Head and shoulders image of Peter Scherk, Department of Mathematics, 1943-1959.

Bio/Historical Note: Peter Scherk was born 2 September 1910 in Berlin, Germany. He attended the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin, earning his Ph.D. in Göttingen (1935). Due to Nazi expulsion of Jews from Germany, he moved to Prague where he worked as a tutor and was an honourary visiting fellow at the German University in Prague. In 1939 Scherk moved to New York; he became an honorary research fellow at Yale in 1940, and a teaching assistant at Indiana University from 1941-1943. These first few years in North America provided irregular and low paying opportunities for Scherk. This ended in 1943 when he was offered employment as an instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. Scherk was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1952 and promoted to professor in 1955. He was with the department from 1943-1959, during which time he was visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania for one year. After his stay here, he moved to the University of Toronto as a professor from 1959-1976, after which he retired. He continued however to teach part-time for several more years. Scherk's main research was on differential geometry, but he also researched algebra and number theory. He published over sixty research papers, and supervised the doctoral theses of four students. He put even greater effort into his research after retirement and was in the midst of three papers when he died. Scherk had a considerable impact on the research level in Canada. He was editor-in-chief of Canada's first mathematical research journal (Canadian Journal of Mathematics) and established a second journal (Canadian Mathematical Bulletin) which he was also editor. Scherk died on 6 June 1985.

Head and shoulders image of Mabel Timlin, Department of Economics, 1935-1959.

Bio/Historical Note: Mabel F. Timlin was born in Forest Junction, Wisconsin, on 6 December 1891. She attended Normal School and taught for 10 years at various schools in Wisconsin and Saskatchewan, prior to accepting a position as secretary at the University of Saskatchewan in 1921. Taking a few classes a year, she earned a BA in 1929, and completed her PhD (1940) from the University of Washington during summer sessions. Timlin began lecturing in Economics at the University of Saskatchewan in 1935. She was promoted to full professor in 1950, and retired in 1959. Timlin was an authority on Keynesian economic theory, monetary policy and immigration. Among her many publications were "Keynesian Economics" (1942) and "Does Canada Need More People?" (1951). Following her retirement, the Canada Council granted her a special Fellowship to study Canadian immigration. Later, she was appointed research assistant with the Social Science Research Council of Canada and co-authored "The Social Sciences in Canada: Two Studies" (1968). She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, first woman president of the Canadian Political Science Association, and a member of the Order of Canada. Timlin died in Saskatoon on 20 September 1976 at the age of 84. Place Riel Theatre operated from 1975-1992. In 2005, the former Place Riel Theatre (1975-1992) was named the Neatby-Timlin Theatre to honour Hilda Neatby (1904-1975), professor of History, and Mabel Timlin.

Head and shoulders image of Kathleen (Taggart) Ferguson, College of Home Economics, 1954-1959.

Bio/Historical Note: Kathleen M. (Taggart) Ferguson was born at Swift Current, Saskatchewan in 1923 and lived on the Experimental Farm for first 11 years of her life. The family moved to Regina where she attended Lakeview School and then Central Collegiate. She received a BHSc from the University of Saskatchewan and an MA in Interior Design from Cornell University, Syracuse, New York. Ferguson was a member of the WRENS during World War II and helped with harvest chores on farms. She was both assistant professor and associate professor of Home Economics at the U of S between 1954-1959. Kay Ferguson died 27 March 2001 in Regina after a struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.

Head and shoulders image of Nan McKay, assistant librarian, 1915-1959.

Bio/Historical Note: Annie Maude (Nan) McKay was born in 1892 at Fort à la Corne, Northwest Territories, the daughter of Annie Maud Mary Fortescue; her father was Angus McKay, Hudson Bay Company employee, McKay completed high school in Prince Albert and won a scholarship to the University of Saskatchewan, where she took an honours course in English and French. She was awarded a BA in 1915. McKay was active in student affairs, serving on the student council and the executives of the YWCA and Penta Kai Deka, and as the staff artist of The Sheaf. McKay was a member of the women’s hockey team in 1915 and played hockey on university-affiliated teams until well into the 1920s. During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 she worked as a volunteer nurse; her name is painted on the stairwell in the College Building — and she was chosen to unveil the plaque commemorating the undergraduate student who died. Upon graduation in 1915 McKay was hired as assistant librarian of the University Library, and later became the first secretary-treasurer of the University of Saskatchewan Alumni Association (established in 1917). McKay worked at the library for 44 years until her retirement in 1959. McKay died on 27 July 1986 in Saskatoon at age of 93. In 2007 she was chosen one of the University of Saskatchewan’s “100 Alumni of Influence” and was said to be the “first Métis and first Aboriginal woman” to graduate from the University. The holdings of the University of Saskatchewan Archives contain a 1915 photo of McKay shown sharing an embrace and a kiss with a woman named Hope Weir (BA’15) outside a university residence building. The kiss photo was originally found about one-third of the way through a McKay photo album that also included pictures of parties, theatrical performances, camping and other aspects of student life. For a biography on Nan McKay, see: https://library.usask.ca/indigenous/history_essays/nan_mckay.php

Head and shoulders image of Dr. John S. Fulton, Veterinary Pathologist, College of Agriculture, 1926-1958.

Bio/historical Note: Dr. John Stevenson Fulton was born in Scotland and attended the University of Glasgow. He emigrated to Saskatchewan in 1913. He received his DVM from McKillop Veterinary College in Chicago in 1918 and did postgraduate work in pathology, virology, and bacteriology at the Rush Medical School in Chicago in 1922. Dr. Fulton joined the University of Saskatchewan in 1926. Dr. Fulton’s most extensive work was done with equine encephalomyelitis, first recognizing that the disease was appearing in horses in Saskatchewan in 1935. He then proved that a disease in humans, previously diagnosed as non-paralytic poliomyelitis, was caused by the same virus as the equine disease. In 1938, during the encephalomyelitis epidemic, Dr. Fulton developed a vaccine for horses. It was manufactured at the University of Saskatchewan and distributed throughout western Canada. He later developed a purified vaccine for humans. Dr. Fulton was recognized as the foremost veterinary research scientist of his time in Western Canada. Dr. Fulton was director of the animal diseases laboratory and professor and head of the department of animal hygiene at the time of his retirement in 1958. Dr. Fulton died in Saskatoon in 1966. The Virus Laboratory, later renamed the J.S. Fulton Lab, was demolished by 1989.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. I. Matheson Fraser, College of Engineering, 1921-1958.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. I. Matheson Fraser was born in 1890 in Pictou. Nova Scotia. Dr. Fraser taught in the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, for 37 years, retiring in 1958. He was a life member of the Engineering Institute of Canada, of the Association of Professional Engineers of Saskatchewan and of the Alumni Association of the U of S. He was a member of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. Dr. Fraser died in 1981 in Victoria, British Columbia, at age 90.

Head and shoulders image of George W. Simpson, Department of History.

Bio/Historical Note: George Wilfred Simpson was a descendant of Loyalists who resettled in Canada after the American Revolution. Simpson was born in 1893 at Chatsworth, Grey County, Ontario, and received his primary and secondary education in that province. After a brief stint as a schoolteacher and homesteader in Saskatchewan, he enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan and graduated with a BA in 1919. He earned an MA in History from the University of Toronto in 1930. Simpson taught at the University of Saskatchewan from 1922 to 1957, eventually becoming Head of the History Department and Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Science. During World War II he was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Co-operation in the Canadian Citizenship Branch of the Department of National War Services. He helped initiate the formation of the Saskatchewan Archives and was the first provincial archivist from 1945 to 1948. In addition, he was instrumental in establishing 'Saskatchewan History', a publication of the Saskatchewan Archives, in 1948. There was a large Slavic population in Saskatchewan, and Simpson befriended many members of the Slavic community. As a non-Slav he helped them considerably to raise their image vis-à-vis the predominant Anglo-Saxon population. Simpson was instrumental in introducing Slavic Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, and helped establish similar programs in other Canadian universities. He was an editor of the first comprehensive history of Ukraine to be published in English, and wrote many articles on Ukrainian and Slavic history. In 1947, the Free Ukrainian University awarded Simpson an honorary Doctorate. He was further honoured by the Royal Society of Canada, the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, the Canadian Historical Association, the Canadian Association of Slavists, the American Historical Association, the Canadian and American Geographical Society, and many other scholarly societies and institutions. Simpson retired in 1958 and was received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree the following year. In the 1960s he served on the Board of Governors at the U of S. Simpson married twice. He and his first wife, Muriel Jessie Simpson (1889–1963), were married in 1923. Edith C. Rowles (1905-1997) became Simpson’s second wife in 1964. George Simpson died in Saskatoon in 1969.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. Lloyd Woodbury Trevoy, Department of Chemistry, 1948-1957.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Lloyd Woodbury Trevoy was born 6 April 1920 and grew up in Saskatoon. He completed a PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Chicago. In 1948 Dr. Trevoy began a nine-year career with the Department of Chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan. He also spent a post-doctoral year at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. He moved to Edmonton in 1957 to continue his career in research at Chemcell (Celanese) and later Syncrude. Dr. Trevoy (with others) received Canadian patents for three inventions relating to the Alberta Tar Sands; two in 1979 and one in 1983. Dr. Trevoy died on 27 December 2015 in Edmonton at age 95.

Cornerstone laying ceremony at Emmanuel College; dignitaries and choir facing the crowd. View from behind audience looking towards dignitaries in background.

Bio/Historical Note: Emmanuel College pre-dates the University of Saskatchewan by some thirty years. The College was founded at Prince Albert in 1879 by Rt. Rev. John McLean as a “training College for Native Helpers.” In 1883 by an Act of Parliament, Emmanuel College was incorporated as "The University of Saskatchewan.” When the provincial university was established in Saskatoon in 1909, the Synod decided to relinquish its title and opt for affiliation to the new university. Emmanuel sold its old site to the federal government, to be used for a penitentiary, and shipped all its belongings to Saskatoon in four boxcars. On unbroken prairie on the east side of the river, professors, students and carpenters began to construct a series of wooden buildings. This “College of Shacks” was moved between 1910 and 1912 to the campus. In 1913 Rugby Chapel, so named because it had been funded by the staff and students of Rugby School, England, was moved to the campus from Prince Albert. A stone clad, permanent college building was constructed between 1911 and 1912. Designed by Brown and Vallance, the building contained residential space for students and the principal, classrooms and a refectory in the basement. In 1916 the college was used as a military hospital for returned soldiers and in 1918, as a hospital during the outbreak of influenza. St. Chad College was established in Regina in 1907 for the training of divinity students. It amalgamated with Emmanuel College to form the College of Emmanuel & St. Chad, continuing as an affiliate college of the University of Saskatchewan. The Chapel of St. Chad was designed by Webster, Forrester and Scott of Saskatoon and constructed in 1965-1966. In 1962 the Emmanuel College Residence was built as an addition to Emmanuel College but a proposed walkway connecting the two was never completed. The Emmanuel and St. Chad buildings were vacated in 2005 when they joined the Saskatoon Theological Union, and the college moved into leased space in the Lutheran Seminary building. The college building and St. Chad chapel along with the neighboring Rugby Chapel were purchased by the university for $1.1 million in the fall of 2006 and Emmanuel and St. Chad space earmarked for the Graduate Students' Association (GSA). In 2012 its council announced the college would suspend operations the following year, while it would work to come up with a three-year restructuring plan. In 2013, however, the council said it would continue operating for the time being, by working with its partner schools in the Saskatoon Theological Union (STU) - St. Andrew’s College (United Church of Canada) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary. By this time the principal’s position had been eliminated, and the faculty was down to a single professor. Since 2014 it has been working on a plan to offer its licentiate of theology (LTh) mostly remotely, online, with the support of locally-based mentors and tutors—an offering intended as training for diaconal ministry or for locally-raised priests.

Head and shoulders image of Dugald J. Graham, University Bursar, 1928-1956.

Bio/Historical Note: Dugald Johnston Graham was born in 1889 in Scotland. Graham died in Saskatoon in 1968.

Head and shoulders image of Ernest F. Whitmore, College of Law, 1938-1956.

Bio/Historical Note: Ernest Francis Laughton Whitmore was born in 1904 in Winchester, England. He immigrated to the Saskatoon area with his parents in 1911. He graduated from Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon and then attended the University of Saskatchewan, earning an LLB with Great Distinction and the Wetmore Scholarship in Law in 1925. Whitmore was called to the Bar in 1928. After graduating Whitmore practiced law in Saskatoon with the firm of Sibbald, Caswell and Whitmore. Whitmore was also solicitor for Saskatoon City Hospital from 1935-1936 and a legal adviser to the United Farmers of Canada, Saskatchewan section. Whitmore began teaching classes as a lecturer at the U of S in 1929. He was appointed assistant professor in the College of Law at the U of S in 1939 and was granted full professorship in 1943. He was appointed King’s Counsel in 1951. Whitmore taught at the U of S until 1956, when he left to join Regina law firm MacPherson, Leslie and Tyerman as associate counsel. Whitmore was regarded as a well-known legal expert in Saskatchewan. His obituary in the Saskatchewan Bar Review notes “ ‘Ernie’ Whitmore will be remembered by scores of his students for the meticulous way in which he organized his material, his encyclopaedic knowledge of the case law and for his willingness to spend hours of his time discussing legal problems with his students.” (Volume 29, Issue 3, September 1964, p. 142) Whitmore died 16 August 1964 at age 60.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. James B. Harrington, professor of Agriculture.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. James Bishop Harrington, born in Chicago in 1894, came to Canada in 1911 and settled on a homestead near Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Four years later he started what was to become a distinguished academic career when he enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan. Though his studies were interrupted by war service, he received his BSc in Agriculture in 1920. Dr. Harrington continued with graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. By 1924 he had an MSc, a PhD and an appointment as assistant professor in Field Husbandry at the U of S. From 1950-1956 Dr. Harrington served as department head. During his years at the U of S, Harrington built an international reputation as a plant breeder; among the better known crop varieties he developed are Apex wheat, Fortune oats, Husky barley, Royal flax and Antelope rye. In 1949 Dr. Harrington's attention turned to the agricultural problems of the third world. In 1949-1950 he worked in Egypt as consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture, and in 1952 went to India to work on rice breeding for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. After resigning from the U of S in 1956, Dr. Harrington continued as a consultant with the FAO in the Middle East. Dr. Harrington was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrology and served as president of the Agriculture Institute of Canada. Dr. Harrington’s many honours include the Order of Canada, Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and an honourary Doctor of Laws degree in 1963 from the U of S. He died in Ontario in 1979 at age 85.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. John Mitchell, head, Department of Soils, College of Agriculture.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. John Mitchell was born in 1897 at Bradwardine, Manitoba, and moved with his family to a farm near Marsden, Saskatchewan. He enrolled in the College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan in 1915, interrupting his studies to serve in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces from 1916-1918. He saw action in France as an officer in the artillery division and, wounded in 1917, he returned home. Dr. Mitchell completed his BSA in 1924 at the U of S and joined the Saskatchewan Soil Survey that same year. While a student he had worked summers with the Soldiers Settlement Board, assisting returning veterans to become farmers. In 1925 Dr. Mitchell became an instructor in the College of Agriculture and continued his work mapping soils and measuring their chemical and physical properties. He did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, then one of the leading universities in soil science, completing an MSc in 1929 and a PhD in 1931 before returning to the U of S. Dr. Mitchell was appointed professor and head of the Department of Soils in 1935, positions that he held for the rest of his career. He was regarded internationally as a distinguished scientist. He was the first president of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Graduates Association; he also was inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame. The John Mitchell Building, once the Soils and Dairy Building and presently the home of the Department of Drama, recognizes his contribution to the U of S. Dr. Mitchell died suddenly while in harness in 1955. Mitchell Street in Greystone Heights honours Dr. Mitchell.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. C.E. Smith, dean of Education, 1953-1955.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. C.E. Smith resigned as dean of education at the University of Saskatchewan in 1955 to take an educational post at McGill University. Dean Smith came to the U of S in 1953 from the University of Manitoba where he was director of the school of social work.

Head and shoulders image of Samuel Mack Eastman, Department of History, 1941-1948.