Elmira Minita Gordon

Elmira Minita Gordon was born 30 December 1930 in Belize City, British Honduras.[1] Her parents, Frederick Gordon and May Dakers,[2] had immigrated from Jamaica to Lucky Strike, Belize in the 1920s.[3] Gordon had five siblings: Lincoln Coyi, Dorinda Henderson, Kelorah Franklin, Rolston Coyi, and Robert Reyes.[2] 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.[4] Years later, in 1970 Gordon became the District Commissioner of the Girl Guides for the Belize district.[5]

Gordon continued her education at St. George's Teacher's College.[4] She also took a correspondence course from the College of Preceptors, Oxford, England.

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 Teacher's Training College.[5] From 1969 to 1981, she served as a Government Education Officer.[1]

Gordon completed her postgraduate education at the University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham in England and the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.[4] 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. She earned her master's degree in educational psychology and then a doctorate in applied psychology from the University of Toronto, Canada, becoming the first trained Belizean psychologist.[5]

She returned from her studies in 1980.[4] In 1981 Gordon was appointed as Governor General of Belize.[6] 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.[7]

Gordon became a justice of the peace in 1974[4] and a senior Justice of the Peace in 1987.[1] Gordon received a lifetime membership of the British Red Cross in 1975,[4] and in the Belizean Red Cross in 1981.[3] In addition to her public works, Gordon was a master leather crafts artisan, having won numerous prizes for her works.[1]

Gordon stepped down as Governor-General in 1993, and was succeeded by Colville Young.[8] In later years, poor health prompted her to move to the United States in 2016 to live with her sister, Kelorah Franklin.[2] She died on 1 January 2021, in Inglewood, California.[9]

• Honorary LL.D., University of Victoria (1984)[10]
• Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (1984)[11]
• Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (1985)[12]

• Lentz, Harris M. (2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-26490-2.
• Sleeman, Elizabeth (2001). The International Who's Who of Women 2002. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-85743-122-3.