ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½

Kate Mills has finally donated her first-year Queen’s studio painting to the Union Gallery, where it will hang in the office and possibly be loaned out to other departments. She painted this five-by-seven-foot painting in March 1998 for a BFA studio class assignment. In the class, each student was tasked with painting in this mammoth size. She decided to paint an answer to a cliché question a teacher might ask in high school after summer vacation: What happened in my first year at Queen’s? It had felt like a big year for her, as it was her first time away from home. She put her new friends Natalie Bowles (Com’01) and Kerri Austin (Artsci’01) into the painting. Affected by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Kate also put in the broken trees along University Avenue from the disruptive January 1998 ice storm. Also pictured: her second home, Ontario Hall, where the fine arts classes are located; the radiator from her room in Ban Righ; and, outside her window, Grant and Kingston halls. Fast-forward 20 years – she decided the painting needed a better home than her parents’ basement, where they had kindly stored it. After she alerted former classmates, professors, and the Union Gallery in March 2021 through social media that she was interested in donating the painting, gallery director Carina Magazzeni accepted the painting. Presently, Kate is not a professional artist, but she has always appreciated the lifelong friendships she made and how her knowledge, confidence, and interests were enriched by her time at Queen’s.

After 11 years in Toronto, in various development roles at OCAD University (2011–2017) and The 519, a Church Street community centre in Toronto (2017–2022), Stacy, along with his husband, Mark Julien (Ed’08), is delighted to be relocating back to Kingston, where he will be taking on a new role as executive director of the Community Foundation for Kingston. He will also continue to volunteer as president of the Queen’s Queer Alumni Chapter. Reach out to Stacy Kelly to connect.

When Irene Jakubassa-Frezell realized that she and her former Queen’s classmates were not all going to be in Kingston for their 35th Homecoming reunion this fall, they gathered from across the country in Bayfield, Ont., and held their own! Class of ’87 reunion: (top, left to right) Gwen Callaghan-Simonds (PHE’87, BEd’88), Celia Dawson (Artsci’87) and Cathy Berka (Artsci’87); (middle row, left to right) Karen Goodwin (Com’87); Irene Jakubassa-Frezell (Artsci’87, B.Ed’88); Margot Gibbons-MacKay (OT’88); (bottom) MJ Hassard (Artsci’87).

Robert Quartermain’s career path encompasses several distinct phases of success, starting with a pivotal role in the discovery of Ontario’s Hemlo gold camp in the early 1980s. He began his career as a geologist for Teck Corporation and gained rare and valuable experience at Hemlo and other mines. He ventured on his own to form Pretivm Resources, based on an unshakeable belief that its high-grade Brucejack prospect in northern B.C. had the makings of a mine. His faith was validated when Brucejack became Canada’s fourth-largest gold mine, with annual production of 350,000 ounces. Quartermain is a longstanding advocate for Indigenous involvement in the resource industry and a generous philanthropist with a focus on education, social justice, and wildlife habitat preservation. Quartermain has received many awards over the years, and he was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in August 2022.

Members of the undefeated 1978 Vanier Cup champion Queen’s Golden Gaels football team gathered at their 44th reunion in June 2022. They met at the Crowbush Cove Golf Resort in P.E.I. and, while there, also celebrated the 85th birthday of friend and defensive co-ordinator Dr. John Thomson (former professor of physical education), seated front and centre.