Michael Riordon was born in 1944 in Canada. He is an author, playwright, documentary maker, and oral historian who, as of 2015, had published 6 books and more than 60 spoken word/audio documentaries and plays, films and videos. His work has appeared in various publication such as "Toronto Life," "The New Internationalist," and "the Globe and Mail." His books include "The First Stone: homosexuality & the United Church of Canada" (1992), "Out Our Way: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Country " (1996), "Eating Fire: Family Life on the Queer Side" (2001), "An Unauthorized Biography of the World: Oral History on the Front Lines" (2004). His work frequently seeks to recover voices and stories of people who have been excluded from traditional historical and political narratives, including LGBTQ Canadians, First Nations youth, and grassroots activists in Palestine-Israel. As of 2015, he resided in rural eastern Ontario with his partner.

Jim Rimmer was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1934. In 1950, he undertook a six-year apprenticeship with local printer and publisher J.W. Boyd and Sons. He subsequently worked for seven years as a journeyman compositor for several BC newspapers, including the Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun, and the Williams Lake Tribune. From 1972 to 1999, Rimmer ran a freelance design office, working as an illustrator, graphic designer, and type designer; some of his more notable commercial designs include the logo for Canadian Pacific Airlines, and the provincial mark for British Columbia.

Rimmer designed and cut his first typeface, Juliana Old Style, in 1980. In the years following, he designed and produced numerous faces in both metal and digital format, including proprietary fonts and typeface revivals. For several years during the 1980s Rimmer worked with Giampa Text Ware, operated by Gerald Giampa. Rimmer designed digital type fonts with this firm and its successor, Lanston Type Company. He was an active member of the American Typecasting Fellowship beginning in 1984, and founded the Rimmer Type Foundry in 1998.

In 1974, Rimmer founded Pie Tree Press, named after an old apple tree in his backyard, the fruit of which was used to make pies. As Pie Tree Press, Rimmer printed numerous broadsides and books, including Alison’s Fishing Birds, commissioned by Colophon Books. He subsequently produced four major limited edition publications, for which he did the typesetting, illustrations and book-binding: Shadow River: the Selected and Illustrated Poems of Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) (1997), A Christmas Carol (1998), Leaves from the Pie Tree (2006), an autobiographical work including “how-to” knowledge, and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2008). Rimmer was working on the design of the ‘Dubloon’ typeface for a fifth book, Treasure Island, at the time of his death (this font will be released as the “Rimmer” typeface).

Over the course of his career, Rimmer taught drawing and typography classes at many local colleges and universities, including the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Capilano College, Kwantlen College, Simon Fraser University, and the University College of the Fraser Valley. He also held workshops in hand-setting, printing, and book-binding. Rimmer’s work earned him awards from the Creative Club, Graphic Designers of Canada, Art Direction Creativity in Illustration, and the American Typecasting Fellowship. A series of broadsides designed for Westgraphica, now Karo, earned him the “Communication Arts Award of Excellence” in the self-promotion class. “Rimmerfest : An Evening to Celebrate Jim Rimmer and His Many Contributions” took place on November 25, 2006; the event was organized by Simon Fraser University Library. In 2007, Rimmer was made a fellow of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada.

Jim Rimmer passed away in New Westminster on January 8, 2010.

Klaus Ekkehard Rieckhoff is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University (SFU). He helped shape the department and the university through his active involvement in the governance of SFU, through his contributions to science and his devotion to teaching, as well as his involvement in the larger community.

Born in Weimar, Germany, Rieckhoff experienced life under both the Nazi and Communist regimes before escaping from the Soviet-occupied zone in 1947. Shortly after, he left for the western zones where he worked in various factories in Munich until he was accepted at the University of Karlsruhe where he studied mathematics and physics (1947-1949). He was accepted for one of 40 places in physics and mathematics from a pool of 400 applicants after an entrance examination administered to 160 of the applicants. In 1949, he left the university while continuing to work as a clerk in the actuarial department of a life insurance company (1948-1951). In December 1949, he married Marianne Neder with whom he has three children, Bernhard Andreas, Claudia Angela, and Cornelia Andrea.

Rieckhoff immigrated to Canada in 1952. Upon his arrival to Vancouver, B.C., he held various jobs as a dock worker (1952), sawmill worker (1953), and television technician (1953-1957) before earning his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D at the University of British Columbia.

In 1965, Rieckhoff joined SFU as a charter faculty member and immersed himself in its life. He is regarded as a vital force in the Department of Physics, a department he helped to create and nurture. From 1966-1967, he was Acting Dean of Science, and from 1972-1976, he was Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. He has authored and co-authored more than 60 papers in the areas of spectroscopy and chemical physics, earning international recognition for his work. From 1976-1977, he worked at the IBM Research Lab in San Jose, California as Visiting Scientist. In 1987, he was a Visiting Professor at the universities of Puerto Rico (Mayaguez, U.S.A.), Queensland (Brisbane, Australia), and Bayreuth (Germany).

Rieckhoff's passion for critical inquiry is reflected in his multiple appointments, participation, and election to a number of faculty, departmental, and university committees. As a founding member of Senate, he supported the inclusion of undergraduate representation. He served on the Senate for 17 years and on the Board of Governors for 11 years, earning him the distinction of being one of the longest-serving members on both bodies. In recognition of his contributions to the governance and administration of SFU, the university named the Senate Chamber in his honour in 1982. Although the space has been renovated, a plaque remains in place. In 1998, SFU awarded him a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.

William Donald Richards, Jr. (1948-2007) was a professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University from 1976 until his untimely death in 2007. His work focused on the development and implementation of computer programs to research and analyze communication and information networks, social networks, and networks in large, complex organizations. His research, writing and NEGOPY software – the primary software program he developed to analyze networks – were recognized and utilized throughout the world. At the time of his passing, NEGOPY was in use at over 100 universities and research centres worldwide.

Richards was born on December 17, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan to William and June Richards. He was the eldest of five children. He attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, and went on to earn his BA in Communication from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1971. It was at MSU that he became interested in and wrote his first network analysis program, NETWOW. The experience prompted him to pursue graduate studies in Communication Research at Stanford University in California, where he earned an MA in 1973 and PhD in 1976. During his time at Stanford, NETWOW evolved into NEGOPY (said to be a blend of Negative Entropy, meaning information and structure) in collaboration with then-MSU Communication PhD student James A. Danowski. Another MSU PhD student, George A. Barnett, then taught Richards network analysis.

While at Stanford, Richards continued to develop NEGOPY, which initially ran only on CDC computers. For this reason, he would often run data through the software, analyzing and summarizing it on behalf of researchers worldwide. Soon thereafter, Richards began the task of re-writing the NEGOPY program to operate on IBMs. As a result, he was able to more readily disseminate the program to researchers, scholars, students, and organizations nationally and internationally for their research and use.

In August of 1976, Richards accepted a position as an Assistant Professor with SFU’s Department of Communication. He went on to become an Associate Professor with the Department in the fall of 1988, and then ultimately full Professor. He also had two semesters off-campus, the first as a Visiting Researcher in the Social Networks Program at the School of Social Science, University of California at Irvine in 1980, and the second as Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at State University of New York at Buffalo in 1989.

During his teaching career at SFU, Richards introduced and taught a number of new courses addressing communication and information networks, as well as network analysis theory and research. He was also a founding member of SFU’s Laboratory for Computer and Communication Research, established in 1982 as a collaboration between the Department of Communication and the School of Computing Science to promote inquiry into the problems of computing and communication research. Richards also served in various supporting roles for his department, including as undergraduate advisor and chair.

Throughout his career, Richards’ work and NEGOPY software resulted in numerous fruitful collaborations, grant-funded research projects, case studies, and communications with colleagues and organizations in both the public and private sectors. He continued to develop NEGOPY as changes arose in the field of social network analysis, creating newer versions of and manuals for the software, and developing network utilities to make the data easier to work with. In the 1980s Richards created FATCAT, a network analysis program designed for categorical analysis of multivariate multiplex communication network data. This was followed by MultiNet, an extended replacement for FATCAT, in collaboration with Andrew J. Seary, an SFU researcher-programmer. Seary was also Richards' partner in "The Vancouver Network Analysis Team," which specialized in social network analysis software.

Richards was an active member of INSNA, the International Network for Social Network Analysis, a global research organization. At the time of his death, he was co-editor and publisher of INSNA’s journal, “Connections,” and had been INSNA President for four years. He had also been the organization's webmaster since 2002, managing conference registration and membership renewals. In 2000, Richards organized and convened INSNA's twentieth annual International Sunbelt Social Network Conference, as well as the "Vancouver Symposium on Networks, Needles, Drugs, Risk and Infectious Disease."

Richards’ impact on the field of communication was significant and far-reaching. Beyond his dedication to his work and colleagues, Richards was also an avid gardener and photographer.

Richards died suddenly at his home in Vancouver, BC on August 23, 2007.