Educator.
Born in Manitoba on 25 November 1926, son of Andrew Makepeace (1877-1961) and Mary Blackwood (1887-1971), brother of Catherine Bunten Makepeace Copes, he attended Basswood Consolidated School and then Minnedosa High School for two years. At the age of 17, he taught at Makepeace School for one year before attending the Central Normal School. This was followed by teaching at Kenton School (1946-1948), St. James School (1948-1950), Brooke School (1955-1956), The Pas (?-?), and United College (?-?).
In 1959, he was one of 19 faculty and staff to resign from United College in protest against the dismissal of Professor Harry Crowe. He then earned an MA degree from the University of Manitoba and continued teaching, including in Paris (France), East St. Paul Collegiate (1960-1961), and at River East Collegiate until 1967 where he produced and directed several school plays. He then moved to Ontario to teach for one year at Cornwall Collegiate before moving to La Salle Secondary School in Kingston where he was head of modern languages until his retirement in 1986. In 2009, he was a co-recipient, with 15 former colleagues, of the CAUT Milner award in recognition of their solidarity for academic freedom in the Crowe Case.
On 13 April 1963, he married Elizabeth Kathleen Mae Finlay (1928-2023, daughter of James Henry Finlay) at the Unitarian Church of Winnipeg and they subsequently had three sons.
He died on 5 November 2017.
“Makepeace - Finlay,” Winnipeg Tribune, 20 April 1963, page 46.
CAUT Milner Memorial Award 2009, Makepeace.ca.
Obituary [Kathleen Makepeace], The Kingston Whig Standard, 2 March 2023.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Drew Makepeace and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 14 June 2026
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