The Toronto Branch, 1952–2011

The Toronto Branch ran until January 2011 and left the least written about it. What survives is a newspaper report of the founding meeting, reprinted by the Society in the autumn of 1952; a retrospective written in 1990 by René Hackstetter, then the branch's President; and the branch's own traces through forty years of newsletters — officer lists, Weston Trophy scores, workshop programmes and obituaries. This page is assembled from that run rather than transcribed from a single document, and every claim below names the issue and page it comes from. Where two sources disagree, both are given.

The McGill Street Y.W.C.A., June 1952

The Society was two years old and had no local groups at all when the Toronto members founded one. The newsletter of Autumn 1952 reprinted the notice the Toronto Telegram had carried that June: “The Toronto local group of the Canadian Society of Creative Leathercraft was formed at a meeting at the McGill Street Y.W.C.A. when J. L. Scobbie of the arts and crafts department of Central High School of Commerce was elected president. Mr Scobbie is also chairman of the executive council of the national group.” (Autumn 1952, page 2.)

• Formed June 1952 at the McGill Street Y.W.C.A. — the Society's first local group
• First President, J. L. Scobbie of Central High School of Commerce
• About fifty members by the autumn of its first year
• Won the Weston Trophy eleven times, more than any branch but Hamilton
• Hosted the Annual Meeting in 1968, 1970, 1973, 1978, 1982, 1989 and 1999; closed in January 2011

The branch's own account, written thirty-eight years later, gives the address and the names on the calling notice: “The Toronto Leathercraft Guild, a branch of the CSCL, was founded in 1952. Members met at the YWCA located at 21 McGill Street. Mrs. Margaret McFarlane, Mrs. Edith Roscoe and Mrs. Reta Larmour are listed as contacts in the original notice of the meeting.” All three were officers of the Society itself — McFarlane its Vice-President, Larmour its Secretary and Roscoe the chairman of its Membership Committee, as the letterhead printed in the very first newsletter of September 1951 shows. (Summer 1990, page 4; September 1951, page 12.)

The first President's name is spelt two ways and this account has not settled it. The contemporary notice of 1952 prints Scobbie; the branch's retrospective of 1990 prints Scobie, twice. Neither is the man's own hand — the earlier is a newspaper's spelling passed through a typist — so both are recorded here and the question is left open.

The same reprinted notice named the branch's full first slate, not only its President: Jean Newton, Vice-President; A. H. Pearson, Secretary; and Faith Symington, Treasurer. It is Pearson who received Edith Roscoe's letter below, as the branch's own new Secretary rather than an outside contact. (Autumn 1952, page 2.)

Edith Roscoe's letter of 2 July 1952 to Mr. A. H. Pearson enclosed the minutes of that first meeting, held on 24 June. “In the letter Mrs. Roscoe encourages Mr. Pearson to telephone if he required help. The phone number, Cherry 1-3924, is on the Toronto Exchange and not long distance she says! We should have a very active and interesting group she goes on to say.” (Summer 1990, page 4.)

What the group meant to be is stated plainly in the same account. This “Toronto Section” planned to form a “Workshop Group”, with “demonstrations, lectures, and discussions on leathercraft” on its programme; “the original mandate was for leathercrafters to meet with each other, to get help with their problems, inspiration, and ideas from others in the group.” The Society's own announcement was more ambitious than that: “An active Toronto Group, the CSCL announcement reads, could well become an important influence in the Canadian Leathercraft field.” The special feature of the first meeting was colour slides of pieces from the Travelling Exhibition. (Summer 1990, page 4.)

It grew quickly. “J.L. Scobie was the first President and by the Fall of 1952 membership was ‘about fifty’ as Mr. Scobie writes in one of his letters (Sept. 22, 1952).” One of the first workshop speakers was Don MacKinnon — “late husband of Honourary Life Member Mae MacKinnon” — with “Line Rhythm in Leather Technique” on 26 November 1952. (Summer 1990, page 4.)

McGill Street was already the Society's address in another sense: Robert Muma's Mumart Studios of Creative Leathercraft, which advertised in the newsletter from 1951 and published his manual on colouring and finishing leather, stood at 62 McGill Street, and the Society's Treasurer's address was the same. The newsletter never remarks on it, and this page makes nothing of it beyond the coincidence of a street.

Big enough to think about dividing, 1957

Five years in, the branch's problem was its size. Under “WE HEAR”, Autumn 1957 reported: “We hear that the time is fast approaching when it will be necessary for the Toronto Branch to divide into smaller, more local groups in the East, West, North, and Central sections.” (Autumn 1957, page 4.) It never did divide, but the pressure was real enough to print, and the eventual answer came in 1984, twenty-seven years later, in a different form — the Mississauga Branch, founded in part by Toronto members.

Eleven Weston Trophies

The Weston Trophy is the Society's branch competition, judged on the pieces a branch submits together, and Toronto's name is on it eleven times — 1958, 1959, 1961, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1984 and 1985. Only Hamilton has won it more often. The tally printed under the roll of winners in Winter 1989 — transcribed from the trophy shield when it was filled — credits Toronto with eleven and Hamilton with twelve to that date. (Winter 1989, page 10.) (See the Weston Trophy roll.)

The 1971 win is the one the newsletter describes best. “Miss Olivia Smith assisted by Mrs. Nan Astley gave the rundown of Weston Trophy pieces. Mrs. Helen Wheaton made the presentation of the Weston Trophy to Mrs. Gladys Riddell, President of the Toronto Branch.” The branch's average was 90.4 per cent, and the makers are named: “Anne Hook, Itsuko Yasui, Olivia Smith, Nan Astley and Gladys Riddell”. (Summer 1971, pages 1–2.)

Gladys Riddell served as Toronto Branch President again in 1980, nine years after the Weston Trophy presentation above. (Fall 1980, page 10.)

By 1995 the branch’s five-piece entry averaged 62 per cent, its best piece Alan Foss’s trucker’s log at 73 — “Trucker's log (Alan Foss). Very functional article; lacing joints require more attention; border design missing on back” — which is as good a measure as any of what had happened to it in between. (Summer 1995, page 4.)

Presidents through the 1950s and 1960s

The presidency between the founding and 1969 can be pieced together from scattered branch reports. Richard Sirman was the branch's Vice-President in 1958 and its President by the autumn of 1959, when the branch's own slate also named Mrs. Thelma Terry Vice-President and Mrs. Ella Teasdale Secretary, meeting at the Woodgreen Community Centre. (Winter 1959, page 7.) Jean Newton, the branch's first Vice-President in 1952, returned as its Chairman in 1962 and its President in 1963 and 1964; Dorothy Proctor succeeded her as President in 1965. (Spring 1962, page 12; Summer 1963, page 4; Summer 1964, page 12; Summer 1965, page 7.) Cecil Roebuck — later the Society's own Treasurer and an Honorary Associate — was Toronto Branch President in 1967 as well as in 1969 and 1970 below, with Gwen Prestwich, later a Fellow, as his Vice-President in 1967. (1967-spring-no3, page 12.)

The branch officers of 1969–70

Spring 1969 page 9 prints the officers of every branch for the coming year. Toronto's four were President Mr. Cecil J. Roebuck, Vice-President Mrs. B. Rushton, Secretary Mrs. Nan Astley and Treasurer Mr. George McPhail. Only her initial is given, and no other record of the Society names this Vice-President more fully. A Mrs. Bea Rushton stands on the Toronto Branch membership list of 1979–80 and on the Society's lists thereafter, and her death was reported in the Fall 1999 newsletter; whether she is the same woman, the records do not say.

Three of the four are known otherwise. Cecil J. Roebuck had been made an Honorary Associate of the Society in 1962 and died in 1973. George McPhail, a bookkeeper by occupation, “assisted at many CSCL sales at the CNE” and was an Honourary Life member by the time of his death in 1996. Nan Astley — Elizabeth (Nan) Astley — was made an Associate in 1968 and a Fellow at the Annual Meeting of 1969, the year she took this office: “Mrs. Nan Astley of Toronto Branch was presented with the Fellow award. Mrs. Astley received her Associate last year.” (Spring 1969, page 1; Spring 1996, page 5.)

Nan Astley and Elizabeth Astley are the one person, under the formal name in the C.N.E. prize lists and the familiar one everywhere else. The hand-lettered caption over the sketches of the 1968 C.N.E. winners settles it in the paper's own hand: “ELIZABETH (NAN) ASTLEY”. (Autumn 1968, page 7.)

Host to the Annual Meeting

A branch's public duty in this Society was to host the Annual Meeting, and Toronto took its turn seven times that the run records. In 1968 the meeting went to Woodgreen Church, 835 Queen Street East, on 6 April, with “Toronto Branch as host … burning the midnight oil making plans for another eventful meeting”. (Autumn 1967, page 1.) The twenty-eighth Annual Meeting, on 22 April 1978, was held at the Hotel Triumph and hosted by Toronto, with 115 members present and May Corbett of Barrie in the chair as President. (Summer 1978, page 2.) Toronto served again as hosts for the 1982 Annual (Summer 1981, page 2), and again in 1999 at the Best Western Beacon Harbourside at Jordan Harbour, under Al Foss, who signed his invitation “C.S.C.L. TORONTO GROUP — President”. (Winter 1998, page 3.) Three more turns are in the run: the combined 20th Annual Meeting and 16th International Assembly of 3–5 April 1970, where “Toronto Branch were the hosts” at the Park Plaza (Spring 1970, page 3); the 1973 Annual, which “Toronto Branch hosted … very successful” (Summer 1973, page 8); and the 1989 Annual at the Nottawasaga Inn, Alliston, 5–7 May, “HOSTED BY THE TORONTO BRANCH OF C.S.C.L.” (Spring 1989, page 2).

The last forty years

The three years before Hackstetter's term are also on the printed rosters: Fred Brown was Toronto Branch President in 1986, Bob Sutton in 1987, and Harold Brister in 1988. (Fall 1986, page 8; the 1987–88 Executive Council roster; the Nominating Committee's proposed 1988–89 slate, printed in the 38th Annual Meeting programme.)

René Hackstetter, who wrote the branch's history, qualified as an Associate in 1990: “Rene's special leather skills include boxes and belts. He is currently President of the Toronto Branch.” (Spring 1990, page 4.) After him the presidency runs Bruce White (1992–93), Cal Lucas (1994–95), Allan Foss (1996–99), Della Chynoweth in the middle 2000s and Barbara Chynoweth from 2008.

The printed officer lists carry several more names through the 1970s and 1980s that the account above does not reach. Ralph Whately served as the branch's own President in 1984 and 1985, after two years as its Secretary in 1979 and 1980, and went on to the Society's own Secretary post in 1982 and a Director's seat in 1986. (The 29th and 31st Annual Meeting programmes; the 35th Annual Meeting programme and its minutes; 1986-summer p3; 1986-fall p8.) Robert Sutton's record runs wider than the 1987 Presidency already given above: he was Toronto Branch President as early as 1973, chaired or convened the Society's C.N.E. Arts, Crafts and Hobby Sale in 1972 and 1975, sat on the Executive Council in 1972, 1974 and 1975, was the branch's Past President by 1979, and its Chairman again in 1988. (1973-summer p12; 1972-73-winter p3; 1975-fall p4; 1972-summer p9; 1974-spring p12; the 29th Annual Meeting programme; the branch's own 1987-88 annual report.) Gel Brigden sat on the Society's own Executive Council for Toronto across three decades, named on the printed rosters of at least ten separate years between 1964 and 1979, with a seat on the Council itself in 1976 through 1979. (1964-summer p12 and the following years' mastheads; the 26th, 27th and 29th Annual Meeting programmes.) Fred Patterson and Mary Patterson edited the newsletter together for six years, 1980 to 1986 — the Editor's note in the final issue, “Fred and I trust…”, is theirs — after Fred's own earlier terms on the Executive Council (1978–80) and as 2nd Vice-President (1981–82); Mary also sat as a Director in 1982 and 1983 and on the Council in 1978 and 1979. (1980-summer p1 through 1986-spring p1 mastheads; 1978-spring p2; 1982-summer p2; 1983-summer p5.) Lillian Kay held the Society's Corresponding Secretary post for five years running, 1982 to 1986, and went on to a Director's seat for Toronto from 1989 through 1997, with a seat on the Council itself in 1988. (1982-fall p1 through 1986-fall p1 mastheads; 1989-90-winter p11; the 1990-91 Nominating Committee slate; 1997-summer p8.)

Several more names surface once each in the printed record: Katherine Heal was the branch's Secretary at the 28th Annual Meeting, 1978; Pamela Frith held the same office in 1975 and went on to the Society's own Corresponding Secretary post in 1977 and 1978; Colleen Glynn was Secretary again by the 40th Annual Meeting, 1990; Jean Agnew was the Society's Assistant Editor in 1956 and 1957; Keven Magura signed the branch's own annual report as Secretary in 2007, the same year Cindy Magura took a Craftsman Ribbon Honourable Mention for a Wizard Box, still a work in progress; and Jim Edwards sat as a Director for the Toronto branch every year from 1991 through 1998. (The 26th, 28th and 40th Annual Meeting programmes; 1956-fall and 1956-57-winter mastheads; “Annual CSCL Minutes 2007”; 1991-summer p8 and the following years' rosters through 1997-summer p8.) The branch-presidents list printed in the Winter 1984–85 newsletter, page 15, also gives Ralph Whately as Toronto's President for 1985, spelled there “Ralph Whatley”.

The branch kept giving after its members had scattered. Lea Love, “long-time C.S.C.L member of the Toronto Branch and later founding member of the Mississauga Branch”, a chartered accountant, was the Society's treasurer from 1984 to 1994 and “put Toronto Branch finances in order, as well as those of the Society” before his death in November 1994. (Summer 1995, page 4.) Jessie Little, Gladys Riddell and George McPhail were all long-serving Toronto members and all became Honourary Life members or Fellows of the Society.

The obituary's “1984 to 1994” figure for Lea Love as “the Society's treasurer” does not match the printed mastheads for the first half of that span: from 1984 through 1990 the Society's own Treasurer masthead names Jean Pickering (1984–85) and then George McPhail (1986–90), issue after issue, while the register's own rows for Lea Love in those same years give him as Mississauga Branch Treasurer and, some years, a Society Director — a real office, but not the Society's Treasurer. The mastheads agree with the obituary from 1991, when Lea Love does become the Society's own Treasurer and remains so through his death in 1994. Kept as printed rather than corrected: the obituary's wording most likely runs his decade of branch service and his four years of Society service together as one “treasurer” span.

Individual members kept winning ribbons for the branch through these years: Jean Hunter and Jack Meharg each took a Craftsman Ribbon in 1981 — Hunter's for a hand-stitched tote bag and, with a Salon Ribbon besides, a jewel box in a shooting-star motif; Meharg's for a stacked, laminated octagonal box — and Joyce Scruton took one in 1989 for a moulded bowl. (Summer 1981, page 9; Spring 1989, pages 6–7.) At the 42nd Annual in 1992, four more Toronto members took Craftsman Ribbons: Annie Fare for a grey picture frame, Bruce Briard for a black belt and two card cases, Harry Wendland for a bear picture — his second ribbon, after a photo album the year before — and Rick Fielding for the branch's own logo, a piece he brought back for a second ribbon the following year. (1992-summer p3, "Craftsman Awards"; 1991-summer p3; 1993-summer p3.)

In the spring of 2006 Della Chynoweth, as President, “called upon the Presidents of the other four Branches and presented each with an envelope” — the branch had decided to give away its New Horizons funds for workshops and training. (Spring 2006, page 4.) The Toronto Branch Award for Best Wearable Piece, twenty dollars, and the Al Foss fund that pays a fifty-dollar award at the Annual are both money the branch left behind it.

“Barbara Chynoweth reported back in January 2011 that the Toronto Branch had closed.” (Spring 2011, page 2.) Founded in June 1952 and closed that January, it had run fifty-eight years — longer than the Society had existed when it was founded, and longer than any other branch had run by the time it closed.

Assembled from Autumn 1952 p2 (the founding, reprinted from the Toronto Telegram), September 1951 p12, Autumn 1957 p4, Winter 1959 p7, Spring 1962 p12, Summer 1963 p8, Summer 1964 p12, Summer 1965 p7, Spring 1967 (no. 3) p12, Autumn 1967 p1, Autumn 1968 p7, Spring 1969 pp1 and 9, Summer 1971 pp1–2, Summer 1978 p2, Fall 1980 p10, Summer 1981 pp2 and 9, Summer 1986 p3, Fall 1986 p8, Winter 1986/87 p12, the 38th Annual Meeting programme, May 1988 , p12, Spring 1989 pp5–7, Winter 1989 p10, Spring 1990 p4, Summer 1995 p4, Spring 1996 p5, Winter 1998 p3, and above all Summer 1990 p4, the history of the Toronto Branch submitted by René Hackstetter.