Hutchinson Bekius Scholarship in History
Joan (Hutchinson) Bekius was born in Calgary in 1925. Both her mother and father had emigrated from Britain as young people with their parents, who settled in Western Canada. Joan and her husband, Otto Bekius (1925-2014), established this award to recognize the accomplishments and achievements of the many thousands of immigrants who came to Canada from Britain in the early 1990s.
Joan’s parents, Christine (MacLean) and Noel Hutchinson, inherited a love of learning and literature from their parents and passed this love on to Joan and her three brothers. Joan recalls the Depression years being difficult, but says no matter how little money there was, books and magazines were always purchased, and, they were encouraged to use the public library extensively.
Joan had a career as the Administration and Personnel Manager of the BC Teacher’s Federation.