Determination, generosity and spaghetti sauce: Meet Canada's new GG

Graeme Hirst couldn't figure out why Julie Payette, a computer engineering graduate studentsitting in the front row of his computational linguistics class, was always frowning at him during his lectures.

"I found that very disconcerting," said Hirst, the University of Toronto computer science professorwho co-supervised Payette'smaster's thesis in 1990.

Hirstwas so unsettledhe asked a colleagueabout Payette'sfacial expression.

The response was, "it's because she's thinking so hard. It's nothing to do with you. She's really, really concentrating."

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That keen focus helped Payettereach heights few do, and now she can add yet another achievement to her packed curriculum vitae:the former astronaut was named Canada's next governor general on Thursday.

"It's how she managed to do it all," Hirstsaid.

Payette'sskills, dedication and attention to detailwere touted by friends and former colleagues in interviews with CBC Newsnot to mention her generosity, her linguistic dexterity (she speaks six languages) and her love of hockey.

Payette is the fourth woman to be named Canada's governor general, a role that has alternated between an anglophone and a francophoneCanadian sinceVincent Masseywas appointed in 1952.

Grew up in Montreal

Julie Payette was born in 1963 and grew up in Montreal's Ahuntsic neighbourhood.

She went to Collge Mont-Saint-Louis and Collge Rgina-Assumpta, both private schools, andwas selected to attend the prestigious United World College of the Atlanticin Wales, where she earned an International Baccalaureate in 1982.

At Mont-Saint-Louis,Payettewas involved in a wide array of activities andseemed to commit to excelling in each one.

She was a "perfectionist ineverythingshedid," saidBenotGirardin, her Grade 10 boyfriend.

"She was an athlete and a musician in the making ... as far as the astronaut in her, I'm not sure shewas there just yet."

But by the time Payetteapplied to UWC Atlantic College, at 17, she knew that's what she wanted to be.

Benot Charlebois, who served with Payette on the board of directors of Canada's UWC school, Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific,in2011 and 2012, recountsa story Payetteshared with UWC alumni about her interview by the Quebec selection committee to attend Atlantic College.

At some point in thatinterview, Charlebois said, she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up.

He said Payettehad been mesmerized by images of the Apollo mission when she wasstill in elementary school, and she said she wanted to be an astronaut.

"The interviewer said, 'Well, you know, that that's quite unlikely,'and she said,'Well, it would be even more unlikely if I wasn't trying,'" said Charlebois.

She won over the interviewer.

Twelve years later, in 1992, Payettewas selected to be anastronaut by the Canadian Space Agency.

Doesn't take no for an answer

Payette's father was an engineer, and she followed in his footsteps, graduating from McGill University with an electrical engineering degree in 1986 and earning her master's ofapplied science in computer engineering from the University of Toronto in 1990.

Payettedidn't take no for an answer, according to U of T's Hirst, who sayshe figured it out "more or less the first day I met her."

She attended Hirst's computer science class, although he pointed out that shedidn't know the programming languages that she needed for the course.

"Her answer to that was simply, well, she'll do the necessary background work and learn those languages and take the course, thank you very much," Hirst says. "And she did."

Payette'smaster's thesis focused on computational linguistics, and she built a program that critiquestexts in English, her second language.

"She put in her own thesis as inputs into the program she developed with Professor Hirst, and then it output all of the criticismof how she wrote her thesis,"said Michael Stumm, Payette'sthesis co-supervisor.

"It was wonderful."

PayettelaterinvitedStummto one of her rocket launches.

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"It was one of the delights of my life," saidStumm, who still teaches computer engineering at U of T. "She's a stupendous person."

"She's a very gracious, kind of people-oriented person. And I guess that's what a governorgeneral has to be, apart from anything else," saidHirst.

She also plays piano and is a gifted singer.

Hirstrememberswhen Payettewas singing with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir in Torontoand invitedHirstand his wife to aconcert.

The seats weren't great, and Payette noticed that from the stage. At the intermission, she arranged for them to be re-seated.

A hockey fan

Mark Polansky, a former U.S. astronaut and the one-timecommander of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, worked withPayette on her second mission to the International Space Station.

Polanksy said that he grew up in New Jersey and was a huge hockey fan, cheering for the New York Rangers while Payette was passionate about the Montreal Canadiens.

"She got to fly a jersey of Rocket Richard's, and during one our post-flights, when we did get the crew to come to Canada, she had made arrangements [for us]to go to the Bell Centre and see a game," Polanskytold CBC News.

"For me, it was like going to Mecca."

Polanksysaid that theCanadiensdidn't win that night, but fans at the Bell Centre were "going crazy, anyway."

"It was truly an out-of-this-world experience to get to go see the Canadiens and return Rocket Richard's Jersey," he said.

Polanskysaid he was "really thrilled and ecstatic" about her appointment.

"She's just an awesome person."

'A Renaissance woman'

Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau is aformer astronaut himself, and he was on the committee that selectedPayette to become an astronautin 1992.

"We recognized at that time that this was somebody with tremendous talent," he said, calling her a "Renaissance woman ... who radiated confidence."

Garneau worked with her in Houston and said they hung out socially, too, because she's "someone who is a lot of fun to be with."

In 2008,Payette told the French-language edition ofChatelaine magazine that she makes her own spaghetti sauce, and despite the time Garneau spent with Payette in Houston, he said he never got a chance to sampleit.

"It's going to be a little bit difficult for me to go knocking on the door at Rideau Hall and say, 'Hi Julie, can I taste some of that tomato sauce?'" he quipped.

"Now it will be, 'Your Excellency.'"