Shirley Linda Render

Born in 1943 to Dr & Mrs Harold Hurst, Shirley was raised in Winnipeg. At university she took History, French, and Psychology, earning a BA in 1964 and then began work in social services, part-time teaching, and tutoring. Not until 1973 did she earn her pilots licence.

Early flights did not always go as planned. During her first solo, Shirley encountered an engine failure and then, during the flight exam, an unexpected electrical issue prevented her aircraft’s flaps from retracting. On another flight, while climbing out after take-off, the top hasp on her door broke causing it to hang open resulting in significant drag. Each time she landed safely; Shirley recalls that her feet knew what to do before her brain even realized there was a problem. One of her great joys was owning a 1947 90hp Luscombe Silvaire tail-dragger, which she flew for decades.

In 1977 Shirley combined her love for flying and history when she began volunteering for the Western Canada Aviation Museum. Soon she was involved with almost every facet of the organization. She started planning exhibits, writing for its newsletter (later serving as editor when the publication was redeveloped as a magazine), and was asked to sit as a Director. Through her work Shirley immersed herself in the early history of Canadian aviation, digging into the Museum’s archives and interviewing WWI pilots, bush pilots, mechanics, and others from the 1920s to the 1940s – all to better tell stories that would have otherwise been forgotten.

It was when Shirley started to consider the history of female pilots for an exhibit that she realized theirs was an overlooked story in need of telling. She decided to undertake a Masters Degree in History to enable her research and writing. Her work stood out and she received the James S. Ewart Memorial Award and the James H. Gray medal in Prairie History from the University of Manitoba. The Canada Council also awarded her a grant to cover research expenses and the International Organization of Women Pilots awarded her the Amelia Earhart Research Grant to assist with the project.

Shirley requested a list of early women pilots from the Department of Transport. It sent her the names of 100 women pilots licenced between 1928-1933 (remarkably the extent of the national records) listing only their name, date of licence, and licence number – not even the name of the province in which the women were licenced. In an era without the internet, digitized files, or even computers, tracking down women who had flown 40-50 years earlier, usually under a maiden name, was almost impossible.

Ever resourceful, Shirley turned to the media. She contacted the Winnipeg Free Press which ran a full-page story that captured the attention of the Canadian Press. Soon news of Shirley’s search ran in papers across the country. Hand-written letters and phone calls, often from the women themselves, began drifting in. The end result was No Place for a Lady, published in 1992, the first book on the history of Canada’s women pilots and one that continues to inspire Canadians in the history of these intrepid aviators.

Between 1990 and 1999, Shirley served as the MLA for St. Vital in the Manitoba Legislature. She was appointed as the Legislative Assistant to Premier Gary Filmon and, later, Minister of Consumer & Corporate Affairs. Although she stepped down as President of the Museum Board of Directors, she remained the unpaid Editor of the Museum’s magazine. Even in government, Shirley remained involved in aviation. Her book was a best seller and she fit in her speaking engagements outside of her legislative duties. The military also gave her a hands on ‘flight of a life-time’ in a CF-18 and she was invited up in a Canadair Tutor with the Snowbirds. In 1994, she sat on the International Civil Aviation Organization’s committee that commemorated the ICAO’s 50^th anniversary, which named James A. Richardson as the person who made the most outstanding contribution to civil aviation in a member state.

Although incredibly busy with her political duties, often working 70 hours/week, for her second book Shirley returned to a subject she first tackled during her Masters – James Richardson and Canadian Airways . When Manitoba’s government fell in late 1999, Shirley lost her seat and shortly after Double Cross was published. It also broke new ground. The book detailed Richardson’s vision of using aircraft to open up the North and to tie Canada together coast to coast as well as the struggles he faced with successive federal governments to establish his airline as Canada’s national carrier. Shirley’s work returned Richardson to the limelight, telling Canadians the story of Western Canada Airways and Canadian Airways, and played a part in the renaming of Winnipeg’s international airport as the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. Double Cross was also a best seller and Shirley spent most of the next two years travelling across Canada as a speaker.

It was with the Museum, however, that Shirley helped tell the stories of Canadian aviation on a daily basis. During her time there, she helped it grow from one room in downtown Winnipeg to a world-class facility at the international airport, and it was thanks to her that the institution was re-designated as the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. First as a volunteer in the role of Director and President of the Board, and after politics hired as Executive Director and Curator, she spearheaded many projects, including transforming the newsletter into a quarterly magazine, the development of curriculum-based educational programming, expanded tours, increased fundraising efforts (including the highly successful ‘Out of the Blue’ Gala dinner), and the creation of a strong Capital Campaign Team to raise $35 Million to build a new facility. Under Shirley’s oversight $30 Million was raised. These and other initiatives ensured the Museum’s long-term stability, allowing it to fulfill its primary responsibility: sharing Canada’s aviation heritage. One of Shirley’s proudest moments as Executive Director came in 2005 with the discovery (and eventual recovery with the help of the Military in 2008) of the ‘Ghost of Charron Lake’, an open cockpit Fokker Standard Universal operated by Richardson’s Canadian Airways, that was lost after a forced landing in 1931.  

As a pilot, legislator, author, curator and executive director, Shirley has also been a mentor and a role model for many young women and men. Retirement has not stopped her from making TV documentaries, talking about the women in her book. Her latest was in 2019, and in 2020 a film maker contacted her to buy the rights to No Place for a Lady.

During her varied and distinguished career, Shirley has been supported by her family, especially her partner Doug Clark. Her contributions to sustaining Canada’s aviation heritage have been recognized with the awarding of the Prix Manitoba, the Commemorative Medal for the 125^th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, as well as the International Northwest Aviation Council President’s Award for Preservation of History and the YM-YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for work in Culture, Heritage, and the Arts.