Mairuth Hodge Sarsfield, CQ (6 March 1930 – 7 May 2013) was a Canadian activist, diplomat, journalist, researcher and television personality, as well as an accomplished broadcaster, civil servant, and best-selling author.

Biography

Sarsfield was born in the

Little Burgundy Little Burgundy (french: La Petite-Bourgogne) is a neighbourhood in the South West borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Geography Its approximate boundaries are Atwater Avenue to the west, Saint-Antoine to the north, Guy Street ...

neighbourhood of Montreal to parents Anne Packwood and Dan Vaughan and raised by her mother. She received her degree from

Sir George Williams College Sir George Williams University was a university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It merged with Loyola College to create Concordia University on August 24, 1974. History In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established on Sainte-Hélène S ...

and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, and later studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

. She worked as host for the CBC, CTV, and

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

. For Canada's External Affairs Department, she worked on projects such as

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...

in Montreal and

Expo '70 The or Expo 70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fair ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, Japan, where she organized the Canadian pavilion, for the respective world Expos. As a senior information officer for the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, she developed and launched a worldwide campaign known as "For Every Child a Tree". She was also posted to Washington and New York. She returned to Canada in 1984, and served on the board of governors at the CBC. Her novel '' No Crystal Stair'' was chosen for inclusion in '' Canada Reads 2005'', championed by Olympic fencer

Sherraine MacKay Sherraine Schalm, formerly Sherraine Schalm-MacKay (born June 21, 1975), is a former top-ranked Canadian Olympic épée fencer. She is a World Cup medal winner, elementary school teacher and author. She is a graduate of the University of Otta ...

. Mairuth was the mother of Jeremy Hodge (deceased 1979) and noted Canadian pioneering film-maker

Jennifer Hodge de Silva Jennifer Hodge de Silva (28 January 1951 – 5 May 1989) was a Canadian filmmaker. Her film, ''Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community'', revealed tensions between and police and residents of the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto. The resid ...

(deceased 1989).

Awards and honours

She won numerous awards for theme coordination at World's Fair pavilions for Canada, and has been awarded with the Chevalier a L'Ordre National du Quebec in 1986, the National Congress of Black Women Foundation's First Literary Award, for ''No Crystal Stair'', as well as 'Mairuth Sarsfield Day' by the city of Cleveland for her work with the United Nations in Nairobi.

Publications

*'' No Crystal Stair'' (1997) *''My Friend and I'' *''The Fourth Wise Man'' (1961 Television adaptation of

The Other Wise Man ''The Other Wise Man'' is a short novel or long short story by Henry van Dyke. It was initially published in 1895 and has been reprinted many times since then. Story The story is an addition and expansion of the account of the Biblical Magi, re ...

)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarsfield, Mairuth 1930 births 2013 deaths Canadian women novelists Canadian journalists Writers from Montreal Knights of the National Order of Quebec Black Canadian writers Black Canadian broadcasters Activist journalists 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian women writers Black Canadian women writers Canadian women non-fiction writers