Dr. Penny Serafina Petrone (1925 - August 22, 2005) was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 writer, educator, patron of the arts, and philanthropist. She was the daughter of Luisa Sisco and Luigi Petrone and sister to the recognized and distinguished lawyer Alfred Petrone. She was born in Port Arthur

Port Arthur, Ontario

Port Arthur was a city in Northern Ontario which amalgamated with Fort William and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Port Arthur was the district seat of Thunder Bay District.- History :...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 (now part of Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay

-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of three places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, Ontario...

).

She attended St. Joseph's School and the Port Arthur Collegiate Institute, where she won the first Canadian Federation of University Women scholarship given to an outstanding Grade 13 female student in the Lakehead.

She received her Doctorate in English Literature from the University of Alberta

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

.

Her research on the Canadian poet Isabella Valancy Crawford

Isabella Valancy Crawford

Isabella Valancy Crawford was an Irish-born Canadian writer and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer....

 resulted in two books: The Selected Short Stories of Isabella Valancy Crawford and The Fairy Tales of Isabella Valancy Crawford.

Petrone also pioneered the critical study of aboriginal literature in Canada with her landmark books First People, First Voices and Northern Voices.

Her Native Literature in Canada was the first book-length history of the literature of Canada's First Peoples. For this ground-breaking research, Petrone was made an honorary Indian Chief by the Gull Bay Ojibwa and gained international recognition.http://www.guernicaeditions.com/petrone.html

After her retirement from Lakehead University, Petrone's scholarly focus shifted to the study of her Italian heritage. She formed 'I Literati', a local reading group which focused on Italy's cultural heritage in the fields of literature, art, music, history and film as well as on the Italian immigrant experience in North America.

She also wrote two memoirs, Breaking the Mould (1995) and Embracing Serafina(2000). Her book Breaking the Mould was translated into Italian and launched at the University of Rome, La Sapienza in July, 2005. Her latest book, finished during the last months of her life Schoolmarm (2007), where Penny recalls a teaching career that began at North Bay Normal School, her time spent in one-room schools in rural Port Arthur, and culminated at the Lakehead University Faculty of Education where she taught teachers.

She also served on the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Over the years she held various executive offices in teachers' organizations and in the Canadian Federation of University Women.

Her contributions to the arts in Thunder Bay is noted in the renaming of Magnus Theatre

Magnus Theatre

The Magnus Theatre - The Dr. S. Penny Petrone Centre for the Performing Arts in Thunder Bay, Ontario was founded in 1971 and is Northwestern Ontario's professional theatre company....

 in Thunder Bay to Magnus Theatre

Magnus Theatre

The Magnus Theatre - The Dr. S. Penny Petrone Centre for the Performing Arts in Thunder Bay, Ontario was founded in 1971 and is Northwestern Ontario's professional theatre company....

 - The Dr. S. Penny Petrone Centre for the Performing Arts.

During her lifetime Petrone has received many honours and awards: The Corporation of the City of Thunder Bay Citizens of Exceptional Achievement Awards (Culture) in 1981, 1984, and 1989, 'L'ordine d'onore' from the National Congress of Italian Canadians (1994); the 'Order of Ontario' (1992); Canada 124 Medal (1992); Honorary Citizen of Piane Crate (1997); the Golden Jubilee Medal (2002); the F. G. Bressani Literary Award (2002); the Kouhi award for 'her outstanding contribution to writing in Northwestern Ontario' (May 2004). Petrone was also the recipient of Lakehead University's first 'Distinguished Teacher' Award in 1989 and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations teaching award (1988).

In honor of her commitment, through the endowment of scholarships and bursaries of over 1 million dollars for students at the Lakehead University

Lakehead University

Lakehead University is a public research university in Thunder Bay, and Orillia, Ontario, Canada.Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', or 'LU', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate and graduate programs and a medical school.The school has more than 45,000...

 campus of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Northern Ontario School of Medicine

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is a medical school in the Canadian province of Ontario, created through a partnership between Laurentian University in Sudbury and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay...

, (NOSM), the facility which houses the West Campus of the NOSM Health Sciences Library is now called the Dr. Serafina "Penny" Petrone Health Information Resource Centre.