Mary Ann Currie
Mary Ann Currie (nee Newman), born 30 July 1950, is a retired divorce attorney from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Early life
She was born in Toronto on 30 July 1950 to Ruth and Bruce Newman, the youngest of three sisters; her older sisters are Sandra and Evelyn.
Her best friend growing up was Judy Poirier.
Education and career
Mary Ann took Grade 9 in Guelph, Grades 10–12 at Don Mills Collegiate Institute in Toronto, and then part of Grade 13 in Guelph, before starting university early.
Mary Ann obtained an undergraduate degree in Home Economics at the University of Guelph. She started in April 1968, and did four semesters in two years, enabling her to finish her four-year degree in only three years. She graduated in May 1971, at age 20. She then attended Teachers' College.
At age 27, in September 1977, she moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and began teaching at Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute.[1] There she found in a colleague her future husband, Ron Currie.
By the end of two years she had had enough and, in an anecdote made famous by its retelling on the radio, after a "jock" spat in the spaghetti she was teaching them how to make, she decided to go to law school.
At age 29, she entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario in September 1979.[2] She did some part-time teaching at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute[3] to help pay her expenses during law school. She graduated after three years, the standard length of time, in Spring 1982, just prior to giving birth to her first child, Michael Currie, on 8 June 1982.
In about 1982 she began articling at Cheadle Johnson Shanks (now Cheadles LLP).[4] In about 1991 she left and became an independent lawyer, specializing in family law, sharing offices with a succession of other lawyers:
- From 1991 to about 2000, at 69 Court Street North, sharing an office with Edwards & Carfagnini, just across the street from the Port Arthur Courthouse.
- From about 2000 to 2015, at 79 Court Street North, sharing a basement office with Laird Scrimshaw.
- From about 2015 to 2021, at 1186 Roland Street, sharing an office with the law offices of Randall Johns (the father of her son's friend Adam Johns); this office is now called Edwards LLP, managed by Derek Noyes (Michael's school chum).
Although she practiced primarily in Thunder Bay, she occasionally appeared before the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Toronto, including in Bell v. Bailey (2001), a family law matter involving unjust enrichment and spousal support between former common-law partners.[5]
She retired in February 2021, after a 39-year legal career in Thunder Bay. She handed her clients over to a young female lawyer [name?].[6]
In 2025, a comment on a Facebook post asking for "a Thunder Bay divorce lawyer who is knowledgeable, personable and deals with things in a timely manner" was responded to by Rhonda Prystanski, Currie's legal assistant from 2005-2009: "Mary Ann Currie is top notch and doesn't mess around!!"; Kelly Buchanan responded: "Mary Ann Currie is excellent but she is not practicing anymore."[7]
Marriage and family
Mary Ann married Ron Currie in August 1981. With him she had two children:
- Michael Bruce (born 8 June 1982)
- Carolyn Edith (born 2 February 1985)
Michael and Carolyn's middle names are after their grandfather Bruce Newman and grandmother Edith Currie, respectively.
Hobbies
Mary Ann was an avid quilter from about 1990 to 2005. She won an award for her quilting in May 1999.[8]
An avid traveler, Mary Ann has upgraded her tastes from her modest trips in the 1980s to exploring virtually every exotic destination the Earth has to offer into the 2010s and 2020s. She is particularly attracted to unique, unusual destinations, such as The Juvet Hotel in northwestern Norway, and Easter Island (both visited in 2024). She enjoys the planning process as well. She enjoys planning an annual "surprise" trip for her husband where he doesn't know their final destination until he's arrived at the final airport.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute (commonly known as SWC) was a high school in Thunder Bay operated by the Lakehead District School Board. It opened in 1966 and closed in 2018 as part of a school consolidation process; the building was demolished in April 2019.
- ↑ The University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law (branded as "Western Law" since 2011) is the law school of Western University in London, Ontario, founded in 1959.
- ↑ Then known as Ryerson Polytechnical Institute; later renamed Ryerson Polytechnic University (1993), Ryerson University (2002), and Toronto Metropolitan University (2022).
- ↑ Cheadles LLP is one of the oldest law firms in Thunder Bay and Northern Ontario, tracing its history to 1952 when David Stanley Cheadle began as a sole practitioner in what was then Fort William, Ontario. See Cheadles LLP – About Us.
- ↑ Bell v. Bailey, 2001 CanLII 11608 (ON CA), Court of Appeal for Ontario, Docket C33173, decided August 27, 2001. Originally argued before Justice Zelinski. Full text (PDF).
- ↑ Mary Ann Currie, Canada Lawyer List.
- ↑ Facebook post and comments, 2025. [link?]
- ↑ "Currie, Mary Ann", The Chronicle-Journal, 18 May 1999, p. A3. See Thunder Bay Public Library index (PDF).