Head and shoulders image of Dr. Stuart Houston, Medical Imaging.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Clarence Stuart Houston, son of Dr. Clarence J. and Dr. Sigridur Augusta (Christianson) Houston, was born in 1927 in Williston, North Dakota and grew up in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. After obtaining an MD from the University of Manitoba in 1951, Stuart married Mary Belcher in 1951 and practiced medicine with his parents from 1951 to 1960. Moving to Saskatoon in 1960, he began training in Diagnostic Radiology. After graduating with a FRCPC in 1964, Dr. Houston joined the University of Saskatchewan and became head of Radiology from 1982-1987. Dr. Houston retired in 1996 as professor emeritus. He published works in medicine and the history of medicine include five books, 13 book chapters and 66 scientific articles, as well as numerous book reviews, abstracts and editorials. In addition to medicine, Dr. Houston was involved in ornithology and natural history since his early teens. Beginning as a bander of ducks for Ducks Unlimited, he was recognized as one of the leading authorities on birds in Canada. He published six books, 33 book chapters, 251 original papers, 123 book reviews, and numerous abstracts and editorials in this field. He and his wife Mary banded over 126,000 individuals of 206 species, with 3,191 recoveries - the largest list for a private bander in North America. Dr. Houston served in several capacities in the American Ornithologists' Union, of which he was named a Fellow in 1989. Dr. Houston was a recognized authority on the Franklin expeditions, on the factor-naturalists of the Hudson's Bay Company, and on the medical history of Saskatchewan. The first of three books on the Franklin expedition, To the Arctic by Canoe, 1819-1821, The Journals and Paintings of Robert Hood, was published in 1974; later publications included Steps on the Road to Medicare (2002) and Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay (2003) (with Mary Houston and Tim Ball). Houston's awarda include honourary doctorates for literature, the Roland Michener Conservation Award from the Canadian Wildlife Federation (1990), the Saskatchewan Order of Merit (1992), and the Order of Canada (1993). Dr. Houston died on 22 July 2021 at age 94.

Bio/Historical Note: Mary Isabel Belcher was born in 1924 at her family's farm near Dilke, Saskatchewan. She obtained her BA (with distinction) and BEd degrees from the University of Saskatchewan. Mary taught for three years at the Yorkton Collegiate Institute. After marrying Stuart Houston in August 1951, Mary worked with him, until nearly the end of her life, on bird banding and on much of his writing. Mary was one of the first four elected Fellows of the Saskatchewan Natural History Society in 1987, and served as vice-president from 1979-1981. She banded not only thousands of Bohemian waxwings, but also thousands of mountain bluebirds, tree swallows, purple martins, ring-billed gulls, California gulls, cormorants, and pelicans. Mary was named as one of the "Outstanding Saskatoon Women" in International Women's Year (1975). She also received the Douglas H. Pimlott Conservation Award from the Canadian Nature Federation (1988), the Meewasin Conservation Award from the Meewasin Valley Authority (1996), the Saskatchewan Volunteer Medal (2005) and the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal (2005). Mary was honoured with induction into the College of Education Alumni Wall of Honour (2010), the Saskatoon Women's Hall of Fame (2011) and was named a College of Arts and Science Alumnus of Influence in 2013. Mary Houston died in Saskatoon in 2019 at age 94.