Portrait of Mrs. Christine Bissell

Christine Flora Gray met Claude Bissell in wartime London. They married in 1946 and moved into the Dean’s House, (later Bissell House) at University College where Claude Bissell began an appointment as Dean of Men. In 1958 Claude Bissell became the eighth (and at the age of 42 the youngest) President of the University of Toronto. His term, which lasted until 1971, spanned the 1960s, a time of great growth for the University, which tripled in size during the decade.
Until recently the significant contributions to public life made by the wives of overwhelmingly male office holders, have been largely ignored. Christine Bissell was recognized as a gifted hostess: warm, exuberant, hospitable, and very witty. Visitors to 93 Highland Avenue during ‘the Bissell years’ - whether writers, politicians, professors, visual artists, students, or performers - might arrive expecting dull institutional correctness. They left in high spirits feeling the unbound vigour of the University’s intellectual and social community. John Alfsen’s portrait of Christine Bissell records the presence of a spirited woman who enlivened and strengthened both the intellectual and social community of the University of Toronto for 23 years.