Roy Piovesana (born 1942 in Fort William (

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

; died Jan. 20, 2020Obituary
Blake Funeral Chapel; Thunder Bay), was a Canadian teacher and historian. He is one of three children born to Enrico Piovesana (1900–1987) and Christina Brescia (1913–1990). His father emigrated from Pasiano Pordenone (near

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

) in 1924 and his mother was a second generation Italian Canadian born in Fort William. Roy Piovesana grew up in Fort William's East End attending St. Peter's Roman Catholic School, an institution that was truly multicultural. He also attended Fort William Collegiate Institute graduating in 1961. In 1965 Piovesana graduated from

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, grad ...

with an Honours Bachelor of Arts (History). Five years later he received his M.A. (History) from

. In 1965 he began his teaching career at Westgate Collegiate Institute and then moved to Hammarskjold High School as a teacher and head of history in 1984. Piovesana was a Sessional Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Lakehad University in 1992 and 1993. He retired from teaching in June 1998. In 2000, he was appointed archivist/historian for the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay The Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay ( la, Dioecesis Sinus Tonitralis) is a Latin suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada. Its cathedral episcopal see is St. Patrick's Cathedra ...

by The Most Rev. Frederick J. Colli, Bishop of Thunder Bay. He was a president of the

Thunder Bay Historical Museum The Thunder Bay Museum is located in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It is operated by the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, incorporated in 1972 as the successor to the Thunder Bay Historical Society. The Museum is affiliated with the Canadian Museum ...

Society and the

Thunder Bay Art Gallery The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is Northern Ontario's largest art gallery specializing in the work of contemporary Indigenous artists. It is located on the campus of Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is ...

and served as a trustee with the

Canadian Museum of Nature The Canadian Museum of Nature (french: Musée canadien de la nature; CMN) is a national natural history museum based in Canada's National Capital Region. The museum's exhibitions and public programs are housed in the Victoria Memorial Museum Bui ...

from 1996 - 2007. In addition, Piovesana has become a well-known historian with numerous publications to his credit including '' R. J. Manion:

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Fort William'', 1917-1935 (1990), and ''Hope and Charity: An Illustrated History of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay'' (2002). He co-authored ''Paper and People: An Illustrated History of

Great Lakes Paper The Great Lakes Paper Company was the operator of the largest and most modern pulp and paper manufacturing facility in the world. The Company employed over 4,000 in Northern Ontario, starting in 1924 as a pulp mill at Fort William, Ontario (now Thu ...

and Its Successors'', 1919-1999 with Beth Boegh, and ''St. Dominic Parish: A History'', 1912-1987 with his wife Diane. In 1999 he was awarded a Citizen of Exceptional Achievement Award (Culture) by the City of

. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Life Member of The Thunder Bay Historical Society. That same year, he was a finalist for the prize for arts and heritage: Chronicle-Journal City of Thunder Bay.

References

* "The Italians of Thunder Bay", John Potestio, pp. 265–267 Chair of Italian Studies,

publisher, Altona, Manitoba, Canada, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Piovesana, Roy 1942 births 2020 deaths Canadian people of Italian descent Writers from Thunder Bay Lakehead University alumni 20th-century Canadian historians Canadian male non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian historians