Mary Elizabeth Bayer (1925-2005)

Civil servant, educator, community activist.

Born in Alberta on 10 February 1925, the daughter of Anne Farquharson Patteson and Granville Lovejoy Bayer, she was raised and educated in Manitoba. She served as Executive Director of the Volunteer Bureau and the Manitoba Centennial Corporation, founding Executive Director of the Manitoba Arts Council, founding Chair of Heritage Winnipeg, and founding member of the Assembly of Arts Administrators. She pioneered adult daytime television programming and served as the provincial government’s first woman Assistant Deputy Minister. At the national level, she was President of Heritage Canada, member of the National Executive of the Girl Guides of Canada, member of Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre for the Arts, and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. She also served on the selection committees for the Rhodes Scholarships and the Royal Bank Award.

After retiring to Victoria, British Columbia in 1980, she served as Chair of the Greater Victoria Library Board, founding member of the Greater Victoria Arts Commission, Executive member of the Provincial Capital Commission, member of the Honorary Board of the Victoria Foundation, Chair of the British Columbia Heritage Society, and founding Chair of the province-wide arts and heritage advocacy group, Culture Acts Now. Her numerous awards include an honorary doctorate. from the University of Winnipeg (1975), the University of Manitoba Distinguished Alumni Award, Girl Guides of Canada Merit Award, and the MHS Centennial Medal (1970). In 1994 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada and in 2000 she was named an Honorary Citizen of Victoria. She was the 2004 recipient of the Woman of Distinction Award for Lifetime Achievement and in June 2005 received the British Columbia Heritage Award.

She died on 7 September 2005.

Sources:

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 15 September 2005.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 24 January 2010

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