Helen E. H. Smith

Helen E. H. Smith
Years in Thunder Bay	1992 (joined Lakehead as full-time faculty); at least 1997; 2007 (volunteer award, Thunder Bay Museum); 2012 (memorial service in Thunder Bay)
Occupation	associate professor of history and women's studies
Employer	Lakehead University

Helen E. H. Smith is a historian who was assistant professor in the Department of History and the Women's Studies programme at Lakehead University in 1997; she has published on nineteenth-century pioneer women in Upper Canada.

With Pamela Wakewich she wrote the article on The Aircrafter (1997), and she joined the board of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society at the 1997 annual meeting.

Death and tribute (RALU News, March 2012)

The March 2012 issue of RALU News reprints Lakehead University's tribute to Dr. Helen Smith, "an Associate Professor in History and Women's Studies" and a Lakehead graduate who joined the university as a full-time faculty member in 1992. The same "In Memoriam" column says that two dynamic women, Eleanor "Dusty" Miller (see Eleanor Joan Miller) and Dr. Helen Smith, had passed from the community that late winter.

Teaching. Her appointment to the Department of History brought new areas of study, including a passion for medieval, Reformation and Renaissance history. She developed the university's first undergraduate courses in Canadian and European women's history and, at the graduate level, pioneered the study of gender history in the department. Because of her interdisciplinary gender-studies background she was cross-appointed to Women's Studies, where, with Dr. Pamela Wakewich, she laid the foundation of what became Lakehead's Women's Studies department. She was known for her devotion to students: her door was always open, she lent them books from her own library, and she encouraged them to ask the contextual questions and to "think historiographically", that is, to notice how historians build their accounts of the past. Students said they wanted to "continue the conversation" after class.

Research. With her long-time collaborator Wakewich she published articles in Labour/Le travail and in the international journals Oral History and Gender & History, and book chapters, from a SSHRC-funded archival and oral-history project on Canadian women's wartime work and identities (compare their article on The Aircrafter above). She received the Riddell Award of the Ontario Historical Society in 2000 and the JP Bertrand Award in 2001.

Service. At the university she chaired Women's Studies and History, sat on the Senate, was elected several times to the Promotion, Tenure and Renewal committee and served on the faculty association's bargaining team. Her service to the Thunder Bay Museum was recognised in 2007 with a Volunteer Service Award from the Province of Ontario, and she was a long-time member of the Thunder Bay Symphony Chorus.

Memorial. A memorial service was held at the Avila Centre on Saturday, 4 February 2012. In lieu of flowers, donations were invited for a student award in her memory, the Helen Smith Award in Women's Studies, through Lakehead University's Office of Advancement, or for a charity of choice.

Possibly related records

• Helen Elizabeth Smith: a Chronicle-Journal obituary-index entry dated 27 January 2012 lists a Helen Elizabeth Smith of Thunder Bay with a death on 22 January 2012. That fits a memorial service on 4 February and the middle initial "E." in this page's title, so she is probably the same person; the retirees' notice gives no date of death, so the match is not confirmed.

Identity

The newsletter notice names only "Dr. Helen Smith". It is attached to this page because of the Lakehead University history and Women's Studies appointment, the collaboration with Wakewich, the research on women's wartime work and the Thunder Bay Museum service, all of which agree with the records above (the 1997 Papers and Records contributor note and the 1997 article on The Aircrafter).