Field Husbandry was one of the original departments of the College of Agriculture. During the first decade horticulture, soils, and farm management were taught as subjects in Field Husbandry before becoming separate departments. Plant ecology also originated as a subject in Field Husbandry before becoming a separate department in 1949. The department became known for its contributions to plant breeding and work in the distribution and improvement of seed. In 1982 the departments of Crop Science (the former Department of Field Husbandry, renamed in 1962) and Plant Ecology were amalgamated; the new department was named Crop Science and Plant Ecology. In 1998 this department amalgamated with the Department of Horticulture Science to form the Department of Plant Sciences. The following have served as head of the departments relating to Plant Ecology: Department of Plant Ecology R.T. Coupland (1948-1981) Department of Crop Science and Plant Ecology H.M. Austenson (1982-1983) B.L. Harvey (1983-1995) M.D. Devine (1995-1998) Department of Plant Sciences G.L. Scoles (1998- )

Ivo Nikolai Lambi was born 14 July 1931, in Tallinn, Estonia. As a teenager during the Second World War, he lived in Estonia and Germany, completing high school at the Estonian Secondary School at Gottingen and at Lingen (Germany) in 1947. He came to Canada with his family at age 17. He completed a B.A. (University of Toronto, 1952), M.A. (University of Toronto, 1955) and Ph.D. (University of Minnesota, 1958). He was a lecturer at the University of Toronto,1958-1960, and instructor at the University of Omaha, 1960-1961, before being appointed to the faculty of the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan in 1961. He was promoted to full professor in 1967 and was the department head, 1969-1974. He specialized in 19th century German history. Among other publications, he published two books: Free Trade and Protection in Germany, 1868-1879 (1963); and The Navy and German Power Politics (1984). Shortly before he died, he had also completed major study of Otto von Bismarck. He was the founding editor of the Canadian Journal of History, 1965, and served as President of the Canadian Historical Association in 1971. He was twice was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Fellowship, and also sat on the Strategic Studies and Military History Selection Committee, Department of National Defense, 1989-1994. He retired in 1996, and died on 2 January 2000 in Saskatoon.

Emmie Ducie was born in 1916 in the Coates district near Dundurn, Saskatchewan. Her elementary schooling was taken in a one-room school at Coates; she was awarded the Governor-General's Medal in Grade 8. Her high school was largely by correspondence, via Nutana Collegiate, Saskatoon. She earned a BSc in Home Economics from the University of Saskatchewan in 1941, and her MSc from Washington State in 1943. She worked, variously, at the Extension Division of the University of Saskatchewan (1940-1942); as Home Economist for the Department of Agriculture (1943); as Nutritionist for the Toronto branch of the Red Cross (1943-1945); as Supervisor of Girls' Work, Extension Division, University of Saskatchewan (1945-1946); as Special Lecturer, in a joint appointment with Extension and the College of Home Economics (1969-1973); part-time at the Regina Campus/University of Regina (1973-1975); and perhaps was best known for her regular column in The Western Producer, for 50 years, beginning in 1949. She was president of the Saskatchewan Home Economics Association and the Canadian Home Economics Association; served as president of the Saskatchewan Women's Institute and Federated Women's Institutes of Canada; was a member of the Saskatchewan Arts Board for 10 years and of the Saskatchewan Milk Control Board for 16 years. She married Langford Oddie in 1946. Emmie Oddie died on July 6, 2013.

Emma Roberts Ducie was born in England in 1883 and emigrated to Canada with her family in 1907. She married Harry Ducie, a farmer and school trustee, in 1909; they had three children, Harold, Rose, and Emmie. Emma Ducie organized the Coates Homemakers' Club and continued to be an active member of the Clubs and Women's Institutes at the local, provincial, and national level. She also served with the Saskatoon Council of Women, the Saskatoon Friendship Club and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. She was also a long-serving member of the advisory council for the College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. She died in 1990.

Grace Davis Pine (née McKinnon) was born on 12 January 1910. She attended the University of Saskatchewan, earning a B.Sc. in 1930 and an ME in 1931. Although she had intended to pursue her medical degree, the Depression cut short those hopes. Grace worked at the Saskatoon Sanitarium laboratory until 1973. She may be best remembered, however, for her work with Save the Children. She founded its Saskatoon chapter in 1967, and served in various capacities at both the regional and national level. In addition, Grace worked for peace organizations, environmental groups, and cultural associations including the Saskatoon Symphony, Mendel Art Gallery, and Western Development Museum. For her tireless and effective work as a volunteer, Grace was awarded the Order of Canada in 1997. She died on 22 June 2002. [Source: Encyclopaedia of Saskatchewan].

Robert Martin Bone's first degree was a BA (1955) in Geography from the University of British Columbia. He earned an MA from the University of Washington (1957), and a PhD from the University of Nebraska (1962). Employed as Geographer with the Geographical Branch of the Government of Canada from 1957 to 1963, Dr. Bone joined the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan's Department of Geography in 1963. He remained in the Department of Geography until 1970 when he became Professor and Director of the Institute of Northern Studies (INS). With the closure of the INS in 1982, Dr. Bone returned to the Department of Geography. In 2000, he became the Acting Head of the Department of Native Studies. Among Dr. Bone's areas of expertise are the Canadian sub-arctic and arctic and the Soviet Union. Dr. Bone was named Professor Emeritus.

Steven Ross Smith (also published as Steven Smith) was born and educated in Toronto, receiving a Diploma (degree equivalent) in 1968 in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University). First published in 1972, he is a writer of innovative fiction and poetry, a sound poet and performance artist, an editor and media writer. In addition to his literary works published in books, anthologies and periodicals, Smith has several improvisatory sound music ensemble recordings to his credit. He has been published and given performances and readings in England, Holland, the United States, and Canada. Smith was a founding member of the sound/performance ensembles "Owen Sound" and "DUCT". In 1987-1988, he was Writer-In-Residence in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and, in 1996-1997, he was Writer-In-Residence with the Saskatoon Public Library. Smith was also the founding editor of Underwhich Editions and has been the Executive Director of the Sage Hill Writing Experience from 1990 to 2008. His book "fluttertongue 3: disarray" won the 2005 Book of the Year award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. He was Director of Literary Arts at The Banff Centre from 2008 to 2014.

Designed by Webster and Gilbert, architects, and built between 1948 and 1955 by Smith Bros. and Wilson, contractors, at a cost of $7,000,000.00, the 6-storey, 7-wing University Hospital was officially opened by Bentley, T.J., Saskatchewan Minister of Health on May 1955.The name was officially changed to Royal University Hospital 23 May 1990.

Douglas and Novia Cole are residents of Saskatoon. Novia Cole is an alumna of the University of Saskatchewan.

Donald Strathearn Rawson was born in Claremont, Ontario on May 19, 1905. He attended the University of Toronto starting in 1922 and had earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. by 1929. Rawson joined the University of Saskatchewan’s Biology Department as Assistant Professor of Zoology in 1928 and became Head of the Department in 1949. Rawson’s field of study was limnology (study of inland aquatic ecosystems) and he made limnological investigations of a number of lakes and other fresh water bodies in Canada, particularly Western Canada, publishing numerous scientific papers. The aim of his research was to provide a scientific basis for improved fisheries management. Rawson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1944; served as president of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography in 1947; was a member of the Royal Commission on Fisheries in Saskatchewan in 1948; was Canadian representative of the International Association of Limnology in 1949; and was a member of the Fisheries Research Board from 1959 to 1961. Rawson died on February 16, 1961.

Marguerita Spencer (nee MacQuarrie) was born 28 December 1892 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. She received her early musical education in Glace Bay and Halifax's Academy of Music, Lady's College. From 1918-1921 Marguerita trained as a nurse at Toronto General Hospital. Shortly after graduation in 1921, she married R.A. Spencer, who had recently been appointed Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. In Saskatoon, Marguerita continued her musical education, locally with Lyell Gustin, and in Montreal at McGill's Department of Music, where she earned a L. Mus. degree. Spencer was extremely active in the Saskatoon music community: playing organ or singing in the choir for a number of churches; performing with the Saskatoon Symphony and on CBC radio; and teaching. She was both a gifted player and a composer of music, with several published songs and suites for voice, string quartets, piano, and cello to her credit.

"It was late in 1979 when Mr. Cliff Haryett of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan suggested to Dr. RC Quittenton, Executive Director of Innovation Place...that an international Potash Technology Conference be held in Saskatoon. They envisioned a conference, together with a Trade Show, to highlight the technology that had been developed by the Saskatchewan Potash Industry and to promote Saskatoon as the world centre for present and future potash technology....By the end of January 1982, the first notice of the International Potash Technology Conference was announced nationally and internationally....the date for the conference was set for October 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 1983." (From James Sadler, "Foreword," Potash Technology.)

"One of the chief prices which Canada paid in the last war for her lack of preparation was the tragic waste of thousands of her best young men killed while fighting in the ranks because they had not been previously trained for a more useful career as officers. It is to prevent such a waste in any possible future war that every Canadian University is now giving facilities to its students to qualify as officers during their undergraduate course. Our own contingent of the C.O.T.C. came to life in January of this year and is already recruited up to a strength of 170." (The Spectrum, 1921) The Canadian Officers' Training Corps was a unit in the Active Militia of Canada. The Corps prepared university students for the examinations for a Lieutenant's or Captain's Commission and the universities granted course credit for COTC work. Senior commissions were held by faculty while all junior commissioned and non-commissioned ranks were open to undergraduates. Interest in the Corps declined in the 1950s and came to an end in 1964.

In 1959, a group calling themselves "University Radio Productions" approached the federal government for a broadcast license to operate a student-run FM station on a non-commercial basis. Licensing requirements demanded that licenses only be issued to the university itself; in 1960 students approached the Board of Governors for approval. Operation of the station, including a constitution, was formalized in 1965 between the University and the Student's Union (USSU), and CJUS-FM was launched. For 10 years prior to the establishment of a CBC-FM station in Saskatoon, CJUS carried CBC network programming; and many of the station's locally-produced programmes were carried nation-wide. Originally operating out of the Memorial Union Building (MUB), in 1980 the station moved to the Education Building. In October 1983, the station became a limited commercial station, and changed its call numbers to CHSK-FM. However, by late 1984 the Board of Governors decided not to continue their funding. Although the USSU briefly considered taking full responsibility for running the station, the last day of programming was 30 September 1985.

Born 1918 in Wooler, Ontario and later in life divided his time between Roblin Lake (Ameliasburgh), Ontario and Sidney, British Columbia. Purdy was a poet, T.V and radio playwright, editor, travel writer and book reviewer. Is considered to be one of Canada’s greatest poets – called by the League of Canadian Poets “The Voice of the Land.” He is often referred to as a “people’s poet” and was immensely popular by fellow writers and the public alike. This popularity was in part due to his working class background and accessible subject matter. Purdy won a number of awards, including two Governor General’s Awards (for The Cariboo Horses in 1965 and The Collected Poems of Al Purdy, 1956-1986 in 1986). Al Purdy died in Sidney, B.C., on April 21, 2000.