Mairuth Hodge Sarsfield, CQ (6 March 1930 – 7 May 2013)[1] was a Canadian activist, diplomat,[2] journalist, researcher and television personality,[3] as well as an accomplished broadcaster, civil servant, and best-selling author.
[1][4] Sarsfield was born in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal to parents Anne Packwood and Dan Vaughan and raised by her mother.
As a senior information officer for the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, she developed and launched a worldwide campaign known as "For Every Child a Tree".
[2] Her novel No Crystal Stair[2] was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2005, championed by Olympic fencer Sherraine MacKay.
She won numerous awards for theme coordination at World's Fair pavilions for Canada, and has been awarded with the Chevalier a L'Ordre National du Quebec in 1986, the National Congress of Black Women Foundation's First Literary Award, for No Crystal Stair, as well as 'Mairuth Sarsfield Day' by the city of Cleveland for her work with the United Nations in Nairobi.