Robert (Bob) Troy Blair was born on March 11, 1930 in Brandon, MB. His first six years were spent in Alexander, MB, where his father and uncle operated a grocery store. In 1936, his family moved to Souris, MB, where his father ran a grocery store. Blair received his primary and high school education, with the exception of Grade 12, in Souris.
Blair remembers his school years in Souris as mainly happy years. He was involved with both piano and organ music lessons. he was never interested in physical sports with the exception of golf. World War II broke out in September of 1939. Souris became the site of #17 SFTS and home base for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Many of the service men came from England, Australia and New Zealand. Blair's mother always entertained at least two for dinner every Sunday. Rationing of sugar, tea and coffee, butter and meat became a way of life. Blair had the job every Saturday of pasting the ration coupons into booklets. It was also when he was in Grade 6, that Blair realized he was more attracted to boys than to girls. Perhaps it was because so many attractive airmen surrounded him!
In November of 1947, the Blair family relocated to Alexander where Bob Blair finished his Grade 11. This was not a good year due to bullying. In September of 1948, Blair moved to Winnipeg to attend United College for his Grade 12. Upon completion of Grade 12, Blair remained in Winnipeg until June 1950. he worked at a number of businesses - Gestetner, Eaton's Mail Order shoe department, Maple Leaf Milling, and the drug store in the Medical Arts Building. In September 1950, he entered Brandon College. Blair was very active in extra-curricular affairs while at Brandon College; particularly drama. Following his B.A. he enrolled in the Education Faculty, having decided to become a teacher.
Blair's teaching career spanned 34 years. All but one year was spent in the Brandon School Division. On his first day of teaching in the Division he met the man with whom he would spend the next 46 years. He was primarily a teacher of English and Music. A highlight of his career was exchange teaching in Sacramento, California in 1961. Orientation for exchange took place in August in Washington, D.C., where Blair had the opportunity to meet President J.F. Kennedy. He vividly recals the morning that JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963. In September 1965, Blair assumed the principalship of Park School and in September of 1969, the same position at George Fitton School where re remained until his retirement in 1989. He was a member of the Brandon Picnipals' Association, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and servedas President of the Brandon Teachers' Association. Among his major accomplishments during his time as principal were the introduction of a centralized school library in both Park and George Fitton Schools and the integration of special needs students into regular classroom situations wherever possible. He was made a Life Member of the Manitoba Teachers' Society (Brandon) in June 1990. Following his retirement Blair worked as a Library Automation Consultant (1989-1993).
Blair also had numerous community involvements during his time in Brandon. he was active in the Brandon Little Theatre (Best Actor Award, Manitoba Drama Festival for One Act Plays in 1963), the Brandon Festival of the Arts, the Eckhardt-Gramatte National Music Competition, and Arm Industries to name a few.
Following the death of his partner in 2001, Blair moved to Saskatoon to live with a younger gay couple. He has been active in volunteerism: as an Ambassador for the Saskatoon Airport Authority, assistant with the Saskatoon Health Region's Immunization Clinics, information clerk for the Festival of Trees, data entry clerk for the Saskatoon Music Festival, on the Board of the Saskatoon Jazz Society, and Hospitality Coordinator for the Saskatoon Jazz Festival.
Robert Troy Blair died on July 2, 2024 in Saskatoon, SK. He is buried in Brandon, MB.
Custodial History
Records were in Blair's possession until he donated them to the Mckee Archives on Homecoming weekend October 2013.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of two scrapbooks containing 145 photographs and ephemera (play and graduation programs, tickets, pins, newspaper clippings) documenting Bob Blair's days at Brandon College. Social events and extra-curricular activities are heavily featured in the two scrapbooks. Also included are graduation portraits for the Classes of 1951, 1952 and 1953. Of the 145 photographs all are black and white except for two photos of the Class of '53 reconvocation (May 1993), and one from the Class of '53 reunion (2003).
70 b&w photographs (various sizes)
7 mm textual records
Physical Condition
Good
History / Biographical
Frances Elizabeth Percival (nee Fraser) attended Brandon College in 1928-1929. She was from Wawanesa, Manitoba and passed away on August 3, 2004 at the age of 93 years.
Custodial History
The records were donated to the McKee Archives by Joy Lalonde, a realtive of Fran Percival's, in 2005.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of three dance cards from the Brandon Normal School, a photograph album of Brandon College students and activities (many of them identified) and an autographed copy of the 1929 Brandon College Annual Graduation Program.
Bertha Miriam Clark was born on Prince Edward Island but attended public and high school in Brandon, MB. She was a member of the Class of 1929 and served as Lady Stick in her final year at Brandon College.
Clark married J. Scott Leith, Brandon College Class of 1928. Scott and Bertha Leith's son James Clark Leith is in the Canadian Who's Who.
Custodial History
Album was sent to Pat Britton, Brandon University Director of Alumni Relations, by Bertha Leith in April 1991. Britton then transferred it to the McKee Archives.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of a small accordian style photograph album (7 x 10.5 x 3.5 cm) created by Bertha Clark during her years at Brandon College. The photographs, which measure 4" x 2.75", depict numerous people and events.
Notes
History/Bio information taken from the 1928-1929 Sickle.
Photographs in the sub-series were transfered to the Archives from the Public Communications office on various dates.
Scope and Content
Sub-series consists photographs of students and faculty at convocation, as well as honorary degree and award recipients.
Repro Restriction
Brandon University holds copyright for these images. Permission from the University is required before the reproduction of any of the photographs in the sub-series.
Storage Location
Brandon University Photograph Collection
Series 1: Convocation, scholarships and awards
Stuckey left a variety of materials in his collection in an unsorted state. Rather than allocate those materials to one of the existing sub-series, the McKee Archives chose to artificially create this sub-series, which has been designated "unsorted materials."
For history/bio information for Lawrence Stuckey see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Scope and Content
Sub-series consists of photographic prints, photograph albums, postcards and negatives covering a variety of subjects including Brandon, ships, boats, threshermens' reunions, and rural Manitoba. Some of the prints correspond with negatives held in other sub-series in the Stuckey collection. If possible, the connection between the print and negative has been made at the item level. Some of the items are original and quite rare.
The dates given for many of the prints in this sub-series refer to the date the photograph was taken and not the date the print was made from the original negative.
Notes
Unidentifiable photographs not taken by Lawrence Stuckey and redundant prints were culled.
Repro Restriction
The McKee Archives is the copyright holder for the Stuckey materials.
For history/bio information see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Custodial History
For custodial history see the collection level description of the Lawrence Stuckey collection.
Scope and Content
This sub-series consists of photographic negatives related to the history of Brandon, Manitoba.
All of the images contained within this sub-series were part of Mr. Stuckey’s lifelong personal collection of photographic negatives and prints. Images include those related to people, street scapes, buildings, various city departments and so forth.
Notes
All of the images from Mr. Stuckey’s collection of negatives and prints were reproduced and digitized using an Epson scanner and software suite. All attempts have been made to reproduce the images in such a manner that balances our desire to portray the negatives and photographs as they originally appear, with the need to create an optimal digital image for viewing. Therefore it is noted that minor alterations to image size and contrast have occurred.
With few exceptions, all digitizing and database entry of images and descriptions was conducted during the summer of 2009 at Brandon University by Patrick Elves.
Repro Restriction
The McKee Archives is the copyright holder for the Stuckey materials.
Storage Location
Lawrence Stuckey collection
Arrangement
Unless otherwise noted, the arrangement of these images was drawn from the original classification scheme used by Mr. Stuckey.
The information specific to each image, for the most part, was gained from Mr. Stuckey’s personal notes regarding that particular photograph or similar photograph. Observations or notes contained within square brackets are explanatory or missing materials that have been added by someone other than Mr. Stuckey.
We have attempted to present the information that accompanies each image in the same format as was used by Mr. Stuckey himself.
Subseries 1 - Brandon History
A. People
B. Bridges
C. Streets
D. Buildings
E. Business
F. Fire Dept.
G. Hospitals
H. Industries
I. Streetcars
J. Utilities
K. Construction
L. Transportation (other than rail)
M. Exhibition
N. Misc. History
O. Environs
P. Railroads
