French composer and musician René Blin left law school for the Schola Cantorum where he studied with Joseph Jemain, Guillmant and Vincent d’Indy. In 1904 he was appointed master of the chapel of Saint-André de Montreuil-sous-Bois, and in 1910 he became organist and chapel master of Sainte Élisabeth, a position he held until 1939.Two years later he was appointed holder of the choir organ of Notre-Dame de Paris and he remained there until 1950.

His compositions include a mass for 4 voices with orchestra, modulations for Vespers for the Dead, responses for salutes, melodies, pieces for piano and violin, 2 Toccatas, a funeral march and fugue for large organ.

Blin received the insignia of a knight in the order of Saint-Grégoire-le-Grand at the at the end of his career and returned to his birthplace Somois (Marne) where he died in 1951.

Rev. Daniel Bliss was born on August 17, 1823, in Georgia, Vermont.

He was a Christian missionary and the founder of the American University of Beirut. He spent much of his youth in the state of Ohio. He began to support himself at the age of sixteen by farming, tanning, and tree grafting. He graduated from Kingsville Academy in 1848 and went on to attend Amherst College. After graduation in 1852, he went on to attend Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts to prepare for foreign and overseas missions. In 1855, he was ordained and left to Alley, Lebanon where he worked with his wife in a small school. Under his direction, the school rose into prominence in the area. He also studied Arabic. After raising funds in both the United States and the United Kingdom, he founded the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut in 1866. It later became known as the American University of Beirut (AUB). Bliss became its President, Treasurer, and Professor of Bible and Ethics. A building in the AUB and a well-known street in Beirut were named after him. He resigned in 1902 and was succeeded by his son, Howard Bliss. Bliss is the author of a “Mental Philosophy” and “Natural Philosophy” in Arabic.

In 1855, he married Abby Maria Wood. He died on July 27, 1916, in Beirut, Lebanon.

George Pidgeon Bliss was born on September 21, 1850, in Harvey, New Brunswick
to Rev. Charles Parke Bliss (1825-1872) and Dorothy Anne Forster (1826-1895).

About 1870, he married Sophia Alice Humphreys (d. 1893). In 1895, he remarried Charlotte Ann Hampton (Scott). He died on February 4, 1916, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Michael Bliss entered University College at University of Toronto in 1958, receiving his BA, MA and PhD from the University before joining the Faculty of Arts & Science in the department of history as a professor. He later moved to U of T’s Faculty of Medicine. He was awarded University Professor, was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. He was made a Member of The Order of Canada in 1998 and was promoted to Officer in 2013.

He wrote several prize-winning books in Canadian and medical history. His list of publications includes: The Discovery of Insulin (1982), Frederick Banting: A Biography (1984), William Osler: A Life in Medicine (1999) and Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery (2005). He authored 14 books on business, politics and medicine. He wrote the Governor General’s Award–nominated Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal (1991). Bliss also wrote business books, including A Canadian Millionaire: the Life and Business Times of Sir Joseph Flavelle (1978), and a first history of business in Canada, Northern Enterprise (1987).