Former Alberta museum renamed after Canada's first female commodore

The Commodore Lorraine Orthlieb Training Centre honours the woman who formed what would become Naval Museum of Alberta Society.

A former naval museum turned cadet training facility was officially renamed Saturday after the first woman in Canada to achieve the rank of commodore, Laraine Orthlieb.

“She opened the floodgates. Well, it wasn’t a flood — it was more of a trickle — but that trickle’s become a steady flow,” said Scott Hausberg, president of the Naval Museum of Alberta Society.

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This year marks Orthlieb’s 87th birthday. She first enrolled in the navy as a nurse, in 1959, after growing up in New Brunswick. She rejoined the naval reserve 15 years later, hoping for an opportunity to go to sea. At the time, women were not allowed to do so. When Orthlieb pressed th