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James Noble Stephens was born on February 9, 1925 in Edmonton to Robert Noble Stephens and Laura Florence Macleod, and had two brothers, Robert George (Steve “Joe” & Nina) and Gerald Reginald (Jerry & Mary). He attended school in Edmonton, but did not graduate from high school, enlisting instead with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve on October 14, 1943. He was discharged from the Reserves on June 12, 1944 after a bout of rheumatic fever resulted in heart damage and rendered him medically unfit for service. He married Mabel Christina Metcalfe in 1951, and they had three children: Mark, Susan and Corey.

James was employed as a clerk for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1947-1948. He enrolled in correspondence school to acquire training in the architectural field, and worked his entire career as a home and commercial designer, draftsman, and technician in the field.

In 1948 he established a business titled ‘Home and Commercial Designers’, operating it with his brother Robert, and working out of their Edmonton family home at 9417 - 95 Street. They also worked under the banner ‘Home Designers’, and moved to business premises at 9325 – 111 Avenue, Edmonton. The business operated until ca. 1953, but while continuing to work on designs, both residential and commercial, for their own business, James also began to work for the G. W. Golden Construction Ltd.

James began working for Golden Construction as a draftsman in 1950, working in this position for the Company through 1962. From 1963 to 1966 his position was titled ‘Designer’, and he was promoted to Chief Designer for G. W. Golden Construction during this time.

From 1966 to 1967, James Stephens worked as a designer and draftsman for Christenson Homes, and also did some early design work for Prudham’s Builders and MacLab Construction.

James incorporated James N. Stephens Ltd. In 1968, with the only Shareholders of the Company being James as President, and his wife, Mabel, as Secretary. The Company was operated from an office in their family home located at 4903 – 109 Avenue, Edmonton. In the Henderson’s Directories from 1968 to 1971, James is listed variously as an architectural designer, a contractor, and a building contractor. He did not advertise himself as an architect as he did not have the required formal education to achieve this designation. James retired from this last business in 1976 due to serious medical problems, and he died July 22, 1993 of congestive heart failure. His wife Mabel predeceased him on March 28, 1982.

Elizabeth Sterling Haynes was born on December 7, 1897 in Seaham, County Durham, England. In 1905 her family immigrated to Ontario, Canada. Elizabeth attended the University of Toronto, University of Victoria College and completed her Bachelor of Arts in 1916. In the following year Elizabeth took part in the founding of the Victoria College Women’s Dramatic Club and served as vice-president and then president in 1918-1919.

Following university Elizabeth moved to New York to teach. In 1921 she married dentist Nelson Willard Haynes. Elizabeth and Nelson moved to Edmonton, Alberta the following year in 1922. In Edmonton, Elizabeth began directing theatre productions at the University of Alberta (U of A). While at the U of A, Elizabeth founded the Alberta Drama League with Ernest Sterndale Bennett. In 1929 Elizabeth began teaching drama to school theatres in the U of A’s department of education.

Elizabeth assisted with the development of Edmonton Little Theatre and was the company’s first artistic director from 1929 to 1932. The following year in 1933, she became the provincial drama specialist for the Department of Extension at the U of A, in this role she helped expand the Alberta theatre community traveling around the province coaching theatre groups. In 1933 Elizabeth co-founded the Banff Centre for the Arts and in 1952 she founded the Canadian Women’s Theatre Guild.

Due to her declining health, Elizabeth and her husband moved to Ontario in 1955. Elizabeth died on April 26, 1957 in Toronto, Ontario. Edmonton awards the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award, also known as the Sterling Award, in honour of Elizabeth.

Margaret Stevenson was born in Montreal, Quebec. When Margaret was young she and her family moved to Slave Lake, Alberta where they lived for five years. In 1920 Margaret and her family moved to Edmonton, Alberta where she began to take an interest in winter sports including ice hockey. Margaret was a player for the women's hockey team the Edmonton Monarchs. In 1932 Margaret was crowned the Queen of the Banff Winter Festival; it was the first time in the festival's fifteen year history that a woman from Edmonton had won. Margaret passed away from leukemia before 1968.

Barbara Stewart lived in Edmonton AB on Summit Dr, above MacKinnon Ravine, during the period of controversy concerning the proposed development of a high-density roadway through the ravine. She was involved in resistance to the proposal and may have become involved with the Urban Reform Group Edmonton (URGE) because of its opposition to unrestricted use of the river valley as transportation routes. She was Membership Secretary of URGE, with Mari Johnston, in 1978.

Rita H. Efner was born in 1901 in the United States. By 1916, she and her sister Elsie were living with their aunt and uncle, Alfred and Bessie Rehwinkel in Edmonton. Rita trained as a nurse at the General Hospital in Edmonton and graduated in 1922.
Walter Raymond Stewart was born 29 Jul 1890 to Sarah Little and William C. Stewart in Garden Hill, Ontario. Walter graduated from pharmacy at the University of Alberta in 1921. He married Jessie ? and worked in the Strathcona Military Hospital. Jessie Stewart died in 1922 and is buried in the Edmonton Municipal Cemetery.
In 1925 Walter Stewart married Rita H. Efner in Edmonton.
Walter worked at various drug stores including the Corner Drug store in the 1950’s. Following Walter’s retirement in the mid-1960s, Walter and Rita moved to Victoria, B.C.
Walter Raymond Stewart died 28 Jun 1970 in Victoria, B.C. A death date for Rita Efner Stewart cannot be found.

Alice France Stinson (née Dick) was born on March 27, 1901 in Alberta to James A. Dick and Margaret Dick. Alice had six older siblings, four sisters and two brothers. Alice was married to Ralph Stinson and together they had four children, Peggy Marian Stinson, Bernice Ruth Stinson, James Ralph Stinson, and Donald Samuel Stinson. Ralph worked for the Edmonton Journal in the 1930s.

Save Tomorrow, Oppose Pollution, commonly known as S.T.O.P. was an anti-pollution group established in 1970 and dissolved in 1982. It was a voluntary, federally recognized charitable organization created with the purpose of generating public awareness about the dangers of environmental pollution. They carried out a number of activities from creating bottle depots to crusades against corporate polluters.
A sub-group of S.T.O.P., the Mill Creek Build A Park committee, focused on the protection of the Mill Creek Ravine in southeast Edmonton (Ward 2). Their work included the development of a kit, 'The Mill Creek Story', to provide to schools bordering the ravine, for students to learn the natural and human history of the ravine and to conduct experiments measuring water quality, fauna populations, and other indicators of environmental health. They used this work to develop ‘It Really Works! – A Social Action Model’ to advocate for social action in environmental education.
The group worked in conjunction with community groups around the Mill Creek ravine, Alderman Ed Ewasiuk, and various schools to create and promote their projects.

George H. Stout was born on 22 Sep 1915, son of early Strathcona pioneers Clarence and Jesie Stout. George attended school in Edmonton at Allendale and Queen Alexandra School before his parents moved to Calgary. George attended school in Calgary and worked at both the Calgary Herald and Calgary Albertan newspapers before returning to Edmonton in 1940 for a position at the Edmonton Journal. George enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942 and served until 1945.

Following the Second World War, George returned to the Edmonton Journal where he worked as Night Editor, City Editor and News Editor. In 1947, he married Grace Moore Piper of Fort William, Ontario. Grace, who had earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and a Master's degree from Columbia University School of Journalism in New York, began working at the Edmonton Journal as society editor. The couple had three children together: Corey, Janet, and Cynthia. In 1963, the Stouts left Edmonton and moved to Tweed, Ontario where Georgia and Grace owned and managed a local paper, The Tweed News. Grace fell ill and the Stout family returned to Edmonton in the summer of 1964. Grace passed away in October of that year.

George worked with the Provincial Government from 1964 to 1967. In 1968 he became the Communications and Publications Officer with the Edmonton Public School Board. He worked with the Edmonton Public School Board until his retirement in 1980. George eventually remarried to Isobel ?.

George was an active community volunteer. In 1968, he joined the Rotary Club of South Edmonton (later the Rotary of Edmonton South) and from 1974 to 1998, he assisted the Club in its staging of Harvest Fair at Fort Edmonton Park. He became a charter member of the Fort Edmonton Historical Foundation in 1971 and served as its director from 1972 to 1986 and then again in 1990. For twenty-five years, from 1981 to 2006, George spent his summers as an interpreter at Fort Edmonton Park in the Bulletin Building portraying Frank Oliver, Publisher. He was Honorary Chief Factor of Fort Edmonton from 1987 to 1988 and for several years during the 1980s, he was on the Board of Directors of the Old Strathcona Foundation.

George Stout died 18 Jul 2013 in Edmonton.

Hazel Srang-McCardell was a music teacher and a long time resident of Edmonton. She married William McCardell in 1917.

Robert Gary (Gary) Stretch was born in 1938 to Florence M. Rees and Jewel R. Stretch. Gary served with the Edmonton Police for many years. At the time of donation, Gary was a Labour Standards Officer.
He married Helen Menduk, a teacher, in the mid-1960s and they had three children. Gary and Helen divorced in the mid-1970s
Gary Stretch died in 1998 and is buried in the Forest Home Cemetery in Ponoka.