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Alexander John William Myers was a Presbyterian minister, educator and writer. He was born in Lake Verde, Prince Edward Island, on 17 December 1877 to Margaret Sarah (Moore) and Charles Myers. He received his early education at West Kent School before earning a teaching diploma from Prince of Wales College in 1989. He taught school in Flat River before coming to Dalhousie University, where he obtained a BA in 1902, also studying divinity at Pine Hill College, Halifax, and Knox College, Toronto. In 1912 he was granted a PhD from Columbia University.

Myers wrote primarily on the subject of religious education. From 1912-1917 he was Educational Secretary of the Board of Sabbath Schools and Young People’s Societies of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. He was subsequently appointed head of the Department of Religious Education at the Hartford Seminary Foundation in Connecticut, where he stayed until 1942, when he returned to Canada to take up church ministry in Belleville, Scarborough, and Toronto, Ontario. He retired in 1947.

In 1912 Myers married his first wife, Mae Ethel Dickenson; she died in 1948. In 1952 Myers married fellow islander Helen Penelope Ramsay. He died 2 December 1975.

Thomas John (Jock) Murray is an accomplished physician, educator, researcher and internationally renowned Multiple Sclerosis expert. Born in Halifax in 1938, he received his early education at Pictou Academy (1953-1958), before completing pre-med studies at St. Francis Xavier University and graduating from Dalhousie Medical School in 1963. Following two years of general practice, he pursued post-graduate studies at Victoria General Hospital (VGH) in Halifax, the National Hospital at the University of London, and Toronto General and St. Michael's.

In 1969 Dr. Murray joined the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University and became a Neurology Fellow at Victoria General Hospital. In 1972 he was promoted to Consultant of Neurology at VGH, Camp Hill Hospital, Grace Maternity Hospital and the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre. Following academic promotions, Dr. Murray served as Head of the Department of Neurology for six years before being appointed Dean of Medicine in 1985. He was the first director of Dalhousie's Multiple Sclerosis Unit as well as the founder of both the Medical Humanities Program and Dalhousie Society for the History of Medicine.

Among his professional activities, Dr. Murray served as the first Canadian Chair of the American College of Physicians (ACP) Board of Regents. In 1995 he was honoured with the John B. Neilson Award for outstanding contributions to the history of medicine. He has received honorary degrees from St. Francis Xavier and Acadia and is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, and an inductee into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

In 2018 Jock Murray was named one of 52 Dalhousie Originals, a list of individuals identified as having made a significant impact on the university and the broader community since Dalhousie's inception in 1818. See https://www.dal.ca/about-dal/dalhousie-originals/thomas-jock-murray.html

Robert Murray was born on December 25, 1832 in Earltown, Nova Scotia. He graduated from the Old Free Church College in 1852 and was appointed editor of The Presbyterian Witness in 1855. He was also secretary for the Halifax Evangelical Alliance, an advocate of the free common school system in Nova Scotia, and one of the early members of the Dalhousie University Board of Governors, receiving an honorary LLD from Dalhousie in 1902. Murray was also a poet. He wrote the hymn "From Ocean Unto Ocean" as well as a Canadian stanza to "God Save the King."

In 1867 Murray married Elizabeth Carey, with whom he had five children: Antoinette, Robert Harper, John Carey, William Cunningham, and Norman Grant. The family lived on the Studley estate owned by Antoinette Nordbeck, where Elizabeth served as companion and caregiver to Antoinette and her sister Caroline. When the Nordbecks died, the estate was left to Elizabeth. On Robert Murray's death in 1910 Elizabeth sold the property to Dalhousie to help with its expansion. Dalhousie's Studley campus takes its name from this property.

Howard Murray was a prominent Nova Scotia educator born in New Glasgow on 17 July 1859 to George and Mary (Patterson) Murray. He taught school in Pictou before receiving a series of appointments as principal of Stellarton High School, Guysboro County Academy, and New Glasgow High School. From 1876-1880 he studied at Dalhousie University, where he was awarded the Gilchrist Scholarship, enabling him to pursue further studies at the University of Edinburgh and University College, London. He returned from England with his BA in 1887 and taught classics at Halifax County Academy and Dalhousie. In 1891 he was appointed principal of the academy, a position he held until 1894 when he became professor of classics at Dalhousie. He was appointed dean in 1901 and in 1907 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto.

From 1906-1926 Murray served on the Nova Scotia Advisory Board of Education, including six years as chair. He was also chair of the Advisory Board of the Royal Military College of Kingston, Ontario, and between 1909-1921 he was a member of the Conservation Commission of Canada. He was twice president of the North British Society, a member of the United Church of Canada, and an elder of St. Matthew's Church. Murray died on 9 September 1930, survived by his wife Janet (Hattie) Murray.

Jane Murphy was a professor and pioneering psychiatric epidemiologist who, from 1975 until her death in 2021, led the Stirling County Study, initiated in 1948 by her late husband Alexander Leighton. She was born on 9 October 1929 in Denver, Colorado, received a BA from Phillips University in 1951 and a PhD from Cornell University in 1960. In 1951 she joined the Stirling County Study as an administrator and researcher, followed by graduate studies in anthropology and sociology at Cornell University. During her PhD research, she lived with indigenous peoples in Alaska to learn about their concept of mental illness, and carried out cross-cultural studies in Nigeria and Vietnam.

In 1966 she married Alexander H. Leighton and together they continued and extended the seminal Stirling County Study in psychiatric epidemiology, the longest running study of its kind to understand the prevalence and types of mental illness across generations in a cross-cultural community. She served as the Senior Social Scientist for the Study and was in charge of its extension during the late 1960s and early 1970s. After Dr. Leighton's retirement from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1975, Jane Murphy became the director and designed the study so that on reaching the 40-year mark, it would be possible to trace historical trends regarding the prevalence of different types of mental illnesses. Murphy served as director of the study from 1975 until her death in 2021. She taught in the psychiatric epidemiology program at the Harvard Chan School from 1996-201; directed the Psychiatric Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital; was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; and served as an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Dalhousie University.

Widely published, Jane Murphy made contributions to the literature on cross-cultural psychiatry, the prevalence of depression in communities, and continuities in community-based psychiatric epidemiology. She served on the Executive Committee of a section of the World Psychiatric Association and on the Council of the Association for Clinical and Psychosocial Research. She was a recipient of a Rema Lapouse Award from the American Public Health Association and the Harvard Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Jane Murphy and Alexander Leighton enjoyed a long association with Digby County, Nova Scotia, and helped make local history more available to the public through the Wilson Collier Committee, which focuses on identifying, preserving and connecting historical writings and photographs of the Bay of Fundy as well as the stories and lives of the people who live there.

Don Murchy is a community activist, volunteer, and a prominent member of Nova Scotia’s leather community. Murchy was born in Dartmouth on August 18, 1950. He graduated from Dartmouth High in 1968 and moved to Truro, where he attained his associate’s degree in Education from the Nova Scotia Teachers College. Following this, Murchy moved to Fort Kent, Maine, where he was awarded both a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Education.

Upon moving back to Halifax in 1976, Murchy worked various jobs, including teaching computer classes and working in local health clubs. From 1988 to his retirement in 2015, he worked at Saint Mary’s University in the Registrar’s and Admissions Offices and taught computer classes through their Continuing Education program. Murchy has been a member of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union [NSGEU], holding several positions on the local and regional boards. He met his current partner in 1986.

Murchy’s participation in the LGBT Community began upon his return to Nova Scotia through his attendance at The Turret, an LGBT bar operated by the Gay Alliance for Equality (later the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Nova Scotia) located in the Kyber building. Upon The Turret’s closure in 1982, Murchy attended events at its successor, Rumours. Murchy joined the TightRope Leather Brotherhood at its inception in the early 1990s and would go on to hold every executive position prior to the Brotherhood going defunct in 2007. He was the first winner of the Mr. Atlantic Canada Leather [M.A.C. Leather] contest in 1999. From 1993 until 2006, Murchy ran the Over Thirties Club for gay men, which held potlucks in private homes across the Maritimes, maintaining a mailing list of approximately 150 people. Murchy produced the Fetish Ball from 2004-2014 as a fundraiser for local LGBT causes, and also developed the Fetish Evening, which held events from 2007-2009. He has worked for the Halifax Pride Committee as a Waterfront Supervisor and has previously held Toys for Boys talks at Venus Envy during Pride week. Murchy has also been a member of the Society of Bastet, a BDSM and kink play club in Halifax, and was an associate member of Chicago Hellfire and Delta International men’s BDSM clubs in the United States.

George Munro was born in 1825 in West River, Nova Scotia, to John Munro and Mary Mathieson. After being apprenticed in the printing trade at the age of twelve, he continued his education in New Glasgow and at Pictou Academy. In 1850 Munro was teaching mathematics and natural philosophy at the Free Church Academy in Halifax. Two years later he was appointed rector (principal) of the academy and was preparing himself for the Presbyterian ministry. However, in 1856 he resigned both his position and his ambition to the clergy and moved to New York City, where he eventually made his fortune publishing reprints of modern English works.

Munro's ties to Nova Scotia remained strong and he sent both his sons to be educated at Dalhousie College in the late 1870s and 1880s. It was during this period that he donated over $300,000 to the college, saving Dalhousie from collapse. He is recognized as Dalhousie's first major benefactor and the university's February holiday is named in his honour. George Munro died in 1896.

Janet Stephanie (Jenny) Munday was born in Toronto in 1953 and grew up in New Brunswick and Quebec. She completed a secretarial course at the Capital Business College of Fredericton in 1974 and studied political science at the University of New Brunswick, graduating in 1978. Munday has worked as an actor in theatre companies across Canada, appearing at Theatre New Brunswick, Neptune Theatre, The National Arts Centre, Ship’s Company Theatre, Rising Tide Theatre and the Banff Playwrights Colony. She has also acted in film, television and radio. Munday is also a director and dramaturge and has written several works for the stage, including Relatively Harmless, The Last Tasmanian and Battle Fatigue. Other work includes radio drama, magazine articles and reviews.

Munday was co-founder and co-artistic director of the Comedy Asylum in the early 1980s. From 1989-1992 she was artistic director of the Mulgrave Road Co-op Theatre. From 1993-1995 she served as artistic associate and writer-in-residence at Theatre New Brunswick, and was the first artist-in-residence at Live Bait Theatre. Munday was the fourth Crake Fellow in Drama at Mount Allison University from 2004-2008 and is currently artistic director of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC).

Among the many awards and recognitions that Munday has received are a Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Special Achievement Award; the inaugural Mallory Gilbert Award from the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) and Tarragon Theatre; and an honorary membership to the Canadian Association for Theatre Research.