Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Bayer, Mary Elizabeth
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1925-2005
History
Mary Elizabeth Bayer was born in Alberta on February 10, 1925, the daughter of Anne Farquharson Patteson and Granville Lovejoy Bayer. She was raised in Manitoba, graduating from Kelvin High School in 1943.
She served as Executive Director of the Volunteer Bureau and the Manitoba Centennial Corporation, founding Executive Director of the Manitoba Arts Council, founding President of Heritage Winnipeg, and founding member of the Assembly of Arts Administrators. She pioneered adult daytime television programming and served as the provincial government’s first woman Assistant Deputy Minister. At the national level, she was President of Heritage Canada, member of the National Executive of the Girl Guides of Canada, member of Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre for the Arts, and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. She also served on the selection committees for the Rhodes Scholarships and the Royal Bank Award.
She retired to Victoria, British Columbia in 1980. She served as Chair of the Greater Victoria Library Board, founding member of the Greater Victoria Arts Commission, Executive member of the Provincial Capital Commission, member of the Honorary Board of the Victoria Foundation, Chair of the British Columbia Heritage Society, and founding Chair of the province-wide arts and heritage advocacy group, Culture Acts Now.
Her numerous awards include an honorary doctorate. from the University of Winnipeg (1975), the University of Manitoba Distinguished Alumni Award, Girl Guides of Canada Merit Award, and the MHS Centennial Medal (1970). In 1994 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada and in 2000 she was named an Honorary Citizen of Victoria. She was the 2004 recipient of the Woman of Distinction Award for Lifetime Achievement and in June 2005 received the British Columbia Heritage Award.
She died on September 7, 2005.