Jean Margaret Steckle
Inducted In
1998
Jean Steckle was born in Waterloo Township. She graduated with a Bachelor of Household Science from the University of Guelph, a Master of Science from Cornell University and a PhD from the University of Reading.
Steckle spent eighteen years in the field of international development, beginning as an economics expert in the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Ghana in 1958. For three years in the late 1960s, she served as chief of Technical Services in the Home Economics branch of FAO’s Nutrition Division in Rome. When she returned to Canada in 1976, she became nutrition consultant for Health and Welfare Canada’s Indian and Northern Health Services. Steckle was named Canadian representative to the United Nations Administrative Commission on Nutrition in Paris in 1980 and in Washington in 1987. She chaired the National Native Diabetes Working Group and she directed a national study on infant feeding practices for Native women.
In 1990, she received the Assembly of First Nations Award for her pioneering work in public health with Native People. In 1993, she received the Alumnus of Honour award from her peers at the University of Guelph and in 1995, Jean received a Distinguished Career award from the United Nations. After her retirement, Jean dedicated herself to the project of converting the family farm into the J. Steckle Heritage Homestead, an educational facility devoted to urban children and immigrant families.