Draft:Gillian M. Horgan

Gillian M. Horgan

Gillian Horgan (born 1942) is an Irish national and an American and Canadian citizen. She has held many positions including scientist, researcher, thrift shop manager, fundraiser and Assistant Executive Director of a not-for-profit organization, administrator of a not-for-profit annual national conference, editor, technical writer (banking), software documentation specialist, software documentation architect and designer (telecommunications), and fine art photographer (film, unedited).

Early life and family

In 1963, she graduated with a B.A. Honours, Natural Sciences, from Trinity College, Dublin University (T.C.D.), where she was also the successful captain of the Dublin University Women's Hockey Club.

In 1984, Horgan eloped to Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A, to marry Martin Bowman, Ph.D. from Verdun, Quebec, Canada and eventually moved to Eastern Ontario.

Droum, County Kerry, Ireland - Summer home of the Horgan family

Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay translated, among others, eight plays by Michel Tremblay from vernacular Quebec French into Scots.

Maternal family

Gwen Horgan was the third (of four) daughters of Hilda Knowles and Joseph Stuart Richards (J.S.R.). An ancestor of Hilda Knowles (Charlie) owned a boot-maker and retailer on New Bond Street in London, Hook, Knowles and Co. shoe makers to H.M. the Queen and members of the Royal Family.

Joseph Stuart Richards (J.S.R.) was the son of a Welsh farmer who, because of the agricultural depression in the late 19th century, left the farm and started an artificial manure business based on bone meal. J.S.R. graduated in Medicine from Guy’s Hospital, London, and bought a practice in Croyden, England.

Three of Hilda and J.S.R.’s daughters attended university.

Paternal family

Joe Horgan was the second son of of John J. Horgan, a solicitor and politician associated with both the Irish Parliamentary Party and the Irish Volunteers. John J. Horgan was also the Coroner of Record in 1915, when the Lusitania was sunk. Joe graduated from Trinity College Dublin University (T.C.D.), Ireland and spent time in the Royal Army Medical Corps before attaining his F.R.C.S.

Joe was a grandson of Sir Bertram C. A. Windle. As President of Queen’s College, Cork, Ireland, Sir Bertram was an adviser to the Government, the Irish political leaders, and the Catholic hierarchy. He was instrumental in making Queen's College, now University College Cork (Irish: Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) a constituent college of the National University of Ireland. Windle later became the Chair of Philosophy at St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, Canada. Toronto established a graduate scholarship in honor of Windle.

Career in Microbiology Research

In 1963, Horgan began her scientific career at King's College Hospital, London, as Research Assistant to A. C. Cunliffe, Professor, Departments of Chemical Pathology and Bacteriology. Her main project was testing the use of ethylene oxide to sterilize heat-labile medical equipment (first use in the U.K.).

From 1965 to 1967, she was a member of the research team under Professor Reginald Shooter, at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London which described the first known instance of cross-infection by a Gram-negative bacillus (Pseudomonas aeruginosa).

In 1968, she was Research Assistant to the Professor of Virology and to William H Konigsberg, Professor in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.

From 1969 to 1973, Horgan designed, developed, and used a bacterial system to detect mutagens in the Molecular Biology laboratory of Ralph Barclay, Ph.D. at Geigy Chemical Corporation and then Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corporation, now Novartis.

Political career in New York, N.Y.

In September 1969, Horgan moved in to an apartment at 525 Hudson Street, N.Y 10014, Greenwich Village N.Y., N.Y., which was part of five rent-controlled buildings, three on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village and two on W. 10th Street, in the West Village. Remembering a January of no heat or hot water and counting the number of housing violations in their apartments and public spaces, a group of tenants decided to go on a rent strike. Eventually, with Horgan as Chairman, the Hudson Towers Tenants Association (H.T.T.A.) was formed and became the first tenant association in New York to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a landlord.

Career in the Not-For-Profit Arena in New York, N.Y.

From 1977 to 1979, Horgan was the Thrift Shop manager, fundraiser, and Assistant Executive Director (a position created for her) at Greenwich House, a not-for-profit settlement house in Greenwich Village, founded in 1902 to improve the living conditions among the predominately immigrant population of Greenwich Village, at the time New York's most congested neighborhood..

In 1981, she was an administrator for a not-for-profit annual, national women’s conference, Women in Crisis (W.I.C).

Career as a Technical Writer in New York, N.Y. and Montreal, Quebec, Canada

From 1982 to 1985, Horgan was a technical writer and software documentation designer in the Documentation department of The Chemical Bank, N.Y., N.Y.

In 1987, as sole author, she researched, designed, and wrote the user guide for the existing, extensive, custom-built, engine-spare parts database for Pratt & Whitney Canada.

From 1987 to 2006, she worked as a software documentation specialist, architect, and designer in Montreal, Quebec. Her aim, as always, was to produce documentation that provided context, was clearly and accurately written, and whose design allowed for different orders of readers at the same time. Horgan worked for major multinational corporations with offices in Montreal including CAE Montreal, Philips, Bell-Northern Research, Nortel Networks, Ericsson, Inc., ScanSoft, Inc. (now Nuance Communications, Inc.), BroadSoft, and Blue House Communications, Inc. For Ericsson, she designed a true single-source document that incorporated the data for each of three different mobile switches. Additionally, she designed true online documents that served in place of Help systems.

Career as a Fine-Art Photographer

After taking photographs for many years, Horgan became a professional art photographer in 2006. The first showing of her photographic work was at the One of a Kind Spring Show, in 2007. Since then, she has exhibited her work at many art shows in Eastern Ontario, including The Abbey for the Arts in Glen Nevis, PhotoLab, galleryDK in Toronto, and Art Expo in Ottawa and a solo show at Galerie Quest, St. Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. She has also exhibited at many Art in the Park shows in Ontario. Her work, as unedited, chromogenic film prints, can be found at her two websites.