Corner Gas was a live-action Canadian comedy television program which was filmed in Saskatchewan and aired on the CTV television network from 2004 to 2009. Corner Gas was produced by Prairie Pants Productions, which was comprised of Virginia Thompson of Vérité Films and 3-35 Productions Inc., a partnership of Brent Butt and David Storey. Corner Gas was CTV’s first original narrative comedy series. The first episode of Corner Gas debuted in January 2004 and quickly became a popular Canadian program. By its second season, it was the most-watched Canadian program in any genre in Canada. Corner Gas was filmed at Regina’s Canada/Saskatchewan Production Studios and on location in Rouleau, Saskatchewan. Over its broadcast run, Corner Gas won numerous awards including six Gemini Awards and nine Canadian Comedy Awards. The show was followed by Corner Gas: The Movie which was released in 2014 as well as Corner Gas Animated which debuted in 2018.

Corner Gas was set in the fictional small town of Dog River, Saskatchewan and starred Saskatchewan comedian Brent Butt as Brent Leroy, the owner and operator of Corner Gas, the local gas station in Dog River. Other main characters on the show included Oscar and Emma Leroy (Eric Peterson and Janet Wright), Lacey Burrows (Gabrielle Miller), Hank Yarbo (Fred Ewanuick), Davis Quinton (Lorne Cardinal), Karen Pelly (Tara Spencer-Nairn), and Wanda Dollard (Nancy Robertson). One of the running features of the program was cameo appearances by high-profile Canadian celebrities.

Gens Douglas Hellquist was born in 1946 in North Battleford. He was a Canadian gay rights activist and publisher, most well-knownfor his prominent role in the formation of a cohesive LGBT community inSaskatoon, and Saskatchewan. Gens was a founding member of the Gay LiberationFront, which went on to become the Zodiac Friendship Society. These groups facilitated political lobbying for LGBT rights, as well as acted as an organizing body for social activities for the Saskatchewan LGBT community. The funds from these activities led to the creation of the Avenue C Community Centre in 1973 –the second gay community centerin Canada. Hellquist was also involved in a number of prominent human rights cases, fighting against the distribution of hate speech, and promoting equality of gayand lesbian health care in Canada. In terms of his publishing work, Hellquist established and operated Gaymates, a penpal club that facilitated communications between gay men across Saskatchewan, Canada, the United States, and the world. He also established Perceptions in 1983, Saskatoon’s first LGBT publication. Gens was also involved in LGBT health activism, being a founding member of Gay and Lesbian Health Services of Saskatoon, and the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition, as well as serving on the boardsof the Canadian AIDS Society and the Saskatchewan AIDS Network. Gens was awarded the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal in June 2005, and was inducted into the Queer Hall of Fame in 2010. He was also the first recipient of the Peter Corren Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Bruce Reeder spent many years working for the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan. He is now a Professor Emeritus of Community Health and Epidemiology. His areas of research are Global Health, infectious disease, the prevention of obesity and cardiovascular disease, and complex adaptive systems and systems thinking. In the 1990’s, he worked for Health Canada, and was involved in the Canadian Heart Health Initiative. He has also been a leader in the One Health initiative.

David Leon Kaplan was born in Chicago on December 12, 1923 and grew up in a musical family. His father, Joshua Samuel played euphonium in a Russian army band and later in Chicago brass bands. His mother, Nettie (née Lurie), born in Lithuania, was a student of the piano. David served with the United States Army Sothern Command Variety Ensemble from 1942 until 1946 under the direction of Major Wayne King, known as the “Waltz King of America”. Kaplan credited his wartime service for exposing him to new musicians and new musical styles, including jazz. Over the next number of years he earned a series of degrees - Bachelor of Music from Roosevelt University (1948), Master of Music from Oberlin College (1950) and a PhD in Music from the University of Indiana (1978). He taught music in Chicago, rural Illinois and West Texas State University before moving to Saskatoon in 1960 and a two-year term position at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Education. He remained at the U of S for the rest of his career and served as Department of Music head from 1966 to 1982, introducing several new programs. He taught courses in music history, theory and world music until his retirement in 1991. In addition to his academic career, Dr. Kaplan was very active in the music and social life of his newly adopted community. He conducted the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (SSO) from 1963 to 1969 and again from 1970 to 1971. He also composed music for plays and musical productions, adjudicated at music festivals, gave public lectures and wrote about the clarinet and music education. A number of organizations benefited from Dr. Kaplan’s involvement, including the Canadian Music Council, the Canadian Music Centre, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Nutana Rotary Club and the Saskatoon Multicultural Council. He was founding chair of the Saskatchewan Music Council in 1967. He co-founded the Saskatoon Festival of Faith bringing together people of different faiths, including aboriginals, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and others, to express their spiritual traditions through speech, music and dance. He was the festival’s music director from 1985 to 1989 and wrote five choral works on multicultural themes. An impromptu jam session at a bar mitzvah at the Congregation Agudas Israel synagogue led Kaplan to found Zmarim: the Saskatoon Klezmer Band. He went on to write more than 200 arrangements for the ensemble. The inaugural Saskatoon Klezmer Music Festival was held in November, 2007. He was also an avid collector of musical instruments and donated his personal collection of almost 200 instruments to the University of Saskatchewan in early 2013. Kaplan received numerous honours, including the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and induction into the Order of Canada. In 2009, he was named ambassador of the Canadian Music Centre in recognition of his life’s work. Kaplan Green, in Arbor Creek, a residential neighbourhood in northeast Saskatoon, was named in his honour. He died in Saskatoon on April 6, 2015.

David Thauberger was born in Holdfast. He studied ceramics at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, where ceramic sculptor David Gilhooly served as an early mentor, inspiring Thauberger and others to create art that was rooted in their own life experience and their own geographical region. He earned his BFA in 1971 and his MA in 1972 from California State University (Sacramento). He then studied with Rudy Autio at the University of Montana in Missoula, earning his MFA in 1973.
David Thauberger is known for his paintings of the vernacular architecture and cultural icons of Saskatchewan. Thauberger's achievements were recognized when he was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. He was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2008, is a recipient of the Queen's Diamond Medal in 2012, the Lieutenant Governor's Saskatchewan Artist Award in 2009 and is member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. When named as a Member of the Order of Canada, he was cited for his contributions to "the promotion and preservation of Canadian heritage and folk art in the province of Saskatchewan, in addition to his work as a painter, sculptor and educator."
Thauberger has become known as an iconoclastic artist, creating colourful portraits of vernacular prairie buildings, legion halls, quonset huts, false fronted shops and inner-city bungalows.

Donna Rosalie Bronson grew up in Craik, Saskatchewan, and attended the University of Saskatchewan. She graduated with a BA in 1930.

Grant Wood worked for many years in Agricultural Extension at the University of Saskatchewan, and upon the closure of that Department became an Assistant Professor in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources in the Department of Plant Sciences. He received his BSA from the University of Saskatchewan and his M.Sc. through Agricultural Extension, also at the U of S. Wood has been a driving force behind the University’s rooftop gardens and other urban agricultural initiatives, and specializes in teaching urban agriculture, a course he developed to help students understand why we should be growing more food locally. He has acted as faculty advisor to the U of S horticulture club, and is also involved in various food-growing initiatives off-campus, frequently working with new Canadians, and sharing his love of urban farming.

Henry T. Abley, also often known as Harry, was an organist, choirmaster and composer, born in 1917 in Knighton, Wales. He studied at Trinity College of Music, London. He had fellowships at that college, and the London College of Music, and was an Associate of the Royal College of Organists.

He immigrated to Canada in the late 50s and worked as the organist at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Sault Ste Marie, ON from 1957-1959. From 1961-1967 he worked as the organist at First Baptist Church in Lethbridge, Alberta. Subsequently he worked as an organist and choirmaster at St. John’s Cathedral in Saskatoon, SK from 1968-1977, then at Third Avenue United Church also in Saskatoon, SK from 1979-1985. His last engagement as organist and choirmaster was at Church of the Advent in Montreal from 1985 until his death in 1994.

He was a recitalist known especially in Germany during the 70s and 80s, where he performed frequently in East and West Berlin, Bremen, Norden; as well as Geneva, Switzerland and Oxford and Cambridge, England. He excelled in music of the German School, but was also a fine exponent of Franck, Liszt, and 20th-century composers Olivier Messiaen and Jéhan Alain. Abley was also a composer of mainly sacred works, and his large output occasioned a 1981 concert in Saskatoon composed entirely of his music.

Edward McCheane was a Saskatchewan landscape artist, married to Edith Hinde. He immigrated to Canada from Birmingham in 1904, homesteading near Borden Saskatchewan. He later became a designer for Bulman Brothers of Winnipeg, and then for Bailey, Banks, and Biddle of Philadelphia. Family lore has it that during this time, Edward designed the sailor logo for Player’s cigarettes, and sold the design for $50. Edward McCheane returned to Saskatchewan to establish Globe Signs in Saskatoon.

Elsie (Hinde) Ingram was born in 1903 to Joseph and Martha Hinde. She married Wesley Reginald Ingram, a Railway worker and ranch hand in 1951. Together they managed the Valley Springs Ranch outside of Borden, Saskatchewan. The ranch was later purchased by David Horn, the donor, who was raised on the ranch from the age of twelve.