Born on a farm near Viceroy, Saskatchewan in 1928, Margaret (Kesslering) Weiers graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a BA (English) in 1949. As an early feminist, social reformer and fierce nationalist, she embarked on a 40-year career in journalism that began with the Regina Leader-Post and ended with the Toronto Star. In 1969, she won the Canadian Women’s Press Club Memorial Award for best news story. Weiers was the first journalist to receive a special award from the American Association on Mental Deficiency. She left the Leader Post in 1955 and joined the Canadian foreign service, serving as vice-consul for the Canadian Consulate General in New York City and a press officer for the Canadian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1957, she married Robert Weiers (U of S BA’47, BEd’48, BComm’52). Marriage marked the end of her foreign service career, as the Department of External Affairs required women officers to resign after they married. In 1960, the Weiers went to Ghana on a 15-month foreign aid assignment. While her husband helped set up a school of business at the University of Accra, Margaret Weiers worked as a freelance writer for radio and television. They returned to Canada and in 1963 she joined the staff of the Toronto Star. For the next three decades Weiers worked as a reporter, a feature writer and most notably a member of the Star’s editorial board. Weiers retired from the Star in 1991. She went on to write a book about women in the Canadian foreign service. Published in 1995, Envoys Extraordinary: Women of the Canadian Foreign Service chronicles the experiences of 22 female career officers struggling to succeed in a predominantly male world. Among her many honours was an Honourary Doctor of Letters at 2010 University of Saskatchewan spring convocation.

John James McConnell was born in Trenta, Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland in 1925. Two months prior to his first birthday, his family immigrated to Canada, where they farmed in the Sanctuary and Dinsmore area of Saskatchewan. McConnell attended the University of Saskatchewan, earning a degree in Agricultural Economics (1951). He began a 21-year career with the Saskatchewan public service, working for the departments of Co-operation and Co-operative Development, and Agriculture. During this period he hosted a radio show, “Good Listening for Good Farming,” and a television show, “Rural Route Saskatchewan.” His interests in print and other media prompted him to get his MA in Communication Arts from Michigan State University (1968). McConnell also worked for the federal civil service, in Ottawa and Saskatoon, for Agriculture Canada. He retired in 1984. John McConnell died on 25 January 2016 in Saskatoon.

James Balfour Kirkpatrick (1909-1998), a graduate of Bedford Road Collegiate in Saskatoon, enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan (BA 1929; BEd 1930; MEd 1935) in 1926. Under the tutelage of Joe Griffiths, Kirkpatrick became one of Saskatchewan's premier track & field athletes as a thrower and jumper. He held provincial records in the 1930s in high jump and shot put. In the first ever Canadian championships in 1938 at Griffiths Stadium, Kirkpatrick finished second in high jump and third in three throwing events. Kirkpatrick, who was 6-3, developed his basketball skills in the "ham and egg league" that Griffiths introduced on campus in 1924 for raw recruits, progressed to interfaculty competition and eventually earned a starting position on the Huskies. He played on the Saskatoon Grads, who won the provincial senior men's title in 1939-1940. Kirkpatrick was also a member of the Huskies tennis team in 1934 and in 1937 captured the provincial men's singles title. He went on to serve as director of the Saskatchewan Recreation Movement and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association. Kirkpatrick was named Saskatoon Kinsmen Sportsman of the Year in 1983 and was inducted as a builder into the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 and into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1990.

eo Kristjanson was born on February 28, 1932, the youngest of eight children. As a child, he worked at his parents’ general store in Gimli, Manitoba in addition to working on the family farm. He attended the University of Winnipeg, earning a BA and MA in history. In 1957 he began studies in Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin. Upon finishing his course work in 1959, he accepted a position with the Centre for Community Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. The Centre had been established to undertake a program of applied social research related to the development of Saskatchewan communities. In 1960 he began lecturing in the Department of Economics and Political Science, and completed his PhD in 1963. In 1965, Kristjanson joined the Department of Economics and Political Science. He was vice-president (Planning) of the University from 1975 to 1980, and in 1980 he became president. Illness prevented him from completing his second term, and he retired in 1989. The atrium in the Agriculture building at the University of Saskatchewan is named in honour of his contribution to the University.

As president, Kristjanson sought funding for agricultural research and a new College of Agriculture building. He formed a “Sodbuster’s Club” to raise planning funds and undertook a leadership role in raising over $12,000,000 from private sources for the construction of the building. He was also instrumental in improving the Soil Testing Laboratory, the Poultry Centre, the Kernan Crop Research Laboratory, the Horticulture Field Service Building, the Saskatchewan Institute of Pedology’s Field Facilities, and the Large Animal Research Facility. He was also instrumental in having an art gallery become part of the new College of Agriculture building, named in honour of the first resident artist at the university, August Kenderdine. Also during his term as president, the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, the Toxicology Research Centre and the Centre for Agricultural Medicine were established.

Kristjanson made major contributions to rural Saskatchewan as a consultant to Farm Organizations, Co-operatives, credit unions, and governments. He served on boards and participated in projects designed to improve living conditions for farmers and their communities. He was chairman of the Saskatchewan Natural Products Marketing Council from 1973 to 1979; a member of a committee to recommend restructuring of the Department of Co-operation; and chairman of the Board of Public Inquiry into the Poplar River Power Project, a provincial study of the environment. He also wrote extensively and has given many public speeches on co-operatives, population and rural development, marketing boards, and commissions. Leo Kristjanson was inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1990. He died on August 21, 2005.

Clarence White Rife was born on May 17, 1888 in Hespler, Ontario. Following his graduation from the Galt Collegiate Institute in 1906, he moved to Saskatchewan to homestead near Foam Lake. In 1910, he leased his homestead and moved to Saskatoon, where he attended the Saskatoon Business College, worked part-time, and began his studies at the University of Saskatchewan. He graduated with a BA in history and political science (1914), and spent 1915-1917 as a teacher in Swift Current, Saskatchewan before pursuing his MA from the University of Toronto (1918). He spent 1918-1919 as a sessional lecturer at Queen’s University prior to enrolling at Yale, from which he earned his PhD in 1922. He then began his career as Professor of History at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. By 1927, he became chair of the department, a role he continued for nearly thirty years. He retired in 1956 and was named Professor Emeritus. Rife co-founded the Hamline University Institute of World Affairs, served as financial director for the Minnesota Student Project for Amity Among Nations (SPAN), was an active member of the Ramsey County Historical Society, and was active in the Hamline Methodist Church, serving as chair of its Historical Committee. He met Margaret Strang (BA 1913) while at the University of Saskatchewan; they married in 1919 and she earned her MA at Yale (1921). Rife died on November 21, 1970 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Edward Alexander Maginnes was born in Ottawa, Ontario to Alexander and Jeannie Maginnes. He attended Lisgar Collegiate in Ottawa and then went on to attend MacDonald College in Montreal where he received his B.Sc. in 1956. After this, he worked at the Experimental Farm in Ottawa and helped establish the family tree nursery, A.D. Maginnes and Son. From 1957-1964, Ed attended Cornell University where he received his M.Sc. and PhD, following which he accepted the position of Professor of Horticulture Science at the University of Saskatchewan. He remained there teaching and conducting research for 36 years, retiring in 2000. Areas that were of particular interest to him included Waste Heat Greenhouse Management, turf grass growth and maintenance as well as hydroponics growing methods. Ed was an honorary member of the Saskatchewan Turf Grass Association and the North American Lily Society. He was married to Beverly Maginnes in 1964, and the couple had three children (Elizabeth, Susan, and Sean). In his retirement, Edward was instrumental in the development and construction of an Abbeyfield House in Saskatoon. Edward passed away in 2010.

Fred Finch, uncle of Robert Finch, owned the highly successful Hyemal Poultry Farm in Lanigan before moving to British Columbia. Fred Finch was born September 25, 1881 in Birlingham, Worcestershire, England, and married Mabel Harriet Shaw in 1904. While in Worcester, he worked as a corn warehouseman and carter. The Finches immigrated to Canada in 1913 and settled in the Lanigan area. Fred Finch retired to Vancouver in 1940, where he died in 1967.

Henry Unger was a Canadian Pacific Railway man who helped with the Fred Finch farm near Lanigan, Saskatchewan.

Gordon Snelgrove was a painter and teacher of Art and Art History at the University of Saskatchewan. He was born in 1867, and was appointed as a teacher of Art History at the University of Saskatchewan Regina Campus in 1936. A few years later he moved to the Saskatoon campus as the head of the Art Department, and he continued teaching there until his retirement in 1962. He passed away four years later in 1966. He is acknowledged as being perhaps the first Art Historian in Canada to receive a PhD in his discipline, and the Snelgrove Gallery on the U of S campus, which plays a role in providing learning and professional opportunities for students, still bears his name.

Johanna Tappert was born on October 4, 1892 in Meriden, Connecticut. She worked at the Lutheran College on 8th Street in Saskatoon from 1927 to 1933 as a high school teacher, Dean of the Girls Dormitory, and, eventually, Assistant Principal. She served as dorm mother for the girls and taught English to German immigrants on the weekends. At these classes, she met Ernest Lindner, who was subsequently given a room at the dorm in order to do his artwork. Johanna Tappert married Eugene Strack sometime around 1933. She died in Edmonton, Alberta on November 13, 1984.

Ernest (“Ernie”) Lindner was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 1, 1897. He immigrated to Canada in 1926, working initially as a farm labourer; but he soon earned recognition for his skill as an artist. He began teaching a night class for the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate in 1931. He eventually became a full-time instructor and Head of the Art Department at the Collegiate until 1962. From 1962 to 1988, he worked full-time as an artist. His work encompassed watercolour, pencil, and various forms of printmaking; and his subject matter was often drawn from life, particularly the natural world around his cabin at Fairy Island, Emma Lake, Saskatchewan. Lindner was a member and President of the Saskatoon Art Association and was one of the first members on the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Lindner received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1972. He was elected as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1977) and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (1979). He died in Saskatoon on November 4, 1988.

Vipen Sawhney earned a B.Sc (1965) and M.Sc (1967) from the University of Panjab and PhD (1972) from the University of Western Ontario. He accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Simon Fraser University in 1972 before coming to the University of Saskatchewan in 1975. Dr. Sawhney rose through the ranks serving as the Rawson Professor of Biology and Department Head from 2003-2007. In addition to his U of S appointment, he has been a visiting Professor and Fellow several times. Dr. Sawhney maintained a first rate research program throughout his career co-editing a book and authoring more than a hundred refereed papers. He is an internationally recognized plant geneticist focussing on understanding the processes and mechanisms controlling flower and pollen development in angiosperms using floral and male-sterile mutants in tomato, canola (Brassica napes) and Arabidopsis. By using microscopic, physiological (hormonal and environmental) and proteomic approaches, Dr. Sawhney has investigated the various factors, and their possible interactions, in plant developmental processes. His research on male sterility in tomato has been applied in the hybrid seed industry. He has received many awards and honours including the Master Teacher 2007, Earned Doctor of Science 2010 and the Award of Innovation from the University of Saskatchewan. He served as the President, Canadian Botanical Association, 2004-2006, President, International Association of Sexual Plant Reproduction and Research, 1998-2002 and Vice-President, Canadian Botanical Association, 1998-1999.

Norman Zepp was raised on a farm near Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and earned his BA from the University of Saskatchewan. While at university, Zepp met his partner Judith Varga; and he bought his first piece of Inuit art. Zepp switched his major from Education to Art History; and went on to earn an MA in Art History from Carleton University, under the supervision of George Swinton, who remained a lifelong friend of Zepp and Varga. After earning his graduate degree, Zepp was curator of exhibitions at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, and director of the Thunder Bay National Exhibition Centre and Centre for Indian Art. In 1988, he was appointed curator of Inuit art for the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), where he remained until 1994. During that time, Zepp was instrumental in building the AGO Inuit collection, including helping to facilitate several major donations, including the Williamson and the Sarick collections. Following the AGO, Zepp worked in Vancouver prior to returning to Saskatoon. He remains one of Canada’s foremost experts on Inuit art.

John Logan came to the University of Saskatchewan (B.Sc., 1929; B.E., 1934) from Yorkton in 1927. During his seven years on campus he competed in basketball, football and hockey. A quarterback, he was a member of the Huskies football team for five years. Logan was on the hockey team for three years and the basketball team for two seasons. He was a captain on both the football and hockey teams. For his accomplishments, Logan received a Major Athletic Award. In addition to competing for the Huskies, he was president of the University Athletic Directorate in 1933-34.

Leslie J. Hutchison, a native of Leeds and Grenville United Counties in Ontario, moved to Spalding, Saskatchewan, at an early age and attended Regina College. He enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan (BSA 1927) in 1922. He competed on the intervarsity track & field team for four years in pole vault, long jump and high jump. Hutchison won the Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union pole vault championship from 1923 to 1925, setting a provincial record in 1923. He was also an accomplished baseball player and competed in tournaments throughout Saskatchewan. Hutchison died in [Ottawa in 1997 at age 96]. He was inducted into the U of S Athletic Wall of Fame in 1984.