Released on October 28, 1999
Seven distinguished citizens will today receive the Saskatchewan Order of Merit
from Lieutenant-Governor John Wiebe at a ceremony in Saskatoon.
In the tradition of the honour, a dinner will be given by the Government of
Saskatchewan following the investiture.
The 1999 recipients of Saskatchewan's highest honour are:
Dr. Marc Baltzan, of Saskatoon, kidney transplant physician;
Frederick Hill, of Regina, business person, chair of the McCallum-Hill group of
companies;
Gordon MacMurchy, of Semans, community and sports leader and former
Saskatchewan cabinet minister;
Frances Morrison, of Saskatoon, former chief librarian of the Saskatoon public
library;
Pamela Wallin, of Toronto and Wadena, nationally-known television broadcaster;
Dr. Stephen Worobetz, of Saskatoon, retired surgeon, former lieutenant-governor
of Saskatchewan; and
Cliff Wright, of Saskatoon, business person, former mayor of Saskatoon.
Including the seven new members, the 86 appointments to the order since 1985
have recognized contributions in the arts, agriculture, business, the
professions, research and education, public service, community leadership and
volunteer service.
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For more information contact:
Michael Jackson
Secretary, Saskatchewan Honours Advisory Council
Protocol Office
Regina
Phone: (306) 787-3109
NOTE: Biographies and telephone numbers of recipients are attached.
Recipients are willing to be interviewed.
SASKATCHEWAN ORDER OF MERIT
Biographies of 1999 Recipients
Dr. Marc Baltzan
Marc Baltzan, born in Saskatoon in 1929, took medical studies at McGill
University in Montreal and in the United States. He has practised internal
medicine and nephrology in Saskatoon since 1959, apart from five years when he
was Chief, Department of Medicine, at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr.
Baltzan has had a distinguished and nationally-known medical career. He has
served as assistant dean of medicine, graduate studies and research, at the
University of Saskatchewan, president of the Saskatchewan and Canadian Medical
Associations, chair of the medical advisory board of the Saskatchewan Heart and
Stroke Foundation, and head or member of numerous other professional and
academic bodies. He has held senior positions at St. Paul's Hospital in
Saskatoon, including Chief of Medicine.
Dr. Baltzan started a renal transplant program in Saskatoon which has drawn
international attention for its high rate of success. He continues his
practice and research in renal medicine, including kidney transplants and
dialysis. He is the author of a large number of articles in professional
journals and essays, and makes frequent contributions to newspapers and
television. Dr. Baltzan has a senior life membership in the Canadian Medical
Association, received the Canada 125 Medal, and was appointed an Officer of the
Order of Canada in 1995. He has served as chair of the Canadian Association of
Professors of Medicine. He is the only Saskatchewan person to be named a
Master of the American College of Physicians.
Telephone (306) 242-1455 (res.), Saskatoon
374-3278 (office)
Frederick W. Hill
Fred Hill, one of Saskatchewan's most successful and influential businessmen,
was born in 1920 in Regina. He is chairman and director of the McCallum Hill
Companies. Mr. Hill was educated at the University of Saskatchewan and the
Harvard Business School. During the Second World War he joined the U.S. air
force and served overseas with distinction as a bomber pilot; he received the
Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross. In
the postwar period Mr. Hill was responsible for the first private residential
development in Regina, the Hillsdale subdivision, and in 1950 founded Western
Surety, a company specializing in contract bonding which operates throughout
Canada. He owned CKCK, Saskatchewan's first private television station, from
1977 to 1987. His companies include real estate, broadcasting, oil and gas, and
insurance in Canada and the United States.
Fred Hill served on Regina city council and has been active on numerous
corporate and non-profit boards. His McCallum Hill company redeveloped downtown
Regina with the city's five largest office towers. He is particularly known for
his involvement with Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, where he
served as president and now chancellor; he oversaw a major rebuilding and
expansion of the secondary residential school. Mr. Hill established the
Madonna Foundation for charities and is a director of Catholic Civil Rights
League. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1986.
Telephone (306) 584-0770, Regina
Gordon S. MacMurchy
Gordon MacMurchy has devoted a lifetime of service to community, sports and
politics in Saskatchewan. Born in 1925, he was raised on the family farm in
Semans. He played competitive hockey and baseball for many years and continued
as a baseball umpire and hockey coach known all over the province. Mr.
MacMurchy received the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association Trophy for Service
to Minor Hockey in 1969 and was inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of
Fame in 1989. He served as chairman of the Govan School Unit, chairman of the
museum board, mayor of Semans, trustee for the local home care and hospital
districts, and first chair of the Living Sky health district.
Mr. MacMurchy was a member of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly from 1971
to 1982. He was a prominent cabinet member in the government of Allan
Blakeney, serving as minister of education, housing, municipal affairs,
transportation, Indian affairs, agriculture and deputy house leader. Mr.
MacMurchy was an innovator in his cabinet portfolios: he introduced physical
education as a core curricular subject, publicly-supported rural kindergartens
and teacher collective bargaining in education, revenue sharing and community
capital funds in municipal affairs, expanded senior citizens' low rental
housing, provincially-owned grain hopper cars, beef stabilization and the
FarmLab program shared between farmers and the University of Saskatchewan.
Telephone (306) 524-2246, Semans
Frances Morrison
Frances Morrison was the chief librarian of the City of Saskatoon from 1961 to
1980. Born in 1918 in Saskatoon, she was educated at the University of
Saskatchewan. She joined the staff of the public library in 1943 as an
assistant. After completing a library science degree at the University of
Toronto, she became successively children's librarian, head of reference and
assistant chief librarian before her appointment as chief librarian - one of
the first women department heads in the city. During her tenure she was
responsible for a major library expansion, the construction of a new main
library, a local history room, programming services, and audio-visual and fine
arts departments. Mrs. Morrison played a prominent role in provincial and
national library associations and in the establishment of the regional library
system in Saskatchewan. When she retired in 1980, the city named the main
library in her honour.
Mrs. Morrison has been involved in a wide range of other activities, including
the Meewasin Valley Authority, member and chair of the Saskatchewan Arts Board,
the Saskatoon Business and Professional Women's Club, the YWCA, the Saskatoon
Heritage Society, the United Church and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. She
received the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, the Outstanding Service to
Librarianship Award of the Canadian Library Association in 1981, a YWCA Woman
of the Year Award in 1989, and the Canada 125 Medal.
Telephone (306) 653-3670, Saskatoon
Pamela Wallin
Pamela Wallin enjoys a reputation as the best television interviewer in
Canada. Born in Moose Jaw in 1953, Ms. Wallin grew up in Wadena. Graduating
from the University of Regina in 1974, she was briefly a social worker at the
penitentiary in Prince Albert before becoming a researcher and producer for CBC
Radio in Regina. In 1975 Ms. Wallin moved to Ottawa to do production and on-
air work with CBC Radio, before going to Toronto in 1977 to the team of As It
Happens. In 1979 she joined the Toronto Star's Ottawa bureau. Ms. Wallin
began her television career in 1981 as host of the national CTV program "Canada
A.M." In 1985 CTV appointed her as the first woman Ottawa bureau chief in
Canadian television network history.
From 1992 to 1995 Ms. Wallin was co-anchor of CBC's Prime Time News. Since
1995 she has owned her own production companies, Current Affairs Group and
Pamela Wallin Productions. She produces and hosts her own interview programs
"Pamela Wallin" and "Pamela Wallin & Company" for CBC and CBC Newsworld. She
also produces "Maclean's TV" for CTV and is consulting executive editor of
Report on Business TV, a new business specialty channel. In 1998 she published
her autobiography, Since You Asked. She has honorary degrees from Wilfrid
Laurier University and Loyalist College and has received numerous awards for
excellence in broadcasting. She has maintained close ties with her native
province and co-owns a business in Wadena with her sister. In 1994 the Town of
Wadena named Pamela Wallin Drive in her honour. In 1999 Ms. Wallin was the
first recipient of the United Nations Development Fund for Women Canada Award.
Telephone (416) 929-7988, extension 304 (office)
The Honourable Dr. Stephen Worobetz
Stephen Worobetz was born in Krydor in 1914, the son of pioneer parents. He
took medical studies at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of
Manitoba, graduating in 1940. He then joined the Canadian Army and served as a
medical officer with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in the
Italian campaign, during which he was awarded the Military Cross for courage
under fire. After the war he practised as a family physician in Saskatoon and
after post-graduate studies in Winnipeg and Philadelphia became a general
surgeon. In 1970 Dr. Worobetz was appointed Lieutenant Governor of
Saskatchewan, the first person of Ukrainian origin to occupy the vice-regal
post; he served with dedication and distinction until 1976, when he resumed his
medical career until retirement in 1982.
Stephen Worobetz was charter president of St. Joseph's nursing home and the
reorganized Canadian Club of Saskatoon and member of a number of volunteer
boards. In 1989 he and his wife established the Stephen and Michelene Worobetz
Foundation to promote voluntarism and assist charitable organizations, among
them the University of Saskatchewan, Amnesty International and St. Paul's
Hospital. In 1999 Dr. and Mrs. Worobetz established an endowment fund at St.
Thomas More College to initiate long-term support of the Prairie Centre for the
Study of Ukrainian Heritage. Dr. Worobetz received an honorary doctorate from
the University of Saskatchewan in 1984 and the Canada 125 Medal; he was
appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993.
Telephone (306) 374-1996, Saskatoon
Clifford Wright
Cliff Wright is a well-known former mayor of Saskatoon. Born in 1927 in
Saskatoon, he has spent all his business career in the family construction
company, the oldest in the province. He was first elected to city council in
1966 and served as mayor from 1976 to 1988, a period during which Saskatoon was
known for its dynamism and its effective municipal government. Mr. Wright was
a prime mover in such developments as the Western Canada Summer Games in 1979,
the city centennial in 1982, and the creation of Wanuskewin Heritage Park and
of the Meewasin Valley Authority. After leaving civic politics Mr. Wright was
appointed by the Government of Canada and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian
Nations as Treaty Commissioner from 1989 to 1993; during his tenure the
landmark Treaty Land Entitlement agreement was signed with First Nations.
Mr. Wright has had a long-standing interest in health care, serving on the
board of City Hospital and chair of Royal University Hospital and working for
reduction of duplication and for improvement in community-based health
services. From 1992 to 1995 he was the first chairperson of the Saskatoon
District Health Board, using his prestige and negotiating skills to find
solutions to the issues of integrated health care. Mr. Wright has also been
active in many charitable and community organizations. He received an honorary
doctorate from the University of Saskatchewan in 1988 and the Canada 125
Medal. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1998.
Telephone (306) 934-0440 (office), Saskatoon
