Elmira Minita Gordon
Dame Elmira Minita Gordon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 1st Governor-General of Belize | |
| In office 21 September 1981 – 17 November 1993 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Colville Young |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 December 1930 Belize City, British Honduras (now Belize) |
| Died | 1 January 2021 (aged 90) Inglewood, California, US |
| Education | |
Dame Elmira Minita Gordon GCMG GCVO JP (30 December 1930 – 1 January 2021) was a Belizean educator, psychologist and politician; she served as the first governor general of Belize from its independence in 1981 until 1993. She was the first Belizean to receive a doctorate in psychology. She is one of the few "double dames", having received damehoods in two separate orders: the Order of St Michael and St George and the Royal Victorian Order.
She was the first woman to serve as governor-general in the history of the Commonwealth.[1][2][3]
Biography
[edit]Elmira Minita Gordon was born 30 December 1930 in Belize City, British Honduras.[4] Her parents, Frederick Gordon and May Dakers,[5] had immigrated from Jamaica to Lucky Strike, Belize in the 1920s.[6] Gordon had five siblings: Lincoln Coyi, Dorinda Henderson, Kelorah Franklin, Rolston Coyi, and Robert Reyes.[5] She grew up in Belize City, attending St. John's Girls' School and St. Mary's Primary. Gordon was a member of the Girl Guides from 1946.[7] Years later, in 1970 Gordon became the District Commissioner of the Girl Guides for the Belize district.[8]
Gordon continued her education at St. George's Teachers' College. She also took a correspondence course from the College of Preceptors, Oxford, England.[7]
After graduation, she began teaching at an Anglican school. She also served as a missionary throughout Belize between 1946 and 1958. From 1959 to 1969, she was a lecturer at the Belize Teachers' Training College.[8] From 1969 to 1981, she served as a Government Education Officer.[4]
Gordon graduated from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada with a B.Ed. (1967)[9] and an M.Ed. (1969) specialising in educational psychology.[10][11] She completed postgraduate studies at the University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham in England.[7] Between 1977 and 1980, when Gordon was in Canada, she served on the Educational Psychology Programme Planning Committee and was a member of the Toronto Leather Craft Club.[8] She graduated with a PhD in applied psychology from the University of Toronto in 1980,[12] becoming the first trained Belizean psychologist.[8]
She returned to Belize after graduating.[7] In 1981 Gordon was appointed as Governor General of Belize.[13] She succeeded James P. I. Hennessy, the last Governor of Belize. She became the first Governor-General of Belize upon Belize gaining independence that year.[14]
Gordon became a justice of the peace in 1974[7] and a senior Justice of the Peace in 1987.[4] Gordon received a lifetime membership of the British Red Cross in 1975,[7] and in the Belizean Red Cross in 1981.[6] In addition to her public works, Gordon was a master leather crafts artisan, having won numerous prizes for her works.[4]
Gordon stepped down as Governor-General in 1993, and was succeeded by Sir Colville Young.[15] In later years, poor health prompted her to move to the United States in 2016 to live with her sister, Kelorah Franklin.[5] She died on 1 January 2021, in Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California, two days after her 90th birthday.[16]
Honours
[edit]- Honorary LL.D., University of Victoria (1984)[17]
Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (1984)[18]
Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (1985)[19]
References
[edit]- ^ Dame Elmira Minita Gordon, trailblazing educator and first Governor-General, dead at 90, breakingbelizenews.com. 2 January 2021. Accessed 28 November 2022.
- ^ Belize's first Governor General passes away, caribbean.loopnews.com. Accessed 28 November 2022.
- ^ Belize's First Governor General to be Honoured with State Funeral, pressoffice.gov.bz. Accessed 28 November 2022.
- ^ a b c d Sleeman 2001, p. 210.
- ^ a b c "Dr. Dame Minita Gordon passes". Amandala Newspaper. 6 January 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
- ^ a b Alvarez, Vejea (4 January 2021). "Belize's First Woman Governor General Passes Away". LOVE FM (Belize). Retrieved 6 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "Belize's First Governor General is Trailblazer of the Week". The Guardian. Belize City, Belize. 4 September 2014. Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ a b c d "Belizean Biographies – Dame Elmira Minita Gordon". Belize National Library Service and Information System (BNLSIS). Belize City, Belize: Belize National Library Service. Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ Tallystick 1967. University of Calgary. 1967. p. 263.
- ^ The Faculty of Graduate Studies thesis bibliography. University of Calgary. 1989. p. 30.
- ^ Gordon, Minita Elmira (1969). A study of the relationships between selected measures of written language and certain personality and biographical variables. University of Calgary. OCLC 1007624194.
- ^ Gordon, Minita Elmira (1980). Attitudes and motivation in second language achievement: a study of primary school students learning English in Belize, Central America. University of Toronto. OCLC 15886729. ProQuest 303093215.
- ^ "Women Governors-General 1945–2005". Terra España. 2001. Archived from the original on 29 August 2005. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ Lentz 2014, p. 84.
- ^ "Belize's First Governor General Passes". Great Belize Television. 4 January 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
- ^ "Dame Elmira Minita Gordon, trailblazing educator and first Governor-General, dead at 90". Breaking Belize News. 2 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
- ^ "UVic honorary degrees, 1961– – University of Victoria". www.uvic.ca. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
- ^ "Honours and Awards". No. 49665. London, England: The London Gazette. 6 March 1984. p. 3253. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ^ "Honours and Awards". No. 50333. London, UK: The London Gazette. 29 November 1985. p. 16780. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
Sources
[edit]- Lentz, Harris M. (2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-26490-2.
- Sleeman, Elizabeth (2001). The International Who's Who of Women 2002. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-85743-122-3.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1930 births
- 2021 deaths
- Dames Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Dames Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
- Governors-general of Belize
- Scouting and Guiding in Belize
- Justices of the peace
- University of Toronto alumni
- University of Calgary alumni
- 20th-century Belizean women politicians
- 20th-century Belizean politicians
- Female governors-general