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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVillage Squire, 1980-01, Page 26PEOPLE Some 25 years after doctors gave him six months to live, Stratford's John Boyden is planning a comeback to the concert stage. It was at age 18 that Boyden was told by doctors he would soon die. The Hodgkin's disease has meant he hasn't been able to perform on stage in the last 10 years but before then he had established an international career that had the New York Herald Tribune exclaim "If recitalists were made in heaven surely John Boyden must have been one of them." His first appearance on stage was at the Stratford Festival where he sang in a production of the Merchant of Venice before he was discovered and taken to England and Austria to study. Ironically, his last public performance was also at the Festival before his illness caused him to have to have stomach surgery, surgery that so damaged his stomach muscles he hasn't been able to regain proper breath control until recently. Now the doctors have told him he's been free of the disease for three years and he's no longer wondering if he will return to the stage but when. When Village Squire made its first visit to St. Marys several years ago it was to visit a new art gallery run by an enterprising trio of refugees from Toronto. The gallery Perth Country Galleries is still going today, run by two of the founders Colin and Peggy McQuirk. The third party of the trio has dropped out of the gallery in the intervening years but not out of his love for the Stonetown. Colin Campbell opened a new printing business in St. Marys recently known as Thames Printing making use of his background as head of a printing and graphic design company in Toronto from 1966 to 1977. The new business will probably interfere with his artistic efforts such as the pen and ink sketches of derelict farm equipment and cars known collective- ly as Perth County Relics. "For the next two or three years I think it'll be 100 per cent devotion to the company in getting it off the ground, I'd like to do more fine art but you have to be practical about these things." His wife Margaret will help him run the business. For a long time after he graduated from the Ontaro Agricultural College in 1963 Doug Jamieson didn't know if he would be going back to full time farming or not. He'd grown up on a farm between Clinton and Seaforth and continued to return home to help his mother run the farm even while he was working in agricultural extension offices and in teaching. But early this past summer he decided he wasn't likely to be going back to farming and the decision became even more firm later when he was appointed principal of the Centralia College of Agricultural Technology where he has been a teacher at the 300 -student school. The future is exciting for the 24 Village Squire. January 1980 college with expansion planned and one new residence already in progress. So full time farming seems out of the question in the near future. But just to keep in touch with the reality of farming Doug keeps his hand in by helping out on the family farm during busy seasons. It will be an entirely new team in charge as the Blyth Summer Festival prepares for its sixth season this year. Earlier last fall Janet Amos took over as artistic director and in November Keith Roulston who has been involved since the founding of the theatre was appointed administrative director of the Festival and the Blyth Centre for the Arts which runs the Festival and the busy winter series of visiting musical, theatrical and children's pro- grams. The two take over an operation in a healthy financial position after five years of operation by James Roy the founding artistic director and two years under London native Jan Dutton as administrat- or. Ms. Dutton is currently studying art in France while Mr. Roy is freelance directing from his base in Toronto where wife Anne works with Theatre Passe Muraille. Roulston was founding president of the Festival and served the first four years in that capacity. He has also had three plays produced at the Festival the latest of which McGillicuddy's Lost Weekend (based on McGillicuddy's Diary in this magazine) set a new box office record at the_Festival this summer. Did you know that 5000 Canadians are stricken with breast cancer each year? There is a 75 per cent chance of being cured if the cancer is discovered in time. Self-examination of the breast, once a month, will reveal any irregularity and allow you to consult your physician immediately. 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