George Enor Melvyn Shelburg was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 9, 1890. He spent a number of years living in Jerusalem in the early 1900s. He received a Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Chicago in 1927. Shelburg was an Instructor in the Department of French at the University of Saskatchewan from 1929 to 1935. After 1935, he went back to the United States and settled in Los Angeles. He died in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 1958.
Born in Chatsworth, Ontario on 24 March 1893, George Wilfred Simpson received his early education in Owen Sound before taking up a homestead in southern Saskatchewan. In 1915 he entered the University of Saskatchewan and received a BA (1919) in English and History; in 1920 he received an MA from the University of Toronto. The first Saskatchewan recipient of the IODE overseas scholarship, Simpson was able to attend the University of London for postgraduate studies. He also did postgraduate work at the University of Berlin (1931-1932), and in 1947 received an honourary doctorate from the Free Ukrainian University in Munich, Germany. In 1959, Simpson was given an LL.D from the University of Saskatchewan. His teaching career at the University of Saskatchewan started in 1922, with an appointment as Instructor in History. By 1928 he had been promoted to full professor; in 1940, Simpson was appointed Head of the History Department, a position he held until his retirement in 1958. Upon retirement, Simpson was named Professor Emeritus. During his career at the University of Saskatchewan, Simpson initiated the department of Slavic studies, was the first Canadian historian to learn Ukrainian, and edited the first history of the Ukraine published in English: "Ukraine, An Atlas Of Its Geography and History." He helped shape the policy of the Saskatchewan Archives Act, was the first Provincial Archivist (1945-1948), and afterward served on the Archives Board. As chair of the Committee on Historic Sites and Publications, he made a major contribution to the success of Saskatchewan's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1955. Simpson died in Saskatoon on 6 March 1969, at the age of 75.
James Maurice Naylor was born in Hawarden, Saskatchewan on February 22, 1920. Following service with the RCAF during World War II, he entered the University of Saskatchewan, earning a BSA (1949) and an M.Sc. (1950). He continued his postgraduate work at the University of Wisconsin, receiving a PhD in botany in 1953. He joined the University of Saskatchewan in 1953 as Assistant Professor in Agriculture, and moved to the Department of Biology in 1961. He was promoted to Full Professor in 1964 and was named Head of the Department in 1968, a position which he held for five years. Professor Naylor instigated the Division of Life Sciences, and, with Ray Skinner, formed the Saskatoon Committee for the Control of Radiation Hazards. He also served as Chairman of the Faculty Association. He died in Saskatoon on September 5, 1984.
Douglas John Buchan was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on 2 April 1921. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1942 with a B.A., and received his MD. from the University of Manitoba in 1946. Prior to doing postgraduate work in Winnipeg and New York, he practised medicine at Kelvington and the Medical Arts Clinic in Regina. He was Commonwealth Fellow in Medicine at Cornell University Medical School from 1952-54. His first appointment at the U of S was as instructor, in 1955; he became an Assistant Professor in 1957 and Full Professor in July, 1969. Buchan died on February 21, 1986.
Robert Newman Hoyles Haslam was born in Toronto on November 29, 1909. His family moved to Saskatoon where he attended high school, and later enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan, earning a BA (1929) and MA (1931). In 1933, he received a PhD from McGill University. From 1933 to 1935, he studied at the University of Leipzig on a post-graduate scholarship. Dr. Haslam was appointed Instructor in Physics at the University of Saskatchewan in 1935, became Full Professor in 1951, and Department Head ten years later. In July 1964, he was appointed Dean of Arts and Science. He was subsequently appointed Vice-President of the Saskatoon Campus and Vice-President (Academic). On his retirement in 1977, he was named Professor Emeritus. He died on January 9, 1985.
John Howard Richards was born May 21, 1916 in Caerphilly, Wales. He enrolled at the University of Wales in 1934 and graduated in 1938 with a B.Sc. in Geography. Richards remained in Wales the following year to teach at a private school, but spent next two years as a meteorologist in the United Kingdom and Canada. He joined the Canadian army, serving in Europe from 1942-1946. After his discharge, Richards enrolled at the University of Toronto; in 1947, he received his MA. Richards taught at Utica College of Syracuse University and the University of Manitoba before returning to the University of Toronto, where he earned his PhD in 1956. He briefly joined the staff of the Royal Military College of Canada prior to coming to the University of Saskatchewan in 1960 as Professor and Head of the newly formed Department of Geography. He was to remain in that post until his retirement in 1979. He was named Professor Emeritus in 1983. During his tenure, Richards developed academic programs in Geography and the interdisciplinary programs of Land Use, Environmental Studies and Regional and Urban Development and Planning. He was the editor of the first "Atlas of Saskatchewan" and the author of "Saskatchewan Geography" and "Saskatchewan: A Geographical Appraisal," among other publications. Richards served on several Boards including the Saskatoon District Planning Commission and the Grasslands National Park Board of Enquiry. He was also Director of the Saskatchewan Land Capability Inventory and was President of the Canadian Association of Geographers. Howard died in Saskatoon on September 25, 2003.
Arthur Gordon Wacker was born on October 10, 1933 in Jansen, Saskatchewan. He received his early education in Regina and won a scholarship to Queen's University, where he earned his B.Sc. (1955) in Electrical Engineering. He also earned a PhD from Purdue University. He worked briefly for both Northern Electric Co. Ltd. and the Schlumberger Well Survey Corporation, prior to being appointed Special Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in 1957. He earned his M.Sc. in 1962. Wacker was promoted to full Professor in 1975. His research activities have included working with the Institute for Northern Studies to improve radio communications in the North; "ground truthing," or collecting agronomic data from microwave radars; and monitoring soil and crop conditions using satellites. He died on July 25, 1989 in Saskatoon.
Born in London, England on March 26, 1894, Robert Hurley trained as an apprentice printer-compositor before serving in the Suffolk Regiment (1917-1920). In 1923, Hurley immigrated to Canada and moved to Saskatoon in 1930. Finding himself unemployed at the age of forty during the Depression, Hurley began to paint with berry juices and a toothbrush. Largely self-taught with only a few classes from Ernest Lindner, he quickly became well known in Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada for his treatment of the prairie landscape. His first showing was at a 1935 exhibition with the Manitoba Society of Artists in Winnipeg. In Saskatoon, he worked as a plant technician with the Dominion Plant Pathology Laboratory on the University of Saskatchewan campus alongside Dr. Ralph C. Russell. Hurley and Russell made many field excursions across the prairies. Hurley remained in Saskatchewan until 1963 when he retired to Victoria, British Columbia. He lived in Victoria until his death in 1980.
Patricia Monture (later Monture-Angus) was a member of the Mohawk Nation from the Six Nations Grand River Territory. She obtained her BA in sociology from the University of Western Ontario (1983), her law degree from Queen’s University (1988) and her Master’s in law from Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto) in 1998. In 1988 she filed a suit in Ontario’s Supreme Court arguing that as a member of a sovereign nation, she should not be required to take an oath of allegiance to the Queen in order to join the Ontario Bar. In response, the Law Society made the oath-taking optional. Monture taught law at both Dalhousie University and the University of Ottawa before being offered a position in the Department of Native Studies at the University of Saskatchewan in 1994. She was granted tenure in 1998 and obtained full professorship in 1999, and was during this period one of very few Indigenous women in a faculty position on campus—at one point being the only Indigenous person in the Department of Native Studies. In 2004 she joined the sociology department and became the academic coordinator of the Aboriginal Justice and Criminology Program (also known as the Indigenous People and Justice Program). Her work on Indigenous and women’s rights stretched far beyond her activities on campus, and she served on a number of major inquiries including the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the task force on federally sentenced women, and the task force on the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons. She was the 2007 recipient of the Sarah Shorten Award for the advancement of women, the 2008 Human Rights Action award from the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and in 2009 she received an Honourary Doctor of Laws from Queen’s University. She passed away at the age of 52 in 2010. A center for student success was opened posthumously in her name at the University of Saskatchewan.
Horace Dougald Beach was born on 12 March 1919 near Ernfold, Saskatchewan, and attended the University of Saskatchewan for two years prior to joining the Canadian armed forces. Following the war, he spent one year at the University of Edinburgh before returning to Canada and resuming his studies at the University of Saskatchewan. He was a Rhodes scholar. He worked in Newfoundland; and was director of counseling centers at Dalhousie University and later, at the University of Victoria. He died in Saskatoon on 2 October 2008.
Anthropologists Among US was a student-led campaign organized by the Anthropologists Student Association. During the 2000s, Anthropology classes at the University of Saskatchewan were shifted between departments. Originally paired with Archaeology, Anthropology classes were joined with the Department of Religious Studies in 2002 creating the Department of Religious Studies & Anthropology in an attempt to ensure the long-term stability of both programs. Despite this change, several tenured Anthropology faculty retired or left and were not replaced. In the fall of 2006, the situation reached a head when a number of Anthropology courses were cancelled because there was only one tenured Anthropology Professor left at the University. The Anthropologists Student Association decided to mount a publicity campaign in an attempt to secure the future of the program. In 2008, Anthropology was moved back with Archaeology, again forming the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology.