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.

W.P. Thompson, University President, cutting the ribbon to open the College of Law with F.C. Cronkite, Dean of Law, looking on, unidentified spectators in background.

Unidentified speaker at microphone on a stage with dignitaries seated at left. Cornerstone on a trolley at right.

Bio/Historical Note: Though the first recorded withdrawal from the University Library occurred in October 1909, nearly five decades passed before the Library had its own building. The early collection was housed either on the second floor of the College Building (later known as the Administration Building) or was scattered among a number of small departmental libraries. Plans for a new library building in the late 1920s were ended by the start of the Great Depression; but a dramatically reduced acquisitions budget was offset by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation in 1933. In 1943 the University hired its first professional Librarian. A combination of provincial grants and University fundraising financed the construction of the Murray Memorial Library. The library was named after the University’s first President, Walter C. Murray. Designed by noted Regina architect Kioshi Izumi working under H.K. Black, Architect, it marked a change in campus architecture away from the more angular and elaborate Collegiate Gothic style to that of the less expensive cube. Building materials included granite at the entrance and Tyndall stone as a wall cladding and window trim. In addition to the library, the building housed the College of Law, an office of the Provincial Archives and a 105-seat lecture theatre equipped with the latest in audiovisual teaching aids. The most dramatic transformation took place between 1970 and 1976 when a six floor south wing was added along with an extensive renovation of the 1956 structure. Designed by BLM, Regina, the south wing was unlike any other building on campus. Clad in Tyndall stone panels made to look like concrete (through a "bush hammered" finish), the grey almost windowless building is industrial and utilitarian in appearance. The University's master plan required buildings in the core of campus to be clad in stone. However, the "bush hammered" finish was used since the Library addition was built during a period that saw the flowering of "Brutalist" Architecture, so called because of the wide use of exposed concrete. The new (south) wing, originally called the Main Library, was officially opened on 17 May 1974, and also became the home of the Department of Art and Art History, the College of Graduate Studies and the University Archives.

Head and shoulders image of J.H. Thompson,

Bio/Historical Note: Born in Nottingham, England, Joseph H. Thompson received his early education in Saskatoon. Enlisting for service in the Great War, he joined the RAF overseas. Badly injured in a crash he lost the sight of one eye and the other was seriously impaired. He later became an accountant with his own practice in Saskatoon until 1938 when he became an accounting instructor at the university. Thompson became dean of the School of Accounting in May 1940. He continued as dean of the newly named College of Commerce from 1944-1951.Thompson’s command came to an end 21 March 1947 having served with the COTC since 1921 (with the exception of Active Service in Regina from 1939 to 1940). In addition to being Dean of Commerce he was chairman of the Board of Governors of Emmanuel College. He had retained his military affiliations as aide-de-camp to lieutenant governors J. M. Ulrich and William J. Patterson and was also the Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the COTC. Thompson died very suddenly on 9 March 1952 at 55 years of age.

Head and shoulders image of Levi Thomson, member, first Board of Governors of the University of Saskatchewan.

Bio/Historical Note: Levi Thomson, KC (1855-1938) was born in Erin Township, Canada West, He began the study of law in Toronto but then moved west in 1882, settling on a farm in Wolseley, Saskatchewan. Thomson completed his legal studies in Regina in 1894 and practised law in Wolseley. He served as crown prosecutor from 1897 to 1904, resigning to run unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Commons. Thomson was an unsuccessful candidate for a seat in the Saskatchewan assembly in 1905. In 1913, he was named King's Counsel. He served on the council for Wolseley from 1889 to 1903 and was mayor in 1904. Thomson also served on the first Board of Governors for the University of Saskatchewan. He died in Wolseley at the age of 83.

Image of J.S. Thomson dressed in an academic gown, standing on a street; uildings and cars in background.

Bio/Historical Note: James Sutherland Thomson was born in Stirling, Scotland. He was educated in philosophy at the University of Glasgow, studied theology at Trinity College, Glasgow, and was ordained in 1920. Thomson came to Canada in 1930 as a professor of systematic theology and philosophy of religion at Pine Hill Divinity Hall, a United Church theological college in Halifax. He was appointed as the second President of the University of Saskatchewan in 1937. Thomson served until 1949, taking a leave of absence in 1942-1943 to become general manager of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (described by Acting President W.P. Thompson as Thomson's "call-up for war service"). In 1949 Thomson became McGill University's first Dean of the Faculty of Divinity and Professor of Religious Studies. He was moderator of the United Church of Canada from 1956 to 1958. Thomson retired as Dean in 1957, and died in Montreal in 1972 at the age of 80.