Head and shoulders image of Dr. John Allan Macdonald, first Professor of French, 1910-1939.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. John Allan Macdonald was born at Rock Barra, Souris, Prince Edward Island. He was educated at Prince of Wales College at Charlottetown, PEI. He earned a BA at Laval (1898) and an MA at Harvard (1907). Dr. Macdonald was the first professor of French at the University of Saskatchewan (1910-1939).
After World War I a plague descended on the University in the form of the Spanish influenza pandemic. In response, when the city took the step of turning Emmanuel College into an emergency hospital, a number of university women immediately volunteered to nurse the sick. They did so under the direction of Mrs. John Allan Macdonald, a nurse.
In April 1926 a group of Saskatoon Catholic laity, including Dr. Macdonald, formed a group called the Newman Society, to work actively for the creation of a Catholic college for the recently established University of Saskatchewan. Through a land transfer in the 1920s, four building lots on campus owned by Dr. Macdonald were resold to the Roman Catholic Church. In due course, these lots became the home of St. Thomas More College. Dr. Macdonald authored the book Introduction to French. ‘Macdonald Crescent’ in Greystone Heights in Saskatoon is named in his honour.