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In 2004, Kathy Assayag was appointed Vice-President, Advancement and Alumni Affairs for a five-year term, beginning January 10, 2005. Her title was changed to Vice-President, Advancement and Alumni relations at the Board of Governors meeting of May 19, 2005. She stepped down from her dual position as Vice-President, Advancement and Alumni Relations and President of the Concordia University Foundation in 2010.

• In 2005, she was responsible for the creation of the Leave a Legacy Adopt a Student program that enabled individuals and corporations to sponsor a student for three years.
• Assayag was also behind the creation of the high-visibility fundraising event Hitting the High Notes, an opera benefit concert first held on May 10, 2005 at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall.

Paul Babarik was born on June 30, 1929 in Oshawa and died in Montreal on December 27, 2019. He studied psychology at the University of Toronto and at the University of Chicago, from which he earned his PhD. He worked in behavioural psychology in Washington before returning to Canada due to opposition to the Vietnam War. He joined Loyola College in 1970 as an associate professor of psychology, a position he held until his retirement in 1992. Between 1975 and 1978 he studied the Canadian roots of community psychology and the Canadian psychologist William Line (1897-1964).

Ingrid Bachmann is a professor at the department of Studio Arts. Born in London, Canada, she obtained her MA in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Bachmann came to Concordia in 1993. She got her tenure-track position in 1999. In 2001, Bachmann was a founding member of Hexagram: Institute for research and Creation in the Media Arts, based at Concordia University. She served on the Faculty of Fine Arts Council from 2002-2003 to 2003-2004 and in 2008-2009, on the Council of the School of Graduate Studies in 2004-2005 and on the Senate, in 2006-2007. She’s had 20 solo exhibitions, took part in more than 30 group exhibitions and was awarded many grants from the Canada Council, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Daniel Langlois Foundation to name a few. Her creations are at the intersection of textiles, sculpture and technology.

• Bachmann got to present her paper ‘Material and the Promise of the Immaterial’ at the Textile Society of America Conference held in New Mexico, in September 2000.
• Bachmann was one of three artists selected to represent Canada at the International Triennale of Tapestry held in Lodz, Poland, in 2001.
• She was invited to create an in situ installation at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery for its 10th anniversary in 2002.
• Bachmann’s ‘Digital Crustaceans: Homesteading on the World Wide Web’ research project was presented at the Creative Evolution conference at the University of London’s Goldsmith’s College in April 2005.
• In 2008, she was part of the Entretiens Jacques-Cartier organizing committee, a colloquium at which she hosted a symposium exploring the potential of textiles in various applications such as sustainable development, security, health and culture.

Al Baculis was a Canadian clarinetist and composer. He was born in Lachine, Montreal on November 21, 1930, as Joseph George Alphonse Allan Baculis. He was the son of Lithuanian immigrants. From 1948 to 1951, he studied clarinet at McGill University, and from 1952 to 1956 he studied composition. Baculis married Margo MacKinnon in 1963. They lived in Montreal and had two children, Heather and Alan Jr.

During the 1950s, Al Baculis played with the Canadian All Stars, but also with various bands led by Buck Lacombe. In 1958, he started to do studio work for the CBC. Around the same time, Al Baculis played and composed for several NFB films. From around 1965 to 1972, he led the Al Baculis Singers, a studio group working mainly for radio and television. Also in the 1960s, he led the Al Baculis Octet. Al Baculis wrote arrangements for the Ted Elfstrom Octet and played saxophone in the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. In the mid-1960s, Baculis performed with Vic Vogel's band for Canadian soldiers in Europe and the Middle East. Al Baculis composed and arranged the theme for the closing ceremonies of the 1976 Montréal Olympics. From 1977 to 1986, Al Baculis taught arranging and composition at Vanier College, Montreal, and at McGill University, Montreal, from 1978 to 1983.

Al Baculis died on January 22, 2007 in Seminole, Florida, where he had lived since his retirement in 1993.

René Balcer is an accomplished Emmy-winning director, writer and showrunner born in Montreal, QC on February 9, 1954. He attended Lower Canada College high school and Concordia University where he graduated in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies. He married three times, in 1981 to Diane McCarter(divorced in 1988); in 1992 to Lynne Hayashi(divorced 1998); and in 1999 to Carolyn Hsu-Balcer.

Balcer began his career as a journalist covering the Yom Kippur War and worked as an editor for various Canadian publications including the Physicians Management Manuals in 1978. He was involved in several documentary films produced by the National Film Board of Canada and collaborated with notable film producers and directors include Monte Hellman, Francis Ford Coppola, Steve Tisch and Mace Neufeld in the 1980s.

Balcer has written for prominent television series including Star Trek: The Next Generation, but is best known for his work writing, directing, and showrunning the television series Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Los Angeles. He helped create the latter two.

In 2011, Balcer collaborated with the Chinese artist Xu Bing on an exhibition entitled Tobacco Project Virginia at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where his poem “Backbone” was featured.

Throughout his career, Balcer has been the recipient of several awards and certificates, including an Emmy (1997), a Peabody Award, a Writers Guild of America award, four Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Writers of America awards, and a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association.

In 2004, Balcer was awarded Alumnus of the Year by Concordia University and in 2008 he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws (LLD) from Concordia, where he delivered the commencement address at the fall convocation.

Frank Barry was born on April 16, 1913 in London, UK and died on July 31, 2013 in Mississauga. During the war 1939-1945, he served in the Royal Air Force, where he contributed a number of witty cartoons to the squadron newsletter. He met his wife, Patricia Rawlinson, in 1944 (while in he was in the RAF) and they married in northern India in 1945. They had two children, Ailsa and Christopher.

After the war, he studied painting and teaching at the Ealing School of Art in London, UK from 1946 to 1950. In 1950-51, he studied at Hornsey School of Art, also in London, England. From 1951 to 1963, he was an Art Master at the Carisbrooke Grammar School on the Isle of Wight, UK. He moved to Montreal with his family in 1963 and taught art at the Northmount High School. He entered Sir George Williams University and graduated with a MA in Art Education in 1969. He was appointed lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts at SGWU in 1967-1968 and was promoted assistant professor of Fine Arts (Art Education) in 1973. He retired in June 1978 but continued teaching as part-time lecturer until 1981-1982.

• Frank Barry was chairman of the Association of Art Specialist of Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal in 1965 and 1966.
• He moved to Missisauga in 1984.
• Barry was elected Mississauga Senior Artist of the Year in 1995.
• Frank Barry was one of the first artists to exhibit at the recently opened Distillery Art and Culture Centre in Toronto, in 2003.
• He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts and the Ontario Society of Artists.

Clarence S. Bayne joined Sir George Williams University in 1966 as a lecturer in statistics after completing his Master and PhD at McGill University. From 1967 to 1969, he was a Lecturer in quantitative methods; in 1969 he was appointed Assistant Professor of quantitative methods. Following the merger of Sir George Williams and Loyola College to form Concordia University in 1974, he was appointed Associate Professor of quantitative methods. In 1987, he was made Associate Professor of decision sciences and management information systems. He received his Full Professor title in June 2001. He was the Director of the Diploma in Administration/Diploma in Sport Administration (DIA/DSA) program from 1991 to 2006 and served on many university committees, task forces and councils. Bayne’s research focuses on forecasting and sampling theory. He has been an advocate for the Black community in Montreal.

• Bayne sat on the committee to investigate the charges against Perry Anderson in December 1968. The biology professor had been charged with racism by the then-Principal of Sir George Williams University, D. B. Clarke. Bayne would resign publicly from the committee on January 22, 1969, citing the lack of guidelines and procedures of the committee and expressing concerns regarding the overall role of the University towards the Black community.
• Bayne was instrumental in the foundation of Montreal’s Black Theatre Workshop in 1969. He has been president and executive director of the company created to offer opportunities to black actors.
• Bayne was the founder and executive director of the National Black Coalition of Canada Research Institute during a leave from teaching in 1972.
• In 1987, Bayne worked on the creation of the Foundation for Minority Arts and Culture.
• Bayne was the 1992 recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award for his work on developing Black performing arts and culture in Montreal.
• In February 1996, the City of Montreal presented a community service award to Bayne.
• Bayne received the Montreal Association of Black Business and Professional Award in 1998.
• Bayne chaired a session on Multiple Identities and Social Values at the Canadian Cultural Research Network (CCRN) colloquium in Edmonton, held in May 2000.
• Bayne was admitted to the Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honour Society at its ceremony held November 1, 2000.
• Bayne received the Quebec Board of Black Educator’s Award in 2000.

Beatrice Millman Bazar was born on October 14, 1914 in Montreal, Quebec, as the daughter of Aaron and Rose Millman. She was married to Bernard Bazar. They had two sons, Leonard and Ronald. Beatrice Bazar died on September 28, 2009 at the age of 94. Beatrice Bazar was involved in the community at the local and national level. In 1935, she helped open the first pre-kindergarten Montessori school recognized by the Quebec government. Bazar co-founded the Dominion Gallery of Art with her mother, and the Youth Division of The Canadian Jewish Congress. She served on many boards, including the United Nations Association in Canada, where she served as president, was the director of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, was the president for the Canadian Institute for International Affairs, and the Chair of the Foundation for International Training in Third World Countries.

Bazar received several medals throughout her life including the Order of Canada, which was awarded on October 25, 1990.

Henry Beissel is a poet, playwright, essayist, translator, editor and distinguished professor emeritus. Beissel immigrated from Cologne, Germany to Canada in 1951 and became Canadian citizen in 1956. He obtained his M.A. from the University of Toronto in 1960 and first taught English literature in Germany and the West Indies before joining the English department of Sir George Williams University in 1966 as Assistant Professor. He would help develop the Creative Writing program in the early 1970’s before getting his tenure and becoming Full Professor in 1979. His teaching centered mostly on medieval and modern periods literature. Beissel retired from Concordia University in 1995. He is the author of 18 volumes of poetry, 10 plays and numerous essays and translations.

• From 1963 to 1969, Henry Beissel was the editor of the independent literary journal EDGE he founded in Edmonton.
• Beissel is the author of ‘Inuk and the Sun’, a play that premiered in Stratford in 1973. Translated in many languages, it has been performed around the world. The play would eventually become the opera ‘Inook’ in 1986, with music composed by Music department Professor Wolfgang Rottenberg. Excerpts of the piece would later be performed at the Inukshuk: A Dialogue among Cultures event, held at Concordia in June 1999.
• Beissel was the chair of the Irving Layton for Creative Writing awards committee in 1992.
• Beissel edited ‘Raging Like a Fire’, a Vehicle Press ‘Festschrift’ publication celebrating Irving Layton’s 80th birthday, in 1993.
• In 1994, Beissel was awarded a literary prize in the memory of Walter Bauer in recognition for his services to Bauer’s work and for his own literary oeuvre. The award was presented in Merseburg, Germany.
• Beissel was awarded the First Prize in Poetry for ‘The Jade Canoe’ by the Surrey International Writer’s Conference, in 2006.
• In 2008, he received the Naji Naaman Literary Prize for ‘Where Shall the Birds Fly?’. He also became an honorary member of the Maison Naaman pour la Culture in Beirut, Lebanon.

Frances Belfrage McDonald was born on June 17, 1920. She was married to Peter McDonald with whom she had a daughter named Molly McDonald. Belfrage wrote several radio plays for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Some of her works include Blues for Charlie, Neon Sign in Green and Red, and The Exile. She also wrote for the British Columbia Department of Education’s Youth in Search of a Future series dealing with vocational guidance.

Frances Belfrage McDonald died on March 13, 2011.

Jean Bélisle retired from the Department of Art History and got his Professor Emeritus title in 2012.

Donald Herbert Bell (known also as Don The Bookman Bell) was an author, dramatist, journalist-much of his writing was humorous-and a seller of used and rare books. He was born November 17, 1936 in Brooklyn, N.Y. In 1941 his family moved to Montreal. His parents were Sam Bell and Claire Bell (d. 1983). The family name at the time of Don Bell's birth was Belitzky. His brother was Arthur Bell (1932-1984), who worked in publishing in New York and then became a writer at the Village Voice. His sister was Doreen Bell (married name: Resnick). Don Bell studied at Baron Byng High School and Mount Royal High School and then at McGill University, graduating in 1957 with a degree in commerce with an English major. He married Céline Dubé in 1962. They had two children, Daniel and Valerie, and later divorced. In the 1980s he married Odile Perret and divided his time between Paris and Sutton, Quebec. He died in Montreal March 6, 2003, age 67.

In the 1960s he had a number of jobs as a journalist, working for a time at CBC International Services and then at newspapers including the Montreal Herald, the Calgary Herald, and the Montreal Gazette. From 1967 onward, he worked as a freelance writer of articles, fiction (short stories and novellas), and film and radio scripts for a wide variety of Canadian and American magazines, newspapers, and other media. He did photography to illustrate his articles. He wrote the Expo publicity booklet short book Film at Expo 67 (published by Expo 67, 1967). A collection of his short stories was published as Saturday Night at the Bagel Factory and Other Montreal Stories (McClelland and Stewart, 1972). It won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Award for Humour for 1974. His book Pocketman was published by Dorset Publications in 1979. In 1976, he won the Canadian Authors Association Air Canada award for humour. In 1978 he won a Jewish Book Month award. 1n 1986 he won the Molson Silver Award for the Best Canadian Sports Writing category of the National Magazine Awards. For a number of years he researched the life and death of magician Harry Houdini, creating a manuscript for a book that was published posthumously as The Man Who Killed Houdini by Véhicule Press in 2004. He wrote a number of other books, usually compilations and reworkings of his articles and stories, that were never published.

In the 1980s he opened a second-hand bookstore in Sutton, Quebec. During his travels he scouted books and in the summers he sold books at his store, La Librairie Founde Bookes in Sutton. He had a column, Founde Bookes, in Books in Canada magazine, dealing with his life as a book scout and dealer. Bookspeak, a chapbook based on his experience scouting and selling used and rare books, was published by Typographeum in 2000.