HSCA’S Virtual AGM is April 27, 2021. HSCA celebrates National Volunteer Week (April 18-24, 2021) with a dedication to Doreen Orman.

By Lisa Chong & Lorna Cordeiro, friends of Doreen

In memoriam of Doreen Orman: 1925-2020. Featured in the YWCA “She Who Dares” Canada 150 project, Doreen lived in Sunnyside from 1946-2017. Since the 1930’s, Doreen has dedicated her entire life to volunteering. Doreen’s passion for social justice included advancing the rights of youth and women and especially Indigenous and marginalized people. Doreen received the Governor General’s Award in 1992 for her work on advocating for women’s rights.

Doreen lived in Sunnyside for 70 years. Her husband, Jack was raised in Sunnyside and his parents lived down the street from Jack and Doreen’s home. Jack’s grandparents lived nearby. Lilian Orman (or Nana to Doreen & Jack’s children) parents, the Dunns were British immigrants who settled Sunnyside in the early 1900s. Doreen’s father, Jack Dunn was the first sanitary engineer in the city. 5 generations of Doreen’s family have lived on Memorial Drive.

Doreen’s vision and activism and collaboration with the City of Calgary and development partners helped shape the special character and charm of Hillhurst Sunnyside as an urban village; Doreen was HSCA Board President and a strong community voice behind the original 1988 Hillhurst Sunnyside Area Redevelopment Plan, which envisioned a choice of housing, including family-oriented housing to prevent the closure of inner city schools. She also fought against the proposed widening of Memorial Drive in the 1970s.

To date, Memorial Drive is the only designated parkway in Calgary, hosts the Bow River Pathway – the crown jewel of Calgary’s pathway system – is popular for its scenic views of the river, the Landscape of Memory and Road of Remembrance legacy projects (see: our HSCA blog on Memorial Drive Trees: A Living Legacy).

While she served on the HSCA Board, Doreen helped foster a tone of collaboration by starting the practice of asking developers to come to the community association with their proposed buildings and to allow residents to have a dialogue with developers to build a better community. This is a practice that continues today.

Doreen had the foresight to go through the process via the City of Calgary to legally protect her home. The Orman Residence at 734 Memorial Drive NW, was the first home in Sunnyside to be designated as a Municipal Historic Resource for its architectural and cultural significance, forever embedded in the historical fabric of the city.

We are honoured to have dedicated the 2020 Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association Annual General Meeting to Doreen Orman, a community member who dedicated her life to the service of the community. We were joined by Doreen’s children, Maureen & Rick to celebrate Doreen’s memory and legacy to HSCA at the very spot she was presented with HSCA’s Volunteer Service Award in 2017!

*Photo by Carol Armes, HSCA AGM – April 25, 2017*

Photo credits: Jenn Crack, Lorna Cordeiro, Orman family