Grace Irwin Award

The Grace Irwin Secondary School Teaching Award was established by the Ontario Classical Association in 2001 to honour Grace Irwin's career as a humanist, novelist and classicist for thirty-eight years at Humberside Collegiate Institute in Toronto. Her creative genius and compositional skills have been embodied in seven novels, occasional poems, magazine articles and popular talks to appreciative audiences near and far. Her presence and contributions at OCA meetings, her service as a member of its Executive Committee, her role as a perennial member of the Classical Association of Canada, as well as her service to the Senate of the University of Toronto, are proverbial. Her conspicuous merit in imaginative literature and her distinguished teaching career have been recognized by the award of the Centennial Medal of Canada (1968) and an Honorary Doctorate of Sacred Letters, granted by Victoria College, University of Toronto (1981). The Grace Irwin Award was designed to assist a secondary school teacher of Latin, Ancient Greek or Classical Civilization who is seeking to upgrade existing abilities by completing the Honours Specialist Course, by taking an Additional Qualification in Latin, by enrolling in a course of study offered by the North American Cambridge Classics Project or similar programme or by the Vergilian Society or similar organization overseas, by attending conferences in the field of Classical Studies or by enrolling in some other bona fide programme geared to improving teaching skills in the area of Latin, Ancient Greek and Classical Civilization. The Grace Irwin Award is awarded annually to qualified and meritorious candidates. The selection committee is composed of current members of the Board of Directors and Board of Advisors of the Ontario Classical Association. The value of the award is conditioned by funds available. In any year the selection committee reserves the right not to make an award, should no sufficiently meritorious applications be received. For further information about the Grace Irwin Award, and about making a contribution towards the Grace Irwin Award Fund, please contact the OCA at mail@ontclassics.org