Mairuth Hodge Sarsfield, CQ (6 March 1930 – 7 May 2013)[1] was a Canadian activist, diplomat,[2] journalist, researcher and television personality,[3] as well as an accomplished broadcaster, civil servant, and best-selling author.[1][4]

Biography

Sarsfield was born in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal to parents Anne Packwood and Dan Vaughan and raised by her mother.[1] She received her degree from Sir George Williams College and McGill University, and later studied at Columbia University and the University of Ghana. She worked as host for the CBC, CTV, and TVOntario. For Canada's External Affairs Department, she worked on projects such as Expo 67 in Montreal and Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan, where she organized the Canadian pavilion, for the respective world Expos. As a senior information officer for the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, she developed and launched a worldwide campaign known as "For Every Child a Tree". She was also posted to Washington and New York. She returned to Canada in 1984, and served on the board of governors at the CBC.[2]

Her novel No Crystal Stair[2] was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2005, championed by Olympic fencer Sherraine MacKay.

Mairuth was the mother of Jeremy Hodge (deceased 1979) and noted Canadian pioneering film-maker Jennifer Hodge de Silva (deceased 1989).

Awards and honours

She won numerous awards for theme coordination at World's Fair pavilions for Canada, and has been awarded with the Chevalier a L'Ordre National du Quebec in 1986, the National Congress of Black Women Foundation's First Literary Award, for No Crystal Stair, as well as 'Mairuth Sarsfield Day' by the city of Cleveland for her work with the United Nations in Nairobi.

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 Renzetti, Elizabeth (13 June 2013). "Mairuth Sarsfield: From Little Burgundy to Expo 67". The Globe & Mail. Toronto. p. S7.
  2. 1 2 3 Heritage, Canadian (1 February 2021). "Noteworthy historical figures". www.canada.ca.
  3. ↑ "Mairuth SARSFIELD Obituary: View Mairuth SARSFIELD's Obituary by Ottawa Citizen". Legacy.com. 7 May 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  4. ↑ "Mairuth Sarsfield wrote eloquently about Black multiculturalism". ronfanfair.com.
  5. ↑ Marsters, Jack (27 December 1961). "Dial Turns". The Gazette. Montreal. p. 11.
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