by Calvin Evans
I supplemented these visits by sending a standardized questionnaire to other Newfoundland communities simply by selecting from the telephone directory a person by the same name as the woman shipowner. I was especially pleased with the enthusiastic and helpful responses. Some even followed up those initial responses with new and additional information and pictures.
As a final note, I would like to thank my wife Goldie for her patience and long suffering and strong support throughout this project. She has done without me for many long hours through many months and now will be able to stop asking the question: “Are you finished yet?” I appreciate her endurance.
To all those who helped in any way, my heartfelt gratitude.
CALVIN D. EVANS retired from dual careers as a university librarian and a United Church minister. He had a 30-year career as a library administrator at Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Guelph in Ontario, University of Alberta in Edmonton, and McGill University in Montreal. In 2005 he celebrated his 50th year of ordination and since 1949 has served churches in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. Naturally, the two careers overlapped.
He is author of two books: For Love of a Woman: The Evans Family and a Perspective on Shipbuilding in Newfoundland, published in 1992 by Harry Cuff Publications, St. John’s, and Soren Kierkegaard Bibliographies, published in 1993 by McGill University. He has also written several articles and has been a contributing writer to seven volumes of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and to the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2005 he wrote the biographies of fifteen Newfoundland women for the Grand Falls-Windsor chapter of the Council on the Status of Women.
Calvin has an avid interest in Newfoundland history and is completing the book Women of the Maritime Provinces and Quebec and Their Ships and is working on another book Virtual Communities: Early Sawmills in Northeastern and Central Newfoundland. He was a member of the Botwood Heritage Society for ten years, and is now living with his wife Goldie at Wasaga Beach, Ontario.