Audrey Bowes: bringer of light

In 1983, more than 11 years before she would retire from the Department of Civil Engineering, Audrey Bowes was celebrated for her 25 years of service. In his recognition speech, James Abel, then chair of the department, noted that when Audrey started at the school, Ryerson, as it was then called, had about 2,000 students, and “was a friendly and family type of institute.”

For Audrey, who retired in 1994 and died last year at age 92, the school never lost that sense of home and community. She loved the students and loved interacting with them. She loved being the point person in the office, and she always spoke proudly of the institution, her department and its growth. She valued being a part of the university’s story and being connected to its growing place in the city.

A strong advocate for education and a proud staff member for more than 36 years, Audrey left Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) $400,000 in her will. Her estate gift will be directed to bursary support for women in engineering, with special consideration for women living with a disability. The gift, her bequest, is a reflection of her care and pride in that department.

Audrey grew up in Aylsham, a farming community in northern Saskatchewan. She rode a horse to school and helped her parents on the farm. The largest nearby town, Nipawin, boasted about 4,000 people and is just shy of 350 kilometres north of Regina. Audrey was studying to become a secretary when, at 21, she contracted polio, affecting her right leg. Her mother, who helped her through a difficult course of rehabilitation, encouraged her in recovery to move to either British Columbia or Toronto, where there was some family. In 1958, Audrey arrived in Toronto to find her first “real job.” She was 28 years old at the time and hired to work on the switchboard at Ryerson Polytechnic, then just a decade old itself.

In 1958, when Audrey joined what is now Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), the school was led by its founder and first principal, H.H. Kerr (the Kerr of Kerr Hall). Audrey worked briefly on the switchboard, and spent several years as an executive secretary in the principal’s office, before joining the Department of Civil Engineering (Civil Technology) in 1970.

“I couldn’t believe my good luck. Audrey, with all her skills and know-how, came to work with me in the Civil department,” said James. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to the Civil department and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”  

Gwen Merrick, co-executor of Audrey’s estate and a lifelong (Gwen’s life) friend to Audrey, noted, “Audrey was so committed — more than just a strong work ethic. At a certain point, she needed crutches because of her leg and, one snowy day, was unable to get from her car to the entrance of the building. Two students spotted her, actually carried her to the entryway, and off she went to the office.”

Gwen followed a similar path to Audrey — though some 38 years later — leaving Winnipeg and moving to Toronto, where Audrey was the closest thing she had to family. Gwen was at the University of Toronto studying speech pathology, and Audrey would host her for home-cooked dinners, always set with a tablecloth and her best china, and with more dessert than the two of them could ever eat.

In her Thank You notes to attendees to her retirement dinner, Audrey said simply, “I will always have happy memories of Ryerson.” Gwen is now the keeper of some of those memories of the early days at TMU, and remembers in particular Audrey’s tales of Gladys Doyle, who she met on the switchboard and who became a close friend even into their mutual retirements. Gladys had also had polio, and Audrey talked fondly about Gladys arriving on campus each day, puffing on a cigarette, in her sporty red car with the radio blaring. Gladys had a cottage which Audrey regularly visited, and the two spoke on the phone every day after their retirement. Because of a fall in 2017, Audrey was unable to attend Gladys’s funeral. Audrey talked Gwen into taking her to visit Gladys’s gravesite, arriving fittingly in Audrey’s red sports car, though absent Gladys’s trademark cigarette.

In James’s speech on Audrey’s 25-year anniversary, he noted that she was prescient about the direction the institution was heading. “Audrey has foresight; she realized that Ryerson’s administration would become more complex in order to accommodate growing enrollment and the changing character of the institute,” he said. ”She enrolled in the Advanced Management Program in the Evening Studies Division and, after three and a half years of part-time studies, Audrey completed all the requirements for the certificate in 1977.”

In an interview that year in the Forum newsletter — a forerunner of Toronto Met Today — Audrey noted, “We all seemed to have a common understanding of what we were trying to do. Dr. Kerr had a vision of the future and we felt we were part of that.”

In 1994 when Audrey retired, Terry Grier was president and Ryerson was a university. When she started, the tools of her trade were manual typewriters and carbon paper, and she retired adept at laser printing, personal computers and WordPerfect, the preferred word processing software of Canadian educational institutions.

Audrey lived in a modest apartment in Toronto until her dad joined her after her mother’s death. They bought a house with the proceeds from the sale of the farm in Aylsham. “They knew the value of money and lived modestly,” said Gwen. “Audrey was an expert coupon-clipper.” She was also an avid Blue Jays fan, and loved her backyard raspberry bush, making jams and spreads, and freezing berries for the winter. 

Audrey lived independently until a fall in 2017 forced her into assisted living at Millwood. And even while at Millwood, she kept her house, expecting someday she would return there. She lived at Millwood through the difficult years of the pandemic, unable to visit or be visited except from the window of her room. Gwen remembers Audrey keeping her good cheer even through this difficult period. And that character note was something her long-time boss valued as well. Said James, “No matter what’s gone wrong or how dark things look, Audrey always remains calm. In a crisis she instinctively knows that the thing to do is to supply light not heat.”

The first Audrey Bowes Award for Women in Engineering will be awarded in September of 2024.

In tribute to Audrey Bowes
Born August 31, 1929, died June 15, 2022 (age 92)

Audrey worked at Ryerson from April 11, 1958 to August 31, 1994, retiring on her 65th birthday.