Head and shoulders image of Harry Fowler, honourary Doctor of Laws degree recipient; taken possibly near time of presentation.

Bio/Historical Note: Henry Llewellyn (Harry) Fowler was born in 1895 in Prince Edward Island into a family that moved to Alberta while he was in his teens. After an education that led him to the threshold of a career in teaching, Fowler turned instead to banking, from which he departed in 1922 to enter a farm implement and oil agency in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. The depression of the thirties inevitably turned the attention of farmers to reducing costs by cooperative efforts and Harry Fowler, almost equally inevitably, became the manager of an oil distribution co-op at Wilcox. Fowler became linked to the development of the co-operative movement in Saskatchewan. He played a role in organizing the world’s first cooperative oil refinery; it came into production in 1935, and remains the only refinery of any size owned entirely by Canadians. In addition Fowler was active in the organization of fourteen more co-ops, one of the original incorporators of eleven, a director of sixteen, president of eleven, and manager of five. The co-ops that have felt his influence have included several of the largest in the province, and his co-op career culminated in his election as president of Federated Co-operatives Limited, from which post he retired in 1963. Fowler served on the Board of Governors of the University of Saskatchewan from 1963-1964. From 1952-1956 he was a member of the Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life. Harry Fowler died in 1980 in Abbottsford, British Columbia, at age 85.