Born in Saba, West Indies on 22 April 1898, Thomas Clifford "Van" Vanterpool took his early education in Barbados, obtaining the Oxford and Cambridge Higher School Certificate in Science in 1916. After two years as Overseer on a sugar plantation, he entered McGill, graduating in 1923 with a B.Sc. and earning an MSc. in 1925. In 1968 Vanterpool earned the first Doctor of Science Degree awarded by the University of Saskatchewan. He joined the faculty of the U of S in 1928, where he spent his entire professional life, continuing to work in his laboratory until 1974, nine years after his formal retirement. He did considerable research on browning root rot of cereals, a disease which caused average crop losses in 1928, 1933, and 1939 estimated at $10 million per annum Vanterpool identified the causal organisms, as well as showing how the disease could be controlled. He also pioneered research on the diseases of oil seed crops on the prairies, and was responsible for teaching courses in plant physiology, plant pathology and mycology, and botany. Vanterpool died in Victoria, BC, on 15 January 1984.