Kathleen M. Hoyte Memorial Bursary

Kathleen (Wilde) Hoyte was born on December 25, 1922 in Riley, Alberta, which is near Camrose. She was the middle child of Laura (Hull) Wilde and Percy Douglas Wilde. She attended high school in Lloydminster. In the late 1930’s the Wilde family moved to Vancouver. In 1938 Kathleen (Kay) attended Teachers’ College in Victoria, where the Landsdowne Campus of Camosun College is now located. After two years of training she earned an EB British Columbia Teachers Certificate.

Kay’s first school was a one room schoolhouse in Coombs, BC, on Vancouver Island. Then she moved to a school in Burnaby and taught primary grades. In 1946 Kay married a career Navy man and they settled in Victoria where Kay landed a position in a school in Sidney, teaching grade one. In 1947 a career move took them to Halifax where Kay took time off to raise a family. After many moves across the country the family landed in Ottawa. By this time her youngest child was in school and Kay decided to return to teaching. In 1966 Kay took a refresher course with emphasis on the Kindergarten level and obtained a position teaching Kindergarten at Sir John A. MacDonald Public School in Ottawa. In 1967 her husband retired from the Navy and the family moved home to Victoria. Kay was hired to teach Kindergarten at Frank Hobbs Elementary School where she stayed until her retirement in 1977. Upon retiring, Kay and her husband moved to Piers Island. In 1983 Kay was diagnosed with breast cancer; she succumbed to the illness on July 1, 1984.

This bursary was established because Kay understood the importance of providing specialized education for teachers preparing to instruct our youngest learners.