Elmira Minita Gordon

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Dame
Elmira Minita Gordon
GCMG GCVO JP
Elmira Minita Gordon.png
1st Governor-General of Belize
In office
21 September 1981 –17 November 1993
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded by Colville Young
Personal details
Born(1930-12-30)30 December 1930
Belize City, British Honduras (now Belize)
Died1 January 2021(2021-01-01) (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.

Contents

She was the first woman to serve as governor-general in the history of the Commonwealth. [1] [2] [3]

Biography

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

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References

  1. ↑ Dame Elmira Minita Gordon, trailblazing educator and first Governor-General, dead at 90, breakingbelizenews.com. 2 January 2021. Accessed 28 November 2022.
  2. ↑ Belize's first Governor General passes away, caribbean.loopnews.com. Accessed 28 November 2022.
  3. ↑ Belize's First Governor General to be Honoured with State Funeral, pressoffice.gov.bz. Accessed 28 November 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Sleeman 2001, p. 210.
  5. 1 2 3 "Dr. Dame Minita Gordon passes". Amandala Newspaper. 6 January 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  6. 1 2 Alvarez, Vejea (4 January 2021). "Belize's First Woman Governor General Passes Away". LOVE FM (Belize) . Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "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.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "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.
  9. ↑ Tallystick 1967. University of Calgary. 1967. p. 263.
  10. ↑ The Faculty of Graduate Studies thesis bibliography. University of Calgary. 1989. p. 30.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ "Women Governors-General 1945–2005". Terra España. 2001. Archived from the original on 29 August 2005. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Lentz 2014, p. 84.
  15. ↑ "Belize's First Governor General Passes". Great Belize Television . 4 January 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  16. ↑ "Dame Elmira Minita Gordon, trailblazing educator and first Governor-General, dead at 90". Breaking Belize News. 2 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  17. ↑ "UVic honorary degrees, 1961– – University of Victoria". www.uvic.ca. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  18. ↑ "Honours and Awards". No. 49665. London, England: The London Gazette. 6 March 1984. p. 3253. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  19. ↑ "Honours and Awards". No. 50333. London, UK: The London Gazette. 29 November 1985. p. 16780. Retrieved 3 September 2015.

Sources

Political offices
New office Governor-General of Belize
1981–1993		Succeeded by
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