. Individual accession file lists are available separately; see accruals note.
URL of Finding Aid:http://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000176.pdf
Accruals: The fonds comprises the following accession: 1999-012, 2003-055, 2007-030. Further accruals may be expected.
1999-012
2003-055
2007-030
Immediate source of acquisition: Donated by Margaret Norquay in 1999, 2003 and 2007.
Provenance Access Points:Norquay, Margaret.

Date of creation: 2002/04/05
Date of last revision: 2014/01/14
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