Class Notes

Rietta Wadman-Mills is happy to announce that she is enjoying retirement from a 30-year elementary teaching career at Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board and Limestone District School Board. 

Paul Thompson was recently appointed deputy minister/deputy receiver-general in the Federal Public Services and Procurement Canada. He was recruited directly upon his graduation from Queen’s and has held a number of senior leadership roles since that time. Paul follows several family members who are Queen’s graduates: his grandfather, Elwood Thompson (BA’24), was a respected elementary school principal in Kingston for over 30 years; his father, Keith P. Thompson (Arts’51), was a secondary school inspector and later a school superintendent in Perth County; and two nieces, Katie Squires Thompson (Artsci’12) and Emma Squires (Com’14), both of whom have leadership positions and currently live in British Columbia. Other family members are likely to follow in the Queen’s tradition. 

Richard Manley-Tannis has completed his PhD through the Taos Institute and Tilburg University in the Netherlands and was awarded his doctorate in practical theology and relational construction in Tilburg, Feb. 17, 2020. The couple was lucky to have travelled to Tilburg and returned home just when the COVID-19 restrictions were becoming a reality. For the past two years, Richard, who is also a commissioned diaconal minister in the United Church of Canada, has held the position of principal of St. Andrew’s College, a United Church Theological School at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, while Shelly is an ordained minister (after graduating from Queen’s Theological College in 2001) and is currently working with the congregation of Mayfair United Church in Saskatoon. 

The Zylin Project, a music collective based in Victoria and featuring Richard Arthur and Richard Woodruff – both Queen’s grads and members of the Artsci’87 band – have released a song and video that pay tribute to Ukraine and its president. The goal of “Force of a Nation: Standing with Ukraine Through Music” is to drive renewed support for viewers’ preferred charities helping in Ukraine, such as the Compassionate Resource Warehouse (CRW), which is a registered Canadian charity based in Victoria, and the Salvation Army. The video is on YouTube,while the song is available for purchase and playback from Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Facebook.

Jeeva Sam graduated from Queen’s Theological College and has recently published The Unbreakable Marriage: How to Stand in Unity and Withstand Adversity, which was co-authored with his wife, Sulojana.  

David Garlick retired from his role as a secondary school principal in 2016. He published a collection of short stories called The Principal Chronicles in December 2021 through FriesenPress. Two of the stories, both humorous, are set during his time at Queen’s.