Person

MacLaurin, Isobel

• McGuire, Isobel
• MacLaurin, Izzy

1931-

Isobel MacLaurin (nee McGuire) is an artist and long-time Whistler resident. Originally from Saint John, NB and born in 1931, she met her husband, DonMacLaurin, at a dance while he was completing a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry and she three years of art studies in the early 1950s at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, NB. Don first came to Whistler in 1951 and visited several more times during the summers on motorcycle while later working for the BC Forest Service before deciding to buy land in Whistler for a summer cabin. Isobel married Don in 1958. They went on to have four children: Lee, Jill, Sue, and Mark. The family moved to Port Moody, BC for Don's work with the BC Forest Service; they would visit Whistler on the weekends. In 1961, Don and Isobel settled on a beautiful spot overlooking Alpha Lake, where their original (albeit, extended) A-frame cabin still sits today. They eventually moved there full-time in the 1980s. Don worked in forestry, as a teacher at BCIT, and as a ski instructor. He was a director for the early Whistler Chamber of Commerce and president of the BC Mountaineering Club, involved in building Whistler backcountry routes and mountain hut construction. For 24 years, he designed and taught a range of courses at BCIT, worked as a forestry and recreation consultant for the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Squamish, and was the driving force behind preserving Lost Lake as a park. Isobel worked as a painter whose murals can be found on Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains, on the Valley Trail, in several Whistler Parks, at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), in various Burnaby Parks, at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, and in the Cook Islands. She has painted posters for World Cup ski races, and in the early days of Whistler Mountain, painted the ski run signs in exchange for season’s passes for herself and her family. She received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Whistler Chamber of Commerce in 1991. Isobel is a charter member of the Whistler Public Arts Committee, the Whistler Arts Council (now Arts Whistler), a former trustee of the Whistler Museum and Archives Society (WMAS), and a long time member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. She has volunteered her artistic talents for many years for the children of Whistler and for the children of an East Vancouver school. Don and Isobel joined the Rotary Club of Whistler in 1977. For a period, Don and Isobel were active members in the International Skiing Fellowship of Rotarians (ISFR) and they joined the Antique, Classic and Historic Automobile Fellowship of Rotarians (ACHAFR) for a major North American trip. Don was also part of the BC Sports Car Club with his red 1951 MGTD. In the 1980s, Isobel began giving art workshops for the Whistler Children's Festival. In 2010, four years before Don's passing, the couple hosted their own joint wake, partying until the early hours with their friends and family, their simple pine caskets transformed into colourful works of art by Isobel and serving as makeshift bars. Don passed away at Vancouver General Hospital on May 7, 2014 at age 85. At her Alpha Lake home studio, Isobel provides art courses to groups by appointment.

Saint John, NB
Fredericton, NB
Port Moody, BC
Vancouver
Whistler

Artist
Art teacher

MacLaurin-Hudspeth, Jill ([fl. 1960s-])

Mounsey, Lee ([fl. 1960s-])

MacLaurin, Mark ([fl. 1960s-])

MacLaurin, Sue ([fl. 1960s-])

MacLaurin, Donald "Don" Hill (March 28, 1928 - May 7, 2014)

CA-NB-MI001

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Catalogued October 2018.
Revised May 2023.

1) Archival material
2) https://artswhistler.com/meet-don-isobel-maclaurin
3) http://davidbuzzardphotography.blogspot.com/2010/03/wake-of-isobel-don-maclaurin.html
4) https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/donald-maclaurin-obituary?id=43482257
5) https://blog.whistlermuseum.org/tag/isobel-maclaurin/
6) https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-arts/ninety-years-of-isobel-maclaurin-3902238
7) https://modernaccommodations.com/arts-whistler-backdrop-sessions-isobel-maclaurin/
8) https://www.leannarathkelly.com/image/I0000GLrVj7KihnU