Head and shoulders image of Emmett M. Hall, graduate of Law in 1919.

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.

Head and shoulders image of Professor Myrtle E. Crawford, Assistant Dean of Nursing.

Bio/Historical Note: Myrtle Evangeline Crawford was born on 20 September 1923 in Saskatoon. She received her elementary and secondary education in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Crawford completed her BSc in Nursing in 1946 at the University of Saskatchewan, having taken the clinical portion of her education at the Grey Nuns Hospital in Regina. In 1953 she earned an MA from Columbia University in New York. Crawford was appointed lecturer and director of Clinical Education in 1961. She was promoted to assistant and associate professor, becoming full professor in 1975. Crawford served as assistant dean of Nursing from 1974-1980. She was influencial in the establishment of the Master of Nursing program. Crawford was a respected leader of Canadian nursing whose unselfish devotion to her chosen profession and her community benefited thousands of nurses and other health-care workers. A practitioner, teacher, historian, researcher and author, Crawford’s foresight and willingness to challenge tradition was counterbalanced by a steadfast determination to preserve what she deemed valuable. She shared her knowledge of nursing and her expertise in moral, ethical, legal and political issues by lecturing at conferences all over the world. Crawford not only fulfilled obligations to her colleagues and students at the University of Saskatchewan but also served on provincial and national nursing associations. Her contribution to nursing spans international, national and provincial boundaries. From 1963 to 1965, she was president of the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association, and she held the presidency of the Canadian Nurses Foundation from 1984 to 1988. Myrtle Crawford died on 22 July 1989 in Saskatoon at age 65.

Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Lily M. Turnbull at spring Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Bio/Historical Note: Lily Mary Turnbull was born in 1915 at Wolseley, Saskatchewan, and took her public and high schooling at Wolf Creek, Moffat and Wolseley schools. She graduated as a nurse from the Regina General Hospital School of Nursing in 1941. Subsequently she studied at McGill University, De Lee Clinics at the University of Chicago, the University of Toronto, and Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health where she received a master’s degree in public health administration. She received a Kellogg Teaching Fellowship for study at the University of Toronto and a World Health Organization Fellowship for study at Johns Hopkins. As well as working at the Regina General Hospital and Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, she served as a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, seeing duty in Canada, England and Northern Europe. For 24 years Turnbull was associated with the World Health Organization. She spent 17 years in its Western Pacific Region, five of those years as Team Leader of a field project in Malaysia and 12 years in the Regional Office as Nursing Advisor for an area consisting of over 20 countries and territories. During these years Turnbull assisted with the development of nursing education and nursing service programs. She worked with local folk and with governments, assisting them in identifying and achieving health care goals. Turnbull moved to Geneva in 1969 and took on the position of Chief Nursing Officer for the World Health Organization. Here she coordinated the six regional offices and acted as nursing representative on a host of organizations. Turnbull received honours from professional and community bodies, including the National League of Nurses of the Philippines, the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association, the International Council of Nurses, the YWCA, and was awarded the Centennial Medal in 1967 "in recognition of valuable service to the nation". After retiring from WHO, Turnbull was involved with volunteer work in several organizations, including her church, Home Care, Meals on Wheels and Palliative Home Care. Turnbull received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1988. Turnbull died in 1991 in Saskatoon.

E.M. (Ted) Culliton, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Dr. David M. Baltzan at Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium. Norman K. Cram, University Secretary, awaits to hood recipient.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. David Mortimer Baltzan was born on 10 May 1897 in Bessarabia, a province of Tsarist Russia, now Moldova, and came to Canada with his parents in 1905. His father started up the Saskatchewan Hide and Fur Company in Saskatoon. Dr. Baltzan excelled at school, and was the first in his family to become a doctor. He graduated from McGill University in 1920, completed his practical experience in New York, and then studied internal medicine in Edinburgh, London, Vienna and, finally, at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Dr. Baltzan eventually chose Saskatoon as the site for his ground-breaking practice, fired by the need for modern innovations in internal medicine. Against all advice Dr. Baltzan eschewed surgery, which was making others rich, to invest in a portable electrocardiograph (ECG) and an X-ray machine for his office. In spite of predictions that he could not succeed, he created the Baltzan Associate Medical Clinic, enticed his three sons and a daughter-in-law to join him, and stayed active for fifty years. Among other contributions, he was a member of the Hall Commission, which created the blueprint for public health care in Canada. Dr. Baltzan was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Saskatchewan in 1969. He died in Saskatoon on 15 June 1983.
The sons of David Baltzan were Marcel Alter (Marc) Baltzan (1929-2005), Donald Myer Baltzan (1933-1988) and Richard (Dick) Baltzan (born 1935). Dr. Betty Lou Baltzan, Marc’s then-wife, was part of the medical team that performed Canada’s second kidney transplant at University Hospital in Saskatoon in 1964.
Baltzan Bay, Boulevard, Cove, Crescent, Place and Terrace in the Evergreen neighborhood are named in the family’s honour (2020).

Emmett M. Hall, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Isabel G. Auld at Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Isabel G. Auld was born in 1916 in Winnipeg. She was educated at Regina Central Collegiate, the University of Saskatchewan on scholarships at undergraduate and graduate levels, and McGill University on a National Research Council award. The war cut short her doctoral research. In 1941 Dr. Auld joined the Federal Department of Agriculture’s Rust Research Laboratory at the University of Manitoba, and worked in cytogenetic research. Dr. Auld’s lifelong career of voluntarism began during wartime with the Canadian Red Cross, as a blood tester at donor clinics. After marriage to Walter Murray Auld (1916-2015), while raising three children, she became involved in the consumer movement through the University Women’s Club. Dr. Auld’s focus in the mid-1960s was advocacy for consumer credit law reform. This broadened to family and social services, post-secondary education, health care, and medical research. Dr. Auld led or was a director of many community boards, including the Consumers Association of Canada (Manitoba Chair), Family Services of Winnipeg, Westminster United Church (Chair), Middlechurch Home (Chair), Klinic, Mount Carmel Clinic, and the Women’s Canadian Club of Winnipeg (Chair). In 1968 Dr. Auld was appointed a citizen representative on the Board of Governors of the University of Manitoba. She served 14 years, including four years as the Board’s representative to the University’s Senate. In 1977 Auld was installed as ninth Chancellor of the University of Manitoba, the first woman elected to this office and second female university chancellor in Canada. She served nine years (re-elected 1980 and 1983) on a full-time basis, concurrently serving on the boards of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre (Chair, 1988-89), Social Planning Council of Winnipeg and Canada World Youth. Honours included investiture as a Member of the Order of Canada, and honourary degrees from the universities of Saskatchewan (1979) and Manitoba. Auld died in Winnipeg in 2016.

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 the presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Dr. J. Wendell Macleod at Convocation held in Physical Education gymnasium.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. John Wendell Macleod was born in 1905 in Kingsbury, Ontario, and spent his formative years there. In 1929 Macleod graduated from McGill, winning the Holmes gold medal, the first of many awards. After specialty training in gastroenterology, he practised in Montreal. During World War II Macleod served as an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy in Halifax. From 1945 to 1952 he practised internal medicine in Winnipeg. But change was imminent, in both his career and his profession. During the post-war years, a new perspective on patient care was emerging, one that emphasized social and cultural factors. To Macleod and others, these changes necessitated a major revision in medical education. Popularly known as Saskatchewan's Red Dean because of his progressive views and strong support of Canada's first medicare plan, Macleod was a charismatic pioneer in social medicine and medical education. He was an ardent believer in the social principles of health care. Macleod’s early awareness of the economic chasm that separated rich from poor provided the focal point of his career as first dean of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan - he taught that understanding the social, economic, and political world in which people lived was critical to good medical education and practice and made it the core of the curriculum. MacLeod was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1980. He died in North Hero, Vermont, on 10 June 2001, at age 96.

Dr. J. Wendell Macleod, honourary Doctor of Laws degree recipient, speaks during Convocation held in Physical Education gymnasium. Dignitaries on dais in background.

Bio/Historical Note: John Wendell Macleod was born in 1905 in Kingsbury, Ontario, and spent his formative years there. In 1929 Macleod graduated from McGill, winning the Holmes gold medal, the first of many awards. After specialty training in gastroenterology, he practised in Montreal. During World War II Macleod served as an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy in Halifax. From 1945 to 1952 he practised internal medicine in Winnipeg. But change was imminent, in both his career and his profession. During the post-war years, a new perspective on patient care was emerging, one that emphasized social and cultural factors. To Dr. Macleod and others, these changes necessitated a major revision in medical education. Popularly known as Saskatchewan's Red Dean because of his progressive views and strong support of Canada's first medicare plan, Dr. Macleod was a charismatic pioneer in social medicine and medical education. He was an ardent believer in the social principles of health care. Macleod’s early awareness of the economic chasm that separated rich from poor provided the focal point of his career as first dean of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan - he taught that understanding the social, economic, and political world in which people lived was critical to good medical education and practice and made it the core of the curriculum. Dr. Macleod was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1980. Macleod died in North Hero, Vermont, on 10 June 2001, at age 96.

From back of photo: "First convocation at U of S Regina Campus. Lester B. Pearson delivering address to Convocation after receiving honourary degree". Pearson was Prime Minister of Canada at the time of presentation.

Bio/Historical Note: Lester Bowles (Mike) Pearson was a Canadian scholar, statesman, soldier, prime minister and diplomat who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis. Pearson was born in 1897 in Newtonbrook in the township of York, Ontario. He was the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968, as the head of two back-to-back Liberal minority governments following elections in 1963 and 1965. During Pearson's time as prime minister, his Liberal minority governments introduced universal health care, the Canada Student Loan Program, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the Maple Leaf flag. His Liberal government also unified Canada's armed forces. Pearson convened the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and he kept Canada out of the Vietnam War. In 1967 his government passed Bill C-168, which de facto abolished capital punishment in Canada by restricting it to a few capital offences for which it was never used, and which themselves were abolished in 1976. With these accomplishments, together with his groundbreaking work at the United Nations and in international diplomacy, which included his role in ending the Suez Crisis, Pearson is generally considered among the most influential Canadians of the 20th century and is ranked among the greatest Canadian prime ministers. Pearson died in Ottawa in 1972.