Barb Wood was born in Halifax in 1953. She studied architecture and fine arts at the University of Waterloo from 1972 to 1976, graduating with an honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. After graduation she moved to Vancouver with her husband: the architect Don Hazelden.

In 1980, she set up Barb Wood Graphics Ltd. Corporate clients included the Bank of Nova Scotia, BMO, RBC, BC Sugar, Dairyland, Neptune Terminals, BC Ferries, and several municipalities including the City of Coquitlam. She also became a partner in the successful printmaking co-op and gallery Six of One on Granville Island.

Alexander Windram was born on February 21, 1881 in Eyemouth, Scotland. He immigrated to Canada in 1910 with his wife, Mary and young son, John, and began working as a steamfitter at Fraser Mills. While building their lives in the growing mill town, the family welcomed another son, Andrew, and a daughter, Elsie. The family had not long settled when the First World War broke out.

Windram enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on February 22, 1916. According to his Attestation Papers, Windram was five foot seven and a half inches tall, with blue eyes and brown hair and with tattoos on both forearms. He arrived in Liverpool on November 11, 1916 and was taken on strength into the 7th Battalion in January, 1917.

He fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and was killed on the first day of the Battle, April 9, 1917.

Daisy Elizabeth Wiltshire was born in Surrey, British Columbia on January 4, 1889 to Ernest and Elizabeth Wiltshire. She married Roderick C MacDonald on June 30, 1915. She died on December 31, 1976

Helena Regehr was born to Peter Regehr and Anna Reimer Regehr on May 16, 1910 in the small Mennonite village of Marjanowka No. 5 in the Terek settlement. It was situated in what is currently known as the Russian republic of Dagestan near the west coast of the Caspian Sea. She was born in the school house where the Regehrs had set up quarters and where her father was teacher. She was raised, with her seven siblings, in a German-speaking and faith-centered home with strong community ties.

As the Communists gained power throughout Russia, the peaceful life in Mennonite villages was threatened. With the assistance of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Mennonite Central Committee of Canada, families began to plan for emigration. Helen was 15 years old when her family left Russia and boarded a ship to cross the Atlantic. They arrived in St. John’s, New Brunswick on January 24, 1926. A journey by train across Canada took them to Rosthern, Saskatchewan, where they lived for a year. In response to news about opportunities for work, they moved to Coaldale, Alberta in February of 1927.

As the Regehrs settled in Coaldale, Alberta, the first imperatives were to re-establish domestic life and to repay the CPR travel debt. The older children were unable to continue their schooling and contributed to the family labour and income. Helen, the oldest of the eight Regehr children, followed many of her peers to Vancouver where they worked as maids in wealthy British homes.

A new opportunity presented itself when the outbreak of the Second World War created an urgent need for nurses. Despite never having completed high school, Helen successfully enrolled in the School for Nurses of Essondale Mental Hospital in Essondale BC. She attended from 1944 to 1946, thriving under the demands of her studies and achieving the award for highest marks all three years.

Helen’s career as a psychiatric nurse took her to Ontario. She worked in a Toronto hospital and later in Bethesda Home for the Mentally Handicapped in Vineland where she met an orderly named John Wiebe, also a Mennonite immigrant from Russia. They were married on July 25, 1948.

John and Helen settled in Leamington, Ontario where she devoted herself to her home and her two children.

When her husband John passed away in 1971, Helen moved back to Coaldale, Alberta to help care for her aging parents. Later she moved again to Abbotsford, BC to be near her son and daughter-in-law and her two granddaughters. She lived there until her passing on May 7, 1989.

Dennis Eugene Welcher was born in the United States and emigrated to Canada in 1885. He served as Reeve of the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam from 1909-1910.

Eleanor Martine (Larson) Ward was born in Fosston, Saskatchewan. She was an active and dedicated community volunteer who gave many years of service to a variety of organizations including the Girl Guides of Canada, the Red Cross, SHARE Society, the Justice Institute, and the GVRD Minnekhada Regional Park Association. She was a long-serving executive member of the Northeast Coquitlam Ratepayers' Association, and served as the President from 1983 to 1985 and then again from 1990 to 2000. The Eleanor Ward Bridge that spans the Coquitlam River and connects Coquitlam Town Centre with Burke Mountain, is named in her honour. She passed away on December 25, 2003.

Paul vanPeenen worked as a photojournalist at the Coquitlam NOW from August, 1991 to February, 2012. He was born in the Netherlands on April 10th, 1964 and immigrated to Winnipeg with his family in 1980. The family relocated to Calgary in 1981 and it was there that he began to discover his passion for photography. He enrolled in the Journalism Program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1985. During this time he worked at the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune as a reporter/photographer. After graduation, he was offered a full-time position as the paper's staff photographer. In 1987, he completed an internship with the Edmonton Journal before taking a job with the Medicine Hat News. After four years he was hired by the Coquitlam NOW and spent the next 21 years as the staff photographer, documenting life in the Tri-Cities area. While working for the NOW, he completed a Masters of Liberal Arts at Simon Fraser University. He retired from the NOW in February, 2012 to pursue his love of travel and photography.

Anna (Brass) Tremere is the President of the Riverview Hospital Historical Society. She attended the School of Psychiatric Nursing and graduated in 1967. She worked at Riverview as a student nurse and as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse from 1965 to 2001.

Tremere's mother Olive Brass was also a psychiatric nurse at Essondale Hospital, and Tremere grew up to know the hospital well. Tremere later became head nurse and a case manager for the transitional housing program at Connelly, Cottonwood and Cypress lodges.

In 1993, Tremere established and assumed the role of President of the Riverview Hospital Historical Society. In 1998 the Society under Anna’s leadership established a museum on the hospital site and welcomed the public to access Riverview’s history. Thanks to Anna’s work, the museum preserved and presented the history of the hospital and preserved an incredible collection of records and artifacts relevant to daily life of the patients and staff at Riverview. When Riverview Hospital was closed in 2012, Anna worked with government partners to transfer the collections to the City of Coquitlam and to the BC Provincial Archives.

Anna continues to pass on her knowledge and inspire others by participating in several projects, organizations and committees including the Suitcase Project with Heidi Currie, the Riverview Lands Advisory Committee, the Riverview Horticultural Centre Society, and by serving on the Coquitlam Heritage board of directors. Tremere won the British Columbia Historical Federation's Award of Merit in 2018.

Lillian Frances Touzeau was born to Ernest and Christine (Vaudin) Touzeau on June 22, 1920. They lived in the independent municipality of South Vancouver near 41st between Victoria Drive and Knight Road. Her parents and oldest brother had arrived in Canada from Guernsey, Channel Islands in 1911. Both her brothers attended UBC and one of Lillian’s dreams was to also study on the Point Grey campus to become a pharmacist.

Touzeau graduated from John Oliver High School in South Vancouver, after which she enrolled as student nurse at the Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale in 1941. Lillian chose this profession as she had experience with mental health concerns; a neighbour and classmate suffered from depression and when the mother of this girl was unable to deal with her child she would ask Lillian to visit and ease the situation.

To Lillian, living with the other nursing students at the Nurses’ Residence was much like having sisters. The seventeen women in the Class of 1944 remained in close contact over many years. Lillian was an excellent student and was awarded the Deputy Minister’s medal for General Proficiency in 1944. From September 1943 – May 1944 she was president of the Student Nurses’ Association. In her report for the 1944 PMH Annual she wrote: “We have taken our difficulties to the training school and by talking over our problems we hope that the desires and ambitions of the students have been more clearly understood.”

Lillian required a leave of absence to provide hospice care for her mother in 1945. In 1946 she met Andrew Manzer, who had returned from the Second World War overseas and was employed at the Provincial Mental Hospital. They married in 1947 and lived near Campbell River until 1958 where they raised a family of 3 daughters. They moved to New Westminster and Lillian returned to work at the Woodlands School. She retired from there in 1980 at age 60.

Andrew died suddenly in 1989. Lillian remained active in the community as a volunteer for the Arthritis Association and in the kitchen at Century House Association. She practiced Taoist Tai Chi, was an avid reader of all kinds of literature. She died at Queen’s Park Care Centre in New Westminster, BC on the 26th of October in 2008.

James Leonard (Jim) Tonn served as Councillor in 1971 and was elected Mayor in 1972, a position he held until he resigned in July, 1983. He was a former professional football player who played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the B.C. Lions between 1957 and 1959. He served as Alderman for one year before being elected Mayor. He served as President of the Union of B.C. Municipalities and was Deputy Chairman of the GVRD Board of Directors. He served on nearly all GVRD committees and was Chairman of several including Planning and Parks. After resigning he became the Municipal Manager.

Sharon Tokar is a founding member of Coquitlam Search and Rescue, and was one of the first women to be involved in search and rescue activities in the province. Growing up in Coquitlam, she attended Brookmere Elementary, Como Lake Middle School, Mongomery Junior Secondary, and Centennial Secondary School. As well, she worked as a nurse at Riverview Hospital and Woodwards in New Westminster. She was a trained archeologist and taught at Langara College. Sharon passed away in March 2024.

Patrick Liam Sullivan was born in British Columbia in 1951. He grew up in Seattle before the family relocated to Canada in 1964. He was first formally educated in fine art studies at Vancouver Community College. He entered the program in 1974 and studied sculpture with Barrie Holmes. In 1981, he received a BFA in sculpture from Emily Carr university with a specialty in stone sculpture. From 1985 to 1987, he completed the Coquitlam Stone Sculpture Symposium on-site in Blue Mountain Park. He acted as project manager/sculptor/teacher on the project which resulted in a fourteen piece permanent outdoor stone sculpture garden.

Helen Mary Stiglish (nee Pietrasko) was born on March 30, 1920 in Coleman Alberta and grew up in Athalmer-Invermere, British Columbia. Helen met her future husband Fabian Jack Stiglish in 1938. In 1940, Helen and her family relocated from Invermere to Surrey and Jack followed suit. The couple married on December 5, 1942.

In 1943, the couple bought a mushroom farm at 1050 Keswick Ave near the Lougheed Highway. The farm had been established by W.T. Money around 1928 and is thought to be one of the first mushroom farms in B.C. The farm consisted of 4 acres of land, with one and a half acres devoted to growing mushrooms. Mushrooms were sold by the pound under the name “Money’s Mushrooms,” and mushroom manure was sold by the sack.

Jack and Helen were entrepreneurs throughout their lives. They briefly raised chincillas for their fur, owned a brick business, and owned the 4 Acre Trailer Court at 675 Lougheed Highway from the 1950s until 1979 when the trailer court was sold to Walter and Dennis Hohn.
The couple built their dream home at 703 Edgar Avenue in 1969. Jack and Helen were avid square dancers and were enthusiastic members of the Vancouver Heights Square Dance Club in Burnaby.

Helen was an accomplished homemaker. Her passions were crafting, gardening, oil painting, and experimenting with new recipes for all of the mushrooms that came from the family farm. Jack and Helen spent their summers at a summer home in Whatcom Meadows in Washington State. Helen passed away on July 3, 2009 in Burnaby.

Fabian Jack Stiglish, more commonly known as “Jack” was born in Leask, Saskatchewan and grew up on a farm in Leask. He left the farm in 1938 and moved to British Columbia and met his wife Helen Mary Pietrasko in Invermere. In 1940, Helen and her family relocated to Surrey and Jack followed suit. He became a fisherman with his own boat and also worked in a mill. The couple married on December 5, 1942.

In 1943, the couple bought a mushroom farm at 1050 Keswick Ave near the Lougheed Highway. The farm had been established by W.T. Money around 1928 and is thought to be one of the first mushroom farms in B.C. The farm consisted of 4 acres of land, with one and a half acres devoted to growing mushrooms. Mushrooms were sold by the pound under the name “Money’s Mushrooms,” and mushroom manure was sold by the sack.

Jack and Helen were entrepreneurs throughout their lives. They briefly raised chinchillas for their fur, owned a brick business, and owned the 4 Acre Trailer Court at 675 Lougheed Highway from the 1950s until 1979 when the trailer court was sold to Walter and Dennis Hohn.

The couple built their dream home at 703 Edgar Avenue in 1969. Jack and Helen were avid square dancers and were enthusiastic members of the Vancouver Heights Square Dance Club in Burnaby. Jack was very community-minded and was an active member of the British Columbia Motels, Resorts, and Trailer Parks Association for many years. He was also one of the founding members of the Coquitlam Rotary in 1967. Jack and Helen spent their summers at a summer home in Whatcom Meadows in Washington State. Jack passed away on October 15, 1994 in New Westminster.

Deborah Smyth was Miss Congeniality of the Miss Coquitlam Pageant in 1986.

Shyla Seller is an archivist and an editor. She was born in Vancouver, BC and grew up in Coquitlam, BC. She attended Parkland Elementary School, Como Lake Junior Secondary, and Centennial High School. Her first job was at the Hol 'n' One Donut shop in the Loughheed Mall, which was owned by her grandparents Bill and Nina Seller. She received her higher education at the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, and the University of British Columbia.