Isabel and Norman Woodward

Born in North Vancouver in 1920, Isabel Coy grew up in a house on the corner of 17th Street and Lonsdale Avenue with her two older brothers. Her father worked on the North Vancouver ferry and her mother took in boarders during the Depression. She attended Queen Mary Elementary School and graduated from North Vancouver Secondary School in 1938.

In 1941 she married a school friend, Norm Woodard, then a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force. After his postings to Victoria and Bella Bella, she returned to North Vancouver in 1942 with their infant daughter while Norm remained with the RCAF. The two bought a house on 17th, just west of Lonsdale. In 1950 they moved their four children to a larger home on East Queens Road, where another child was born in 1954. All her life, Isabel remained very involved with North Lonsdale United Church as a member of the women's service group, Canadian Girls in Training, the Couples Club and work bees at Camp Fircom on Gambier Island. A founding member of the chruch's Bailey Memorial Library, she was given a lifetime membership in the Congregational Libraries Association. Her last volunteer work was five years with Emergency First Response. She died in April, 2000.

Norman Woodard was born in England in 1920, but moved to Canada in 1921 and to North Vancouver in 1929, attending Queen Mary Elementary School and graduating from North Vancouver Secondary School in 1938.

He put himself through business college by working as a janitor and in June 1939 joined the RCAF Permanent Force Accounts Branch. After training at Jericho Beach in Vancouver, he was posted to Western Air Command in Victoria and various stations across the country until he left the RCAF in the spring of 1946 to spend more time with his family. That August, he was hired by the District of North Vancouver as a clerk.

During the 1950s, he studied municipal administration through the University of British Columbia, earning a Senior Diploma in Municipal Administration (Accounting-Finance) in 1959. In 1966, still serving as the District's Treasurer-Collector and occasionally Acting Manager, he became Director of Financial Services, in charge of the Data Centre and the Departments of Assessment, Purchasing, and Lands.

He was President of the Lower Mainland Municipal Officers' Association for a term; a life member and President (1969-1970) of the Municipal Officers' Association of BC; and a member of the Municipal Finance Officers' Association of the United States and Canada. He retired in 1980. Norm loved to read. Well-known at the North Vancouver Public Library when it was housed in a small garage at Lonsdale and 16th, he served on its board, part of the time as President, and was given life membership in 1958. He also served five years on the Board of the North Vancouver District's Library. He died in September 1990.