Gwladys Downes

Victoria College graduate and former professor leaves a legacy

In the years following her retirement as Professor of French, Dr. Gwladys Downes continued to serve both the university and the wider community. She was an active participant in cultural events, a volunteer archivist at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, a translator of Québécois poetry and a published poet (her last volume appeared when she was in her eighties). She was also generous in founding the Gwladys and Gwen Downes Scholarship in Theatre, augmenting the Gwen Downes Memorial Book Prize earlier established in memory of her mother.

When Dr. Downes passed away in 2005, she left a substantial financial legacy to Special Collections, which created the McPherson Library Special Collections Fund. She also left a legacy to the Maltwood Gallery and the Downes Scholarship. In addition, the bulk of her extensive library was left to the University of Victoria Foundation. Dr Downes was a voracious and wide ranging reader. She was not a collector of rare books but purchased new titles in the many subjects of interest to her. First and foremost this meant the work of Canadian poets, in both English and French, as well as collections of American and British poets, especially of one of her favorites, Ted Hughes.

On her walls was a fine collection of contemporary paintings; her library contained a wealth of art books and art magazines. Needless to say, there were shelves upon shelves of French classics and critical works, especially those related to the symbolist poets, subject of her doctoral dissertation and influence upon her own poetry. Religion, magic, mythology, philosophy, history, biography: books on these subjects, many with her own annotations, completed the donated collection.

The respect and affection of her fellow writers is marked by the great number of presentation copies, signed by their authors to her. The inscription in my own copy of her House of Cedars reads "How can one thank a friend for friendship?" We might well wish we could thank her now for her generosity as a founding Friend of the UVic Libraries.

This Donor Profile is written by Dr. Joan Coldwell, formerly a professor of English and director of Women's Studies at McMaster University. Joan has also worked as book page editor and columnist for the Victoria Times and as a food writer and radio producer. She is the founder and publisher of Hedgerow Press and co-author of It is I, Patricia; an artist's childhood, a portrait in words and photographs of artist Pat Martin Bates.