She found a way

Teacher, community leader, TV host was renowned for her focus

By: Jim Timlick

Cynthia Manswell had many qualities that her husband, Ken, cherished, but perhaps the one he treasured most of all was her focus.

In addition to being a wife and mother of two, Manswell worked for more than two decades as a teacher in the Winnipeg School Division, volunteered with numerous community organizations, was a leader with All Saints Anglican Church and co-hosted a public-access television program for nearly two decades.

Despite such a hectic schedule, Manswell always managed to deliver what she promised, a trait that endeared her to the people she came to know through work and in the community.

“She was always very focused, you know. She really focused on the things she wanted to get done. She would find a way to fit those things into her schedule,” Ken recalls.

Manswell died on Jan. 12 as a result of complications from a chronic heart condition.

She was born Sept. 1, 1935, on the island nation of Trinidad, where she graduated from high school and became an elementary school teacher soon after. In 1960, she decided to come to Winnipeg to study education at the University of Winnipeg, which was then known as United College.

It was also where she met her future husband, Ken, who, like her, had left his native Trinidad to study. He pursued engineering at the U of W. The two were introduced by mutual friends and quickly hit it off.

In 1967, they returned briefly to Trinidad, where they were married. They came back to Winnipeg later that year and decided to make the city their permanent home after Ken accepted a job with the Manitoba Telephone System and Cynthia landed a teaching position.

It was the start of an adventure that would last 58 years until her death earlier this year at the age of 89. While he fondly remembers his wife’s warmth and infectious laughter, Ken says it was her pragmatic nature that was key to the enduring nature of their relationship.

“We were never dogmatic about anything. We each had our own view but we could always discuss them and come to some agreement. It was never like, ‘This is it or that’s it,’” he says.

Manswell began her teaching career in Winnipeg teaching language arts and French at the junior high level at Gordon Bell High School and later at Hugh John MacDonald School. She taught for more than two decades in the Winnipeg School Division before officially retiring in 1999.

The fact she chose teaching as a career likely didn’t come as a surprise to those who knew Manswell when she was growing up.

She was one of five children born to John and Theresa Gill. Her father was a strict man who stressed to his kids the importance of having a successful career. At the time, the most popular career choices for a young woman in Trinidad was to enter the civil service or become a teacher. Manswell didn’t have to think long about which one appealed to her.

“Being a teacher in those days, people had a lot of respect for teachers and they respected the profession. I think that’s why she was influenced to choose teaching,” Ken says. “People looked up to teachers. In those days a teacher was a very respected person in the community.”

It seemed somehow fitting that Manswell spent much of her teaching career in Winnipeg’s inner city. Many of the students she worked with were newcomers to the city just like her.

She often found herself serving as a go-between for those newcomers and an educational system that was often unaware of the challenges her students faced in their adopted homeland. She took many of those students under her wing and helped tailor lessons to their specific needs and strengths.

“She spent a lot of time with the new kids who came here to help them adjust to the differences,” Ken says. “Canadian teachers weren’t aware of what the education system in countries like Trinidad or Jamaica was like in those days. She really wanted to help those kids.”

Her caring nature and easygoing personality endeared her to students, many of whom remained in contact with her well after graduation. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for her to be invited years later to the weddings of many of her former students.

Another highlight of her teaching career was working in Riyadh, the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia, in the late 1990s when Ken was posted there for work. She taught English and literature to junior high students at the Riyadh International Community School including some female members of the Saudi royal family.

While Manswell loved teaching, she was equally passionate about giving back to her community.

She was a founding member of Caribbean Canadian Association of Winnipeg and the Congress of Black Women’s Manitoba chapter and also served as a board member and vice-president of the Immigrant Women’s Association of Manitoba. She also became a highly recognized figure in Winnipeg’s Caribbean community as co-host of the public-access TV program Caribbean Echoes, which ran for 19 years.

Perhaps no place in Winnipeg felt more like home to Manswell than All Saints Anglican Church on Broadway. She began attending services there with a couple of her friends while studying at the U of W and returned to the church shortly after she and Ken returned to the city to live permanently. She served on a number of different church committees and was elected by the congregation as the people’s warden, a senior lay leadership role.

One of the people she became friends with through the church was Patsy Grant, whose husband got to know Manswell when they travelled together from Trinidad to Winnipeg in 1960.

Grant says one of the things she remembers best about her friend was her fearless ability to speak her mind, especially when she saw wrongs that needed to be addressed. She was similarly unafraid to pitch in when her help was needed with a program or project.

“Whenever I asked her to help me out, she would say, ‘OK, I’ll come and do this for you’,” remembers Grant, a former national president of the Anglican Church Women of Canada.

“She liked to help. And she was a real friend when I needed her. She was always there for me when I needed her. I could always count on her.”

Manswell’s passing in January occurred a short time after returning home to Winnipeg following one last visit to her native Trinidad with her husband to spend time with family and friends.