William Walkem, physician and brother of B.C. Premier George Walkem, was born in Montreal. He graduated from medical school at McGill University in 1873. While a student, Walkem served as a reporter for Montreal newspapers. Later he sailed as a seaman to Britain where he tried unsuccessfully to join the Carlist forces in Spain. On his return to Canada, he married and went to British Columbia to serve as secretary to his brother. He was briefly editor of the Victoria Daily Standard, medical officer for Victoria, for Nanaimo, and for various mining and milling companies, and he served as an MLA for Nanaimo South from 1894 to 1898.

George Anthony Boomer Walkem was a British Columbian politician and jurist. Born in Newry, Ireland, Walkem moved to then Colony of British Columbia in 1862 and served as a member of the Colonial Assembly (Cariboo East and Quesnel Forks District) from 1864 to 1866 and the appointed Legislative Council (Cariboo) from 1866 to 1870. He was a supporter of Canadian Confederation. With the admission of the colony into Canada, Walkem was elected to the provincial legislature from the riding of Cariboo in 1871 and became attorney general in the cabinet of Premier Amor De Cosmos and succeeded him to become the third premier of British Columbia.

Walkem's government pressured Ottawa to meet its commitment to build a railway to the Pacific Ocean but was initially unsuccessful. Walkem fought the 1875 election facing charges that he had failed to secure railway construction and had increased the province's debts by engaging in expensive public works projects. The government was re-elected with a reduced majority but he was also accused of plunging the province into debt by engaging in public works that it could ill afford (see Lillooet Cattle Trail). Nevertheless, his government was returned, albeit with a reduced majority but grievances continued.

The Walkem government's financial difficulties mounted and his government lost a Motion of No Confidence in early 1876 and was replaced by a new government formed by Andrew Charles Elliott with Walkem becoming Leader of the Opposition. Elliot's government was unstable and collapsed within two years leading to early elections which allowed Walkem to form a second government in 1878 as the fifth premier, with a comfortable majority.

The new Walkem government opposed "cheap Chinese labour" and inserted a clause banning the hiring of Chinese workers in all its contracts. The government also attempted to levy a special tax restricted to Chinese which was struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada. In the election campaign Walkem had threatened to lead British Columbia out of confederation if the federal government did not commence construction of the promised railway by 1879. The provincial government appealed directly to London resulting in the British government pressuring Ottawa to fulfill the deal.

In 1882, Walkem narrowly survived a Motion of No Confidence due to rising costs of a project to build a dock on Vancouver Island but lost the subsequent election due to hostility from Islanders who had a disproportionate number of seats in the legislature and thus were able to bring down the Walkem government.

Walkem was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia upon retiring from politics in 1882, sitting on the court until his retirement in 1904.

He is interred in the Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, British Columbia.

Administrative history unavailable.

Born Jennie Wah Chong in 1872 in Portland, Oregon, the family moved to Canada in 1875. Her father established Wah Chong Laundry in Vancouver before the city came into being in 1886. A well-known portrait of the family in front of the business (with Jennie on the far left holding a parasol) is in the photograph collection of the City of Vancouver Archives, included to help fill gaps in the visual record of the city.

Jennie was the first Chinese student to attend public school in early Vancouver. She was enrolled in the Hastings Sawmill School. Years later, another student who attended the school at the same time described Jennie as being “the daintiest little thing; such dainty feet.”

Jennie married well-known, local businessman GOON Ling Dang who owned a store in Chinatown called Jun Kee Co. They were an active couple in the Chinatown community: Goon was VP of the Chinese Empire Reform Association, while Jennie was a member of the Association’s Ladies group. The couple would have three children: a son named Tyson (Hung Get, b. 1896) who would work for The Chinese Times newspaper; another son (Hung Guen, b. 1898) who died within three months; and a daughter named Pearl (b. 1910).

Jennie died in 1921 at age 49 with gastric heart failure being a factor. At the time, she was living outside of Chinatown at 1778 East 7th Avenue. She was laid to rest in Mountain View Cemetery.

Goon Ling Dang remarried a year later, in 1922. By then he was 63 years old. 

Ian Waddell was born November 11, 1942 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Isabel and Jack Waddell. His family moved to Canada when he was a child. He received bachelors degrees in history and law from the University of Toronto, a teaching diploma from the Ontario College of Education, and a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics.

Waddell articled in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1967 and his career has remained rooted in the area. His early career focused on public interest law, spending a year as Assistant City Prosecutor and working in other positions dealing with traffic, family, and criminal law. He then succeeded the founder of the Community Legal Assistance Society, becoming the organization's Legal Director in 1972. He remained in the position for two years, and during that time litigated Canada’s first class action lawsuit. He was also involved in various government boards and commissions during this time.

From 1974 to 1977, Waddell served as special counsel for Justice Thomas R. Berger’s Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry.

Waddell's career then took a political turn, and he campaigned for election to the Canadian Parliament. As a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP), he served for 14 years as a Member of the Canadian Parliament, first representing the Vancouver Kingsway riding (1979-1988) and later Port Moody-Coquitlam (1988-1993). In this position, Waddell acted as NDP critic for environment and energy--notably during the National Energy Program--and participated in the Meech Lake Accord.

From 1996 to 2001, Waddell was elected to the British Columbia Legislature where he served as Minister of Tourism, Culture & Small Business, Minister of Environment, Lands & Parks, and Minister on Intergovernmental Affairs. His work included earning the 2010 Olympic bid and growing Vancouver’s involvement in the film industry.

Waddell also participated politically on the international stage. As a member of Parliamentarians for Global Action, he became involved with advocating for the International Criminal Court.

In 2013, Waddell was appointed Queen’s Counsel by the Attorney General of British Columbia. Following political life, Waddell has remained active in legal affairs as a legal and government consultant. In addition, he’s an author and film producer.

Olga Volkoff (née Okulitch) was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, in 1912. The Okulitchs fled during the 1917 Revolution, settling on a family farm in Abbotsford. Olga and her brothers George, Vladimir and Vladislav attended UBC. Olga was an outstanding student (B.A. 1933, M.A. 1935), majoring in bacteriology and microbiology and was an excellent scientist. She married George Volkoff in 1940, and while living in Montreal, she worked on the first commercial penicillin production. She later taught at UBC and did research in industrial mycology. Olga and George would enjoy almost sixty years of married life together, living off-campus in the University Hill neighbourhood. They had three daughters: Elizabeth, Alexandra, and Olga. Vladimir Okulitch became the first Dean of Science at UBC after the Faculty of Arts and Science was split in 1963; George Okulitch eventually became general manager of Dairyland, and Vladislav became manager of the Okulitch family farm.

George Michael Volkoff was a prominent theoretical physicist known for his pioneering work on neutron stars, his calculations for the design of the CANDU nuclear reactor during World War II, and his important role at the University of British Columbia as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. He was born in Moscow, Russia, on 23 February 1914. With his family, he emigrated to Canada when he was 10 years old – settling first in Winnipeg, then in Vancouver, where he attended Lord Roberts School. His father, Mikhail Mikhailovich Volkoff (spelled “Volkov” in Russia), was an engineer but could not find appropriate work in Canada. The family relocated to Harbin, Manchuria, in 1927, where George attended a Russian-language high school, and his father taught at a Russian technical school.
George returned to Vancouver in 1930 to attend the University of British Columbia, where he would earn a B.A. in physics in 1934, followed by an M.A. in 1936. He was a brilliant student, finishing top of his class in 1934 and winning the Governor-General’s Award. His mother died in Manchuria in 1928. His father returned to the Soviet Union in 1936, only to be caught up in the Stalinist purges of that period. In 1937 he was arrested and exiled to a work camp, where he died in 1940. Before this happened, however, he corresponded regularly with George. He also compiled his family history and collected various family documents, all of which he sent to his son before his arrest.
As a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, George wrote his pioneering paper, “On Massive Neutron Cores,” with J. Robert Oppenheimer as co-author. In this paper, he postulated the existence of neutron stars three decades before they were actually observed in nature. After earning his Ph.D. in physics at Berkeley in 1940, he continued to investigate topics in nuclear physics.
George returned to UBC in 1940 as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and, apart from his war work, remained there for the rest of his career – he was promoted to full professor in 1946. From 1961 to 1970, he was the head of his department, and in 1970 he was appointed Dean of Science, succeeding his brother-in-law Vladimir Okulitch – he held that position until his retirement in 1979.
During World War II, George lived in Montreal, where he worked in the Allied war effort at the University of Montreal, designing the first nuclear reactor to produce plutonium and other nuclear materials in connection with the Manhattan Project. It was completed in 1945, and the design became known as the CANDU reactor. For this, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1945 by UBC. In 1946, he was also made a member of the Order of the British Empire.
During the Cold War, George carried out important work as a liaison with scientists from the Soviet Union and translated many Russian-language physics articles into English. He served as the Canadian Association of Physicists president from 1962 to 1963. In 1994, George’s earlier work on neutron stars was largely acknowledged by his appointment as an officer of the Order of Canada.
In 1940 George married Olga Okulitch, whom he had met while he was a student at UBC. He had become good friends with her and her family. The Okulitchs were also Russian emigres – they had fled during the 1917 Revolution, eventually settling on a family farm in Abbotsford. Like George, Olga had been an outstanding student (B.A. 1933, M.A. 1935), majoring in bacteriology and microbiology, and was also an excellent scientist. While living in Montreal, she worked on the first commercial production of penicillin. She later taught at UBC and did research in industrial mycology. Olga and George would enjoy almost sixty years of married life together, living off-campus in the University Hill neighbourhood. They had three daughters: Elizabeth, Alexandra, and Olga.
Two of Olga’s brothers, Vladimir and George, also attended UBC, majoring in geological engineering and dairying. A third brother, Vladislav (“Lindy”), took the UBC agriculture occupational training course. Vladimir Okulitch became the first Dean of Science at UBC after the Faculty of Arts and Science was split in 1963; George eventually became general manager of Dairyland, and Vladislav became manager of the Okulitch family farm.
George Volkoff suffered a severe brain hemorrhage in 1996, which left him paralyzed but unable to speak. He spent the rest of his life in the extended care ward of UBC Hospital. He died on 24 April 2000. His wife Olga died on 10 January 2005.

Erich Vogt was born in Steinbach, Manitoba, on November 12, 1929. He received his academic degrees at the University of Manitoba (B.Sc. Honours 1951, M.Sc. 1952), where he was awarded the Gold Medal in Science upon his graduation, and at Princeton University (Ph.D. 1955) as the student of Eugene Wigner, with whom he attended the last scientific lecture given by Albert Einstein. In 1965 Vogt became a professor at the University of British Columbia. He became one of the co-founders (with John Warren) behind TRIUMF, Canada's national particle and nuclear physics laboratory. Between September 1974 and April 1980, Erich was Chair of the TRIUMF Board of Management and was Laboratory Director from 1981 until his retirement in March 1994. From 1975 until 1981, he was Vice President of Faculty and Student Affairs at the University of British Columbia. In 1978, he was the founding Chair of the Science Council of British Columbia, a position he held until 1980.

Vivaxis is a term coined by Frances Maude Nixon (1910-1984), a Canadian woman who lived on Thetis Island, B.C. and spent almost thirty years conducting pioneering research in this field. Vivaxis derives from the Greek "life" and "centre," and it refers to a unique energy flow that connects an individual's energy field or etheric body with that of the Earth at the time of birth. The link functions as a two-way connection between the individual and place of birth, and the relationship remains even as the individual moves. Each person's circuit has a unique individual frequency. The Vivaxis connection can be harmed or distorted by chemicals, electromagnetic fields or even lightning. It is believed that a disturbed Vivaxis connection can make an individual ill. But once restored, it can keep a person healthy. To carry out Nixon's research and, more broadly, Vivaxis research, education and training, the Northwest Magnetics Research Society was established in 1970. It continued until 1974 when at a special meeting in April, it was superseded by the Vivaxis Energies Research Society. Constitutional changes in 1976 resulted in a name change to Vivaxis Energies Research International Society (V.E.R.I.S.). The Society was registered with Revenue Canada as a charitable organization in January 1977. V.E.R.I.S. operated a number of chapters in various locations in British Columbia, including Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland and the Interior. In California, several area coordinators were located in the Bay area of San Francisco, and a chapter was established in Australia. V.E.R.I.S. continued to exist until 2001, at which time the affairs of the Society were wrapped up. When the Society ceased operation, the bulk of the learning materials were transferred to the Alternative and Integrative Medical Society (AIMS) at the University of British Columbia.

The Victoria Lumber and Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1889. Original shareholders in the company included William J. Macaulay (Victoria), John E. Glover, William H. Phipps and John A. Humbird. The company's mill was constructed in Chemainus and became one of the largest on the West Coast. Although suffering during the depression in the early 1890s, the mill generated 100 million feet of lumber per year by 1896. The mill burned down in 1923 but was rebuilt. It ceased operations in 1950.