Fonds AM902 - Phyllis Ross fonds

Phyllis Marie Gregory was born in 1903 in Rossland, British Columbia, the daughter of a Nova Scotia miner. She graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1925 with a BA, first class honours, in Economics and Political Science. During that year she won the Susan B. Anthony Fellowship to Bryn Mawr and completed her master's degree. Under another scholarship award, she continued to study at the London School of Economics. In 1928, she married Leonard Hugh Turner in England, but returned to Canada with her two children after her husband's death in 1932. She joined the Canadian Tariff Board in 1934 in Ottawa, and at the outbreak of war was seconded to the Wartime Prices and Trade Board, where she became Economic Advisor, and later Oils and Fats Administrator, the most senior woman in the Canadian public service. In 1945, she married Frank Mackenzie Ross, a Scottish-born Vancouver industrialist, who in 1955 was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of B.C. A member of the U.B.C. Senate since 1951, Phyllis Ross was elected Chancellor in 1961. She was extremely active for over 30 years in a variety of cultural, medical and church organizations in B.C. As a result of her work and dedication, she was the recipient of many awards, including the Service Medal of the Order of Canada in 1967. Phyllis Ross died in 1988 and was survived by her son, the Rt. Hon. John N. Turner, and daughter, Brenda Norris.