NOT AN OLD-TIMER BUT DORTHEA CALVERLEY IS PART OF PEACE HISTORY

March 30, 1999

By Mark Nielsen, PRB News staff

Ostensibly, it was about the opening of the History Is Where You Stand web site, (www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca), when the ribbon wrapped around the computers at the Dawson Creek library was untied one evening earlier this month.

But more so it was a celebration of the accomplishments of a woman who was so highly devoted to preserving the history of the Peace that she accumulated some 28 large ring binders full of information and enough books to fill a small room in the back of the library.

Alas, I never met Dorthea Calverley, but Gerry Clare had. A retired history teacher and librarian, Clare not only supervised the transfer of some 4,000 pages worth of Peace history onto the Internet, but had actually met the woman in person.

For Clare, "the power of her mind" was what was most striking about Calverley. "Given the opportunity, she would have been a brilliant researcher in almost any field," he said.

History was just one of her many pursuits. Calverley was also knowledgeable in botany and was often seen studying flowers, and going so far as to lie in roadside ditches trying to get the perfect photo of some plant, while her husband, Howard, patiently waited in the car. Many of her slides appear in the book Wild Flowers of Alberta and she was a regular contributor of plant specimens to the Royal B.C. Museum.

She also held a fascination for local First Nations. Indeed, seven volumes of material were collected on them and a further volume contains Native legends, mystery and adventure stories.

Oddly, Calverley never considered herself to be an historian.

"She was a collector of information. Historians interpret. But she collected," Clare said.

Her prime motivation for her work, it seemed, was simply that somebody had to do it. "It's almost a quote from her: Are you going to do it? If not, then be quiet and let me get on with it."

And for those of us who thought local history began in 1942 when construction of the Alaska Highway began, Calverley would have some words. Despite having lived here since 1936, she never considered her an old-timer.

"To be a genuine old-timer, and it's still true, you had to be here before the railway, and that was 1931," Clare said.

She could be gruff and didn't suffer fools gladly, but she could also be generous. The first time Clare met her, he was a single teacher just arrived in Pouce Coupe and went over to the Hart Hotel for dinner. Seeing that he was alone, Calverley invited him over to join her and her husband.

Clare believes that Calverley would have approved of seeing the collection put on the Internet. Her purpose, after all, was to help serious students learn more about the Peace Country.

The photo of her that accompanies a short biography of her in the web site remains a different story. A single index finger pretentiously resting on her cheek, Clare said she was much more modest. "Some silly photographer made her do that," Clare said. "That's not her at all."

She may not have been an old-timer, but Calverley was definitely a part of the Peace Country's history in her own right.

(Mark Nielsen is a senior reporter at the Peace River Block News)