Alma Elizabeth Kocialek

In Loving Memory

It is with profound sorrow that I announce the passing of my mother, Alma Kocialek, class of 2017. Alma held the distinction of being York University’s oldest graduate at the age of 89, just two weeks shy of her 90th birthday.

Zoomer TV announced that she was Canada’s oldest university graduate at the Bachelor’s level. Her degree was in Gender and Women’s Studies.

Alma and Hayley Wickenheiser stood together on stage with Chancellor Gregory Sorbara. The photograph and accompanying story became a media sensation on the World Wide Web.

Perhaps my mother’s greatest contribution was as the owner and operator of Blair Personnel in Brampton. Through her employment agency, men and women were placed in temporary and permanent positions throughout Peel Region. For over a decade, she placed hundreds of applicants and provided secretarial services to individuals and large companies such as JI Case, Ford, Northern Telecom and its subsidiary Nedco.

Alma is survived by her daughter, Judy Gibson Brock, of Niagara Falls; son in law Heinz Brock of Waterloo; her stepdaughter, Mary Jane Kayfish, and her husband, Kelly, of Leduc, Alberta.

Alma would have been 99 years old on July 18.