Image of Dr. Robert B. McKercher, Assistant Professor, Department of Soil Science, reading a book by a window.

Head and shoulders image of G.A. McMurray, Head, Department of Psychology, University Hospital, 1950-1970.

Bio/Historical Note: Gordon McMurray (1913-2003) was born in Lennoxville, Quebec. He initially studied at Bishop's University from which he obtained a BSc in 1933 followed by an MSc in 1935. He then taught for several years in Quebec before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. After the war he returned to academic studies and obtained a PhD from McGill University in 1949. He then joined the faculty at the University of Saskatchewan where he remained until his retirement. He was Head of the Department of Psychology from 1950-1970. McMurray was active in the Canadian Psychological Association being elected president in 1963 and elected a Fellow five years later. He died in Quebec in 2003.

Indoor studio image of Joanne McTaggart, third-year Physical Education student and Huskie track and field sprinter, dressed in track uniform.

Bio/Historical Note: Joanne McTaggart, indisputably one of Canada’s premier runners of the 1970s, was born in Regina in 1954. She moved to Saskatoon for Grade XI and graduated from Walter Murray Collegiate, where she once won five events at the school meet. McTaggart also started to compete on behalf of the Saskatoon Track and Field Club. She was named to Canada’s national track team in 1972 while in Grade XI. She qualified for the relay team at the 1972 Munich Olympics but Canada didn't send a team. McTaggart enrolled at University of Saskatchewan (B.Ed. 1977) in 1974. In her rookie year with the Huskies, she won conference championships in the 40 yards and 300 metres. That same year she was Western Canadian Junior Champion in the 50 and 200 metres and the Canadian senior indoor 200 champion. McTaggart won 10 conference titles in her four years with the Huskies, highlighted by a world record performance of 38.2 seconds in the 300 metres at the 1975 indoor CWUAA (CIS) meet in Edmonton, Alberta. McTaggart qualified for the Canadian team at the 1975 Pan-American Games, won a bronze medal in the 4x100-metre relay and half an hour later, was invited to run the 4x400-metre relay where Canada held off the Americans and the Cubans to win the gold medal. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Joanne competed in the 200 metres and finished fourth in the 4X100-metre relay. McTaggart was inducted into the University of Saskatchewan Athletic Wall of Fame in 1984; the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame in 1994, and the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1996.

Lorne Hepworth, Saskatchewan Minister of Advanced Education and Manpower, cuts the ribbon marking the official opening of the new Immuno-Virology Research Unit. Assisting are (l to r): Dr. Ian M. McDonald, Dean of Medicine; Cliff Wright, Mayor of Saskatoon; George McLeod, Saskatchewan Minister of Health; and Dr. Leo F. Kristjanson, University President.

Looking northwest at the Saskatchewan Cancer and Medical Research Institute; road and trees in foreground.

Bio/Historical Note: The Saskatchewan Cancer and Medical Research Institute was officially opened on 10 May 1958 by Premier T.C. Douglas. Clad in locally quarried greystone with limestone panels, it was the.last of the buildings that constituted the University’s Medical Complex’s initial phase. Designed by Izumi, Arnott and Sugiyama and completed at a cost of $783,000, the building’s purpose was to provide shared accommodation for both general medical research and cancer specific investigations. Funding came from the federal and provincial governments and the provincial and national branches of the Canadian Cancer Society. A planned third floor was added in 1966. The building was "deconstructed" in 2009, with much of the building's material recycled including the greystone cladding for use with the E Wing that opened in 2013.

View of most westerly Memorial Gate, with trees and road in foreground.

View of Memorial Tablet and west gate of Memorial Gates with trees in background.

Progress shot looking north of construction to re-route the road into Royal University Hospital. Ellis Hall and new addition of hospital in background.

Image of stonework lettering reads: 'Memorial Union Building (MUB) on the front of the building. Front door steps at left.

Head and shoulders image of Fred Mendel, Saskatoon industrialist, art collector, and University benefactor, at the time of presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Saskatchewan.

Bio/Historical Note: Frederick S. Mendel, a Saskatchewan-based meat packer who actively built markets for Saskatchewan’s livestock as meat products, was born on 18 December 1888 in Recklinghausen, in the Ruhr Valley of Germany. He expanded his father’s meat-wholesaling business into a meat-packing empire with branches in Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Bulgaria. Mendel and his family were forced to leave Germany when the Nazis began their persecution of Jews in the 1930s. He came to Saskatoon and acquired a building in 1940, where he launched Intercontinental Packers; he also built a packing enterprise in Australia, hence the name ‘Intercontinental’. Initially Mendel’s company specialized in canned hams for the United States market (called him “The Ham Man”), but a trade embargo ended that business, and for the next five years the firm focused on providing bacon for Britain - one of Canada’s contributions to the war effort. Saskatchewan farmers entered the hog business, and the Mendel plant prepared hogs for transport to Britain. After the war Mendel built plants in Regina, Red Deer, and Vancouver to compete for the Canadian market. He was a major contributor to his community and province, providing assistance for University of Saskatchewan Extension projects for Saskatchewan farmers and prizes for their livestock exhibits at fairs and exhibitions. Mendel was an avid collector of art and made a major financial contribution for the creation of the gallery that bore his name, the Mendel Art Gallery of Saskatoon. In 1965, in recognition of his contributions to the province, Mendel received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1971 he received the Canadian Industrial Development Award, given to the citizen who made the most significant contribution to Canada’s industrial development; he was the only Saskatchewan resident and the only meat packer to receive the award. In 1974 he was installed into the Order of Canada. Mendel died in 1976 at the age of 87, still active in his last year as chairman of the board of Intercontinental Packers. At the time of his death in 1976, Intercontinental Packers was one of Canada’s “big five” meat packers. In 1990 Fred Mendel was posthumously inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame. He is buried in Cathedral City, California.

Image of William R. Motherwell, seated at his desk.

Bio/Historical Note: William Richard Motherwell was born in 1880 in Perth, Canada West, He attended the Ontario Agricultural College, graduating in 1881; then worked that summer in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. The following year he spring he returned to the prairies joining settlers in who traveled by rail to Brandon, Manitoba, then by red river cart and wagon beyond to the area of Abernethy, Saskatchewan, where he settled and constructed the Motherwell Homestead. In 1901 he co-founded and became president of the Territorial Grain Growers' Association. Motherwell served in the provincial legislator from 1905-1918, and as Saskatchewan Minister of Agriculture from 1906-1917. His resignation from the provincial legislature was in protest over the provincial Liberal Party's support for conscription and reduction in French language rights. He first ran as the Liberal candidate for the House of Commons for the Saskatchewan riding of Assiniboia in a 1919 by-election. Although defeated, Motherwell was elected in the riding of Regina in the 1921 federal election. He was re-elected in 1925, 1926, 1930, and 1935 for the riding of Melville. From 1921 to 1930, Motherwell was the Minister of Agriculture, except for a short period in 1926. Motherwell died in Regina in 1943, and is buried at the Abernethy Community Cemetery, near his homestead.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. Eric B. Moysey, professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering, and Fellow, Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineering.

Bio/Historical Note: Born 12 July 1925 in Eston, Saskatchewan, Eric Bangor Moysey was raised on the family farm and received his early education in one-room schools. University studies took him to Saskatoon, graduating from engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in 1948. Dr. Moysey then pursued graduate studies at Iowa State in Ames. In 1950 he accepted a teaching position in the College of Engineering at the U of S. Dr. Moysey will be remembered professionally not only for his teaching but for his research, particularly in the areas of farm building standards, porous windbreaks and bulk storage of oilseed crops. In 2005 he moved to Winnipeg to be closer to family. Dr. Moysey died 12 March 2016.

Image of M. Ruth Murray, Head Reference Librarian, University Library, seated at her desk.

Bio/Historical Note: Margaret Ruth Murray was born on 17 October 1909 in Westville, Nova Scotia and in 1917 moved with her family to Saskatchewan. Ruth attended Caswell Hill School and Bedford Road Collegiate and graduated from the Saskatoon Normal School and taught for one and a half years. Ruth received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan in 1933. She worked in various departments in the University, until beginning her career with the Library in 1935. Murray took a years' leave in 1943 to obtain her BLS from the University of Toronto. She retired in 1977. Murray died in Saskatoon in 2006 at age 97.

Series of 6 negatives (A through F) showing the interior of the Murray Library:

Photo A: Student studying in the stacks.
Photo B: Card catalogue area.
Photo C: Students looking at books on display.
Photo D: Circulation desk.
Photo E: Serials area.
Photo F: Reference room.

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 Dr. Eric M. Nanson, Professor and Head, Department of Surgery, University Hospital, 1954-1969.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Eric Musard Nanson was born 4 January 1915 in Geraldine, South Canterbury, New Zealand, and took his early education in Christchurch. He was awarded the University National Scholarship of New Zealand in 1934 and in that year went to Canterbury University College before proceeding to Otago University in Dunedin the following year for medical studies. In 1937 he was awarded the senior university scholarship of New Zealand and he qualified in 1939. Dr. Nanson’s early appointment was as house surgeon at Christchurch Hospital from 1939-1941. During part of this time he also served as demonstrator in anatomy in the University of Otago. Dr. Nanson then joined the New Zealand Medical Corps as a captain from 1941-1945, serving with the second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy as Officer Commanding an ambulance train and medical officer in both a field ambulance and a base hospital. After demobilisation in 1945 he was initially surgical registrar at Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, and later surgeon superintendent at Buller Hospital, Westport before deciding to come to England. Within a few months of arriving he had passed the FRCS and was surgical registrar at St. James' Hospital, Balham, and later assistant in the surgical professorial unit at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Dr. Nanson spent a year as senior surgical registrar at St Peter's Hospital, Henrietta Street, before going to work as Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in the department of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, for nine months. He returned to England in 1951 and worked in Bristol as lecturer in surgery at the university for just over a year before being invited to return to Johns Hopkins as Associate Professor of Surgery. Dr. Nanson was elected Hunterian Professor on two occasions. In 1954 he was appointed as the Foundation Professor of Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan and served as consultant surgeon to City Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital and Saskatoon Sanatorium. He remained in this post for fifteen years and played an important role in the development of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Dr. Nanson also pursued a policy of continuing medical education and postgraduate education which enabled Saskatchewan to rely on its own graduates rather than immigrant doctors from other provinces and countries. Dr. Nanson was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 1954 and of the American College of Surgeons in 1956. In 1970 he was appointed Foundation Professor of Surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Auckland and held this post for ten years. His enthusiasm persisted and in addition to introducing the concept of a trainee internship to the department of surgery, he was co-author of the Handbook for Clinical Students which is a constant companion to undergraduate medical students. Dr. Nanson continued to perform administrative duties in addition to his clinical and teaching commitments. He carried out a prodigious amount of research work throughout his life which was published in over 100 papers in Canadian, British, American and New Zealand journals. These covered a wide range of subjects and reflected his extensive knowledge and experience in surgery. After retiring in 1979 from the Chair of Surgery at Auckland, he was awarded the Ordinary Officers of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) award. His interest in academic work was such that after retiring from clinical work he taught anatomy at the Auckland Medical School. His enthusiasm for clinical work persisted and he continued to attend surgical meetings until shortly before his death. Dr. Nanson died 27 September 1988 in Auckland.