Pigott, Jean Elizabeth, 1924-2012 : Jean Elizabeth (Morrison) Pigott (O.C., LL.D. , Hon. F.R.A.I.C.) was born in Ottawa, May 20, 1924. She is the daughter of George Cecil and Margaret Jean Kelly (Cotter) Morrison. Her father, Cecil Morrison, and her uncle Richard Lamothe (a francophone married to her father's sister Helen-Florence Morrison) founded the Morrison Lamothe Bakery in February 1933, which is now one of the most important frozen food industry companies in Canada. Jean attended Ottawa Ladies College and was headed for a dietician course at Albert College, altough she would have preferred to study business administration. At the end of the Second World War, when Canadian soldiers returned to Canada, girls were not allowed to take this kind of course and she decided to go straight into business. Jean and her two younger sisters, Grete and Gay, worked for their father during their teenage years. Seeing Jean's interest in business, her father gave her a one way train ticket to San Francisco to get experience and asked her to make her own way back to Ottawa. She worked one year in the Canadian West, four years in the United States, especially in San Francisco where she joined Moral Re-Armament (MRA) (an international moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, grew out of the Reverend Frank N. D. Buchman's Oxford Group) and two years in Germany's ghettoes of post-war Europe.
Back in Ottawa in the late 1940s, she opened her own chain of restaurants-cum-pastry shops called the Tea Wagon and hired the young Arthur Pigott, previously designer consultant for Morrison Lamothe Bakery, to manage them. Jean and Arthur got married in October 1955 and had three children (John, David and Mary Jane). From 1955 to 1967, Jean Pigott raised her children and was peripherally involved in the activities of the bakery. In the 1960s Morrison Lamothe Bakery was the largest independent bakery in Canada with 35 pastry shops and restaurants and the largest social catering business in the nation's capital. However, by 1967, the bakery teetered on the edge of bankruptcy and Cecil Morrison's daughters decided to take part in the enterprise. Jean became President and Chairman and her sister Grete became vice-President of Morrison Lamothe Inc. They had to sell the brand new bakery building (which is now the home of Canada's National Museum of Science and Technology) and change their activities. They gradually left behind the bakery's activity and began promoting frozen foods which is now the most important activity of Morrison Lamothe. From 1967 to 1974, the Morrison sisters increased the profits from 8 million dollars annually to 16 million dollars. During this period and until 1976, Jean was co-chairman of the Ottawa Carleton Disaster Relief Committee. She was the first woman to become Director and Member of the Audit of Ontario Hydro. She was also Director of Canadian Development Corporation and Member of the Audit Committee, Director of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, Chairman of the MacDonald Cartier Library, Chairperson of the Ottawa Regional Hospital Planning Council, Vice-President of the Local Council of Women of Ottawa and Member of the Board of Directors of Canadian Tire Corporation.
In 1976, Jean looked towards politics and was elected Member of Parliament for Ottawa-Carleton, becoming Member of Parliament during a period when women were only starting to enter politics. She was appointed the chairwoman for housing and urban affairs for the Progressive Conservative Caucus Committee. She was also appointed caucus spokesman on the future of the National Capital Region and secretary of the Leader's Advisory Council on Policy to develop the council's working paper on Feeding the Nation and the World. Defeated by Jean-Luc Pépin in 1979, she became Senior Advisor on Human Resources for Prime Minister Joe Clark. In the 1980 federal election, she was the Tory candidate in Ottawa Centre, where she placed second to Liberal candidate John Evans. In 1983, she worked for the John Crosbie Leadership Campaign won by Brian Mulroney, who became Prime Minister of Canada in the 1984 general election. Jean Pigott became an integral part of the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney's governmental transition team, co-ordinating events during Pope John Paul II visit to Canada, the Royal Tours and the visit of French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed her Chairman of the National Capital Commission, becoming the first woman to hold this position. She served for two terms, from 1985 to 1988, and 1988 to 1993. Jean was involved in many projects to increase the influence of the National Capital. Among others, she worked on the Federal Land Use Plan (1988) and the Plan for Canada's Capital (1999), on projects emphasising public programming (Canada Day, Winterlude, Christmas Lights Across Canada), on the development of national museum sites and Confederation Boulevard, the organization of the 125th Anniversary of Confederation, the unveiling of the Peacekeeping Monument and the creation of a dream book which gave Canadians the chance to share their dreams for Canada.
When she retired from the National Capital Commission in September 1993, she became Chairman of the Ottawa Congress Centre (1993-1998), Chairman of the Centre for the Study of Children at Risk (1993-1997) and co-Chairman of the Expo 2005 Corporation (1994-1996). In 1994, she participated in the Commission to Review Allowances of Members of Parliament with Charles Lapointe (Chairman) and C. E. S. Frank (professor, Queen's University) which concluded with the report Democratic ideals and financial realities: paying representatives in the 21st century. She was also Chairman Emeritus for Morrison Lamothe Inc.
Jean Pigott is also well known for her participation in many charity groups; she shared her knowledge of business administration to the benefit of many associations. Interspersed with her professional activities, she was the Honorary Chair of the Child and Youth Friendly Association, Director of the Tim Horton's Foundation, Director of the National Advisory Committee of Andersen Consulting, Director of the Women's Television Network Foundation, Director of the International Association of Lighting Designers, Honorary Chair-Advisory Committee for Ottawa 2000 congress, Chairperson of the Linkages Initiative Steering Committee, Director of Blue Cross (Ontario) and co-Chairperson of the Ottawa-Carleton Disaster Relief Committee. She was also Patron of the Canadian Living Foundation for Families, Patron of the Canadian International Institute for Applied Negotiations, Patron of Beta Singe Phi, a member of IODE (Guy Gibson Chapter), a member of The Ottawa Citizen Literacy Foundation and a member of "Hug your Heart" Women and Heart Health of the Heart Institute.
Jean Pigott received awards and honours throughout her career, including the Centennial Medal (1967), the Ottawa Survival Certificate (1971), the Ottawa City Council of Beta Sigma Phi First Lady of the Year (1972), the Ottawa Board of Trade Award (1975) and the Noel Kerr Memorial Hospitality Award (1978). She was made Knight of the Golden Pencil, the highest award given in the food distribution world by the Food Industry Association of Canada (1978). She received the Businesswomen Achievement Award (1986), the B'nai Brith Award (1987), the commemorative medal for the 125th anniversary of Canada (1992), the Public Policy Forum Award (1998), the Sir John A. Macdonald, and the St. Andrew Society Award (1999). She received honorary degrees from the University of Ottawa (1988), University of Waterloo (1993), Concordia University (1994), McMaster University (1999), and Carleton University (2002), and was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (1990). She was made honorary member of the Ontario Association of Architects (1994), honorary lieutenant colonel appointment 28th (Ottawa) Service Battallion (1994), honorary member of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (2000), and she received the Order of Canada for having "shown leadership and determination in ensuring the use of resources for positive growth and change at all levels of government" (1996), among other honours received for her work and dedication.
Jean Pigott died on January 10, 2012.
