Historian, business manager, educator, administrator.
Born at Portage la Prairie on 10 December 1950, daughter of Lois Dawn Tomes and Bui Oscar Fredrickson (1921-2008), much of her early childhood was spent around Lake Winnipegosis where her father was a commercial fisherman. In 1957, she began attending Winnipegosis School.
Following graduation from the Winnipegosis Collegiate Institute, where her aptitude for History and Geography emerged, she attended the University of Winnipeg, majoring in History. In 1972, for a university essay entitled “To Evangelize? To Civilize” that she wrote, she received a Margaret McWilliams Award from the Manitoba Historical Society.
She graduated with a BA (Honours) degree in 1973 and received a gold medal for highest standing. She was one of 100 students to receive a Canada Council scholarship for graduate studies. She spent two summers working in Germany then, after a year in Toronto, Ontario, she returned to Winnipeg in 1974. She received an MA degree in History (1975) with a thesis entitled “The relationship of the Church Missionary Society and the Hudson’s Bay Company in Rupert’s Land, 1821 to 1860 with a case study of Stanley Mission under the direction of the Rev. Robert Hunt”.
She worked for two years (1975-1976) as a researcher at the Manitoba Historic Resources Branch, writing information booklets on notable people and events, and preparing to begin doctoral studies in London, England. She enrolled at the University of London, working under historian Glynwyr Williams, and after completing course work, returned to Canada where she was a researcher at the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of History) at Ottawa before returning to Winnipeg in 1977.
She was a Communications Officer for the Canadian International Grains Institute (1977-1980) and continued as a consultant and guest curator at the National Museum, writing The Covenant Chain: Indian Ceremonial and Trade Silver (1980) and assisting in the production of the museum’s national travelling exhibit on the same theme.
In 1980, she was recruited by Cargill Limited as its Corporate Affairs Manager and she completed a second postgraduate degree, a Master of Business Administration, on a part-time basis in 1984. Appointed manager of Cargill’s Seed Division in 1984, she moved to Paris, Ontario, returning to Winnipeg in 1988 as General Manager of Agri-tec Canada, an alliance of 16 companies that specialized in grain handling and storage development in international markets. She introduced the group to markets in China, the Middle East, the USSR, and Kazakhstan.
She then joined the Government of Canada’s Department of Western Economic Diversification in 1990 and was posted successively to Saskatoon, Ottawa, and Edmonton (1992). She received a third postgraduate degree, this time a Master of Education in Teaching English as a Second Language, from the University of Alberta (2000) and became Director of Language Services for the Edmonton Centre for Newcomers in 2001. Two years later, she joined the faculty of NorQuest College as Dean of Language Training and Adult Literacy. She rose to become its Vice President (Academic) in 2004.
She was married twice, first in 1971 to meteorologist Rudy Goossen from whom she was divorced in 1978. She married civil servant Ian McKay in 1997. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2008, she worked until 2010.
She died at Edmonton, Alberta on 9 May 2019.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 1 June 2019.
We thank Joanne DiCosimo for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 19 July 2025
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