Governor-General of Belize from 1981 to 1993 (1930–2021)
Dame Elmira Minita Gordon GCMG GCVO JP (30 December 1930 – 1 January 2021) was a Belizean educator, psychologist and politician; she served as the first governor general of Belize from its independence in 1981 until 1993. She was the first Belizean to receive a doctorate in psychology. She is one of the few "double dames", having received damehoods in two separate orders: the Order of St Michael and St George and the Royal Victorian Order.
She was the first woman to serve as governor-general in the history of the Commonwealth.[1][2][3]
Biography
Elmira Minita Gordon was born 30 December 1930 in Belize City, British Honduras. Her parents, Frederick Gordon and May Dakers,[5] had immigrated from Jamaica to Lucky Strike, Belize in the 1920s.[6] Gordon had five siblings: Lincoln Coyi, Dorinda Henderson, Kelorah Franklin, Rolston Coyi, and Robert Reyes.[5] She grew up in Belize City, attending St. John's Girls' School and St. Mary's Primary. Gordon was a member of the Girl Guides from 1946.[7] Years later, in 1970 Gordon became the District Commissioner of the Girl Guides for the Belize district.[8]
Gordon continued her education at St. George's Teachers' College. She also took a correspondence course from the College of Preceptors, Oxford, England.[7]
After graduation, she began teaching at an Anglican school. She also served as a missionary throughout Belize between 1946 and 1958. From 1959 to 1969, she was a lecturer at the Belize Teachers' Training College.[8] From 1969 to 1981, she served as a Government Education Officer.
Gordon graduated from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada with a B.Ed. (1967)[9] and an M.Ed. (1969) specialising in educational psychology.[10][11] She completed postgraduate studies at the University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham in England.[7] Between 1977 and 1980, when Gordon was in Canada, she served on the Educational Psychology Programme Planning Committee and was a member of the Toronto Leather Craft Club.[8] She graduated with a PhD in applied psychology from the University of Toronto in 1980,[12] becoming the first trained Belizean psychologist.[8]
She returned to Belize after graduating.[7] In 1981 Gordon was appointed as Governor General of Belize.[13] She succeeded James P. I. Hennessy, the last Governor of Belize. She became the first Governor-General of Belize upon Belize gaining independence that year.
Gordon became a justice of the peace in 1974[7] and a senior Justice of the Peace in 1987. Gordon received a lifetime membership of the British Red Cross in 1975,[7] and in the Belizean Red Cross in 1981.[6] In addition to her public works, Gordon was a master leather crafts artisan, having won numerous prizes for her works.
Gordon stepped down as Governor-General in 1993, and was succeeded by Sir Colville Young.[15] In later years, poor health prompted her to move to the United States in 2016 to live with her sister, Kelorah Franklin.[5] She died on 1 January 2021, in Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California, two days after her 90th birthday.[16]
