Endowments

Nancy Leatherdale was born in Vancouver in 1915. She grew up in what is now Kerrisdale, and at the early age of 16 was already helping a neighbor with music. She graduated from McGee High school, then went on to get her Registered Nursing degree at Vancouver General Hospital in 1937. After a very short posting to Alert Bay, she returned to Vancouver when her father died. Subsequently she met Ken Leatherdale and they were married in 1939, establishing a home in Point Grey. Together they raised four children.

Nancy also developed a keen interest in music. She obtained certification as an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT), joined the Vancouver Women’s Music Society, and maintained an active role in teaching music and organizing musical events.

In 1971, Ken and Nancy retired to Salmon Arm. There was a shortage of music teachers here at that time, so she quickly accumulated a full roster of students in voice and piano, ranging from beginners to full degree-level coaching.

Drawing on her contacts on the Vancouver music scene she began to host guest performers at “living room concerts” on her grand piano. Musical recitals were also a regular occurrence in their home. One noteworthy event was when she talked the performers of the only double-ended harpsichord in Canada into bringing it to Salmon Arm for a performance. In her early eighties, Nancy decided to broaden her musical horizons and took up the cello.

She was instrumental in pulling the musical community together to join with other artists to form what is now known as the Shuswap District Arts Council and was a motivating force behind getting a grand piano for the Arts Centre, rather than renting for each event.

She is a longstanding supporter of the Shuswap Music Festival as well as the Shuswap Men’s Chorus. In fact, at the age of 90, when she discovered that several of the men in the chorus were memorizing their music because they could not read it, she took them in hand and held weekly tutoring sessions until they were all proficient in reading music. It was only due to failing eyesight that she decided to curtail her teaching.

Nancy has established this fund so that future performing music students can get financial help in furthering their excellence.

Mary Belle Jean Fowler was born in New Westminster, BC and raised in the Dunbar area of Vancouver. She met Reid Fowler while they were both attending UBC, and they married in 1961. After stints in Saskatoon and Victoria, Reid and Mary arrived in Salmon Arm in 1970, with their children, son Malcolm and daughter Norma Jean. Reid had accepted a position as a Math and Physics professor at Okanagan College, where he taught until his retirement in 2000. Mary chose to be a homemaker, looking after their home and the children. She loved gardening and was an excellent cook. As a very competent, highly organized secretary, she had worked in Saskatoon assisting the Director of Cancer Research and continued secretarial work in Salmon Arm on a part-time basis after the children had begun school. She was employed at the Salmon Arm Health Unit for short periods of time, and also worked for the Simon Fraser University Teacher Training Program.

A lifetime member of the Shuswap Lake Health-Care Auxiliary, Mary was a driving force behind the Youth Health Care (Candy Striper-Cadet) program and worked directly with the young volunteers for many years. Over the years she held every executive position on the Auxiliary, some several times. Mary also served as a member of the local Hospital Board. She was an active member of many other community organizations, including the Shuswap Outdoors Club, of which she was a charter member.

She and Reid both decided to learn to play the trombone when their children were in high school and played with Rich Thorne’s “Bonehead Band”(as they called it), later joining the Salmon Arm Community Band together with daughter Norma. However, Mary’s first love was choral music, and she sang with the Shuswap Singers for over 30 years.

With their children actively involved in music during their school years, Mary and Reid became aware of a sub culture in the world of music, equivalent to that of athletes seeking excellence in their chosen sport. Although taught music in schools as part of the curriculum, many students pursued their musical choices mainly outside the school system, taking private lessons, travelling to adjudicated competitions, and always striving to become the best at what they did. As parents and grandparents of music-loving children, they knew what costs were involved in allowing children to reach their full potential.

With Mary’s untimely death in May of 2009, the family chose to honour and commemorate Mary’s life by establishing the Fowler/Gomme Family Endowment Fund. Many friends and family have donated to this fund, which was initiated by Reid. Malcolm and his wife Mary-Ann donated in the name of their daughter Meghan, as did Norma Jean & Graham Gomme in the names of their children, Hannah and Reid. The income from the fund will be given each year as a scholarship to Shuswap Music Festival Society, with preference given to excellence in vocal performance.

GERTRUDE – APRIL 1, 1918 TO JUNE 2, 2000
LUDWIG– JULY 19, 1908 TO APRIL 1, 2002

In 1974 Gertrude and Ludwig Klein chose Salmon Arm as their retirement home, and for over a quarter of a century they enjoyed living in the Shuswap. They loved their flower and vegetable gardens, their friends and the community. This idyllic home did not stop them from taking trips to other parts of the world, but they were always happy to return to “heaven on Earth,” as Ludwig liked to call Salmon Arm.

Ludwig was born in Gross-Zimmern (near Frankfurt) in Germany. He grew up on a small farm where he developed his love and understanding of nature. As well, he was passionately involved in sport, gymnastics, and coaching young athletes. He lived through two world wars, and developed a strong pacifist attitude and an environmental consciousness.

In 1952, he decided to leave Germany, and immigrated to a new life in Canada. He went first to a job in St. John’s Newfoundland and saved his wages to allow his family to join him. When his young family arrived in 1953 they settled in Montreal and started life with the three trunks that contained all their possessions. Here Ludwig continued to practice his trade as a master toolmaker.

The first years of immigrant life were difficult–learning the language and adapting to strange customs in a new land. Those years were filled with hard work and a conserving life- style that remained with them all their lives. The entire family worked together to build their future in Canada.

Gertrude was born in Schifferstadt, and was raised in Ludwigshafen, Germany. She had a wonderful youth creating works of art with wool, yarn, and fabric; travelling by bicycle and car and going to concerts, operas and balls. She loved to dance. Gertrude also loved to drive her car and had a 64-year impeccable driving record. In Montreal she embarked on a busy career supervising a chain of bakery stores located all over the Island. Through her tolerant nature and love of the arts, especially music, Gertrude gave her family life-long gifts. Ludwig was a man ahead of his time, an inventor who loved to solve problems–he wanted to improve people’s lives. Both Gertrude and Ludwig showed their all-consuming love for peace and nature by treating everyone with respect and treading gently upon the Earth.

The example of their dignified lives filled with a sense of duty, self-reliance, honest and hard work, integrity, compassion, love and respect for others as well as the Earth and its gifts, is their legacy. In honour of Gertrude and Ludwig’s gentle, creative and caring lives, a memorial fund has been set up with the Shuswap Foundation to support in perpetuity projects advancing Peace, the Environment and the Arts.

Georgina Lazzarotto was born at Rhydyfelin, South Wales in 1940.  She grew up in the small village in Pontypridd, Wales, where she sang in church and school choirs.

In 1964 Georgina came to Canada answering an advertisement for nurses in Saskatchewan. In the early 1970s she worked in remote northern First Nations villages, developing a wonderful relationship with the Cree people.

In 1973 Georgina married an RCMP, later moving with husband Lorne to Regina and raising two sons.  She developed a further love of music directing church choirs in Regina as well as Williams Lake when they moved there in 1986.  She directed choirs for a total of 35 years.

In Williams Lake she took voice lessons, obtained her licentiate in voice and became a vocal teacher from 1990 – 2012.  Georgina served on the Board of the Cariboo Music Festival for 15 years coordinating all vocal entries.  She continued her nursing career at Cariboo Memorial Hospital and later taught home support courses for a resident care program.

In a professional recording studio in Vancouver, Georgina performed a dozen of her favorite songs with accompaniment of a classical pianist. The CD produced was given as a memento of Georgina’s love for music and a beautiful gift for family and friends.

After moving to Salmon Arm, Georgina became the Venue Director on the Board of the Shuswap Music Festival Society, where she served for 5 years until her passing in 2018.

The Shuswap Music Festival Society awards 2 scholarships in memory of Georgina for excellence in vocal performance in a foreign language.