The Department of English would like to bid a very fond farewell to Professors Beverly Allix, Patricia Burke, and Joanne Bleasdale, who will be retiring this year. 

Bev Allix started teaching at Humber in fall 1988 as a sessional instructor. In winter 1989, Bev assumed the leadership of the Learning Development Centre, then housed in two adjoining classrooms on the third floor of the E building. This Centre eventually evolved into Humber’s highly respected Writing Centre, now located in the GH building. In fall 1992, Bev became a full-time faculty member and, since then, has taught virtually every COMM/English and ESL course offered by the Department of English. In recent years, Bev has been instrumental in developing specialized COMM courses for our partner programs and in mentoring new faculty. Bev will be moving back to Ottawa, her old home during her senior high school years, renewing old acquaintances, and doing plenty of travelling to remote destinations for as long as possible.

Patricia Burke began her teaching career at Humber in spring 1977 and became a full-time faculty member in fall 1979, based at the Lakeshore campus. In 1983, Pat moved to the North campus where she continued to teach a variety of courses in the Department of English. Pat continued to enhance her skills as a teacher by completing her TESL certification. Pat has made a number of significant contributions to the department and college, among them helping to develop and teach in the first post-secondary ESL stream in the Ontario college system and serving as program coordinator. Pat coordinated foreign language courses in LAS and then CE English for 14 years, during which time she helped evolve curriculum and mentored countless teachers. Pat enjoyed teaching in a variety of English courses but specialized particularly in grammar and proofreading courses, notably COMM 214 and 314. Pat also prepared the Canadian version of all six editions of the grammar/proofreading text used in these courses. Pat has left a deep and lasting legacy in our department.

Joanne Bleasdale has worked at Humber for 35 years in a variety of departments and roles, including support, administration, and faculty. In 1979, Joanne was hired in a support role in the Office of the Registrar and Liaison. From there, she moved to an administrative position in Personnel, where her job evolved into recruitment, staff training, and job evaluation at all campus locations. In 1986, Joanne became a full-time faculty member in Human Studies, where she taught a variety of writing courses for the English department, in both the COMM and ESL streams, as well as several General Education courses for General Arts and Science. Joanne has mentored many contract faculty over the years and applied her expertise to developing innovative curricula, particularly in ESL. Alongside Bev Allix and Pat Burke, Joanne received the President’s Innovator of the Year Award for her work in our ESL stream. Joanne will be long remembered for her many contributions to the department and college.

Vera Beletzan,
Associate Dean, Department of English