Released on September 28, 1998
Five citizens have been appointed to the Saskatchewan Order of Merit,
the province's highest honour, for 1998.
The announcement was made by Lieutenant-Governor John Wiebe,
chancellor of the order, and Ted Turner, recently appointed by Premier
Roy Romanow as chairperson of the Saskatchewan Honours Advisory
Council, which recommends the recipients of the order annually.
The 1998 recipients are:
Isabelle Butters, of Weyburn, retired business person and former
mayor of the city;
Dr. Constantine Campbell, of Ottawa, agricultural research
scientist, formerly at the Agriculture Canada research centre in
Swift Current;
Roger Carter, of Saskatoon, retired law professor and founder of
the Native Law Centre at the University of Saskatchewan;
John Green, of Regina, former president of Saskatchewan
Government Insurance and pioneer in public automobile insurance;
and
Savella Stechishin, of Saskatoon, long-standing author,
journalist and women's leader in the Ukrainian-Canadian
community.
The lieutenant-governor will confer the order on the five recipients
at an investiture ceremony in Regina on October 28.
Including the five new members, the 79 appointments to the order
since 1985 have recognized contributions in the arts,
agriculture, business, the professions, research and education,
public service, community leadership and volunteer service.
Volunteer service is more particularly recognized in the
province's second honour, the Saskatchewan Volunteer Medal,
established in 1995.
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For more information, contact:
Michael Jackson, Secretary
Saskatchewan Honours Advisory Council
Protocol Office
Regina
Phone: (306) 787-3109
NOTE: Biographies and telephone numbers of recipients are
attached. Recipients are willing to be interviewed.
SASKATCHEWAN ORDER OF MERIT
Biographies of 1998 Recipients
Isabelle Butters
Isabelle Butters has been involved in civic, provincial and national activities for forty years. Born in Weyburn in 1929, she had a successful business career with the Weyburn Cooperative Association, beginning as an office assistant and attaining the position of general manager. She was active in municipal politics in Weyburn, serving as alderman for twelve years and mayor from 1976 to 1982. She is well known for her community and charitable work in the United
Church, the Weyburn Arts Council, United Appeal, Chamber of Commerce, Community Health Council, Arthritis Society, of which she has served as president, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, of which she is the current provincial president. She served for 13 years on the Public Service Commission Appeal Board.
Ms. Butters' leadership is particularly evident in her contribution to literacy and the development of libraries in Saskatchewan. As chair of the Weyburn Public Library Board, she has led the board through a successful fund-raising campaign to computerize the library. She has also served on the Saskatchewan Library Board and the Southeast Regional Library Board, of which she is currently chair. She is also president of the Saskatchewan Library Trustees
Association. She played a key role in provincial committees developing strategic plans for resource-sharing and information technology for all Saskatchewan libraries. In 1980 Ms. Butters was named Citizen of the Year by the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce and was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 1998 she received an award for Lifetime Achievement of Women of Distinction by the YWCA.
Telephone (306) 842-3106, Swift Current
Dr. Constantine Campbell
Born in 1934 in Jamaica, Constantine Campbell moved to Canada in 1955 and earned degrees in agricultural chemistry and soil science at the Ontario Agricultural College, then his Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1965. Almost all his career was spent as a research scientist at the Agriculture Canada Research Centre at Swift Current until 1997, when he moved to Ottawa and a pre-retirement position at the Agriculture Canada central experimental farm. Dr. Campbell's main
interest has been soil research related to dryland farming in the Canadian prairies. He was head of the soils and environment section and program leader for the soil management and conservation program at the Swift Current centre from 1975 to 1990. He was also adjunct professor in soil science at the University of Saskatchewan.
Dr. Campbell's research has helped make dryland farming more productive and sustainable. His studies of soil fertility and organic matter decline have shown how soil degradation can be reversed. He has studied a wide range of crop and soil management issues and is known for his ability to interpret his findings to producers and industry. He has an international reputation for team-work with other scientists, contributions to textbooks and conferences, supervision of graduate students, and has published numerous articles and books. Dr. Campbell was made a Fellow of the
Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1988, a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy in 1993, and a Member of the Order of Canada in 1997. Active in the community, he has played on the national Canadian Cricket Team.
Telephone (613) 759-1536 office, 247-1279 residence
Roger Carter
Born in Moose Jaw in 1922, Roger Carter received his law degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a master's degree from the University of Michigan. He practised law in Saskatoon from 1947 to 1963 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1958. In 1963 Mr. Carter
joined the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan; he was dean of the college from 1968 to 1974. In 1973 he launched the summer Program of Legal Studies for Native People, which prepares Aboriginal people for the study of law, and in 1975 opened the Native Law Centre, a centre of research and publications which administers the program. Mr. Carter remained director of the centre until 1981. He is respected for his strong commitment to social justice and his dedication to the advancement of the Aboriginal peoples. On retirement from the university in 1989 he was named professor emeritus of law.
Roger Carter has played a decisive role in opening the legal profession to Aboriginal people. When he started the summer law program in 1973 there were four lawyers of Aboriginal ancestry
in Canada; there are now 600, two-thirds of whom are graduates of the program. Many are judges, lawyers and politicians, well known nationally and internationally. Mr. Carter received an honorary doctorate of laws from Queen's University in 1981. In 1989 he became the first non-Aboriginal person to be named a Companion of the Order of Gabriel Dumont by the Metis community and to be made an honorary member of the Indigenous Bar Association. In 1992 he received an Award for Excellence in Race Relations from the federal Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.
Telephone (306) 652-9532, Saskatoon
John Green
Born in Yorkshire, England, in 1915, emigrating to Canada in 1935, John Green studied law at the Universities of Saskatchewan and Berkeley. He worked for the Saskatchewan Reconstruction Council at the end of the Second World War and in 1945 began a career as legal advisor with Saskatchewan Government Insurance in Regina. He served as general counsel in the 1960s and in 1973 became general manager of SGI (a position now known as president), where he remained until
retirement in 1980. Mr. Green was responsible for drafting the Automobile Accident Insurance Act in 1945 and for introducing the first compensation plan for personal injury irrespective of fault,
which developed into the first comprehensive auto insurance plan in North America. During his time at SGI Mr. Green achieved an international reputation for his pioneering and innovative work
in public auto insurance, setting examples and standards closely followed in other jurisdictions. He continued to advise SGI on major policy issues after his retirement.
A blind person himself, John Green has provided volunteer leadership to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, including terms as chair of the South Saskatchewan board, assisting the visually-impaired to participate in the work force and social and cultural opportunities. He has been active in the Canadian Bar Association, Scouts, the United Way, and the Lions' Club, where he was district governor in 1972-73, and received their Melvin Jones Fellowship award in 1991 for humanitarian service. Mr. Green was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1980.
Telephone (306) 586-8592, Regina
Savella Stechishin
A leader in the Canadian Ukrainian community, Savella Stechishin was born in 1903 in western Ukraine, emigrating to Canada in 1913, where her family homesteaded near Saskatoon. She took Ukrainian studies at the Mohyla Institute in Saskatoon and teacher training at the Saskatoon Normal School. In 1930 Mrs. Stechishin received a Home Economics degree from the University of Saskatchewan, the first Ukrainian woman to graduate from that university and the first in Canada to receive a home economics degree. She continued her innovative work by initiating the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada in 1927, serving as its president for ten years during which it grew to 150 branches across the country. In 1936 she co-founded the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, which now has five branches, including the main museum in Saskatoon, and displays many items donated by Mrs. Stechishin from her family's personal collection.
Savella Stechishin was also a journalist and author. Columnist and women's page editor for the Ukrainian Voice for twenty-five years, she wrote on nutrition and health in Ukrainian publications for the federal government during the Second World War. She is author or co-author of several books on Ukrainian culture and in 1957 published Traditional Ukrainian Cookery, now in its eighteenth printing. Active in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, she received an honorary doctorate of canon law from St. Andrew's College, University of Manitoba, in 1976. Mrs. Stechishin was named woman of the year by the Saskatchewan Council of Women and Ukrainian Canadian Committee in 1975 and was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1989.
Telephone c/o Mary Chernesky, (306) 374-9739, Saskatoon
