Robert (Robin) Cecil Romer Maugham was born on May 17, 1916 in London, England to Viscount Frederic Herbert, a judge and Lord Chancellor of England, and Helen Mary Maugham (nee Romer). Originally trained in law at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Maugham gave up his career as a barrister after he was wounded while serving in the Western Desert campaign during World War Two. While recovering from his wounds, he wrote his first book, "Come to Dust," and decided to become a writer full-time. He was the author of novels, plays, film scripts and non-fiction books, including two books of reminiscences about his uncle, Somerset Maugham. Much of Maugham's work is related to themes of homosexuality. A new novel, "The Deserters", was in press at the time of his death. Maugham died on March 13, 1981 in Brighton, England after a long illness.

Dr. Helen Evans Reid, former Head of the Medical Publications Department of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, is the author of All Silent, All Damned : The Search for Issac Barr (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969). Reid spent six years and travelled to various countries to carry out her research on Isaac Montgomery Barr. Barr, an Anglican Minister, organized a colony of middle class British immigrants to settle in the Lloydminster area.

Pitirim A. Sorokin was born in 1889 in Komi (province in Northern Russia) into a peasant family. During his early childhood he traveled with his father and two brothers earning their living by remodeling and painting rural churches. His strong interest in education, combined with a natural talent and work ethic, soon transformed him into a leading Russian social scientist and famous politician who was at the center of the Russian Revolution in 1917. In 1923, after his banishment by the Bolsheviks, Pitirim Sorokin started a new life in the United States. In less than 10 years the Russian émigré became a world-renowned sociologist and the founder of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. Over 30 major books were published over a period of 50 years of active intellectual life. His ideas attracted the attention of Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer, Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy, political activists and yoga followers, military and peace proponents. At the time of his death in 1968 Pitirim Sorokin was one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century. (Biographical sketch provided by Pavel Krotov.)

Douglas Wilson was born in 1950 in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. He received his Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan, with majors in Art and History. He taught public school in Makwa, Saskatchewan, in 1969-1970 and 1973-1974. He did post-graduate work in Educational Foundations at the University of Saskatchewan between 1974 and 1976. During this period, he worked as a sessional lecturer and supervisor of practice teaching for the College of Education.

While living in Saskatoon during the early 1970s, Wilson was actively and visibly involved in the gay liberation movement. He was instrumental in the organization and administration of groups such as the Zodiac Friendship Society (later the Gay Community Centre of Saskatoon) and the Saskatchewan Gay Coalition. The latter organization fought for the human rights of homosexuals in the province, and in the late 1970s, Wilson was the group's leading activist.

On September 22, 1975, Dean J. Kirkpatrick of the College of Education suspended Wilson's work as a supervisor of practice teaching in public schools, on the grounds of Wilson's open admission of his homosexuality and his public involvement in the gay liberation movement. A Committee to Defend Doug Wilson was formed to fight the university's action, and Wilson placed a formal complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. The inquiry was never held, as the Court of Queen's Bench ruled that sexuality was not covered by The Fair Employment Practices Act.

In 1978, Wilson became the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Association on Human Rights, a position which he held until 1983. In 1983, he and his partner Peter McGehee moved to Toronto, Ontario where he worked for the Toronto Board of Education's Race Relations office. Wilson became the first openly gay candidate to run in a federal election, when he ran unsuccessfully as the NDP candidate for Rosedale in the 1988 election.

Wilson died in Toronto in 1992.

Peter Gregory McGehee was born on October 6, 1955 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to Frank and Julia Ann May McGehee. He attended elementary and high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, then attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas where he worked toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In 1976, McGehee quit the program without completing the degree to move to San Francisco, California.

In San Francisco, McGehee wrote and acted in several plays. He also joined the satirical musical revue The Quinlan Sisters with Fiji Robinson and Wendy Coad and met Douglas Wilson. In 1980, Wilson immigrated to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to live with his partner Doug Wilson. McGehee and Wilson moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1982. McGehee was deported from Canada in 1984 and lived in New York City, New York until 1986.

Upon his return to Toronto in 1986, McGehee and Robinson co-wrote the songs for and performed together in The Fabulous Sirs. McGehee also developed a one-man show, later published as a novella "Beyond Happiness", which was edited by Wilson. McGehee's other publications included "Boys Like Us" (1991), a short story collection entitled The I.Q. Zoo (1991), and Sweetheart (published post-mortem, 1992).

McGehee died in 1991.

Kaare Martin Gunvaldsen was born on July 17, 1908 in Koparvik, Norway. After arriving in Canada in 1928, he attended the University of Saskatchewan (B.A. Honours, 1935). He went on to earn a M.A. (1938) and a PhD. (1948) from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Gunvaldsen joined the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan in 1947, serving the institution for over forty years as Professor, Head of the Department of Germanic Languages and finally as Professor Emeritus. In addition to his teaching, he spent much of that time researching and writing about the Czech born German language writer of visionary fiction, Franz Kafka. Gunvaldsen died in 1986 with his Kafka manuscript unfinished and unpublished. He had been convinced that he had made a breakthrough in Kafka interpretation based on his research at Oxford's Bodleian Library.

Helen Emmeline Shirriff was born 10 January 1898 in Brandon, Manitoba. She married Robert Alexander in 1919; together they farmed at Portreeve, Saskatchewan, until Robert's death in 1955. Helen remained actively involved in the management of the farm until her death. In addition, Helen was a schoolteacher. Her long career in education began in 1916, and took her to various locations throughout the north and west, including Athabaska Landing (1918), Whitehorse (1956), and the Glidden Hutterite Colony (1967). She died in Saskatoon on 6 April 1992.

Robert Mervyn (Gusty) Ferguson was born on the 15 June 1898 in Derrygonelly, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, he was awarded gold medals in Greek, Latin, Roman History and Classics, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1921. The following year he joined the U of S faculty, department of classics, as an associate professor. Progressing through the ranks he became professor in 1948 and was department head from 1965 to 1967. Upon his retirement in 1967 he was named professor emeritus. Professor Ferguson was involved in a number of campus and community activities and associations. He joined the COTC in 1927, becoming chief instructor on a full-time basis in 1940. Later that year he enlisted in the Canadian Army and served until 1945. He was chairman of the Saskatoon Library Board, president of the Boy Scouts Organization of Saskatchewan and a member of the Saskatoon Club and the Saskatoon Golf and Country Club. Professor Ferguson died in Saskatoon on 6 August 1992.

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.

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.

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