Grace Irwin

Grace Irwin had a distinguished life as novelist, humanist and classicist. Born in Toronto in 1907, she attended Parkdale Collegiate Institute before attaining a B.A. (1929) from Victoria College, University of Toronto, and M.A. (1932) from University of Toronto. Ms. Irwin went on to a long and rewarding career teaching at Humberside Collegiate Institute, heading the Latin and Greek Department, 1942–1969. She wrote seven novels, including Least of all saints (1952), In a little place (1959), Servant of slaves: a biographical novel of John Newton (1961), Contend with horses (1969), and The seventh earl: a dramatized biography (1976), as well as poems and articles in periodicals. Grace Irwin served on the Senate, University of Toronto, 1952–1956, and received an Honorary Doctorate of Sacred Letters from Victoria University in 1991. In 1968 she was awarded the Centennial Medal of Canada, and in 2001 the Grace Irwin Secondary School Teaching Award was established by the Ontario Classical Association. Grace Irwin died in 2008.