Adela Smith Lintelmann (1902 - 1996)

 A U.B.C. graduate in the 20's, Adela Smith was a role model for future artists and feminists. She established herself as a mathematician and a scholar then, on attending a lecture by an established Canadian artist, she was inspired to paint.
With her characteristly adventurous spirit and armed with only her
degree, a teaching certificate and a course in typing, she left Vancouver for New York and the Arts Students League. To support her dream she worked her way up at the New York stock exchange to become one of the first women stock brokers on Wall Street.

She married a fellow student, Les Lintelmann (thereby losing her Canadian Citizenship) and also supported his artistic pursuits. While their marriage lasted they fully enjoyed a vibrant if frugal lifestyle, ice¬skating at Rockerfeller Center and enjoying the riches of the local art scene and were not discouraged by bouts of malnutrition brought on by a diet of pancakes.

When the Second World War began, a group of scholars, several from U.B.C., were asked to Ottawa to assist in the war effort. Adela accepted an invitation to work for the Federal Goverment as a securities analyst. There she met the author's uncle, Morley Scott, another of the Alumni group. 'They became life long friends and traveling companions as Morley went on to represent Canada in such places as Pakistan and India. She also became close friends with Morley's nieces and nephews. When one of them, Stephen Mader, decided to take further training in art she encouraged him to come to New York and join the Arts Students League. When his sister, Nora, went to Greenwich Village to study drama Adela shared her apartment and became a second mother to them both.
During her art career which spanned over seventy years 'Linty', as she became known, studied with such luminaries as Kimon Nicolaides, Robert Brackman, Robert Phillip, Robert Beverly Hale, Xavier Gonzales, Daniel Dickerson, lIIona Royce-Smithkin. She became a trustee of the American Fine Arts Society, a member of Artists Equity, Artists Fellowship, National Arts Club, Association of American Professional Artists, Salmagundi Club and the Pen and Brush. Linty had many awards including one-woman art shows. She specialized in floral and still life arrangements. When she felt the urge for wider inspiration she toured Europe with different companions. Evelyn Page, a volatile actress-artist was one of the most memorable companions. She drove through Italy like Mario Andretti terrorizing all in pursuit of ideal vistas to paint. That trip was so successful they did it again.

In the course of her years with the Arts Students League, Ada became a philanthropist, contributing to scholarships as well as providing financial support to individual young artists by quietly paying for needed supplies and buying their work. In 1991, the League voted to give a scholarship in her name in perpetuity and presented her with a silver tray engraved with thanks for her great contributions to the art world.

At the age of 90, Ada bought an apartment overlooking English Bay where she could escape New York summer heat and where she could eventually 'retire'. In 1997, having battled pneumonia and heart failure, plus a broken hip she decided to move here and formally retire. She regained her Canadian citizenship shortly before dying peacefully in her own home.
It has been said that "the artist's art becomes his true memorial" but
with Adela Smith Lintelmann one would have to include the art of those . she encouraged.