William Pearce was born on February 1, 1848 in Elgin County, Ontario, the son of John and Elizabeth (nee Moorhouse) Pearce. He received his education in St. Thomas and at the University of Toronto. He married Margaret A. Meyer in 1881. He was engaged on private and railway surveys until 1873, and was in charge of survey parties in Manitoba and the North-West from 1874 to 1881. In 1882 he was appointed an Inspector of Agencies on the Dominion Lands Board. In 1884 Pearce was appointed Superintendent of Mines and was responsible investigating, reporting and making recommendations on disputed land claims.

Many disputed land claims extended from the Red River to the Rocky Mountains and from the 49th to the 56th parallels and were between settlers, large land interests and Metis communities. Pearce became Chief Inspector of Surveys in 1901. He voluntarily left his federal government post. From 1904 to 1911 Pearce worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway in the administration of irrigated lands and land in British Columbia.

He was responsible for reporting on potential land resources in regions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. He was particularly occupied with the drainage of the Athabasca and Pearce Rivers. After 1912 Pearce was hired as a Statistician to the Department of Colonization and Development for the Canadian Pacific Railway, based in Calgary.

David Colwyn Williams was born in Swansea, South Wales, in 1916. He received a BA (1938) from the University of Wales and both another BA and an LL.B. (1940) from Cambridge. During World War Two, Williams served with the South Wales Borderers in India, the Middle East, and Leros, where he was taken prisoner by German forces in 1943. At the end of the war, he returned to Cambridge for one year as a law supervisor, then accepted the post of Lecturer in Law at Queen's University, Belfast. While on leave in 1958, Williams earned an LL.M from the University of California, Berkeley. He accepted a position as Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan in 1961, was promoted to Professor in 1964, and in 1969 was named Assistant Dean of the College of Law. Williams was the author of a number of publications, notably in the fields of Public and Private International Law and Legal History. He also served with various organizations, including the United Nations Association, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, and the Advisory Group to the Minister of External Affairs. Colwyn Williams died suddenly at his Saskatoon home on December 26, 1971.

Lillian Alexandrina Williamson was born on April 10, 1898 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In 1914 she came to Grenfell, SK and reenrolled in the University of Saskatchewan by 1918. Lillian received a B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1921, with high honours in English and French. She is also listed as having taken a summer school class for Teacher’s courses at the U of S. Her name was listed as a graduate student in the UBC 1926-1927 Calendar, also in English and French. She died in 1985 at the age 87 in Vancouver, B.C. Her death certificate lists her profession as school teacher.

Robert Gordon Williamson was born on 2 November 1931 at Oxley, Staffordshire, England. He immigrated to Canada in 1952 and was employed at a series of jobs; but while wintering at Ft. Simpson, Northwest Territories, he began recording Dené folklore as an independent initiative. This work was later published in Anthropologica, and Williamson's extensive record of scholarship in cultural anthropology and ethnology can be dated from this period forward. Between July 1953 and October 1954 while based at Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, he learned Inuktitut and extended his ethnological experience by travelling throughout Cumberland Sound. In 1954 Williamson began studying at Carleton University, earning a BA in anthropology in 1957; he earned a PhD from the Royal University, Uppsala, Sweden, in 1974. During the summers while working toward his first degree, Williamson was employed with the Department of Northern Affairs. In 1958 he joined the Department of Northern Affairs on a full-time basis, where he established their Eskimology section, founded the first Eskimo language journal, Inuktitut; and became Welfare and Rehabilitation Superintendent for the district of Keewatin, dealing primarily with social issues. He resigned in 1963, remaining in Rankin Inlet doing private research on a Canada Council grant. His career with the University of Saskatchewan began at the Centre for Community Studies, with a study of Fringe Saulteaux near Kamsack, Saskatchewan; by 1964 he had joined the department of Anthropology as a lecturer and was an associate director with the Institute for Northern Studies. He was quickly promoted: assistant professor in 1965; associate professor in 1967; full professor in 1973. In addition, Williamson served for over a decade as the director of the University's Arctic Research and Training Centre. In 1966 he was elected by acclamation in the first of his two terms as member for Keewatin to the Legislative Council of the NWT. Williamson has worked on behalf of numerous organizations, including the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and the CBC Northern Service. He was invested into the Order of Canada in 1983. Upon his retirement from the University in 1999 Williamson was named Professor Emeritus, and at the fall 2000 convocation ceremony, was recognized with the JWG Ivany Internationalization Award.