Memorable Manitobans: Mary A. Wawrykow (1911-1977)

Lawyer, judge.

Born at Wakaw, Saskatchewan on 30 October 1911, daughter of Ukrainian immigrant farmers Mykyta Zakus and Anna Wytrykush, she attended the University of Manitoba Law School then practiced law from an office in her home, being the first female lawyer of Ukrainian descent in Canada. She retired from legal practice after her marriage and was raising three young children when she was widowed in 1960. Returning to work, she was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1965 and Judge of the Winnipeg Juvenile and Family Court in 1968. In 1975 she was appointed Judge responsible for the Provincial Judges’ Court of Winnipeg.

Believing that “community service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living upon this earth,” she served on the boards of numerous organizations. She was on the Advisory Board of the Holy Family Home, a member of the Dominion Executive of the Ukrainian Canadian Women’s Council, the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Winnipeg, the Board of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League, the Children’s Aid Society of Winnipeg, the Board of the United Way, the City of Winnipeg Housing Corporation, and the Manitoba Association for Equality in Education. She was Vice-Chairman of the Driver’s Licensing Appeal Board.

In 1955 she was named “Woman of the Year” by the Winnipeg Tribune. She received the Community Service Award of the City of Winnipeg (1965), the Centennial Medal from the Secretary of State (1967), the Shevchenko Medal from the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (1971), and the Human Relations Award from the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews (1976).

She died at Winnipeg on 15 April 1977 and was buried in All Saints Cemetery. A collection of her papers are in the “Archives of the Ukrainian Canadian Experience” at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

Sources:

“10 Manitoba lawyers on New Year’s list”, Winnipeg Free Press, 1 January 1965, page 6.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 18 April 1977.

Mary Kinnear (1992) “That there woman lawyer”: Women lawyers in Manitoba 1915-1970. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, volume 5, page 411.

We thank Marianne Wawrykow for providing additional information used in this profile.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 7 July 2012

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