David Whittaker attended the University of British Columbia for his bachelor’s degree, graduating in 1960 with a Bachelor of Education. He obtained his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, where he conducted psychological research with the Center for Research Development in Higher Education (CRDHE). During his time at UC Berkeley, Whittaker and other researchers carried out extensive questionnaires, interviews, and studies involving the Free Speech Movement and the associated nonstudent and “fringe” populations at Berkeley. Whittaker completed his thesis in 1967, and in 1968 become the co-coordinator of the CRDHE.

In 1971, he left UC Berkeley along with his wife, Elvi Whittaker, and was employed at the University of Hawaii as the chairman of Educational Psychology in 1973. He became a visiting lecturer at UBC at the start of the 1975-76 school year, working in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology. The following year he was named an associate professor, and taught in Educational Psychology until his retirement in 1997. His research while at UBC also focused on students in higher education, and included analysis of student’s personality profiles and studies of multicultural policies and international and exchange students. In 1997, Whittaker was named Associate Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology and Special Education.

Leonard Jay Angel was born in Montreal in September 1945, and received his Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in 1966. Angel then moved to Vancouver to study at the University of British Columbia where he completed an MA in Philosophy in 1968, an MA in Creative Writing and Theatre in 1970, and a PhD in Philosophy in 1974. He was an associate fellow in UBC’s Department of Philosophy in 1992, and taught philosophy at Douglas College from fall 1993 through 2012. Angel maintained a close relationship with UBC throughout his career, working on and off as a sessional lecturer for philosophy and creative writing courses, and participating in student study groups and departmental colloquia. He also produced at least two plays (“The Ballad of Etienne Brule” and “Eleanor Marx”) through UBC’s theatre department.
Angel was a poet, playwright, philosopher, and author, with 17 plays produced and 7 published books. He was an active figure in the Vancouver theatre scene from the 1970s through the 1990s, with plays produced and performed by Vancouver’s Street Theatre, Terrific Theatre, and the New Play Centre. Angel also had several of his plays produced in theatres in Toronto and Seattle. Outside of his academic writing on philosophy, he practiced and wrote at length about Jewish theology as well as Zen practices. He was connected to Vancouver’s Jewish community through his involvement in Or Shalom Synagogue and founded the Integral Studies Institute in 1987 to provide instruction on meditation and spirituality. Angel was also an advocate for World Federalism and was president of the Vancouver branch of World Federalist Movement Canada from 1996 through 2013. Leonard Angel passed away in August 2022.

Leah Edelstein-Keshet was born in Israel in 1953, and earned both her Bachelor and Master of Science at Dalhousie University. She completed her PhD in 1982 at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, specializing in applied mathematics. Edelstein-Keshet was employed as a visiting professor at Brown University and Duke University before being hired as an associate professor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Mathematics in 1989. Her research began in mathematic biology, and evolved to include cell biology and biophysics.

Edelstein-Keshet has published numerous articles and written several books, including Mathematical Models in Biology, an influential text for the field of mathematical biology. She has also won various awards: the Canadian Mathematical Society’s Krieger-Nelson Prize, the Arthur Winfree Research Prize of the Society for Mathematical Biology, the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society Research Award, and the John von Neumann Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). From 1995 to 1997, she served as the Society for Mathematical Biology’s first female President; in 2017, the Society created the Leah Edelstein-Keshet Prize to recognize notable contributions by women to the field of mathematical biology. Edelstein-Keshet retired in 2023 after 34 years as a professor at UBC.

The Faculty of Arts at UBC has offered German language and literary programming since the University’s inauguration, with a separate Department of German created in 1946 to reflect an expansion in course offerings. The name was changed to the Department of Germanic Studies in 1974 with the addition of Swedish-language courses, and further courses on Scandinavian and Northern European language, literature, and culture continued to expand its scope. In 1999, the department merged with the former Department of Slavonic Studies to become the Department of Germanic Studies and Russian and Slavonic Studies. Following the addition of the undergraduate program in Modern European Studies, the department acquired its present name and focus.

The Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies (CENES) offers cultural, literary, and media studies courses that span the areas of Central, Eastern and Northern Europe. It offers undergraduate majors and minors in Modern European Studies, German Studies, Nordic Studies, and Russian; as well as a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.

Eugen Ruus was born in Pärnu, Estonia in 1917. He graduated from the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia with a degree in engineering. Ruus escaped to Finland during World War II, and in 1950 emigrated to Canada with his family. He then returned to Europe in 1957 to complete his Doctor in Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. He joined UBC’s Department of Civil Engineering in 1958 as a lecturer, and became an assistant professor the following year. In 1972 Ruus was made a full professor, and remained a faculty member until his retirement in 1985, when he was named Honorary Professor. Outside of his civil engineering work, he was an ordained clergy member for the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church. Ruus died in 2000.

Nicholas Kendall is a graduate of the UBC Theatre program and has become an independent filmmaker with several national and international awards to his credit. He was born in Manchester, England, on April 25, 1949. He entered the UBC Theatre program and graduated with a BA in 1970. He also graduated with a diploma from the London International Film School, London, England. Since then, he has worked as an independent filmmaker in various film genres such as experimental films, television dramas, documentaries, and feature films. Kendall has worked with Atlantis Films, CBC Television, the National Film Board of Canada, Northern Lights Entertainment, and Orca Productions. In addition, he has worked as an actor, cinematographer, writer/script editor, Associate Professor of Film at Queen's University, and Associate Professor of Film at Simon Fraser University. He is a member of the Directors' Guild of Canada, the Academy of Canadian Cinema, and the Canadian Film and Television Producers' Association.

The Office of Institutional Analysis and Planning (IAP) was established at the University of British Columbia in 1976 to assume duties previously performed by the Office of Academic Planning, which began operations in 1961. Like its predecessor, IAP was responsible for various functions, including preparing statistical material, forecasting enrollments, building needs and staffing requirements. The functions of IAP were transferred to Budget, Planning and Systems Management in 1984.

Pacific Educational Press (PEP) is the publishing house of the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. PEP publishes educational books and media resources, including textbooks and supplementary resources for schools, scholarly books for education specialists, teacher education programs, and professional resources for practicing teachers. The Press was founded in 1971 as the Vancouver Environment Education Group (VEEP). In its early years, VEEP focused on providing resources for elementary school teachers, concentrating primarily on environmental education. In 1974 it changed its name to Western Education Development Group, abbreviated to WEDG, and later, WEDGE, only retaining its full name in the copyright information of its books. WEDGE expanded the range of subjects of its publications. Several series were produced in conjunction with other organizations during this period. The final name change to Pacific Educational Press occurred in 1987. PEP began producing textbooks for both the K-12 market and for teacher education courses. In addition, the Press has published several supplemental resources for teachers and several children's fiction books with accompanying teacher guides. The original director of the Press was Kip Anastasiou. He often served as the editor or even co-author of the books. The second director, Catherine Edwards, began circa 1990. She also served as an editor of the books produced by PEP. Edwards retired in 2014, and the Press is now under the direction of Susan Howell. The Press has remained small throughout its history, as of 2014, employing only about ten full-time employees.

Nathan T. Nemetz was born in Winnipeg in 1913 and moved to Vancouver when he was 10. Nemetz attended the University of British Columbia and graduated in 1934. He was very involved with the UBC community for his entire life following his graduation. He was a member of the UBC Senate, chaired the Board of Governors from 1965-1968, received the Great Trekker Award in 1969, was the Chancellor of the University from 1972-1975, and served as a Chancellor Emeritus following his term. Nemetz studied law and joined the British Columbia Bar in 1936. He was made Supreme Court Justice of British Columbia in 1963 and a Justice of the Court of Appeal in 1968. He was made the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1973 and the Chief Justice of British Columbia in 1979, which he held until his retirement in 1988. In 1989 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, and in 1990 he was awarded the Order of British Columbia. In addition, he was awarded honorary doctorates from Tel Aviv University (1991) and the University of British Columbia (1975).

Peter Harnetty was born in England. He completed his BA at the University of British Columbia in 1953. He then attended Harvard University, where he received his MA in 1954 and Ph.D. in 1958. He began teaching at UBC in 1958 and was promoted to full professor in 1971. From 1958, Harnetty held a joint appointment in the Departments of Asian Studies and History. He served first as acting head of the Department of Asian Studies in 1970/71 and then as head from 1975 to 1980.

Peter H. Pearse was appointed Commissioner to investigate and report back on the timber rights and forest policy in BC. In 1976 a Report Of The Royal Commission On Forest Resources Volume 1 was published.

Founded in 1996, the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies is the senior research institute at UBC. It supports research through collaborative, interdisciplinary initiatives that have the potential to make significant advances in knowledge. The Institute brings together scholars from UBC with distinguished researchers and experts worldwide to investigate fundamental research, drawing upon and contributing to a wide range of diverse disciplines. In recognition of the current intellectual and funding landscape, one of the primary goals of the Peter Wall Institute is to foster new collaborative, multidisciplinary research groups, meetings, and international exchanges to tackle a wide range of research. As well as helping to bridge Departmental and Faculty boundaries within UBC, the Institute is committed to facilitating contacts between outstanding researchers at UBC and distinguished researchers from around the world. The Institute aims to create a community of scholars, composed of renowned researchers from faculties and schools across the UBC campus, contributing significantly to the university's intellectual life. The primary, overriding concern in all Institute activities is to promote excellence in interdisciplinary, innovative and unique research unlikely to occur without Institute funding. The Institute's programs, including financial awards, are centred on UBC's Vancouver campus and can be grouped into two categories: Thematic and Residential. Thematic Programs involve establishing an overall research theme in which scholars with the relevant expertise are gathered together. These consist of Exploratory Workshops, colloquia, Theme Development Workshops and the Major Thematic Grant, which provides funding of up to $500,000 over a three to five-year period to a broad interdisciplinary team of UBC and external scholars to research a new area. Residential programs focus on bringing together distinguished researchers from UBC and worldwide to spend time at the Institute. These residencies, ranging from one month to one year, encourage scholars' interaction from various disciplines in exploring new research directions. These include the Peter Wall Distinguished Professor, Distinguished Scholars in Residence, Early Career Scholars, Distinguished Visiting Professor, and the Wall Summer Institute for Research (previously the Visiting Junior Scholar program).

Verna Huffman Splane was born in 1914 in Peterborough, Ontario. She became a nurse after high school. In 1939 received a diploma in Public Health from the University of Toronto School of Nursing and worked from the Victorian Order of Nurses until she entered Columbia University, where she graduated with a Bachelor in Science in 1957 and then went on to earn a master's degree in public health from the University of Michigan. After she graduated, she worked for the World Health Organization as a nurse advisory in the health ministries of Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and the Windward and Leeward Islands. Upon her return to Canada, she joined the federal Department of National Health and Welfare as a public health nursing consultant from 1963-1966. However, she returned to the WHO to work on a national health planning project in Libya in 1966. In 1967 she once again returned to Canada, becoming Canada's first Chief Nursing Officer, a position that she held until 1972. After her marriage to Richard Splane in 1971, the couple moved to Vancouver in 1973, where Verna joined the UBC School of Nursing from 1975 to 1984. In 1985 she joined the University of Victoria School of Nursing faculty until 1991. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was granted the Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilee medals (1977 and 2002). In addition, she held several honorary degrees. She won awards such as the Jeanne Mance Award and the Lillian Carter Centre for International Nursing Award from Emory University. She died in January 2015.
Verna and Richard were married in 1971 following the death of Richard's first wife, Marion. After their move to Vancouver, they were active members of the University Hill congregation of the United Church of Canada. They undertook a study on Chief Nursing Officer positions around the globe, resulting in the 1994 publication Chief Nursing Officers in National Ministries of Health: Focal Points for Nursing Leadership. In 1996, they were awarded UBC's first ever-joint honorary degree.

John Ridington was born in West Ham, London, England, in April 1868, the son of William Richard Ridington, a building contractor, and his wife, Cecilia James Eleanor. He was the eighth of nine children. Four of his sisters died in infancy before his birth. The three who survived all married. They were Jane Ennor (Mrs. Alexander H. Guest), 1852-1942; Elizabeth Symons (Mrs. Joseph Henry Williams), 1856-1941; and Rosina Symons (Mrs. John Ellis Griffith), 1862- 1939. The ninth child and John Ridington's only brother was William Richards Ridington, 1870-1944. The details of John Ridington's education are not known. In later life, he claimed to have been a student at the London School of Art and the University of London; he also received training for a career in teaching. William Richards Ridington emigrated to Canada in the spring of 1889, bringing his wife and two sons. The three sisters remained in England. On April 25, they sailed from Liverpool aboard the S.S. Parisian, arriving at Québec City on May 5. Then they travelled by train to Birtle, Manitoba, where he took up farming and opened a carpenter's shop in Foxwarren. John Ridington was employed as a school teacher in rural schools of northwestern Manitoba, first in the summer of 1889 at Burdette, later at Rookhurst. In January 1896, John Ridington became the publisher and editor of the Carberry News. On November 6 of the same year, he married Maggie Dykes Charleston.
When fire destroyed the press early in 1901, he sold his interest in the paper. He moved to Winnipeg, where he became "special reporter, dramatic and art critic, and editorial writer" for the Manitoba Free Press, under the editorship of J.W. Defoe, with whom Ridington developed a lifelong friendship. In 1907 Ridington changed careers again and joined the firm of William Pearson Co. as a real estate salesman. In 1910 or 1911, he moved to Vancouver and became sales manager for Canada Western Trust Co. He invested in land development but lost everything in the depression of 1913. He was destitute to the point of borrowing money from neighbours. The only work he could find was teaching a course in English literature for the Vancouver Night Schools. His daughter Margaret Dorothy Ridington died on March 28, 1912. In later years when reporting the details of his life to biographical directories, Ridington eliminated these unhappy years from the record, stating that he moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver in 1914. By August 1914, he had found employment as the "acting librarian" of the new University of British Columbia. From May to August 1916, he attended summer school at the New York State Library, Albany. UBC President Frank Wesbrook nevertheless continued to search for an experienced librarian to replace Ridington. In June 1922, Wesbrook's successor, Leonard Klinck, finally changed Ridington's title from Acting Librarian and Cataloguer to Librarian.
Ridington's wife Maggie died on April 26, 1927. He married for a second time on August 8, 1929. Muriel Patience Fallows, the daughter of William W. Fallows and his wife, Patience Seale. John and Muriel Ridington's son John Fallows Ridington was born on May 29, 1930. John Ridington retired as University Librarian on April 31, 1940, at the age of 72. In the following years, he occupied himself by acting as Secretary to the Western Gate Lodge of the Masonic Order and by writing the occasional column for the Vancouver News-Herald. He died on April 20, 1945. A portrait of John Ridington, painted in 1912 by his brother-in-law Malcolm Charleston, hangs in the Ridington Room, Main Library. Malcolm Charleson was a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he worked as a commercial artist.

On 12 January 1921, Samuel Rothstein was born in Shenyahova, a village near Bobrysk, Belarus. He emigrated to Canada in 1922. He earned a BA in French and English from UBC in 1939, an MA in French and English from UBC in 1940, a BLS in 1947 from the University of California and a Ph.D. in Librarianship from the University of Illinois in 1954, becoming the first Canadian to hold a Ph.D. in Librarianship. He started as a reference librarian at the UBC Library in 1947. He was subsequently promoted to Head of Acquisitions (1948); Assistant and Associate University Librarian (1954); Acting University Librarian and Founding Director of the School of Librarianship (1961); Director and Professor of Librarianship (1970-1986) and Professor Emeritus in 1986. Rothstein served in many professional associations and learned societies: as President of the American Association of Library Schools (AALS), the British Columbia Library Association (BCLA), the Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA), and the Canadian Association of Library Schools (CALS); as an officer of the American Library Association (ALA), the Canadian Library Association (CLA), the Bibliographical Society of Canada and the Canadian Council of Library Schools (CCLS). He also was a consultant for the Science Secretariat of Canada (1969); a Visiting Scholar at the University of Hawaii (1969); a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto (1970) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1973); a consultant for various libraries (1970- 1977); the Librarian-in-Residence at the University of Toronto (1979); and a Research Fellow at the University of Toronto Centre for Research in Librarianship (1981-1982). He is also listed in biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias such as the Canadian Who's Who, Who's Who in America, the ALA Yearbook of Library and Information Services, and Who's Who in the World. His monographic publications include The Development of Reference Services (1955); Training Professional Librarians for Western Canada (1957); co-author of As We Remember It (1970); The University – The Library (1972) and Rothstein on Reference (1989). He wrote for several encyclopedias, contributed many articles and reviews to professional journals, gave lectures and talks and served on editorial boards of several encyclopedias and journals. His awards include the ALA's Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service to education for librarianship (1988), the Carnegie Corporation Fellowship (1951-1954); the BCLA's Helen Gordon Stewart Award (1970); and honorary D. Litt. Degree from York University of Toronto (1971); the CLA's Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award (1986); and the ALISE Award for Outstanding Professional Contributions to Library and Information Science Education (1988). Outside of the academe, Rothstein's record of public service includes his involvement as Councilor of the BC Medical Library Service, President of the Vancouver Public Library Trust (1987-1988), Board member and President of the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre (1962-1972); Board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver (1993- 1999) and Divisional Chairman of the Vancouver Combined Jewish Appeal (1992-1995). Sam Rothstein retired from UBC at the end of 1986 after a 50-year association with the UBC as a student, teacher, librarian, researcher and administrator. He died on 8 July 2014 at the age of 93.

Majorie J. Smith was the Head of UBC's School of Social Work [195-].

Douglas Shadboldt was born in Victoria and educated at Victoria College, UBC and McGill University. He finished his architectural studies at the University of Oregan between 1955 and 1957. Shadboldt taught at several universities before serving as Director of the architecture school at UBC from 1979 until his retirement in 1990.

Initially established as the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Applied Science in 1946, Frederic Lasserre reorganized the Department into the School of Architecture in 1950.

The Sigma Tau Chi honourary fraternity at the University of British Columbia was founded in 1942. Its members have been chosen from all sections of the undergraduate student body to recognize their services and leadership in extra-curricular activities at UBC. In addition, the purpose of the fraternity is to foster a better understanding of the aims and ideals of other undergraduate organizations at UBC among the leaders of student organizations.

Established at the University of British Columbia in the late 1950s, the Institute of Social and Economic Research was intended to foster research and graduate study in the social sciences. The Institute, composed of members with diverse backgrounds from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, provided research funds for individual projects and participated in formulating long-term research strategies. In 1962, the name of the body was changed to the Social Science Research Institute and the responsibilities for supporting individual research projects were transferred to the Dean of Graduate Studies' Research Committee.

Stuart James Schofield was born in Kent, England. After moving to Kingston, Ontario as a child, he completed his BA (1904), MA (1906), and B.Sc. (1908) at Queen's University. He later completed a Ph.D. at MIT (1912). He began his geological career with the Geological Survey of Canada as a student assistant to R.W. Brock in 1906. In 1915, Schofield accepted Brock's invitation to start courses in Geology and Mineralogy at the newly established University of British Columbia. He was appointed professor of Structural Geography at the university in 1920. After accepting responsibility for making a geological survey of Hong Kong in 1906, Brock sent Schofield to undertake a general reconnaissance for six months. Ill health forced Schofield to retire from UBC in 1940; he died in Vancouver in 1947.

Thomas Hooper was an architect with offices in Vancouver and Victoria. In 1912, the Provincial Government held an architectural competition with a cash prize of $4,000 for the best designs for the new university campus at Point Grey. The competition called for designs for four buildings (Arts and Science, Agriculture, Dormitories, and Power House) whose construction would begin at once and a sketch of proposals for the rest of the university. Amongst the 20 entries was one submitted by Thomas Hooper. In rejecting Hooper's designs, the judging committee suggested that "the practical issues such as appropriate planning and cost of erection have been sacrificed to grandiose and pictorial effects."

George Lister Thornton Sharp was born in 1880 in London, England and educated at Haileybury. In 1908 he came to Vancouver and formed a business partnership with Charles Joseph Thompson. Thompson was also born in London in 1878. From 1906 to 1908, he was assistant chief architect for the CPR before joining Sharp to form the architectural firm of Sharp & Thompson. The firm was responsible for the design of such significant buildings in Vancouver as the BC Electric Building. Over the years, they played an essential role in developing the cityscape of Greater Vancouver.

The UBC Publications Centre has been the publishing department of the University since 1961. Three journals, Canadian Literature, B.C. Studies, and Pacific Affairs, were the motivation behind founding a Publications Centre. James Banham, Information Officer at the University, who was Acting Executive Director of the Centre during the 1960s, initially oversaw the administration of the Publications Centre. The Publications Centre became UBC Press in March 1971.

Karl M. Ruppenthal was a professor in the UBC Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration and Director of the Centre for Transportation Studies. He earned his bachelor's and law degrees at the University of Kansas, his MBA at the University of California at Berkeley, and his Ph.D. at Stanford University. He flew regular schedules as a jet pilot for ten years while teaching at Stanford University, where he was Director of the Transportation Management Program. He served as a consultant to many organizations, including the Canadian Ministry of Transport, Boeing, NASA, Peterbilt Motors, and General Electric. He was a national panel member of the American Arbitration Association. He served as an arbitrator in several matters involving airlines. Ruppenthal was also the author of several books and served as editor of the Logistics and Transportation Review. He was an attorney. He was admitted to practice in Kansas, the District of Columbia, before the Tax Court, the Circuit Court for the 9th Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Donalda MacKinnon Sage, who went by "Nelda," was born in Finch, Ontario. In 1915, she married Walter Noble Sage (1888-1963), who later became Head of the UBC History Department. Nelda earned University of Toronto certificates in (voice and piano). She was both an artist and writer.

Walter Gordon Hardwick was born in 1932, and beginning in 1950, attended UBC, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Minnesota. He first joined UBC's Department of Geography in 1960. Until his retirement in 1997, he taught courses in urban studies, urban geography, and political geography. He also headed the "Vancouver Urban Futures" survey project from 1971 to 1974. A second related project was called "Choosing Our Future" in the late 1980s; these projects served as a basis for urban planning in the Greater Vancouver Regional District and inspired the district's "Livable Region" strategy.

Walter Harrington began working in the UBC Library in 1965, after serving in the Canadian Army for twenty-four years. He became head of the Acquisitions Division in 1974 and remained in that position until his retirement in 1980. In addition to serving as head of Acquisitions, Harrington served on several major committees both within and outside the University.

Watson Thomson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, graduated from Glasgow University with an MA in 1923 and tutored in Jamaica for three years. One year after his return to Scotland, where he taught high school and teacher training, he travelled to Nigeria to become a Superintendent of Education. After this job, he returned to London and worked on publicity for the European Federation. During 1931-37, he was actively involved as the co-editor of the important English weekly, New Britain.
Thomson travelled across Canada in 1937, lecturing and founding the Workers Education Association in Calgary. He soon became a staff member of the University of Alberta Extension (continuing education) and a regular commentator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation until 1944. In 1941, he was appointed Director of Adult Education at the University of Manitoba. Three years later, he held the same post for the Province of Saskatchewan. During the War, Thomson was a firm spokesman for those suffering. He published a pamphlet urging Canada to open its doors to people persecuted by the Nazis. After the War, he became interested in the concept of intentional community. He began organizing one while writing Pioneer in Community. He lived on a co-op farm from 1948 to 1950 and lectured at the University of British Columbia. He continued teaching at UBC from 1950 to 1960. He was internationally known for the specialized English courses for Engineering and Forestry students. In 1960, he retired as Associate Professor because of illness and was awarded Associate Professor Emeritus in 1964. Still writing, he published Turning Into Tomorrow in 1966. He died in Vancouver in 1969.

William A. McDill was a school teacher, author, editor and a UBC graduate (BA 1947; BSc MechEng 1948) who served in the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers. McDill was born August 10, 1913, to William Alexander and Jean Duff (née McLagan) McDill in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Raised and educated in Winnipeg, McDill studied at the University of Manitoba and the Manitoba Provincial Normal School. He worked as a schoolmaster in the Technical Branch of the Winnipeg Public School System from 1933 until 1939, receiving a BEd from Colorado A&M College in 1938. He married Dorothy Sarah Wilkinson, a schoolteacher, in 1939. McDill was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Engineers Corps on September 22, 1939, and served in England and France during World War II between 1940 and 1945. After the War, McDill was a student in the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC and received a BA in 1947 and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1948. He went on to receive an MEd (Industrial Education) from Colorado A&M College. McDill also served in the Canadian Army from 1948 to 1965 (undertaking additional training at the Royal Military College of Science in England from 1951-1953), attaining the rank of Major. With Col. A.J. Kerry, MacDill co-wrote The History of the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers, a two-volume work published in 1962 and 1966. In 1965, he became the Assistant General Secretary at the Engineering Institute of Canada. He served as manager of technical services before retiring in 1975. McDill died in July of 1989.

William Nicholls was born on April 12, 1921, in London, Ontario. In 1945, he received his BA Honours in Modern History from the University of Toronto. He also graduated from the Ontario College of Education. He later received his MS degree specializing in Group Work and Community Organization from Springfield College, Massachusetts, in 1951. In 1963, he joined the faculty of UBC as a professor and researcher in social planning, community development and community work practice. Over the years, Nicholls conducted detailed research across Canada and has received several research awards and distinctions, notably Research Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science (1970) and Molson Research Fellowship at the Vanier Institute of the Family (1977). He also published numerous papers, projects, reports and speeches on various social topics ranging from the family and the economy, rural development, youth unemployment, immigration and population policies and mental health challenges among First Nations peoples. As an active contributor to the community, Nicholls served on various local, provincial and federal committees and has held several key community leadership roles, including past president of the British Columbia Association of Social Workers (1988-1989). After Nicholls died in 2003, his records were donated to the Archives.

William John Rose was born in 1885 near Minnedosa, Manitoba. He attended Wesley College, where he prepared for missionary work in China. He won a Rhodes scholarship and studied at Oxford University, where he obtained both his BA (1908) and MA (1912). He returned to Wesley College as a lecturer in classics and mathematics. In 1914, he went to Poland as a particular worker for the World Students' Christian Federation. While there, Rose became keenly interested in Poland's history and culture. When World War I began, he was in Austrian Silesia, detained as an enemy alien. Between 1920 and 1927, he served as a relief worker in Poland with the YMCA. He also completed his Ph.D. at the University of Krakow (1926). After teaching at Dartmouth College, Rose accepted a position as a Polish reader at the University of London and quickly rose to become head of the School of Slavonic Studies (1939-1950). Although retiring in 1950, Rose remained very active. He helped establish the Department of Slavonic Studies at the University of British Columbia, served as a special lecturer there from 1951 to 1954, and in 1956 was named Professor Emeritus of Slavonic Studies. After leaving UBC, he moved to Naramata, B.C., where he served on the Christian Leadership Training School staff, also known as the Naramata Centre. He died in 1968.

W. Peter Ward was born in Edmonton in 1943. He obtained a BA in English Literature from the University of Alberta in 1964 and an MA in History from the same university in 1966. He was awarded a PhD in History from Queen’s University in Kingston in 1973. He taught high school for the Edmonton Public School Board in 1968-69 and held part time or sessional teaching appointments at the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan, and Queen’s University between 1967 and 1973.

Ward’s research interests include: the history of the family in Canada, the history of immigration in Canada, the history of population health and the history of human physical growth. His major books are: White Canada Forever: Popular Attitudes and Public Policy Toward Orientals in British Columbia (1978, 1990, 2002), Courtship, Love and Marriage in 19th Century English Canada (1990), Birth Weight and Economic Growth: Women’s Living Standards in the Industrializing West (1993), A History of Domestic Space: Privacy and the Canadian Home (1999) and The Clean Body: A Modern History (2019). He has published articles in leading national and international journals, including the Canadian Historical Review, the American Historical Review, the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and Economics and Human Biology.

Peter Ward joined the UBC Department of History in 1973 as an Assistant Professor. He was granted tenure in 1978, promoted to Associate Professor in 1979, and was granted full professorial status in 1990. He went on to serve as Head of the UBC History Department (1991-1996) and later as Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives in the Faculty of Arts (2002-2005). In addition he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Augsburg in 1995, as well as at the University of Bologna in 2009-10 and 2011-12.

In 2005 Ward joined the UBC Library as Deputy University Librarian. He served as University Librarian pro tem from 2007-2009. During this period he helped oversee the completion of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and, additionally, he launched a planning process that led to the establishment of UBC’s institutional repository, cIRcle.

Ward has been the recipient of numerous research grants from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada and the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine as well as from UBC. He has also received a number of distinctions for scholarship in his career, including leave fellowships from the Canada Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In 1990 the Social Science Federation of Canada cited his book White Canada Forever as one of the 20 most important books in English supported by the Council over the previous 50 years. He also received a UBC Killam Fellowship in 1990-91 and a UBC Killam Research Prize in 1998. In 2012 he was ranked 2nd among Canada’s historians in the first HiBAR survey (Hirsch-Index Benchmarking of Academic Research) that identified the most influential scholarly researchers in their respective fields.

A University of British Columbia graduate, Alan David Chambers received resource management experience with government and industry in Ontario and B.C. In 1972 he participated in an analysis of natural resource policy in Canada for the Science Council of Canada. In that year, he joined UBC's Faculty of Forestry and later became Director of the Resource Science Centre. He was involved as a consultant in three research projects: Study Coordinator of the Purcell Range Study (1973), under the authority of the Environment and Land Use Committee; participant in Nazko-Kluskus First Nations Study (1974); and Special Assistant to the Minister of Forests (1977/78) for an investigation into continuing clashes between logging interests and the Nazko-Kluskus First Nations.

Alex Peter Harshenin was born in Brilliant, BC. He attended the University of British Columbia, receiving his BA1955) and MAMA1960). Harshenin joined UBC's Department of Slavonic Studies in 1960 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1974. He continued with the department until he died in 1977. He specialized in Doukhobor dialect, theoretical linguistics and the Russian language.

Alfred Vye Parminter was a member of UBC's Faculty of Education’s teaching staff from 1962 until his retirement in 1982. He received a B.A and M.A. from UBC in 1943 and 1964 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Before becoming a faculty member at UBC, Parminter worked for the Department of Indian Affairs as an “Regional Inspector of Indian Schools in British Columbia,” writing both his M.A. and Ph.D. theses on the topic of education in indigenous communities. While at UBC, Parminter participated in multiple committees that investigated the challenges indigenous students on campus faced while attaining their degrees. In 1982 Parminter retired from the University - at that time, he was honoured with the title of Assistant Professor Emeritus of Education. Parminter passed away on September 20, 1990.

The UBC Alumni Association established the UBC Speakers Bureau in 1975. Its purpose was to arrange speaking engagements by University faculty to non-profit organizations on a wide variety of topics. Organizations could contact the Speakers Bureau and inform them of their preferred date, time, and subject. In turn, the Bureau would contact faculty members who had indicated their willingness to participate in the program and whose area of expertise included the topic in question. The Bureau ceased operations in 1987; however, Community Relations established a new Speakers Bureau in September 1988.

The Vancouver School Board is a locally elected body, constituted as a corporation responsible for determining local education policy in conformity with the Public Schools Act of 1873. The Act authorized the Lieutenant-Governor in Council to create school districts, provide funds for teachers' salaries and school buildings, and appoint a six-member Board of Education and a Superintendent of Education. Originally established to allow individuals from local school districts to assist in forming education policies based upon their district's specific needs, school boards have, over time, had certain responsibilities for the organization and management of local systems delegated to them by the provincial government. Initially, through the work of its standing committees (Management, Finance, Building and Grounds), the Vancouver School Board was able to involve itself directly in many of the day-to-day problems of school administration. However, as the board acquired more powers and responsibilities, and as the Vancouver school system expanded, it became necessary for the board to appoint executive officers such as City Superintendent, Secretary-Treasurer, and Building and Grounds Superintendent to whom administrative duties could be delegated. The board was then able to concern itself primarily with setting overall education priorities and policies and selecting, through its executive officers, the supervisors, officers, principals, teachers, and other employees required to turn the board's policies into practice. These employees often worked within divisions or departments such as building and grounds, health, primary work and physical education. For a more detailed history, please consult the inventory of the Vancouver School Board fonds.

Born in Prince George, Anna Leith completed her BA at the University of British Columbia in 1945. She joined the UBC Library in 1959, became head of the Science Division in 1961, and then head of Woodward Biomedical Library in 1967.

The Armed Forces at UBC oral history project was developed at the University of British Columbia in conjunction with the Aural History Institute in Victoria to document the history of military training on campus. Allen Specht conducted interviews during the summer of 1973 and spring of 1974 with fourteen prominent individuals in campus military organizations such as the Canadian Officers' Training Corps.

The UBC Association of Professors Emeriti was established in 1987 as a voluntary association of retired UBC faculty (academics, librarians, and senior academic administrators). To qualify for membership, a Professor had to be at least 65 years or older with five years of service at UBC, or be retired and have worked at least 25 years. It was a division of the UBC Alumni Association. The organization's main objective was to maintain a strong relationship with the University by putting the intellectual and academic resources of the Association at the University's disposal. The Association also aimed to serve as a forum for members to pursue matters of common interest and foster intellectual and social interactions. In February 2019, the Association dissolved, and its assets were transferred to UBC Emeritus College.

The Awards Office emerged in the mid-1970s at the University of British Columbia to administer student scholarship and bursary programs. In 1980 the name of the unit changed to Awards and Financial Aid, and its mandate extended to student loans. Byron Hender served as the first director of the Awards Office from 1974 until 1991. Carol Gibson, who served as director until 2001, succeeded him. Following a reorganization in 2002, the unit's functions were divided between merit and needs-based activities. These were reallocated between Student Recruitment, Admissions & Awards and Records, and Registration & Student Financial Assistance.