The Hamabata-Major Family

LaVerne Hisako Hamabata was a beautiful southern Alberta woman who is remembered for her gentle Buddhist ways and how she impacted many lives in southern Alberta. Born in the Galt Hospital, LaVerne was the third child of Kamasuke and Chiduka Hamabata. She grew up on the family farm on the Broxburn Road and attended Crystal Lake and Sunnyside Schools, then McNally High School, graduating in 1959. Restrictions imposed by the Canadian Government on Japanese Canadians, limited financial resources and misogynist attitudes at the time restricted her career options. Highly intelligent, LaVerne completed her education at Lethbridge Secretarial College graduating in 1962. She had the distinction of being the one and only student to achieve a perfect score in dictation and shorthand at Lethbridge Secretarial College. She became the Administrative Assistant to the Plant Science Section Head at the Agriculture Canada Research Station.

Fiercely independent and determined, LaVerne kept her birth name after she married David Major, a research scientist. Forced into retirement in 1985 due to Mulitiple Chemical Sensitivities, she focussed her attention on her family and in particular, her two children and their education. She was determined that they would take advantage of the opportunities that she didn’t have as a young woman. Consequently her son, Ian Tomoharu Hamabata Major, became the Valedictorian of Winston Churchill High School and is now a research scientist at the Eastern Forest Centre in Quebec City. Four years later her daughter, Noriko Nicole Hessmann (nee Major), was named Miss Churchill and is now Executive Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta.

A combination of osteoporosis and multiplie myeloma claimed LaVerne on January 28, 2022. One of her final wishes was to help local students achieve their educational goals. As expressed by many friends and acquaintances, LaVerne touched many people in her 80 “wonderful” years. Her Jodo Shinshu upbringing in the Buddhist churches of Southern Alberta forged a beautiful woman of grace, dignity and humility who impacted many lives for the better. This scholarship has been established to provide assistance to students from the Lethbridge area who, in the face of financial hardship, are determined to achieve their academic goals.