Biographies
← History & Records · 9 members remembered at length
The members the Society wrote about at length — in its Artisan of Yester Year series, in the profiles printed when a member was made a Fellow or a Life Member, in tributes, and in the memoirs written as the Society closed. The full structured record of every member is on the People of the Society page.
Edith Melchior-Hawkins
1922–1995. Tillsonburg Branch; Associate 1956, Fellow 1958 — the Society’s earliest recorded Fellow.
Read →Ruth Haig
1928–2011. Hamilton Branch; Associate 1966, Fellow 1985, Honourary Life Member 1993 — a decorated Weston Trophy and gallery competitor.
Read →Carol McLean
Fellow and Woodstock Branch teacher for some fifteen years; the first CSCL member to make and teach leather masks — in her own words.
Read →Paul Kitchener
Mississauga Branch. Teacher, bootmaker, and co-founder of the Mississauga society; Fellow and Ontario Volunteer Service Award recipient, 2007.
Read →Della Chynoweth
Norland Branch. The Society’s longest-standing member, joined 1978; its Treasurer from 2006; Honourary Life Member 2024.
Read →Don MacLeod
1925–2007. Mississauga Branch president and Bulletin co-editor; namesake of the Don MacLeod Belt Buckle Award.
Read →Deane H. Russell
President 1950 and first Editor of Canadian Leathercraft, 1951; organizer of Canada’s two largest leathercraft exhibitions.
Read →Sherle Bottrill
Died 1993. Associate 1962, President of the Barrie Branch, Corresponding Secretary, and Honourary Life Member from the 1985 Annual.
Read →Clarice Packham
Died 1991. Fellow and Life Member; co-founder of the Weston Leathercraft Guild, glovemaker, and top judge at the CNE.
Read →Drawn from the Canadian Leathercrafter, the Society’s citations, and the memoirs in the Document Archive.