LASA hosted its Annual General Meeting on June 11, 2025, via Microsoft Teams. Members of the current Board of Directors re-appointed for a two-year term are the Hon. Blair Nixon, the Hon. Kevin Feehan, the Hon. Dallas Miller, Leanne Young, K.C., Wayne Malcolm Schafer, K.C., Susan Billington, K.C., Donna Purcell, K.C., Keith Marlowe, K.C., Heather Ferg, Dennis McDermott, K.C., and Shaun MacIsaac, K.C. LASA also welcomed Ted Feehan, K.C. to the Board.
The Board also appointed Keith Marlowe as LASA’s Chair, Heather Ferg as Treasurer, and re-appointed Leanne Young as Vice Chair and Wayne Malcolm Schafer as Secretary. After ten years as Chair, Shaun MacIsaac stepped down as but remains on LASA’s Board. LASA’s staff and Board of Directors would like to thank Shaun for his dedication to LASA. We are looking forward to his continued contributions to the organization.
Presentation
2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the City of Calgary. This milestone in the history of the city is significant. Comparatively, Calgary is a young city. But in 150 years, the city has grown from one fort and two trading posts to a modern city of approximately 1.5 million people
Here, at the Legal Archives, we are commemorating this anniversary by exploring the lives of many individuals whose contributions have helped develop Calgary over the past 150 years.
Inspired by Citymakers: Calgarians after the Frontier, edited by Max Foran and Sheilagh Jameson and published in 1987, which is “a collection of biographies of a wide range of individuals each of whom contributed substantially to some facet of the City’s development” (pg. v).
In that spirit, LASA’s “City Builders: Legal Characters and the City of Calgary at 150” series will focus on legal personalities that were instrumental to the development of Calgary. This is certainly not an exhaustive list as there are many people within the legal profession to choose from. And we apologize in advance for not touching upon every deserved individual.
Our goal has been to include many prominent personalities, such as Sir James Lougheed, but also many of the lesser-known characters, such as Ruth Gorman, in order to best illustrate the legal profession’s involvement in Calgary’s evolution.
It would be a mistake to limit these legal city builders to the law. Many of the personalities featured in this series were much more than their profession. They were also involved in politics, in business, champions of the arts and culture, and philanthropy, and were committed to Calgary’s political, economic, social, and cultural progress.
It is our hope that over the next twelve months you will enjoy these biographical sketches of many of Calgary’s legal champions and their contributions to the history of the City of Calgary as we celebrate 150 years.