Duane Hicks
You could call it the “House that Joyce Built.”
After 15 years of planning and hard work, the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre opened its doors in 2010. Five years later it is a standing legacy to librarian and educator Joyce Cunningham, who passed away Saturday, Nov. 7 at the age of 76.
“Joyce could see that the library on Church Street would not have the space to grow in scope and to be able to provide the community what was needed in the 21st century,” said Mark Kowalchuk, who spearheaded the “Building for the Future” campaign, and was a friend and former pupil of Cunningham’s.
“Not everybody in the community agreed with that vision but many in that number in time grew to share in the vision and often became the best advocates and supporters for what the library could become,” he added.
“Joyce was a visionary who instilled a passion in the board members to think beyond the age-old image of libraries past—libraries that do not meet the modern needs of their communities,” noted Kowalchuk, who now lives in Toronto.
“To Joyce’s great credit, she encouraged the board members to question and challenge topics of discussion so that the final decision that was agreed upon was the best for the community,” he added. “The community was always Joyce’s focus and priority.”
“I’d have no hesitation saying she was instrumental in bringing [the new library] to fruition,” said Hallikas, current library board chair and long-time colleague and friend of Cunningham.
“Joyce had a huge impact into the design of this library,” he added, recalling Cunningham and former library CEO Margaret Sedgwick toured the province, visiting numerous libraries so they could have the best possible and most current ideas, and all of that input was fed into the architectural drawings.
“When the Fort Frances Library Board made the decision to build a new library facility, I was simply an involved community volunteer on the board,” recalled Kowalchuk.
“Joyce was steadfast in helping the entire board work its way through a number of options and potential locations for the library site and design,” he added.
As the project inched closer to a reality, Cunningham asked Kowalchuk to be fundraising chairman.
“She convinced me to take on the job by ensuring that she and I would form a partnership for that role and that we would provide mutual support to each other and the board as we worked through the daunting task of funding the library,” said Kowalchuk.
“In our darkest days of setbacks during the project, there was never a time when we were both disheartened at the same time. We each had the other to raise our spirits and hopes and to move forward,” he added.
Kowalchuk noted Cuninngham “never felt that she needed to know everything or to have all the answers” as long as she surrounded herself with knowledgeable and capable people with whom she could work to find those answers.
This was evident in the formation of the Library Board Building Committee, which included herself, Kowalchuk, Community Services manager George Bell, library CEO Margaret Sedgwick, and project manager Brian Avis.
“Each person brought something different to the effort and consequently created energy and enthusiasm beyond the five parts,” said Kowalchuk.
“Joyce was relentless in her efforts to learn as much as she could about the project—from site management to construction techniques to final design and furniture and equipment selection,” he added.
“The same passion that she showed as my teacher in Grade 9 she showed to an even greater extent as library board chair and eventually the key person in seeing that Fort Frances got the crown jewel of a library that our community worked hard to get,” noted Kowalchuk.
Hallikas admitted that town council was not always supportive of building a new library, but Cunningham was steadfast that the project must go forward and that the funding would come through. And it did.
In the end, $4.7 million library project was made possible thanks to $1.967 million in Build Canada funding, $1.6 million from the Ministry of Culture, $437,692 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, and over $850,000 in pledges to the local “Building for the Future” campaign.
“Joyce was the figurehead—she saw this project through from beginning to end,” stressed Hallikas. “Her fingerprints, her diligence and work is all over it.
“Her number one achievement is being far-sighted enough, along with other people, to see the need and then carry through with it,” noted Hallikas. “What a formidable undertaking for a town our size, and to then see it come to fruition . . .
“It’s now thriving and it’s known across the province as being a vibrant facility and a leader in programming,” he added.
“Though it is Toronto where I now live, it is still Fort Frances that I call home and it is the library and technology centre that I am so very proud of,” said Kowalchuk. “Not because of my limited efforts in seeing the project completed but in having the experiences of working so closely with so many people in the community and beyond.”
Library board
In 1991, Cunningham got involved with the public library board—first as a trustee and then as chairperson.
During her first nine year-term, she urged the board to develop a five-year strategic plan, which it did in 1995.
Five years later, Cunningham chaired the second strategic plan committee, which then was completed in 2002.
That, in turn, led to a feasibility study in 2004, where it was recommended the town build a technologically-advanced, handicapped-accessible library able to service the current and future generations in Fort Frances.
Hallikas said Cunningham’s love of libraries and remarkable knowledge of the field was evident to anyone who worked with her.
During his time as town councillor, Hallikas worked with her on the library board, of which she was chairperson for many years.
“She was much like the English teacher that she was,” he recalled. “She was demanding of excellence. She gave us homework, and I tell you, you had better had it done for the next meeting because we were darn well going to discuss it. And we did.
“She wanted nothing but excellence from her board members and she got it,” added Hallikas.
“One has to look hard to find leaders who have the strength of character and depth of knowledge to foster free-thinking the way that Joyce did,” said Kowalchuk.
“She would not tolerate board members who rubber stamped decisions or were sycophants/yes-people just to stay in their comfort zone lying below the radar,” he added.
“If you challenged the chair, you had better have done your homework or have had a sound reason for expanding the discussion,” noted Kowalchuk.
Cunningham also has sat on provincial library committees, such as Ontario Library Services-North (OLS North), the Ontario School Libraries Association (OSLA), and the Ontario Library Boards Association (OLBA).
“Not only was Joyce an inspiring and grounded leader for the Fort Frances Public Library Board, she was also deeply involved in regional and provincial library associations—providing that fire to be forward thinking and visionaries in their own right,” said Kowalchuk.
Hallikas noted that when he attended various library conventions with Cunningham, she was always running the conferences or leading workshops.
He added that she always was available to educate the various district library boards “on just about any topic.”
“When I would go to these conferences, it felt like I was with a politician working the room—she knew everyone,” said Hallikas. “Everybody knew Joyce and thought so highly of her. She was respected.
“She was an amazing ambassador—not just for our library but for our town—because she was so well known across the province for her excellence,” he added.
And in 2010, Cunningham was chosen as Fort Frances’ “Citizen of the Year.”
Cunningham was awarded the prestigious James Bain Medallion by the Ontario Public Library Association in January 2014.
Teacher and negotiator
Cunningham began her professional career as an English teacher more than 30 years ago.
“She was the most amazing English teacher,” recalled Hallikas. “She was one of those legendary teachers—I’m sure many, many of her students will remember her and what it was like in her classes.
“She was a woman of formidable intelligence—she was rational and did not suffer fools,” he added. “But she had a wicked sense of humour. So all of those things combined to make just an amazing English teacher.”
“I first met Joyce when I was in Grade 9,” said Kowalchuk. “She was my English teacher.
“The only thing I remember from that time was the name of one of the books—Prose and Poetry—and the fact that she scared the daylights out of me,” he chuckled. “She was so serious about English.”
When Kowalchuk joined the Fort High staff in 1975, Cunningham was still teaching English full time.
Cunningham was teacher-librarian at Fort Frances High School for the last 13 years of her career, taking over after librarian Murray Kitts retired.
“Joyce never did see the library simply as a repository of books and a place where silence was mandatory,” said Kowalchuk.
“Joyce, even at Fort High, saw libraries as being more than the traditional image—that they could and should be dynamic in nature,” he added.
When Carol Lyons and the Business Education Department were bringing desktop computers into the school and curriculum, Cunningham worked closely with them to see that computers would find a place and would play an important role in the school library.
New space was created to make technology a part of library research and as writing tools for research projects. Cunningham spent many a late night working to learn about those computers so that she could become the on-site instructor on their use as research tools, recalled Kowalchuk.
“Classes were brought to the library at the start of each semester so that students could learn from Joyce how to use the computers and books for research. The library was always busy before and after classes and during the lunch hour—with Joyce providing oversight and support,” he noted.
As teacher-librarian, Cunningham also oversaw the design and building of a new school library when the new Fort High was built in 1999.
She also was a die-hard Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation member.
Hallikas recalled that when he moved back to Fort Frances in 1983 after teaching in Windsor, Ont., Cunningham came to see him right away and wanted him to get involved in the central bargaining committee for the OSSTF.
“Joyce and I served on Federation together on a variety of things,” he noted.
Cunningham served as local OSSTF president for the former District 28 from 1991-96 (now called OSSTF District 5B), and perhaps most importantly, served on numerous negotiating teams, one of which was the first in the province to achieve personal days.
In 2001, the same year she retired, she won the prestigious Norm Snyder Award from the OSSTF.
Cunningham was the first person in Northwestern Ontario to receive this award for her career-long commitment to OSSTF.
“It’s one of the most prestigious and highest awards that the OSSTF provincial organization gives out,” said Hallikas, noting Cunningham also won the award at the district level, but at the provincial level, many people are nominated.
“That was a huge deal,” he remarked.
“As far as I’m concerned, she had stellar careers as a teacher, as a union activist, and as a supporter of libraries,” added Hallikas.
“Joyce was a principled individual who helped us all to be more than we might otherwise have been,” said Kowalchuk.
“I am proud to have known her as teacher, colleague, chair and finally as friend,” he added.
“I will miss Joyce. May she rest in peace.”
