Showing 2266 results

Philippe Djokic was born in St. Max, France, in 1950 to a Yugoslavian father and French mother. In 1952, his family emigrated to the United States. Djokic was a talented violinist and studied with Christine Dethier and Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School. He went on to win the Fritz Kreisler Prize at Juilliard, the 1975 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibault competition, first prize in the 1977 CBC Talent Festival, and many other competitions and awards.

In 1975, Djokic moved to Nova Scotia with his wife Lynn Stodola, a pianist who he met at Juilliard. Djokic and Stodola’s children are both accomplished musicians as well. Denise Djokic is a cellist and Mark Djokic is a violinist, like his father.

Both Djokic and Stodola joined the music faculty at Dalhousie University and in 1975, president Henry Hicks asked for a loan of $80,000 to allow Djokic to buy an 18th century violin. The following year, Djokic formed the Dalart Trio with pianist William Tritt and cellist William Valleau. The trio was very successful, winning the 1978 Chalmers Foundation Award and raising the profile of music at Dalhousie. The trio split up in 1983 because of demands on the musicians’ careers. Djokic continues to perform locally and internationally with his wife (as the Djokic-Stodola duo), children, brother, and orchestras around the world.

The eldest son of James E. Dickie and Harriet Tupper, Alfred Dickie was born in Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, on 28 March 1860. Dickie was educated at Dalhousie College and went on to become a prominent businessman known for a time as the ‘lumber king’ of Nova Scotia.

After college, Dickie assisted with his father’s businesses; he worked in the general store and lumber business in the Stewiacke area, and in 1886 became secretary of the Stewiacke Valley and Lansdowne Railway Company, of which his father was president. On 8 September 1885 he married Alice Amelia Dickie, his father’s second cousin, with whom he had five children: Rufus, Walter, Aileen, Ethel and Harold. Rufus and Walter would both work for the family business, although Walter eventually left to practise medicine.

Between 1899 and 1904 Dickie established several lumber companies of his own, notably Alfred Dickie Lumber Co. in Lower Stewiacke, and Grand River Pulp and Lumber Co., located in a small trapping community along the shores of the Grand River in central Labrador. A conflict between Quebec surveyors and Dickie's company escalated into a dispute between the Dominion of Canada and the colony of Newfoundland over the Labrador-Quebec boundary. In response, the Imperial Privy Council eventually mapped out the current boundary.

Despite the early rapid expansion experienced by Dickie’s business ventures, which supplied local, national and international lumber markets with a variety of timber products, his business experienced a downturn between 1904 and 1906. Slower markets and difficulties with bankers forced Dickie to reorganize his assets. He sold many of his timber limits; obtained woodlots in Nova Scotia under the names of his wife and son; established new companies such as the Albion Lumber Company; diversified his interests by investing in utility and insurance company stocks, currencies and real estate; and established the Colchester County Steam Ship Company with boats previously used in his lumber business.

In addition to his business enterprises, Dickie had political ambitions and was active in the community. He made several unsuccessful runs for Parliament and served as mayor of Stewiacke for four years. In 1914 Dickie and his family moved to Halifax, where he became active in local charities, boards, clubs and other organizations. Towards the end of his life, chronic health issues affected Dickie's activity. While his longstanding banking problems were resolved and he and his son Rufus formed the Canadian Lumber Company, his time as lumber king had passed. Alfred Dickie died in 1929.

Margaret Stevenson DeWolfe was a biochemist and Professor of Paediatrics in the Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. She was born in St. Stephen New Brunswick and received her college education at Acadia University. DeWolfe worked in hospital dietetics and then pursued a research career. She obtained an MA (biochemistry) and PhD in pathologic chemistry from the University of Toronto.

DeWolfe arrived in Halifax in 1964 after serving as a research associate at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. DeWolfe spent 17 years associated with the Atlantic Research Centre for Mental Retardation (ARCMR). She served as Secretary on the Board of Directors for 11 years. DeWolfe retired on June 30, 1981 after a 40-year career in nutrition and biochemistry.