E.M. (Ted) Culliton, University Chancellor, makes presentation of the first Doctor of Science degree awarded by the University of Saskatchewan to Dr. Thomas C. Vanterpool, professor of Biology.

Bio/Historical Note: 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. The school in Barbados was modelled on the English Public School with its emphasis on sports. He excelled at cricket, soccer and track. After two years as Overseer on a sugar plantation, he entered McGill’s MacDonald College, graduating in 1923 with a BSc and earning an MSc in 1925. In Montreal he represented McGill in track, basketball and baseball. Vanterpool joined the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan 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 that 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. In 1968 Vanterpool earned the first Doctor of Science degree awarded by the U of S. He died in Victoria, British Columbia, on 15 January 1984.