Persona

Harrington, James Bishop

1894-1980

James Bishop Harrington, born in Chicago in 1894, came to Canada in 1911 and settled on a homestead near Maple Creek. Four years later he started what was to become a distinguished academic career when he enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan. Though his studies were interrupted by war service, he received his B.Sc. in Agriculture in 1920. Harrington continued with graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. By 1924 he had a MSc, a Ph.D. and an appointment as Assistant Professor in Field Husbandry at the University of Saskatchewan. From 1950 to 1956 served as head of his department. During his years at the U of S, Harrington built an international reputation as a plant breeder; among the better known crop varieties he developed are Apex wheat, Fortune oats, Husky barley, Royal flax and Antelope rye. In 1949 Dr. Harrington's attention turned to the agricultural problems of the third world. In 1949-1950 he worked in Egypt as consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture, and in 1952 went to India to work on rice breeding for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. After resigning from the U of S in 1956, Harrington continued as a consultant with the FAO in the Middle East. Harrington was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrology and served as president of the Agriculture Institute of Canada. The Order of Canada, Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and a LLD from the U of S are but a few of the many honours given to Dr. Harrington during his life. He died in Ontario at the age of 85.