Unveiling of plaque at Diefenbaker homestead near Borden, Saskatchewan. From l to r: Senator Sid Buckwold; Roy Romanow, MLA for Saskatoon-Riversdale; John Diefenbaker, University Chancellor; Tom Gauley, Board of Governors, and R.W. Begg, University President.

R.W. Begg unveils a plaque in memory of L.H. Hantelman while Mrs. Hantelman looks on.

The first three deans of Medicine seated together (l to r): Dr. R.W. Begg, third dean; Dr. W.S. Lindsay, first dean, 1927-1952, holding a book; and Dr. J. Wendell Macleod, second dean, 1952-1962.

Head and shoulders image of W.P. Thompson, third University President, 1949-1959.

Bio/Historical Note: Walter Palmer Thompson was born 3 April 1889 near Decewsville, Ontario. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA (1910), and from Harvard with an AM (1912) and PhD (1914). Thompson came to the University of Saskatchewan as professor and head of the Biology Department in 1913. He was an important figure at the university for the next fifty years. Thompson served in a variety of administrative positions: dean of Junior Colleges (1934); dean of Arts and Sciences (1938); acting president (1942); director of Summer School (1948); and president of the University (1949). Dr. Thompson retired in 1959 and became President Emeritus. During his academic career Thompson gained international recognition for his work as a geneticist, particularly for the development of rust resistant wheat hybrids. The W.P. Thompson Biology Building, opened in 1960, was named in his honour. Upon his retirement as president Thompson was appointed chairman of the Advisory Committee on Medical Care. The recommendations of this committee were an important foundation for the provincial Medicare system. In 1967 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the first to receive this award. He was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws degree in 1960 by the U of S. Walter Thompson died in Toronto in 1970.

Head and shoulders image of Donald Maclean, fourth University Chancellor from 1946-July 1947, sitting in a chair and wearing academic robes.

Bio/Historical Note: Donald Maclean was born in 1877 at Fourchu, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, and was educated at the Pictou Academy and Dalhousie University. In 1909 MacLean moved to Saskatchewan. In the wartime Saskatchewan general election held 26 June 1917, Maclean was elected to the Saskatoon City seat. William Melville Martin of the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan became premier of the province. From 1918-1921 Maclean was elected leader of the Conservative Party and His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. During his time in office, the School Act was amended to choose English as the language of instruction in Saskatchewan's one room schoolhouses. The next Saskatchewan election was held 9 June 1921. However,i n April 1921, Maclean became a Saskatchewan judge and accepted an appointment to the Justice of the Court of King's Bench. He taught in the faculty of Law at the University of Saskatchewan until 1923. An honourary Doctor of Civil Law degree was bestowed upon him 9 May 1947 by the U of S for services rendered to the public, especially within the University of Saskatchewan. Maclean held a term of office on the U of S Board of Governors from 1932–1946. Maclean was the fourth Chancellor of the U of S and served in this position from 1946 until his death in July 1947.

Head and shoulders image of Emmett M. Hall, Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, and honourary Doctor of Civil Laws degree recipient. Image possibly taken near time of presentation.

Bio/Historical Note: Emmett Matthew Hall was born 29 November 1898 in Saint-Colomban, Quebec. At age 12 in 1910, his family moved to Saskatoon to take over a dairy farm. Hall was in the audience on 29 July 1910, when Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier laid the cornerstone for the University of Saskatchewan. Hall studied law at the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan, putting himself through by teaching French in local schools. One of his classmates was John Diefenbaker, future Prime Minister of Canada. He received his LLB from the U of S in 1919. Hall was called to the bar in 1922 and spent the next 35 years in private practice. He became a leading litigator in the Saskatchewan bar. Hall earned a reputation as a civil libertarian after serving as co-counsel in defending 24 unemployed on-to-Ottawa trekkers who were charged in the 1935 Regina Riot. In 1935 Hall was appointed King’s Counsel. He was elected a bencher of the Law Society of Saskatchewan, becoming president of the Law Society in 1952. He also taught law at the College of Law at the U of S. Appointed by John Diefenbaker in 1961 to chair a royal commission on Canada’s health care system, Hall issued a report in 1964 that went beyond Saskatchewan’s pioneering medicare legislation and recommended wider benefits, such as free prescription drugs for seniors and dental care for school children and people on social assistance. He is considered one of the fathers of the Canadian system of Medicare, along with his fellow Saskatchewanian, Tommy Douglas. Lester Pearson’s government adopted many of Hall’s recommendations and implemented a national health plan in 1968 that was cost-shared with provinces. Named to the Supreme Court in 1962, Hall’s lasting judicial legacy is in the area of Aboriginal law. Particularly noteworthy is his strong dissent in R v Calder, regarding Nisga’a title to territory. His view that Aboriginal title existed through centuries of occupation and could be extinguished only through surrender or by competent legislative authority is credited with influencing modern land claims settlements across Canada. Hall was awarded an honourary Doctor of Civil Laws degree by the U of S in 1962. Hall served as chancellor of two different universities: the University of Guelph (1971-1977) and the University of Saskatchewan (1979-1986). By a quirk of fate, he followed two former leaders of the federal Progressive Conservative party in the two positions. His predecessor as chancellor of Guelph was George Drew, who led the party from 1948 to 1956. At Saskatchewan, Hall succeeded his old law school chum, John Diefenbaker, who died in 1979. On his retirement from the Supreme Court in 1974, Hall was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, "for a lifetime of service to the law and for his contributions to the improvement of health services and education." Emmett Hall died 12 November 1995 in Saskatoon at age 96.

E.M. (Ted) Culliton, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Albert W. Trueman during Convocation at Regina Campus.

Bio/Historical Note: Albert William Trueman was born in 1892 in Pennsylvania, where his New Brunswick-born father John Main Trueman taught college in Storrs, Connecticut, between 1907-1913. The family lived in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia after 1913, where his father taught at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. Trueman attended high school in Truro, Nova Scotia and graduated from Mount Allison University in 1927. He finished his MA in English Literature at Exeter College, Oxford University in 1932. Truman taught high school teacher, and then became school superintendent in Saint John, New Brunswick. He later worked a university administrator, serving as President of the University of Manitoba between 1945-1948, and President of the University of New Brunswick from 1948-1953. He was principal and dean of University College at the University of Western Ontario from 1965-1967. He was chancellor of the University of Western Ontario from 1967-1971. He returned to academic life and had an extended term as visiting professor of English at Carleton University in Ottawa from 1967-1981. Truman acted as Government Film Commissioner and Chairman of the National Film Board of Canada from 1953-1957, and then as the first Director of the newly created Canada Council for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, serving from 1957 to 1965. In these positions, he made contributions to Canadian cultural policies, primarily by promoting the roles and influence of both agencies. He also served on the Board of Governors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Truman was given many honourary degrees. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1964, and was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1974. Trueman wrote and edited several books, including A Second View of Things: A Memoir in 1982. Trueman died in 1988 in Toronto.

Roland Michener, Governor General of Canada, placing the medal around W.P. Thompson's neck; unidentified people in background.

Bio/Historical Note: W.P. Thompson was the third president of the University of Saskatchewan (1949–1959).

W.P. Thompson, out-going University President (1949-1959), looking at his wife, Marjorie Gordon Thompson; both wearing leis around their necks at their retirement celebrations.

W.P. Thompson, head, Biology and third University President, cutting a ribbon during the official opening of the [W.P. Thompson] Biology Building. Stairway of a biology lecture hall in background.

Bio/Historical Note: The W.P. Thompson Biology Building is named after Walter Palmer Thompson, the University of Saskatchewan's third president and founder of the Biology Department (1913). Designed by Izumi, Arnott and Sugiyama, it was constructed between 1957 and 1959 and officially opened in 1960. Set back from the Bowl, the flat-roofed cube style building was located between the Collegiate Gothic architecture of the Chemistry and Physics Buildings. It originally consisted of a teaching wing and a research wing but a header and greenhouse complex was added in 1962. Unlike many other Canadian universities the Department of Biology remained a single unit, balancing diverse sub-disciplines rather than separating into several distinct departments. Prior to the building's opening in 1960, work in biological sciences was scattered among four campus locations. Perhaps the most striking of the building’s features is the mural of mosaic tiles that adorns the south and west exterior walls. The mural depicts the four main stages of cellular mitosis. The artist, Roy Kiyooka, chose chromosome patterns as a testament to Dr. Thompson's important discoveries regarding the genetics of wheat rust. In 1986, the Geology Building was completed on the south side of Biology, resulting in the transformation of the south façade from an exterior into an interior wall, part of a new atrium.