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Authority record
Woolgar, Didi
Person · 1912-2002

Didi was born Mary Madeleine Skublics March 29, 1914 in Czechoslovakia, the eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Jan Skublics from Vesels. Educated in Lausanne, Vienna, and Dresden, Didi married Canadian William (Billy) Yule Stuart, a family friend, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. They had a daughter Jean in 1939, who lived with Didi's parents during WWII. Didi helped open the "Canada House" Royal Canadian Air Forces leave center in Cairo in the spring of 1943, and managed it until February 1945. Billy Stuart died in action on June 9, 1943. In 1945 Didi met Jake Woolgar at the Canada House while he was on leave.

Didi came to Winnipeg in the spring of 1945 to visit Billy Stuart's friends and family, and it was there that Jake Woolgar met her again and proposed to her. They moved to Yellowknife and were married the same day, August 10, 1945. Didi became quite active in the arts and handicrafts community in Yellowknife, and was once president of the Yellowknife Guild of Crafts.

Described as an "artist, craftsman and sophisticate", Didi was well known for her drawings and paintings of northern flora. She had exhibitions in Ottawa and New York, and had two paintings presented to the Duke of Edinburgh.

Didi died June 9, 2002.

Sources (in Vertical File): "The vivid world of Didy Woolgar." Imperial Oil Review, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 1960, p 37.
"The lady of the soapstone." Family Herald and Weekly Star, November 25, 1954, p 42, 45.
"From Cairo to Yellowknife." Mayfair, November 1945, p 82, 83, 108.

Wood, Raymond (family)
Family

Raymond and Mildred Wood were amateur botanists interested in photographing and collecting flowers indigenous to the Arctic. They made four trips to the north between 1956 and 1959 the first being to Churchill, Manitoba. They also visited Baker Lake, Coppermine and Herschel Island, Yukon. They left Edmonton in June 24, 1959 and after spending several days at the school residence in Aklavik, arrived at Herschel Island on July 2, 1959. During their stay, they lived with the officers stationed at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) detachment. They left Herschel Island on July 17, 1959. The purpose of the trip was to photograph and collect flowers that grew on the island.

Wilson, Harold
Person

Harold S. Wilson, along with party members Kenneth McIntyre (Ken) Dewar, J.B. (Barney) Muirhead, and John Thomson explored the region which includes the Thelon and Hanbury rivers as a member of the Nipissing Mining Co. Ltd. exploration team sent north in the early summer of 1928. The Nipissing Mining Co. Ltd. would later conduct geological exploration in the Rankin Inlet area (1936-1939) but had no part in the mine which was built in the 1950s. Wilson and party's journey is known for the discovery of the bodies of John Hornby, Edgar Christian, and Harold Adlard, who had starved to death in the spring of 1927. They also discovered Hornby's handwritten note in a cairn at the site of his log cabin. The following year, 1929, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police returned to the cabin, as is written in the Winnipeg Free Press article from that summer.

Wilson, David
Person · 1912-1990

David Scott Wilson was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1912. He was the principal of the Federal Day School in Coppermine (Kugluktuk) from September 1954 to June 1956. He also taught in Frobisher Bay (Iqaluit) from September 1956 to June 1957. He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia on October 29, 1990.

Willing, Leonard
Person

Leonard Willing worked as an assayer at Negus Mine from 1938 to 1952.

Williamson, Paul
Person

Paul Williamson was a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) employee who transferred from Portage La Loche, Saskatchewan to Yellowknife. He remained in Yellowknife from 1939 until 1940.

Whittaker, Edward
Person · [ca. 1893]-1924

Edward Whittaker (born ca. 1893), was educated in Ottawa. He married Bertha Winnifred Robertson on August 16, 1916. Between 1917 and 1921, Whittaker travelled in the Peace River region and in the Northwest Territories, as a geologist for the federal government. He died on September 24, 1924 as the result of a fall.

White, Wendell
Person

Wendell White's research into Nahanni history began as a classroom social studies project while he was teaching in the village of Nahanni Butte from 1978 to 1980. The project intended to provide the students with knowledge of their Dene traditions and culture. Village elders were recorded telling their stories and answering questions in the classroom. Recordings were also made of interviews outside the classroom. Mr. White collected other materials such as interviews with Euro-Canadian inhabitants of Nahanni, concerning their relation to the local Indigenous population. The intention was to turn the completed project over to the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Education, but this was not pursued due to the size and the cost of the project. In 1984, Wendell White approached Parks Canada with the material. The result was "The Birth of Nahanni--"Nahande Beguli: A local History of the People of Nahanni Butte" by Wendell White, published by Environment Canada, Parks, Ottawa, 1984.

Corporate body

The Western Arctic New Democratic Party was formed in 1971 as the Northwest Territories New Democratic Party. The purpose and objectives of the party were to develop and promote programs and a set of principles for the New Democratic Party consistent with the Federal Party program and suitable to the Northwest Territories; to organize the activities of the members of the New Democratic Party in the Northwest Territories and to fully involve women and aboriginal people in the operation and activities of the New Democratic Party in the Northwest Territories. In 1983, the citizens of the Northwest Territories supported a plebiscite on the division and formation of two autonomous territories within the Northwest Territories. At this time, the New Democratic Party of Canada created two separated provincial sections from the Northwest Territories based at the time on the federal riding division boundary. Wally Firth was the first New Democrat Party member to become a Member of Parliament. He was first elected in 1972 and again in 1974. There are no Territorial level parties represented in the Legislative Assembly.

Webster, Geddes
Person

Geddes Murray Webster moved to Yellowknife in 1946, where he began working as a mining consultant. In 1947, he was appointed as a Mining Recorder and then as an Assistant Mining Inspector for the Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources. During his employment with the Federal government, he was responsible for monitoring approximately 320 mining companies and syndicates that were actively engaged in exploration and development in the Northwest Territories. During his career, he was also a member of the Ontario Securities Commission and a partner of Wisener and Partners. Geddes later established his own company, Geddes Resources Limited, which was based in Toronto. Geddes' other interests included woodworking and writing. He published a book in 2007, entitled "The Prospectors' Pick: The People of the Yellowknife Gold Boom 1936-1951".

Geddes was married to Ruth and had three children. He passed away November 10, 2012, in his 95th year.

Watts, Milton
Person

Milton Watts worked for the federal Department of Transport from 1950 to 1987. His early career included postings in Smith River, BC; Cambridge Bay; Medicine Hat; and Edmonton. He was Officer in Charge of the aeradio station in Norman Wells from August 1958 to May 1959. In 1959 he was promoted to Regional Office Radio Technician, a job which included maintenance, installation, and construction of radio systems in a variety of locations, including a number of former Royal Canadian Corps of Signals stations which had been handed over to the Department of Transport. Later, Mr. Watts coordinated the installation of electronic systems in the new Calgary airport terminal, and eventually ended his career as the Regional Supervisor of Technical Administration and Construction.

Watt, Erik
Person · 1927-2003

Erik Watt was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on March 4, 1927. He first came to the Northwest Territories in 1943, when he traveled the Mackenzie River. He returned to the north in 1956 as a reporter for the Edmonton Journal. When he left the Edmonton Journal in 1959, he was hired by the Winnipeg Free Press and continued to work in the north as a northern reporter until 1962. During his years as a journalist in the north, he had the opportunity to visit many communities in the Northwest Territories and in northern Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec. He made a photographic record of his travels through the north. His work as a journalist took him to small communities in the eastern arctic such as Cape Dorset, developing communities in the west such as Inuvik, and gave him access to Distant Early Warning (DEW) line sites across the north. Erik Watt moved to Yellowknife in 1976 and was the editor of the Yellowknifer (1976-1978), the regional manager and director for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (1978-1983), and the founding editor of Up Here magazine (1984-1985). Between 1985 and 1998, he was self-employed as a public relations and media consultant with his company, Erik Watt and Associates. Erik Watt died November 10, 2003.

Vittrekwa, Enna
Person · January 22, 1950 -

Enna Rose Vittrekwa is a Gwich'in language expert. She was born to William and Mary Vittrekwa in Fort McPherson on January 22, 1950. Enna was employed as an interpreter-translator for the Government of the NWT, Department of Culture and Communications from 1982-1990. She provided translation and interpretation to the GNWT and the public, and worked on Dene language standardization. She has also worked for CKLB Radio in Yellowknife, the Gwich'in Language Centre in Fort McPherson, as well as a language instructor in high schools in Whitehorse.

Vaudrack, Paul
Person · 1890-1975

Paul Vaudrack, AKA Voudrach or Vaudrak, (1890-1975) was born Paul Voedjin Tchiatsell in March 1890 at Tsiigehtchic [Arctic Red River]. His father was Simon Voedzjin (1851-1895) and his mother was Noelia Thell’ya (1862-1901). Paul had three sisters and one brother.

At the time of his father’s death in 1895, Paul and his family lived with a group of people who lived on the land. Until his mother’s death six years later, the family travelled with this group of people between Dawson, Yukon and Arctic Red River, N.W.T. In 1903, Paul met the priest at Arctic Red River who recommended that Paul, his younger sister and brother go to the Mission in Fort Providence. At Fort Providence, Paul went to school and worked for the Mission for three years. He learned primarily French and later English at school. In 1906, Bishop Breynat asked Paul to move to Fort Resolution with him where Paul worked at the Mission sawmill for two years. Paul left Fort Resolution at age 18 to live on the land, and went back to the mountains to hunt for big game with a group of people.

Paul married Magdeleine Kotchile (? – 1932?) in Fort Good Hope. They had three children, one of whom died in infancy. Paul Vaudrack died at the Inuvik hospital on August 21, 1975.

Paul was a storyteller, recounting and recording many traditional Gwich’in, Slavey and Athapaskan stories. He recorded stories with researchers Hiroko Sue and Janice (Hurlbert) March in 1961, which were published by Ronald Cohen and Helgi Osterreich in 1967 in the National Museum of Canada’s Contributions to Ethnology V: Bulletin 204. As well, he recorded stories through the 1960s with Father Rene Fumoleau.

van't Hoff, Robert
Person

Robert van't Hoff was born on September 21, 1923 in Calgary, Alberta. He received his undergraduate degree in Education and a Masters degree in Education from the University of Alberta. He came north in August 1946 with the Royal Canadian Signals Corps where he worked as a Signalman with the Northwest Territories and Yukon Radio System. While in the north, he lived in the communities of Port Radium, Norman Wells and Yellowknife. He left the north in May 1948 and pursued careers as a civil servant, teacher, accountant, insurance agent and commissionaire. He retired in Edmonton where he lives with his wife of 46 years.