Peruniak, Shirley Fair

Pessoa singular

Peruniak, Shirley Fair

• Walroth, Shirley Fair

1926-31 Jan. 2020

Shirley Fair Peruniak (née Walroth) was a naturalist, artist, and author based in Perth, Ontario. Born in Sharbot Lake in 1926 to Mabel and Eber Walroth, she graduated from Perth Collegiate in 1944 with a scholarship to attend Queen's University to study history, politics, and economics. There she met William (Bill) Peruniak, and they were married in 1946. Shirley graduated in 1947, and obtained her teaching certificate from the Ontario College of Edications.

She began teaching in Kenora, Ontario until moving to Atikokan, where she raised two children (Geoff and Jain) while teaching history, publishing articles on ornithology, and developing her skills at oil painting. The family moved to Kingston, Ontario in 1967 when Bill Peruniak became Dean of the Faculty of Education. Shirley and Bill separated shortly after the move.

In 1973, Shirley returned to Atikokan and found employment with the Ministry of Natural Resources, first as a tree planter, then as a park interpreter and naturalist. Over the next four decades, Shirley developed her career a historian of Quetico Provincial Park, later undertaking a series of oral histories of the land with the peoples of Lac la Croix. She continued to volunteer at the park past her retirement in 1991, returning frequently to her cabin after moving to Sharbot Lake. Shirley passed away in Perth, Ontario on 31 January 2020.

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Biographical sketch based on the memorial website of Shirley Peruniak at https://www.shirleyperuniak.com/our-history (accessed 2022-04-01).