The Lawrence Park tennis courts in Toronto, flooded over in the winter, became the ice rink where Joyce Hisey learned to skate. She would walk over into the valley with her Mom and play on the ice with other little kids, “Until my Mom and I were frozen.” She thinks she was probably 5 or 6.

“What really burned me up was that I had such thin legs. When I tied my laces tight enough, the two sides of my boot came together so the tongue was covered. I wanted that space to show!”

Although Joyce was born in Toronto, her parents were American. The Kornacher family had moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania, when her Dad, a mechanical engineer, was relocated to Toronto.

Eventually in 1939 as Joyce’s love for skating outgrew the tennis courts, her Mom joined the Toronto Skating Club on Dupont St. so Joyce could skate on the junior session. Joyce remembers that Fridays were party days. “We did the Grand March, people skated solos … it was so much fun. And if we were really good, our treat was a Dad’s cookie!”

On Saturdays however, the juniors were only allowed to skate till noon. “That was when the senior dancers took over,” Joyce recalls. “I always wanted to be good enough to skate in the Saturday afternoon dance sessions … so I worked hard and passed all my tests.”

In 1942 during the war, Joyce participated in what would be the club’s last ‘ice show’ until after the war. Held at Maple Leaf Gardens, thousands of dollars were raised for the Red Cross and its blood donor drive. “The Club actually got a citation for their contribution to the war effort!”

Photo Credit: Skate Canada

Of course, as kids, other memories were just as important. “We all felt very special after our performance to be elegantly driven home in Deer Park Livery limousines.”

Six years later in 1948 the Club once again started to rebuild the ice show machine, this time starring Olympic Champion Barbara Ann Scott. Joyce recalls her own roll, “I was cast in the ballet number … and I hated it! So I pushed to be put in another number more to my style … the Red Devils.”

Overall Joyce describes her early skating career as being up and down.

“I always had the skating bug but I knew I was never going to be another Sonja Henie! Plus I never really liked figures so I wasn’t going far with that. They were a real bore! On the other hand, anytime there was music playing, I was off and running.”

And run she did … eventually to the 1952 Senior Canadian Dance Championships with partner Bill de Nance, Jr. “We finished second … but our competitive career was short-lived. The next year I got married.”

With the mid-fifties, the pro shows like Ice Capades and Ice Follies were already tremendously successful. “Ironically,” Joyce says, “many of their originators had learned how to produce and run shows by participating in those at the Toronto Skating Club.” The pro shows could amortize costs over an entire year; the Club’s show, on the other hand, only had one shot. “It could not compete,” Joyce remembers sadly, “and in 1956 the old Toronto Skating Club on Dupont St. produced its final show. It was the end of an era.”

But Joyce’s skating career was far from over. Becoming a national and international judge was on the horizon.

“In those early days,” she explains, “when they needed someone to judge, they just gave you a clipboard. In time I got more and more involved in everything that was going on.”

The spark of volunteerism was burning brightly.

Photo Credit: Skate Canada

On her path to the ISU, “Over the years I went merrily off as a team leader, got to know everyone, found myself in charge of certain things and, as my experience grew and my ideas worked, I got elected to the ISU. I didn’t aim for anything. It just evolved.”

Of course Joyce’s character shines through in everything she does. “I never say no to a challenge.”

One of her favourites was around 1965 when Toronto’s New City Hall was opening. “I wrote to Mayor Philip Givens about the Club participating in the lighting of the Xmas tree on the Square.” The Mayor not only accepted her offer, he brought partners on board too including Simpson’s and other members of the business community around Bay St.

As Joyce recalls, “We dressed our skaters at the Cricket Club, went by bus to City Hall … the bus driving right up to the ice surface out on the square … performed, climbed back on the bus and returned to the club. It was so successful, it became an annual thing for many years.”

As her volunteer ISU responsibilities expanded, Joyce also took on running the BIG events, including the role of on-site management of the organization’s TV partners, primarily with the networks in the US and Canada.

“My goal was to guarantee the events were run for the benefit of the skaters. I always had my red jacket on … and even though I was small in stature, I made sure they knew where I was.”

Smiling, she remembers one incident during the site visit for Calgary Olympics when US TV had asked to drape the boards with fabric. “They wanted coverage to be really posh,” she remembers, “but I pointed out to them that it would only take one skater’s blade to hit the drape and the whole thing would come tumbling down.”

Joyce loved the television part of her job. It was a chance for her to create a new and peaceful backstage environment for the skaters and TV folks alike. “I worked hard to find compromises, ones that added to the quality of TV production without sacrificing the calm the skaters needed.”

Looking back over Joyce’s career, her life-long dedication to volunteerism has made her an icon.

Among many other honours celebrating her commitment and her enormous accomplishments, Joyce was awarded the Order of Canada in 2019. Although Covid delayed the ceremony until 2023, her good friend, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, made the official presentation.

Photo Credit: Ontario Heritage Trust

Now into her 90’s, Joyce has not only collected many outstanding awards and memories, she has also collected many lifelong friends through skating.

“A skating club is a wonderful place to learn so many things. The club experience teaches you about teamwork and friendship. I directed the Toronto Cricket Club’s Ice Show for more than 20 years, loved every second and had a fabulous time working with so many people. We all worked together … every part of the club doing their thing. It was magical!”