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Gloria Alyce Dell Van Camp
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Educator, author.
Born at Sacramento, California on 6 May 1938, her childhood was spent on a small farm near the city. In 1955, she married Walt Schmuck of the US Air Force and moved with him to a base at Loan, France. After his death in a training crash, she returned to the US in December 1956. She moved to Ventura, California to attend college where she met and married John Siemons in 1958. They had two daughters (1959, 1962) before separating. In 1969, she married Rafael Castillo and adopted his son and daughter. While living in Santa Barbara, she taught first grade and supervised student teachers while working on a Master’s degree and writing the book Left Handed Teaching: Lessons in Affective Education (1972).
In 1975, she immigrated to Canada with her two daughters, settling first at Calgary, Alberta where she developed curricula for the University of Calgary, taught at the University of Lethbridge, and worked part-time in Manitoba. Having met educator Keven Van Camp in 1973, she moved to Winnipeg in 1977 and married him on 2 July 1983. They moved to a small farm at St. Francois Xavier.
She worked at the Children’s Home and Winnipeg School Division integrating adolescent boys with severe emotional and behavioral issues into a regular school setting. In 1979, she was hired by the Manitoba Department of Education to establish support services for autistic children entering the school system. She travelled across Manitoba assisting families and schools, and spoke about her seminal work at national conferences. She retired in 1993 and, in 2021, moved to a cabin at Steep Rock then, two years later, to an apartment in Winnipeg.
She died at Winnipeg on 6 December 2025 and was buried in the St. George’s Anglican Cemetery near Woodlands.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 18 April 2026.
We thank Keven Van Camp for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 4 May 2026
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