S. Wah Leung was born in China. He received his early education in Canada and attended UBC as a student from 1937 to 1939. After graduating from McGill University in 1943, he completed a Ph.D. in physiology at the University of Rochester (1950). From 1951 to 1960, he was associated with the Pittsburgh School of Dentistry. In 1961, Leung moved to the University of California and then to UBC in 1962 to become the first Dean of Dentistry. He retired in 1973.

The purpose of this committee was to secure a Centre for Gerontological Research at UBC.

A member of the University of British Columbia Class of '51 in Mechanical Engineering, Harry Palmer began his career as an engineer. In the late 1970s, his career interests began to shift from engineering to documentary photography. By the early 1990s, Palmer had photographed people and places across Canada and into France, Belgium and Holland. Palmer's documentary photographs have been exhibited internationally, and in 1992, his portrait work of the Companions of the Order of Canada was the subject of a book, 125 Portraits. After moving into creative digital photography, Palmer donated most of his conventional photographs to the National Archives of Canada in 1988. After that, he began to create images using 3-D computer software and printing with a sophisticated digital printer ("Giclée "). To mark the 50th anniversary of his graduation from UBC, Palmer donated a set of original, signed Giclée prints to the Faculty of Applied Science.

Eileen Constance Flanagan was born in Pontiac County, Quebec. After graduating from high school, she completed the nursing course at the Royal Victoria Hospital and later undertook post-graduate studies in England. Flanagan was selected to be the first Director of Nursing at the Montreal Neurological Institute, where she remained until her retirement in 1961. After retiring, Flanagan entered the Faculty of Law at McGill, where she concentrated on the nursing profession's legal aspects.

President Wesbrook convened the first meeting of the University of British Columbia teaching staff in his office in September 1915. Wesbrook indicated that while a general meeting of the Faculty might be called on occasion, administrative efficiency demanded a smaller body. Accordingly, he proposed the Faculty's formation, consisting of the Deans and Department Heads (or acting heads). Management would be assumed by several committees whose work would be reported to and passed by the Faculty. The initial committees included Library, Graduate Work, Courses and Calendars, Students' Standing and Administration, Military Education, Student Affairs and Academic Costume. This body operated until 1921, when the unitary system inaugurated by Wesbrook was discontinued, and each Faculty assumed management of its affairs.

The Law Society of British Columbia was established in Victoria in 1869. In 1874 provincial legislation provided for establishing an Incorporated Law Society of British Columbia with certain regulatory powers. The contemporary Law Society dates from the proclamation of the Legal Professions Act, 1884, which, for the first time, gave the society full authority over the practice of law in the province. For much of its history, the Law Society was the focal point of all professional legal activities. However, the advent of other organizations, such as the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, led to a review of this situation. As a result, in 1969, transferring several non-statutory responsibilities to the British Columbia Branch began. Since that time, the Law Society has focused its activities primarily on admitting individuals into the profession, establishing professional standards, and disciplining members.

Originally a member of the University of British Columbia Arts Class of 1926, Horace Wesley Fowler completed his MA in 1929 before pursuing a teaching career. He taught in the UBC Department of Physics for two years and then went to the former combined elementary-high school, which later became University Hill Secondary School. Fowler completed his Bachelor of Education in 1943. He died in 1963.

John Davidson was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and graduated from Gordon's College. As botany assistant and later curator of the Botany Museum at the University of Aberdeen from 1893 to 1911, he developed considerable plant classification and general biology skills. In 1911, he was appointed as British Columbia's first Provincial Botanist. Davidson established Canada's first botanical garden at Essondale's Colony Farm near New Westminster. In 1916, the 25,000 plants were transferred to the new Point Grey site of the University of British Columbia, and the garden continued to develop under his supervision. Davidson joined the UBC faculty in 1917 as an instructor of Botany. He remained at the university until his retirement in 1945. He was the founder and, until 1937, president of the Vancouver Natural History Society.

Leslie Thomas Fournier was born in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1901 to Tom and Lillian Fournier. The family moved to British Columbia in 1910, settling in Vancouver's West End. Fournier attended elementary school at Lord Roberts and then moved on to King George High School. He continued his studies at the University of British Columbia, earning a B.A. and M.A. in Economics in 1921 and 1923, respectively. Fournier completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, also in Economics, in 1927. Between 1924 and 1937, Fournier was a faculty member in Princeton University's Department of Economics, where he focused primarily on public utility regulation. During his time at Princeton, he consulted for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Commissioners. Also, he wrote and published Railway Nationalization in Canada: The Problem of the Canadian National Railways. In 1937, Fournier left Princeton to act as a financial consultant to the U.S. Government's Securities and Exchange Commission and remained there until 1946, when he joined Panhandle Eastern Pipe staff Line Company, acting first as vice-president charge of Economics. Four years later, he was also appointed Treasurer of the company. Leslie Fournier married Dorothy Brenchley on September 12, 1926. They moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey, where they had two daughters, Ann and Jane. Fournier died of a heart attack at his home on July 5, 1961.

Mabel Gray was born near Brampton, Ontario. She taught school for some time before enrolling in the nursing program at Winnipeg General Hospital in 1904. After graduation, she remained on staff as an instructor. Gray left the hospital in 1919 to study health nursing in Boston. She then spent several years in Saskatchewan, where she organized a course for nursing housekeepers. In 1925, Gray was appointed Assistant Professor of Nursing and Health at the University of British Columbia. In this capacity, she directed the nursing program until her retirement in 1941. Throughout her career, Gray participated in nursing organizations' affairs, national and provincial and, in 1927, served as president of the Canadian Nurses Association. Later she served as president of the Registered Nurses' Association of British Columbia. Gray's retirement years were spent in Vancouver. She enjoyed lawn bowling and at one time served as president of the Point Grey Lawn Bowling Club. Throughout the years, she maintained contact with the Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing. Up to her death, she took an active interest in the Vancouver branch of Alumni affairs.

UBC President Norman MacKenzie was a nephew to Archibald Oswald McRae.

Dorothy Lefebvre served as the first head of the Department of Home Economics. She resigned within a few years and was replaced by Charlotte Black, who served as director until the 1960s. In 1951, the program's status changed as it became the School of Home Economics, part of the Faculty of Arts and Science. It moved to a new building near the UBC Bookstore on East Mall in 1982 and was renamed the School of Family and Nutritional Sciences in 1984.

Elizabeth (Beth) Kenny McCann was born in Vancouver, graduated from VGH School of Nursing in 1939, and received a BA and BSc in Nursing from UBC in 1940. She joined the faculty at UBC's School of Nursing in 1947. She was director of the School of Nursing from 1968-71 and taught at UBC until 1982.

Wilbert Amie Clemens was born in Millbank, Ontario, in 1887. He attended the University of Toronto between 1908 and 1913, receiving a B.A. in Biology, with honours, in 1912 and an M.A. the following year. In 1915, Clemens received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He was an instructor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Maine, 1915-1916. Later Clemens became a lecturer and Assistant Professor in Biology and Limnobiology at the University of Toronto between 1916 and 1924. As part of his educational training, Clemens conducted investigations for the Biological Board of Canada at Georgian Bay (1912), the New York State Conservation Commission (1916), the Atlantic Biological Station, St. Andrews, New Brunswick (1918), the Biological Board of Canada at Lake Erie (1920), and Lake Nipigon (1921-1923). In 1924 Clemens became the Director of the Pacific Biological Station of the Biological Board of Canada. He remained in that position until 1940, when he became Head of the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia. Between 1935 and 1948, Clemens was in charge of investigations at Okanagan Lake, Teslin Lake, and Paul Lake. Retiring in 1952, Clemens remained at UBC as a Professor Emeritus until he died in 1964. He continued as a Special Lecturer in the Department of Zoology until 1959 and served as Director of UBC's Institutes of Oceanography and Fisheries between 1954 and 1957. Between 1959 and 1964, he had various appointments as a Special Research Associate for the Department of Zoology and the Institute of Fisheries. Clemens was a member of numerous professional societies in North America, including the Royal Society of Canada (fellow and section President), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow and member of the Executive Committee of the Western Division 1949-1952), the Fisheries Research Board of Canada (executive member), the Canadian Committee Freshwater Fisheries Research (President), and the Royal Commission on Fisheries, Saskatchewan (Chairman). A founding member of the Vancouver Public Aquarium, Clemens was also Vice-President of its association. Clemens received a Coronation Medal in 1953 in recognition of his scientific achievements.

The Combined Services Trust Fund organized scholarships for students in military service in conjunction with the Canadian Officers Training Corps (C.O.T.C.) Unit Trust Fund. The two trust funds combined and are today called the Canadian Armed Forces Memorial Scholarship. They provide scholarships to applicable students to commemorate those who gave their lives in the service of Canada.

Cameron MacLeod was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on February 20, 1958. He was a talented artist from an early age and produced the main body of his work from 1967-1981. According to those close to MacLeod, he underwent open-heart surgery at the age of three, which affected him psychologically for the rest of his life. MacLeod became mainly involved in art during his high school years at St. Georges School, where his art teacher Edward Gale was an important mentor. Gale helped to stage MacLeod's first exhibit in 1976 at the school. Jack Shadbolt was also a significant supporter of MacLeod during this time. After graduating from St. Georges, Cameron MacLeod completed an Honours B.A. in Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia and studied in London, Trois Riviéres, and The Banff School. While at Banff, MacLeod studied under Takao Tanabe and Alan Wood, who influenced his art. He also spent time travelling through Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s. MacLeod won various awards and scholarships and showed six exhibitions of his work during his lifetime.
Cameron MacLeod's art can be divided into four periods. From his time in high school and at UBC, the first period consists mainly of paintings of landscapes and graveyards. This period was influenced by the Group of Seven and Emily Carr and MacLeod's time in Haida Gwaii. The second period spans his time at The Banff School. It comprises landscapes and depictions of Indigenous encampments influenced by the Fauve School, Gordon Smith, Allen Jones, and Alan Wood. MacLeods third period of work, completed during his travels in France and England, is made up of landscapes influenced by Cezanne and Van Gogh. Francis Bacon and Giacometti heavily influenced his final period. MacLeod used charcoal and oil to create black and white pieces that often reflected the trauma of his open-heart surgery and represented, as curators Caroline Riedel and Meredith Temple described, a final journey inward.
MacLeod died of heart failure at age 25 in 1983, following a long struggle with anorexia. His work has been shown several times after his death. His family put on an exhibit in Vancouver in 2004 titled Beyond Presences: An Exhibition of Cameron Ian MacLeod (1958-1983), and in 2008-2009, the McPherson Library Gallery in Victoria put on an exhibit titled In Search of Lost Time: The Art of Cameron Ian MacLeod, 1958-1983.

Pressure to establish a Home Economics course at the University of British Columbia began as early as 1923. By the mid-1920s, the Provincial Parent-Teacher Federation mounted a campaign amongst BC women to establish a degree course at UBC. The organization initiated a fund to endow a chair, and by 1927 it had reached $11,000. The money came in small donations from across the province, and public demand for a program continued to accelerate. In response, the University instituted a Home Economics Degree Course in 1931, but deep cuts in University funding the following year resulted in the temporary suspension of the course. The Provincial Parent-Teachers Federation established a permanent committee in 1933 to oversee the use of the development fund, which continued to grow. In addition, the committee provided bursaries to eight students who had begun the UBC program to complete their education at another university. In 1943, the Senate and Board of Governors approved the re-establishment of the course at the earliest possible moment. The Parent-Teacher Federation turned over $20,000 to the University in 1945 to help finance the construction and furnishing of facilities on campus. Finally, after holding classes in the campus army huts and enduring a terrible fire in 1948, the new Home Economics Building opened in September 1949.
Dorothy Lefebvre served as the first head of the Department of Home Economics. She resigned within a few years and was replaced by Charlotte Black, who served as director until the 1960s. In 1951, the program's status changed as it became the School of Home Economics, part of the Faculty of Arts and Science. It moved to a new building near the UBC Bookstore on East Mall in 1982 and was renamed the School of Family and Nutritional Sciences in 1984. Administrative responsibility for the School was transferred to the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences in 1992, following an earlier academic review which recommended that the dietetics and nutrition programs be relocated in a science-based faculty. There was strong support for the move. There were already several close links between the School and Agricultural Sciences, particularly between the School's nutritional sciences program and the Faculty's departments of Food Science and Animal Science. By 1992 the School was offering a Dietetics program leading to a BSc (Dietet.) degree, a Family Science major leading to a BA degree, a Home Economics program leading to a BHE degree, a Nutritional Sciences major leading to a BSc degree, an MA in Family Studies, and MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Human Nutrition. The School was discontinued in 1999 -- the dietetics and nutrition programs remained within the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, while the family studies program was transferred to the School of Social Work.

An Ecological Reserve is an area of Crown land with the most special conservation designation within the British Columbia Protected Areas system. The purpose for designating an ecological reserve is for scientific research, establishing benchmark areas to measure changes in ecosystems, protecting biological diversity, protecting rare and endangered organisms, and preserving unique, unusual or outstanding natural phenomena. In the 1960s and 70s, Canada participated in a decade of research known as the International Biological Program (IBP); this involved describing essential sites on standard international check-sheets. In some cases, check sheets are the only source of information for many ecological reserves. The British Columbia Ecological Reserves Act was passed in 1971; this meant that BC became the first province in Canada to give permanent protected status to ecological reserves. As a result, BC has the world's most comprehensive environmental reserves program. As of 2015, there are 148 ecological reserves in BC.
The University of British Columbia Professor Vladimir Joseph Krajina (1905-1993) advocated for the formation of ecological reserves throughout the 1950s amidst the increase in logging in the province. Krajina had a remarkable life, having emigrated after World War II from Czechoslovakia, where he had been an Intelligence Service leader. During the war, he was captured, served time with his wife in a concentration camp and narrowly missed execution. After the war, Krajina joined the UBC Botany Department, where he taught plant ecology for over twenty years and developed a reputation as a distinguished teacher, botanist, ecologist, and conservationist.
Krajina argued for ecological reserves, emphasizing during debates on the reserve concept, "They [the ecological reserves] serve as genetic banks of paramount importance which accomplish a museum function. Distinctive, large, heterogeneous, natural gene pools of different organisms and especially indigenous trees are an irreplaceable resource." In 1968, in BC, Krajina's work, the Ecological Reserves Committee, was formed to advise selecting potential reserve sites to preserve in British Columbia. On May 4, 1974, the first 29 reserves received protective status by Order-in-Council, a conservation landmark. In 1974, a full-time ecological reserve coordinator was hired, and a volunteer warden program was put into effect in 1980.

Alice Victoria Borden (née Witken) obtained her B.A. at the University of California in 1930. She married the noted archaeologist Charles Borden in 1931. Borden studied at the University of Heidelberg (1935-1936), taught at her private kindergarten, and later became the first Director of the University of British Columbia's Child Study Centre (1961-1963). After that, she served as a professor in the Faculty of Education until 1970.

William McColl Armstrong was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1915 and graduated in Applied Science from the University of Toronto in 1937. Before becoming Dean of Applied Science at UBC, he was the head of the Department of Metallurgy for two years. After ten years in business with the Steel Company of Canada and the Ontario Research Foundation, he was appointed Associate Professor of Metallurgy at UBC in 1946. Between 1964 and 1974, he held the Head of the Department of Metallurgy, Dean of Applied Science, and Deputy President. In 1974, Armstrong resigned his position at UBC to become the first Chairman of the Universities Council of B.C. and was later appointed Executive Director of the Research Secretariat.
He played a vital role in the formation of TRIUMF, chaired the board of directors of the Tri-Nation body to construct a 144-inch telescope on the island of Hawaii, and served as a Director of WESTAR. His honours included an Honorary Doctor of Science from UBC in 1975 and his appointment as Member of the Order of Canada in 1982. Armstrong assumed leadership positions in the Engineering profession, the university community, and this province's educational system. He played an essential role as a member of Canada's Science Council, the National Research Council, and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. He was committed to the promotion of science and research in the nation's interest. He approached every task as a challenge and an opportunity to improve the quality of life for all Canadians. He died on July 6, 1990.

Gordon Smith was born in Brighton, England, in 1919. He began painting at a very young age under the guidance of his father and had formal training at the Winnipeg School of Art before going overseas to serve in World War II. He came to Vancouver in 1944 and spent a year studying at the Vancouver School of Art with Jack Shadbolt, Bruno Bobak and B.C. Binning. From 1946 to 1956, he taught at the School of Art, then joined the Faculty of Education at U.B.C. He remained until his retirement in 1982. From 1976 to 1981, he was an art advisor with the National Capital Commission and has held numerous short-term positions as visiting artist at universities across Canada. In addition, his work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada and the United States.

Ronald Dore was first appointed as Associate Professor of Asian Studies in 1956-57, and the same year twelve students enrolled in the Asian Studies courses. By 1959, other members of the Department included J. Ross Mackay, Wayne C. Suttles, Frederick H. Soward, and Ping-Ti Ho. The Department was officially established in 1961, and William L. Holland became the first Head of the Department. Ch'u T'ung-Tsu was appointed to teach Chinese history, and Liu Chun-Jo was appointed to Chinese Literature in 1962-63. In 1967-68 Leon Zolbrod was hired to teach Japanese literature. Edwin G. Pulleyblank became head of the Department in 1968; Peter Harnetty, 1975; Ashok Aklujkar, 1979; Daniel Overmeyer, 1986-87; Michael S. Duke, 1991; Ken Bryant, 1996; Joshua Mostow, 1999; Peter Nosco, 2003, Ross King, 2008 and Sharalyn Orbaugh appointed head in 2020.

John MacKenzie Norris was born on March 3, 1925, in Kelowna, BC, to Jean Mary Norris Denovan and Thomas Grantham Norris. At his birth, his father, T.G. Norris, was practicing as a lawyer in Kelowna and subsequently served as a judge on both the British Columbia Supreme Court and the British Columbia Court of Appeal. John Norris had an older sister and a younger brother, attended elementary schools in Kelowna and Vancouver, and graduated from Lord Byng Secondary School in Vancouver. He enlisted with the Royal Navy in 1943 and, after returning, attended UBC from 1946-1949, where he obtained both a Bachelor of Arts Degree (1948) and a Master of Arts Degree (1949). At UBC, he met Barbara Violet Casey, whom he married in 1947. They had one son, Thomas Norris. John Norris pursued additional graduate work at Northwestern University, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1955 and post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics.
In 1953, John Norris began teaching as an instructor within the Department of History at the University of British Columbia and in 1964 became a Professor of the Department of History. He published five books and numerous articles in the areas of administrative, economic and demographic history. During the 1970s, he began to change his academic focus towards the history of medicine. Over the next few decades, he specialized in studying the history of various diseases, including plague, cholera, and scurvy.
In 1980, John Norris was appointed Professor and Director of the Division of the History of Medicine and Science at UBC. He continued to serve in this role until his retirement early in 1990, when he was extended the title of Professor Emeritus in the History of Medicine. He continued to teach on a part-time basis until at least 2004.
Norris served on many boards and committees, including acting as the Chair of the Osler Medal Committee of the American Association for the History of Medicine (1978-1979); as Chair of the Programme Committee of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine (1983); and as the Chair of the Grants Committee of the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine (1980). At UBC, he served in such capacities as Chairman, University Curriculum Committee, UBC (1968-1974); as a Member of the University Senate (1964-1974); and as Chairman of the University Grievance Committee (1968-1969). In addition, he held an American Council of Learned Societies Graduate Fellowship, 1951-3; a Nuffield Commonwealth Fellowship, 1961-1962. A Canada Council Senior Fellowship, 1967-1968; and a Killam Senior Research Scholarship, from 1975-1976.
John Norris was an active member in politics, first in the CCF and subsequently of the NDP. In 1963, he unsuccessfully ran to be NDP representative for Vancouver Centre during the British Columbia Provincial election. John Norris died on May 2, 2010. At the time of his death, he was working on a history of cholera.

Laurence "Laurie" R. Ricou was born in Brandon, Manitoba, on October 17, 1944, and earned his B.A. at the University of Manitoba in 1965. He moved to the University of Toronto, earning his MA in 1957 and Ph.D. in 1971. Ricou then went to the University of Lethbridge, where he taught English for eight years, beginning in 1970. While at Lethbridge, he became a specialist in Canadian Prairie regionalism and prairie writing. In 1978 he moved to Vancouver and joined UBC's Department of English. Ricou has written or co-authored several books, including The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Northwest (2002), A Field Guide to Dungeness Spit (1997), Everyday Magic: Child Languages in Canadian Literature (1991), and Vertical Man/Horizontal World: Man and Landscape in Canadian Prairie Fiction (1973). He has also contributed numerous journal articles, conference papers and chapters for books.

The failure of the first University Act of British Columbia in 1891 and a desire to provide post-secondary education for students within the province led to McGill University and Vancouver High School (later Vancouver College) in 1899. The high school curriculum was extended to include the first two years of Arts. In 1903, Victoria High School (later Victoria College) also began an affiliation with McGill University. Although reluctant to establish an Indigenous higher education system, the B.C. Legislature passed an Act to Incorporate the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning which established McGill University College of British Columbia (MUCBC). The institution provided post-secondary education in the province from 1906 to 1915. During this period, plans to erect a new university on the Point Grey site were postponed. When the University of British Columbia opened on the Fairview campus in 1915, MUCBC was closed, and many of its students and faculty transferred to the new University.

The L'Ordre du Radis Manifique or Magnificient Order of the Radishes began at the University of British Columbia in 1960, apparently arising out of an initial interest in establishing a wine tasting club. The Order operated as a gentleman's club, and its membership included men from faculty and the University administration. The primary instigators for the formation of the Order were Stephen Jennings, Malcolm McGregor and Ron Jeffells. Over time participation in the Order grew based on invitations approved by its membership. The group generally met twice each academic term at the Faculty Club to enjoy collegiality, good food and drink, and socialize. The Order included only men throughout its existence, and according to John Chapman, female membership never arose. The Order continued to meet into the mid-1970s, by which time many of the original members had left the University.

Ronald Shearer was born in Trail, B.C. After completing his B.A. at UBC (1954), he studied economics at Ohio State University, receiving his M.A. (1955) and Ph.D. (1959). Shearer taught at the University of Michigan before joining the Department of Economics at UBC in 1964. He served as head of the Department from 1972 to 1976. In his time at UBC, he served on several committees that significantly affected the university and economic and constitutional issues in the province and Canada. These are a few: in 1971, Shearer, along with colleague Anthony Scott, prepared a submission for the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance. In 1977, Shearer wrote and distributed a brief to the Canadian Minister of Finance on proposed changes to banking legislation. In 1979 and 1980, Shearer served on the Academic Advisory Committee on Constitutional Changes. Shearer also led the Senate ad hoc Committee on University Organization at UBC. In this position, he led the process of reorganizing the university and its departments.

Neal Harlow was born in Columbus, Indiana, in 1908. He began as a librarian at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley in 1934 and served as the University Librarian of UBC from 1951-1961. His book The Maps of San Francisco Bay was published in 1950, immediately before he arrived at UBC. He was the founder of the Friends of UBC Library. He helped to found the School of Librarianship at UBC, later known as the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, now the School of Information or iSchool. Harlow was also a proponent of fine printing and bookmaking and brought his enthusiasm for the printer's craft to Vancouver. While serving on the President's Committee on University Publications, he was influential in improving the design of books and pamphlets bearing UBC's imprint, utilizing and encouraging the talents of local typographers. His work at UBC increased acquisitions tremendously, which led to an expansion of the library in 1960 with the addition of the South Wing. Harlow resigned from UBC on June 30, 1961, to become Dean of the Graduate School of Library Service, Rutgers University. He retired on June 30, 1969. After his retirement, Harlow renewed his research into early California history and wrote several articles and books on the subject. Neal Harlow died on July 13, 2000.

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, it played an essential role in developing the built environment of Greater Vancouver. Importantly for UBC's history, Sharp & Thompson won the competition in 1912 to design the Point Grey campus for the University. The firm built the first four original campus buildings and became the official architectural firm of the University, a position which it held until late into the 1950s. The company changed its name to Sharp & Thompson, Berwick, Pratt in 1945, when two new partners joined. When Sharp resigned in 1955, the name was changed again to Thompson, Berwick & Pratt. When the firm merged with two engineering companies who had worked with Thompson, Berwick & Pratt on past projects, the name was changed again to Thompson, Berwick, Pratt & Partners. Finally, the firm was re-organized and re-named Hemingway Nelson Architects in 1990.

Iva Mann is a long-time University Endownment Land resident and outspoken advocate for the area's designation as parkland. Mann, an activist who organized the "Save the UEL" committee.

UBC established the Technical Committee on the Endowment Lands in 1981. Its primary purpose was to act as a liaison between the University and the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) regarding the management of the University Endowment Lands. In particular, it advised and assisted the GVRD on research projects; provided technical information and advice to the GVRD on forest management; provided guidelines and reviewed UBC uses of the UEL forest for teaching and research; and made recommendations for how UBC development and activities could best fit with the UEL. After establishing Pacific Spirit Regional Park in 1990, the committee was re-named the UBC Technical Committee on Pacific Spirit Regional Park. The committee has not met formally since 1997, although its former chair has been consulted by the GVRD on various matters regarding the park.

By 1904, the movement for higher education in British Columbia had given rise to several organizations interested in pursuing the cause. In 1904, the University Graduates' Society convened in Vancouver to "make and co-operate in all efforts to secure a University (with endowments) for British Columbia." Several meetings of the Society were held with most of the discussion focusing on a proposed land endowment for a provincial university. Unfortunately, the local government was not yet prepared to provide the requisite funding for such an undertaking. However, the activity of the Society did help establish McGill University College of British Columbia in 1906.

Initial attempts to establish a commerce undergraduate degree program began in 1916, with the impetus coming from the Vancouver Board of Trade. Shortage of funds temporarily delayed the implementation of the suggested program, but continued interest resulted in the introduction of five courses in 1929. In September 1939, Ellis Morrow became head of a separate Department of Commerce within the Faculty of Arts and Science. Under Morrow's direction, the department grew, and in 1950, its status was changed to a school under the leadership of Earle D. MacPhee. Six years later, the Senate and Board of Governors approved the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration establishment, with Dr. MacPhee as Dean. UBC started helping establish overseas business schools in 1958, beginning in Malaysia, founded in 1961, and Singapore, founded in 1962. A partnership with Antai College of Economics and Management at Shanghai's Jiao Tong University was established in 2001. The faculty's name was changed to Sauder School of Business in 2003 after the most significant single private donation to a business school in Canada by William L. Sauder.

The Biological Discussion Club at the University of British Columbia began in the early 1920s. Its goal was to stimulate interest in biological subjects at the university by reading papers of general interest and by other means as determined by the club. In 1949 the name of the club was changed to the Biology Club. The club finally ceased operation in 1965.

William Osborn Richmond was born in Rouleau, Saskatchewan, in 1907. After completing degrees at UBC (BASc) and Pittsburgh (MS), he returned to UBC to teach in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering department in 1950. He retired in the early 1970s.

Gladys Wright (née Jack) was a member of the UBC Arts Class of 1923 and later became a teacher.

The rise of the Soviet Union as a world power after the Second World War led to an increased demand for knowledge about the Slavonic world. In response, the Department of Slavonic Studies was established in 1946, with James O. St.Clair-Sobell as its first head. The Department eventually offered courses in Russian and other Slavic languages, literature, history, and politics. Other heads of Slavonic Studies were Michael H. Futrell (1967-72), Bogdan Czaykowski (1972-89), Christopher J.G. Turner (acting, 1989-90), Klaus Petersen (acting, 1990-91), and Robert V. Kubicek (acting, 1991-92). In the wake of internal disputes and after the suspension of its Graduate and Majors programs in 1990, the Department was reorganized and renamed Russian and Slavic Languages and Literature in 1992. However, its programmes were never reestablished, and the Department was disbanded in 1994.

The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, also known as the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, is a member-based organization and the national voice for researchers in Canada's humanities and social sciences. Formed in 1996 through a merger of the Social Science Federation of Canada and the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, it is a non-profit charitable organization representing more than 85,000 researchers in 81 scholarly associations, 80 universities and colleges, and six affiliates across the country.

The first meeting of international mathematicians was held in 1893 as part of a scientific and cultural program organized with Chicago's World Fair. Encouraged by the success of the gathering, the participants moved to establish a congress regularly. The initial meeting of the International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Switzerland in 1897 and has become a quadrennial event since then. Successive congresses have provided an essential forum for information exchange, which has helped shape mathematical knowledge. In 1974, the ICM was held at the University of British Columbia.

The Canadian Union of Students (CUS) began in the late 1920s. The organization's primary objectives were to foster understanding and cooperation among students and advance Canadian students' legitimate interests. In the 1960s, CUS continually found itself in a swirl of political controversy. Some have suggested that the organization was transformed from a bland student bureaucracy during this period by leaders of the student New Left who sought to arouse student consciousness about significant social problems on the local, national, and international levels. However, the increasing political overtones in the organization led several universities, including the University of British Columbia, to withdraw from the CUS late in the decade. This action resulted in the transformation of the body in 1972 and its rebirth as the National Union of Students.

William Gibson is generally recognized as the most important science fiction writer to emerge in the 1980s. His first novel, Neuromancer, was the first novel ever to win the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards. Neuromancer is considered one of the most influential science fiction novels of the late Twentieth Century, and inspired a new genre in science fiction writing referred to as "cyberpunk”.
Gibson was born in 1948 in Conway, South Carolina, but spent most of his childhood in Wytheville, Virginia. In his youth he read a great deal of science fiction, and later became a fan of “Beat” writers like William S. Burroughs who had a great influence on his later writing. As a teenager he was sent to a boarding school in Arizona, but quit school without graduating. He moved to Toronto in 1967, in part to avoid the Vietnam War draft. While there he met Deborah Thompson – they travelled around Europe together before marrying and moving to Deborah’s home town of Vancouver in 1972.
Gibson studied English at the University of British Columbia. In 1977 he took a course on science fiction taught by Susan Wood. For his final paper in that course, Dr. Wood assigned Gibson to write a short science fiction story and submit it for publication. He wrote “Fragments of a Hologram Rose”, submitted it to the magazine UnEarth 3 (1977), and was paid $27. In 1979 Gibson wrote the short story "Johnny Mnemonic", which was published in Omni magazine. Editor Terry Carr at Ace Books encouraged him to try writing a novel. This novel would become Neuromancer which was published in 1984.
After Neuromancer, Gibson wrote Count Zero (1986), and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), which together comprise the so-called “Sprawl trilogy”. His next three novels, Virtual Light (1993), Idoru (1996), and All Tomorrow’s Parties (1999) constitute his “Bridge trilogy”, and were all science fiction bestsellers. Between those two series he collaborated with Bruce Sterling in writing The Difference Engine (1990) – this alternate history story, set in 1855 and featuring steam-powered computers, inspired the “steampunk” genre of science fiction. Gibson’s next three novels – Pattern Recognition (2003), Spook Country (2007), and Zero History (2010) – together known unofficially as the “Blue Ant trilogy” – are set in the contemporary world rather than a speculative future, and were featured on mainstream bestseller lists. His most recent novels The Peripheral (2014), and Agency (2020), marked his return to the science fiction field.
Gibson has published numerous short stories, many of which appeared in a collection of his work, Burning Chrome (1986). He has written screenplays, most notably for the movie Johnny Mnemonic (adapted from his short story of the same title), Alien 3 (never produced, but adapted into a graphic novel series), and episodes of the TV show The X-Files. Another notable project was Agrippa (A Book of the Dead), a collaboration with artist Dennis Ashbough. He has also written numerous non-fiction pieces – many of these are collected in Distrust That Particular Flavor (2012).

The University Loan Act (1921) empowered the British Columbia Provincial Government to survey and sell 3,000 acres of land in the Point Grey area as revenue for the University of British Columbia. This represented the beginning of the University Endowment Lands, which became an unorganized territory directly under the administration of the provincial government. In light of the unique administrative system, the residents of the district (locally known as University Hill) exerted little control over its governance. Consequently, the ratepayers formed the University Hill Ratepayers' Association to represent the area. While in the early days, the organization operated informally, it was later incorporated under the B.C. Societies Act.

Wilfrid Sadler was born in Haughton, Cheshire, England, on December 22, 1883. He was the son of James and Emma Sadler. His father had been prominent in agricultural and dairy organization work in Great Britain for many years. In his early years, he attended Wesleyan Schools in Nantwich and Teachers' School in Crewe. In 1906, he entered the British Dairy Institute at University College, Reading. He then became an Instructor in Dairying at Hampshire from 1907 to 1908 and Assistant Instructor in Dairying and Dairy Bacteriology at Midland Agricultural and Dairy College, Kingston, Derby, from 1908 to 1912. In 1912 he published a book entitled Bacteria as Friends and Foes of the Dairy Farmer. Sadler emigrated to Montreal in 1912 and was an Assistant in Bacteriology at Macdonald College of McGill University from 1912 to 1914. He received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Macdonald College in 1915 and gave the Valedictory Address at his class graduation. Sadler later graduated with an MSc from McGill. In his graduating year, he received two awards: the Macdonald College Gold Medal and the Governor-General's Graduate Research Medal. The inscription beneath his graduating picture in the college yearbook described Sadler in the following manner:
"A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the best of men."
The yearbook also described him as a debater and bacteriologist. After graduation, he became an Instructor in Dairying at Macdonald College. From 1916 to 1918, Sadler was involved in bacteriological research for the Biological Board of Canada. In 1918, he became the first appointment to UBC's newly created Department of Dairying in the Faculty of Agriculture. Besides his teaching activities, he was involved in bacterial research and contributed to public health and technical journals relating to dairying science. In 1922, Sadler became head of the department and served in this capacity until he died in 1933. Blythe Eagles succeeded him.

F. Malcolm Knapp taught forestry at UBC for over forty years. After completing degrees in forestry at the New York State College of Forestry and the University of Washington, he came to the University of British Columbia in 1922. He began his long association with the institution as a lecturer. At this time, the Department of Forestry had only been in existence for two years, and its staff consisted of himself and H.R. Christie. Knapp taught courses on logging, wood technology and forest products. In 1946, he was named Director of the University Research Forests, which consisted of the Campus Forest (a narrow belt southwest of the university) and the Research Forest (12,500 acres north of Haney, B.C.). In recognition of his contribution to the establishment of the forest, its name was changed in 1988 to the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. In addition to his teaching, Knapp also helped establish the Forestry Club in 1929 and, after the introduction of Spring Camp in 1948, he organized this annual event. Knapp retired in 1963 after completing forty-one years of service to the university.