Lois Hole, Alberta’s lieutenant governor died in Edmonton Jan. 6 after a lengthy bout with abdominal
cancer.
Hole was appointed the province’s 15th lieutenant governor in December 1999 . She was the second woman to serve in that position.
Hole was born in Buchanan, Sask., in 1933 and moved to Edmonton in her early teens, where she completed high school.
She was married to Ted Hole, who died in 2003, and is survived by two sons, Bill and Jim, and three grandchildren.
She was active in local foundations and education, and was also well known as a horticulturist, which she described in her memoirs, I’ll Never Marry a Farmer.
Read Also
Feeder market adds New World screwworm risk premium
Feedlots contemplate the probability of Canadian border closing to U.S. feeder cattle if parasite found in United States
Farm roots
In 1960, she and her husband bought a mixed farm in St. Albert, near Edmonton, which they diversified into a vegetable and mixed garden business. It was later incorporated as Hole’s Greenhouses & Gardens Ltd.
It has since grown into one of the largest retail greenhouse operations in Western Canada.
Hole served as a school trustee for 21 years, sat on the Athabasca University governing council and was chancellor of the University of Alberta before being named lieutenant governor. She was also a director of Farm Credit Canada and served on several children’s foundations and citizens’ groups.
She published six gardening books and was a regular contributor to radio, television and newspaper gardening columns offering charm and practical advice.
Hole held an honourary doctorate from Athabasca University and in 1997 received a Distinguished Citizen honourary diploma in business from Grant McEwan Community College.
In 1995 she was named Edmonton Business and Professional Woman of the Year and St. Albert’s Citizen of the Year. She was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 1999.
