Marjorie Peebles was born in Devonshire, England and emigrated to Canada as a baby with her family. Peebles studied at King Edward High School in Vancouver before attending UBC. She studied Arts with a major in English and History. She married in 1942 to Professor Archie Peebles (1905-1981), a professor of Civil Engineering at UBC from 1931-1970. Marjorie Peebles was Vice-President of the Women's Faculty Club and later President, 1960-61.

Juta Kitching majored in German and French Languages and Literature at UBC and specialized in Finno-Ugric Linguistics during post-graduate studies at Indiana University (Bloomington). In addition, she has taught her subjects of expertise at various North American universities. An active member of several professional associations, Kitching helped found and develop the Finno-Ugric Studies Association of Canada (FUSAC) internationally. She served as its President and Secretary 1983-1993, writing newsletters and organizing conferences for members and scholars at extensive and editing proceedings, publishing articles and presenting papers. The FUSAC was founded in 1983. Since then, biennial meetings have been held mostly in conjunction with the Learned Societies. The association aims to promote Finno-Ugric studies in Canada and provide a regular forum for scholars to present papers on many research areas. It also works to initiate and maintain links with scholarly associations and academic institutions in other countries, primarily where research and teaching are conducted and stimulate awareness of Canada's Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian cultural groups.

Frank Theodore Gnup, head coach of football at the University of British Columbia, was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, in 1917. He attended Manhattan College in New York, from which he graduated in 1941 with a B.Sc. in physical education. He played football while at Manhattan, and in 1939 got an all-American honourable mention. At the time, he also played professionally under an assumed name. From 1941 to 1945, he served in the armed forces as a coach. Although drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1945, Gnup joined the old Ontario Rugby Football Union's Hamilton Wildcats as a playing coach. When the Wildcats merged with the Hamilton Tigers in 1950, he then joined the Toronto Argonauts. In 1955, Gnup came to the University of British Columbia, where from 1955 to 1973, he coached the Thunderbirds. After 1973, Gnup remained at UBC in semi-retirement, teaching physical education and coaching baseball and golf. Gnup's character, appearance and philosophy made him an institution on campus. Gravelly-voiced and cigar smoking, he inspired a whole generation. His coaching record at UBC was 55 wins, 102 losses and 5 ties. He was well known for his generosity, acting as a father confessor, counsellor, and job finder for his students. For many years, the Annual Frank Gnup Pigskin Award Banquet was the highlight of the athletic season at UBC. On this occasion, Gnup handed out awards inspired by some of the worst plays of the team. He manufactured the gifts at his home workshop from discarded items. Gnup died in Vancouver on September 27, 1976.

William Stewart Hoar was born in New Brunswick in 1913. He worked at the University of New Brunswick and Toronto and for Canada's Fisheries Research Board. In 1954 he was appointed to the Department of Zoology and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia. He became head of the Department of Zoology between 1964-71.

Gavin Dirom attended UBC from 1927-1932. During that period, he stared on the varsity Canadian Rugby (football) team as both a defensive guard and in the offensive backfield at the halfback position. Dirom was also a key member of UBC's track and field team. In March 1931, he was elected president of the Men's Athletic Association. Dirom graduated with a degree in engineering in 1932.

Israel Michael Lerner was a geneticist and evolutionary biologist. He studied genetics at the University of California Berkeley in 1936.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, James Playford Duncan undertook graduate physics and engineering at the University of Adelaide (M.E., 1954) and the University of Manchester (D.Sc., 1964). Duncan became a professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield in 1956. He came to the University of British Columbia in the same capacity in 1965 and retired in 1984.

Jan de Bruyn was born in Abcoude, Netherlands, in 1918. He obtained his BA from UBC (1949) and MA in English from London (1951). He joined UBC's Department of English as a lecturer and remained there until his retirement in 1983. De Bruyn was the founding editor of Prism and edited the departmental newsletter, The Newsense. After his retirement, he and his wife moved to Castlegar, BC, leading the Lifewriters. This group of senior citizens met regularly to tell and write stories about their lives; de Bruyn edited several published collections of their stories.

John Seymour Conway was born in London, England, and studied at St John's College Cambridge. He emigrated to Canada in 1955 and taught International Relations for two years at the University of Manitoba. In 1957 he joined the Department of History at UBC and continued teaching Modern European History and International Relations until 1995. In 1998 he was appointed the Smallman Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of History at Western Ontario. His research concentrated on the role of German Churches in the 1930s and 1940s. From this research, he wrote "The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933-1945". This book was first published in Britain in 1968, translated into German, French and Spanish, and reissued in 1997. His researches took him frequently to Germany, which he visited almost every year, including several sabbatical periods at various German universities. In 1970 he was a founding member of the Scholars' Conference on the German Church and the Holocaust. He wrote many articles dealing with the role of the European churches and the Vatican during the Holocaust and on Christian-Jewish relations during the twentieth century. He paid three visits to Israel and lectured at the Yad Vashem Memorial Foundation in Jerusalem in 1993. In 1995 he became the Director of the Association of Contemporary Church Historians and editor of its monthly newsletter, which has a worldwide audience. He was also a member of the editorial boards of Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte and the Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Conway played an active part in several associations connected with Vancouver's international relations, including being Chairman of the Vancouver Branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and the United Nations Association. For ten years, he was the executive vice-chairman of the Tibetan Refugee Aid Society of Canada. In this connection, he paid several visits to India. In 1977 he was awarded the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal for his services. He also served as a member of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster's Refugee Liaison Committee. He was long associated with the Student Christian Movement and the World University Service on the UBC campus. He acted for many years as the Faculty Advisor. He served for many years as the editor of the Newsletter of the Association of Contemporary Church Historians. He was also a faithful member of St James' Anglican Parish, Vancouver. Conway passed away on June 23, 2017.

After obtaining his Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia in 1924, John Gibbard embarked on a teaching career that lasted almost thirty years at McGee High School. In 1937, he completed his Master's thesis on the history of the Fraser Valley. Gibbard obtained his Bachelor of Education in 1946 and nine years later returned to UBC to serve as a special lecturer in the Faculty of Education. He retired in 1966 but remained active in the faculty for some time.

Ralph Brazelton Peck was born in Winnipeg, Canada. He grew up in Denver and received his engineering degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic. He was a Civil Engineer specializing in soil mechanics.

Charles Ripley was born in Lethbridge, Alberta. He studied engineering at the University of Alberta. In 1951 he founded Ripley and Associates in Vancouver, one of Canada's earliest soil mechanics consulting practices.

Harry Tremaine Logan was born on March 5, 1887, in Londonderry, Nova Scotia. He was educated at Vancouver High School; McGill University (Honors Classics, 1908); Oxford University (1908-11), where he was a British Columbia Rhodes Scholar; Presbyterian College (McGill, 1911-12); and New College Edinburgh (1912-13), where he studied Theology. Harry Logan and Gwyneth Murray met in Oxford in 1909. They were engaged to be married in 1911 when Logan returned to Canada. They were married in 1916, shortly after the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders arrived in England.

Lyle Creelman (née Morrison) was born in Nova Scotia and earned a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Arts Degree from Columbia University. Within two years of graduating, Creelman became Director of Public Health Nursing for the City of Vancouver. Shortly after that, she became President of the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia. For the next twenty-four years, she established national and international standards for accomplishments in the field of nursing. Some of these achievements included: Chief Medical Officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in the British zone of occupied Germany, where she pioneered specialized nurses training programs; Chief Nursing Officer with the World Health Organization, where she won acceptance for a philosophy of improved third world health care through adequate training of local workers; and co-author of the Ballie-Creelman Report, which was accepted for many years as the primary reference for the preparation of public health professionals in Canada. In addition, Creelman's accomplishments resulted in various forms of recognition, including the Medal of Service of the Order of Canada (1971), the Canadian Centennial Medal (1967) and Honorary Doctorate Degrees from the University of New Brunswick in 1963 and the University of British Columbia in 1992. Lyle Creelman died in Vancouver on February 27th, 2007.

A native of Ontario, Mollie Esther Cottingham grew up in Vancouver, received her BA from UBC in 1927 and, in the following year, embarked on her teaching career in the secondary schools of BC. She began teaching at Fernie in 1928 and then moved to Powell River (1935), Trail (1938) and Nelson (1940) before returning to Vancouver in 1943 to teach at Prince of Wales and John Oliver Schools. Cottingham enjoyed a keen interest in history, and while in Nelson, she conducted research that was later used to prepare her MA thesis about the West Kootenays (1947). Throughout her career, Cottingham actively participated in organizational affairs. In recognition of her service and talent, she became the first woman to hold the president's office for the BC's Teacher's Federation (1957-1958). After completing her presidential term, she joined UBC's new Faculty and College of Education, where she remained until her retirement in 1971. In 1967, Cottingham was awarded the Fergusson Memorial Award as the province's outstanding educator.

Renee Chipman (née Haweis) married William Wainwright Chipman in 1943. William Chipman died in the late 1950s.

One of the University of British Columbia's most distinguished chemists, Robert H. Clark, was born in Blythe, Ontario and received his university education at the University of Toronto (MA 1906) and the University of Leipzig (Ph.D. 1909). After teaching for seven years in American universities, he joined UBC's Department of Chemistry in 1916. Clark was appointed head of the department in 1927, which he held until his retirement in 1948.

Born in Vancouver, Robert James Clark completed his graduate work in Physics at McGill University and Canterbury. He returned to Vancouver and joined the University of British Columbia's Department of Physics in 1947 and remained active there until the early 1970s.

Desmond Pacey worked with UBC's Roy Daniells to create English Ph.D. programs at UBC and the University of New Brunswick. He was also an author of poetry and short fiction.

Constance Maynard Daniells (née Stevens) was born in England in 1876. In 1901 she married James Daniells, and they had one son, James Roy Daniells, who was born in 1902. She died in 1957.

Emily Faithfull was born in Surrey, England, in 1835. In 1860, she opened the Victoria Press in London and began publishing the Victoria Magazine in 1863. Faithfull is considered a pioneer for women's rights, particularly in relation to employment.

Thomas James Wise was born in Kent, England, in 1859. He became infamous as a book collector and forger.

Wilson Duff attended the University of British Columbia and graduated with a BA in 1949, and later received an MA in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1951. Duff was the curator of Anthropology at the BC Provincial Museum (1950-1965) and later a professor of anthropology at UBC. He was also on the Vancouver Museum planning committee and a consultant to study the National Museum of Man in Ottawa. In addition, he served as the Vice President of the Museums Association of BC and was later the President of the association from 1963-1965. Duff acted as an unofficial advisor to several First Nations organizations in BC. In particular, he held a role as the advisor to the Kitwancool. In addition, he testified in the White and Bob case in Nanaimo and the Nishga, which were cases related to land claims.

Laurenda Daniells, the first Archivist of the University of British Columbia, was born in Winnipeg in 1923. She graduated from the University of Manitoba with a degree in social work in 1945. Her first job was with the protection division of the Children’s Aid Society of Winnipeg. In May 1948, she married Roy Daniells, who was appointed as the head of the English Department at the University of British Columbia and moved with him to Vancouver. They purchased an empty lot on Allison Road in the University Hill neighbourhood, where they built one of the first homes in the progressive “West Cost Modern” style. They had two daughters, Susan and Sara, and the family travelled extensively to Europe and Africa. In 1959-1960, during Roy’s sabbatical supported by a Canada Council grant, she and the family spent a year in Europe. Laurenda also served three terms as a school board trustee and did a considerable amount of volunteer work. In 1969, Laurenda entered the one-year Library Science degree programme at UBC. Upon graduation, she continued with a six-week archival management course at the Public Archives of Canada. In 1970, she was appointed the first University Archivist at UBC Library’s Special Collections Division. In this position, Laurenda worked to bring some order to the institution’s historical records and eventually had established the University Archives on firm foundations.
During her time at UBC, Laurenda also served as the Faculty Association executive and the University Senate. She also did a one-year term as president of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C.In 1988, Laurenda retired with “University Archivist Emerita.” Afterwards, she continued her volunteer work, in particular, with the University Hill United Church. In her eighties, she enjoyed writing and began recording her life stories with the Brock Hall Life Writers Group. In 2016, these stories were collected in her published memoir, Royal Blood. Laurenda passed away on Wednesday evening, 4 January 2017.

David Frederick Measday was born in London, England, in 1937. He studied at King's College School, Wimbledon, before attending Wadham College, Oxford. There he earned bachelor's (1959) and doctorate (1962) degrees in physics. From 1962 to 1965, Measday was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University in Boston. He then went on to work at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1965-1970. In 1970 he joined the Department of Physics (later to become the Department of Physics & Astronomy) at the University of British Columbia, working with the university's new particle accelerator TRIUMF. From 1970 to 1975, he taught as an associate professor, earning full professor's rank in 1975. He was awarded UBC's Senior Killam Fellowship, which enabled his 1977/1978 sabbatical studies at CERN and the CEA Centre at Saclay, France. In 1990 he became Associate Dean of Science and in 1998 was Dean pro tem. In this capacity, Measday aided with the departments' reorganization within the Faculty of Science included the shift to computer-centred laboratories. After his retirement, he continued to be active with the President's Advisory Committee on University Enhancement. In addition, he spearheaded the naming of the Davidson Arboretum.

Joseph A.F. Gardner was Dean of the Faculty of Forestry from 1965-1983.

Barbara Gibson was a faculty member of the University of British Columbia's School of Librarianship (later the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, now the iSchool). She was also a UBC graduate of the Class of '35 and left in 1936 to pursue a nursing career.

In 1966 and 1967, Woodward Library acquired the Sister Mary Gonzaga letters, which came together with Florence Nightingale letters from Goodspeed Dealers in Boston. These letters were later transferred to Rare Books and Special Collections in 2013. At the time of the acquisition, Gibson became interested in Sister Mary Gonzaga's life, a Canadian nurse born in 1825 who spent most of her life in Britain. During the following years, Gibson compiled research materials from various other sources, mostly from the United Kingdom, to write a Sister Mary Gonzaga biography.

Martha C. Piper was born in Lorain, Ohio in 1945. Piper is the first woman to serve as President of UBC and the first person born outside Canada to have held the position. Piper holds a BSc in physical therapy from the University of Michagan (1967), an MA in child development from the University of Connecticut, 1970 and a Ph.D. in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University, 1979. Prior to serving as president at UBC Piper was Vice-President of Research and External Affairs at the University of Alberta. Piper took over from David Strangway and served as President of UBC from 1997 to 2006. She later served a second term as President, from September 2015 to June 2016. On this occasion, she was succeeded by David H. Farrar.

Ethel Johns, the first director of the School of Nursing at UBC, was born in England in 1879. She received her early education at Howell's School, Denbigh, North Wales. She spent her adolescent years with her parents and two brothers on the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, Ontario, where her father was the teacher. In 1895, Ethel Johns helped her mother with teaching duties in the Wabigoon School following her father's death. Cora Hind visited, by chance, shortly after Mr. Johns' death. She became interested in Ethel and helped facilitate her admission, in 1899, to the Winnipeg General Hospital Training School for Nurses. Following her graduation in 1902, Johns engaged in private duty nursing for a short time in Winnipeg. First, she spent a brief period relieving for the superintendent of a small hospital in Prince Albert. Next, she worked for one year as night supervisor of St. Luke's Hospital, St. Paul, Minnesota. She returned to the Winnipeg General Hospital in 1905. She worked in turn as a teacher, head nurse, and nurse in charge of the x-ray department, radiology then being in its infancy. In 1911, Johns was appointed superintendent of the McKellar General Hospital in Fort William, which she relinquished in 1913 due to her mother's illness, who had moved to California. In 1914, she went to Teachers College, Columbia University, to study the basic sciences, principles of public health, teaching methods, and nursing school administration. She returned to Canada in 1915 to accept the position of superintendent of The Children's Hospital of Winnipeg.
In 1919, Johns was appointed to the dual position of director of nursing service and education of the Vancouver General Hospital and coordinator of the newly established programme in Nursing at the University of British Columbia. Under her guidance, the five-year programme leading to the Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing) degree was established successfully. The Rockefeller Foundation, in 1925, invited Ethel Johns to become a member of the European field staff, to serve in an advisory capacity in a programme to develop schools of nursing to prepare young women who wished to enter the public health field. Before leaving for Europe, Miss Johns carried out a particular assignment for the Foundation: a survey of nursing education for Black women in the United States. Upon completing this task, she became a field director of the Foundation's nursing programme in Europe. She assisted in developing nursing schools connected with universities at Debrecen, Hungary and Cluj, Romania. Upon her return to the United States in 1929, Johns served as Director of Studies for the Committee on Nursing Organization of the New York Hospital - Cornell Medical College Association Project. She was later appointed nurse associate to the Committee on the Grading of Nursing Schools. She collaborated with Blanch Pfefferkorn in writing An Activity Analysis of Nursing, a report on one aspect of the Committee's work. Johns returned to Canada in 1933 to become the editor and business manager of The Canadian Nurse, which she held until her retirement in 1944. The Canadian Nurses' Association recognized Ethel Johns' distinguished contribution to nursing by awarding her, in 1940, the Mary Agnes Snively Memorial Medal and granting her, in 1958, an honorary life membership in the Association. Mount Allison University, in 1948, conferred upon Ethel Johns the degree, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
Ethel Johns's retirement was mainly spent in Vancouver. During this period, she collaborated with Blanche Pfefferkorn in writing a history of the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing. Ethel Johns was the author of the 1867-1907 section of the History. She researched for this period primarily at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Still, she also gathered some data in New York, where she had access to the papers of Mary Adelaide Nutting with the permission of the executor, Isabel Maitland Stewart. During her retirement, Miss Johns also edited and composed for the J.B. Lippincott Company a series of pamphlets entitled Just Plain Nursing. She also wrote a history of the Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing. Johns died in Vancouver on September 2, 1968.

Born in London, England, William Griffiths Black came to Canada in 1903 and attended UBC from 1919 to 1922. Before earning his MA from the University of Chicago (1926), he taught elementary and high school. He later became Associate Professor of Education at UBC (1929-1940). After serving, Black was appointed regional liaison officer for the province in the Citizenship Branch of the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration while lecturing concurrently in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at UBC. In 1964, he was appointed Director of Vocational Counselling for BC.

Margaret Anchoretta Ormsby was born in 1909 in Quesnel but spent most of her childhood in the Okanagan Valley. In 1925, she enrolled at UBC, earning a BA (1929) and MA (1931) in History. Ormsby began her Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, in 1931, interrupting her studies between 1934 and 1936 to work as a teaching assistant in the Department of History at UBC. After completing her Ph.D. in 1936, she taught in the United States for three years. In 1940, Ormsby became a lecturer in the History Department of McMaster University. She returned to UBC to teach in 1943, becoming a professor in 1955 and the Head of the History Department in 1965. She held the position of head until she retired from the University in 1974. During the 1970s, Ormsby taught courses at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario. Between 1960 and 1967, she chaired the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. In addition, Ormsby made several literary contributions to the field of Canadian history, including British Columbia: A History (1958) commemorating the centennial of the designation of BC as a crown colony, A Pioneer Gentle Woman in British Columbia: The Recollections of Susan Allison (1976), and Coldstream ‐ Nulli Secundus (1990), as well as numerous entries to journals and encyclopedias. She received honorary doctorates from each of the significant universities in BC and the Insignia of the Order of British Columbia. Margaret Ormsby died in 1996.

Edgar C. Black was the first member of the Department of Physiology, now the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at UBC.

Kenneth Argue was a distinguished member of UBC's Faculty of Education and Department of University Extension from 1946 to 1974, specializing in educational philosophy and intellectual history. Born in Vegreville, Alberta, in 1906, he received a BA from the University of Alberta in 1931, a teacher's certificate the following year, an MA from Oxford in 1936, and a D.Ed. from Columbia University in 1940. Before arriving at UBC, Argue held several teaching positions (elementary, secondary, and post-secondary) in Canada and the United States. He also served several times as a consultant on education matters, notably in commissions of inquiry into the financing of education in Canada (1945) and the reorganization of the education system in Newfoundland (1947-49). He wrote a textbook, The Development of Education Theory, published in 1951, and was instrumental in developing UBC's B.Ed. Curriculum. In addition to his regular teaching duties, he taught summer courses on the history of education. He served as Director of Summer Session from 1954 to 1964. He also served with several education commissions and associations. Although he officially retired in 1971 and was named Professor Emeritus of Education in 1972, he continued to work as a sessional lecturer until 1974. Argue died in 1994.

Noted British Columbia artist and art educator Sam Black was born in Ardrossan, Scotland, on 5 June 1913. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Arts in 1936. After receiving his Teachers Certificate and Art Teachers Diploma in 1937, he taught art in primary and secondary schools in Scotland. Black also continued his study of art in London, Paris and Brussels before World War II. When the war began in 1939, Black enlisted in the Royal Scottish Fusiliers and received a commission in the Officer Corps. Shortly thereafter, he became a camouflage officer. Black saw military action in France, Belgium and Germany and was decorated with three military stars, the Defence Medal, an Oak Leaf and the Belgian Medaille Civile for bravery. During the war, Black also worked for the War Artists Advisory Committee. His paintings are now in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum in London. Black married Elizabeth Morton Howie on 3 May 1941. Following the war, Black served as a school inspector for the British Ministry of Education from 1946 to 1949 and then as a Principal Lecturer in Arts at the Jordanhill Training College in Glasgow. In 1957, Black was a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia, teaching art at the summer school session. The following year, he joined the faculty at UBC as a professor of fine arts and art education. He enjoyed a distinguished career at UBC, remaining there until his retirement in 1978. In 1970, Black became the second faculty member to receive the Master Teacher award. Black's numerous public speaking engagements allowed him to share his ideas about art and education with various audiences. Black also contributed to the professional literature in his field. He participated in various art and education organizations -- he was a founding member and vice president of the International Society for Education Through Art. He served as president of the Canadian Society for Education Through Art.

Black was also one of British Columbia's most outstanding artists. He was an accomplished artist in watercolours, acrylics, oils, and graphic prints: woodcuts and lithographs. Throughout his career, Sam Black received many honours and awards for his artwork. He was elected to the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colour (1953), the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour [CSPWC] (1963) and the Print and Drawing Council of Canada (1964). Black received the CSPWCs Honour Award for "Me and My Straw Hat" (1983), "Church at Castro Marin" (1985), and "Encroaching Flowers" (1992). His painting "Old Pals" was selected for the CSPWCs Diamond Jubilee Collection presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for the Royal Collection of Drawings and Watercolours at Windsor Castle. A Black print was selected for reproduction as part of the Expo 86 print collection. One of Black's most prestigious honours came in 1977 when he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 1990, the City of Vancouver commissioned Black to design street banners. Perhaps one of the unique tributes paid to Black came in the form of Stewart Grant's concert work for a full orchestra inspired by the coastal imagery of Black's paintings and prints. The "Sam Black Sketches" consists of nine inter-connected sections based on a single piece or collection of pieces. The world premiere of "Sketches" took place at the Yates Memorial Centre in Lethbridge, Alberta, in May 1988 [a recording of the performance is included in the fonds.] "Sketches" was later performed in other Canadian cities and was also broadcast by CBC radio. Although accomplished in many art forms, it is perhaps his watercolour paintings for which Black is best known. While his watercolours and other artwork include many different subjects, there is a "maritime" theme throughout much of his work. In particular, his art depicts land- and seascapes along the British Columbia coast. The affinity for maritime life probably dates back to his childhood growing up in Adrossan, a coastal town in western Scotland. His family home overlooked a small harbour. Black's father, James, who served in the Royal Navy, built boats with his son, who often went to an offshore island to study birds, a subject which would later become a common element in his artwork. Black often carried a sketchbook around with him wherever he went. These sketches served as a sort of memory or reference for possible future paintings. He also took many photographs, particularly during his travels. Still, he later explained that he preferred sketching his subjects because that would allow him to focus on various aspects, including proportion, scale, patterns, etc. Black was a powerful proponent of accurate observation and recording and talked about the importance of attention to detail. The artist heeded his own advice is evident from his artwork, particularly in his rendering of groups of seagulls, geese or crows where each bird is individually positioned and seems to project its own unique personality. Following his retirement from UBC, Black and his wife Elizabeth retired to Bowen Island. For many years Black had commuted between Bowen Island and Vancouver. There he continued to create many new paintings and other artwork. During his retirement, he continued to be recognized nationally and internationally for his outstanding creativity. In 1990, UBC honoured Black by conferring upon him the degree Doctor of Letters, honoris causa.

In June and July of 2004, York University professor Megan Davies used funding from Associated Medical Services (Toronto) to conduct field research into the history of BC's radical homebirth and midwifery movement, which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, linked to feminist, counter-culture, and back-to-the-land impulses. In the 1950s & 60s, parents allied with a small group of sympathetic health practitioners endeavoured to create a sustained critique of the standard hospital birthing procedures. They regarded hospital birthing as pathologizing and medicalizing the natural birth process. Often drawing inspiration from Indigenous rituals and practices, they sought to redefine birth not as a medical event but as a spiritual experience meant to take place within the context of home, family, and community. Within these communities, certain women were deemed midwives. This designation was not done not by a professional body but by the nature of their practice and their status in the community. These community midwives operated on the margins of medicine, practicing for the most part well beyond the confines of the sometimes-antagonistic hospital boards and staff but intersecting with medicine through formal or informal education, medical practice, and connections with sympathetic doctors and nurses. Thirty-four individuals were interviewed, including women and partners who had homebirths, community midwives, doctors and nurses. A decision was made to videotape the interviews. The project research assistant, UBC midwifery student Sarah Jane Swartz did the filming. Oral history interviews were conducted in the Kootenays, Vancouver, Victoria, Salt Spring Island, and Black Creek.

Chantal Benoit, a member of Canada's Wheelchair Basketball Team, competed for Canada at five Paralympic Games, winning three gold medals (Barcelona, 1992; Atlanta, 1996; Sydney, 2000) and one bronze (Athens, 2004). She was Canada's flag bearer at Athens in 2004.

Elaine Brière is an award-winning documentary photographer and filmmaker. Raised in Nanaimo, BC, Brière rediscovered photography in the 1960s while a student at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Master's in Liberal Studies. Her first documentary film, Bitter Paradise the Sellout of East Timor, was released in 1996. The Story of Canadian Merchant Seamen was released in 2004; this is a documentary about the privatization of Canada's merchant sea fleet after World War II and the dismantling of the Canadian Merchant Seamen's Union. Brière continues her work as a writer, photographer and filmmaker.

Playwright, theatre director, and professor of theatre, literature and writing, Douglas Henneck Bankson (May 13, 1920, to July 14, 2015) was born in Valley, Washington. After earning a BA in journalism from the University of Washington in 1943, Bankson enlisted in the US Navy and served as an officer on a sub-chaser in European and Philippine waters. While in the service, he married his high school sweetheart Beverly Carson (1922-2009) of Tacoma. After his discharge after the war, the family moved to Seattle.
Bankson worked for the Seattle Post Intelligencer while pursuing his Ph.D. in Victorian literature at the University of Washington. He served as the first Research Director of the Frye Public Art Museum in Seattle (1951/52). While living for a year in Sicily, he co-wrote an unpublished novel with fellow English graduate Wallace Graves. Bankson spent two years teaching English and humanities at the University of Idaho before moving on to the University of Montana, first as an assistant professor of English (1957-1959) and then as associate professor of drama, associate director theatre and resident playwright (1959-1965). He also served as the Masquer Summer Theatre director in Missoula, Montana (1961-1965). While at Montana, his colleagues in the Fine Arts Department included Walter Hook, Jay Rummell, and Rudy Autio, which helped nurture Bankson's artistic interests. Throughout his lifetime Bankson produced wooden sculptures that have been exhibited in public museums and private galleries in the US and Canada. However, he preferred to create for private collectors and his enjoyment.
In 1965, Bankson accepted an invitation to join UBC's new Department of Creative Writing. He taught drama and writing for stage and radio from 1965 to 1985. In addition to teaching, Bankson wrote prolifically. Many of his plays were produced and broadcast in Canada and the US during this time. While at UBC, Bankson became involved in campus and community affairs. Bankson participated in the University's Contemporary Arts Festival and as a drama editor for Prism International. He was also a governor for the Dominion Drama Festival. In 1970, he co-founded with Sheila Neville the New Play Centre (NPC), which, based on writing techniques used by Bankson, provided a forum for developing, producing, and promoting original plays. The NPC fostered several recognized theatre stalwarts, including Sharon Pollock, Margaret Hollingsworth, Leonard Angel, Tom Cone, Sherman Snukal, Sheldon Rosen, John Lazarus and Ted Galay. It maintained a steady stream of productions for more than twenty years.
Bankson replaced Robert Harlow as head of the Creative Writing Department in 1978 and remained until his retirement in 1985. In recognition of his significant contributions, Bankson was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award by the Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance in 1984. He and Beverly moved to Gig Harbour, Washington, where Bankson continued writing and sculpting after his retirement.

Mary Louise Bollert was the first Dean of Women at the University of British Columbia. She arrived at UBC in 1921 in the new role of Advisor to Women and became Dean of Women in 1922, when her position was renamed. She remained at UBC as Dean of Women until her retirement in 1941. She also held the Assistant Professor of English position and was a member of the UBC Senate from 1933 to 1941. She is remembered for her fight to create proper resident accommodation for women and for creating a women's student loan fund to help women. She possessed a strong belief that educated women could work together to change society for the better. Mary Bollert Hall, at 6253 Northwest Marine Drive, built initially as a women's residence, is named after her.
Mary Bollert was born in Guelph, Ontario, to Malinda (née Bowers) Bollert and Ernest Robert Bollert. Mary Bollert had three younger sisters, L. Grace, Helen, and Florence. She attended high school in Guelph. Subsequently, she attended the University of Toronto, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages.
There is confusion over the exact dates and titles of post-graduate degrees she obtained. However, she did receive a graduate degree at the University of Toronto, studied at the Ontario Normal College, and subsequently obtained an additional post-graduate degree from Columbia University in New York. During her time in New York, she held posts as Principal of Alma College in St. Thomas. In addition, she taught at Curtis High School, Horace Mann High School and Teacher's College, Columbia University.
After her time in New York, Mary Bollert returned to Canada and worked as Dean of Women and Professor of English at Regina College (likely from 1914 to 1917 though here, too, there remains confusion as to dates and her exact title). Before 1917, she began work in Toronto with the Robert Simpson Company as its Director of Education and Social Work. In 1917, she accepted the additional role of Superintendent of Sherbourne House, a private club for businesswomen and girls in Toronto. Her sister, Florence Bollert, began as Mary's secretary at Sherbourne House in 1917 and subsequently became Superintendent from 1921to 1946. During her time at UBC, Mary Bollert was involved with many organizations. In 1926 she was one of two women representing Canada at the Institute of Pacific Relations in Honolulu. She was a Canadian representative at conferences of the International Federation of University Women in Paris, Geneva, and Edinburgh. She was a speaker at the International Congress of Women in 1933. In 1934 she was selected to tour Japan as one of 12 women who held the position of Dean of Women at universities across North America. When she passed away in 1945, she was the International President of the Pan-Pacific Women's Association, a position she was first elected to in 1937.
Additionally, Mary Bollert was a charter member of the Soroptimist Club, Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Student Christian Movement, UBC, National President of the University Women's Club, Honorary Secretary of the Women's Canadian Club, Honorary Regent of the University Chapter of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, member of the Toronto University Alumni Association, member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, as well as a member of St-Andrew's-Wesley United Church in Vancouver. The tradition of the time was at retirement; Deans were bestowed an Honourary Doctorate. All Deans were honoured in this way. However, Bollert never received an Honourary Doctorate.

John "Harry" Gilbert Smith BSF (Hons) (1949) UBC, MF (cum laude) (1950)., Ph.D. (1955) Yale., RPF) was a Professor in the Faculty of Forestry from 1950 to 1991. In 1983 when the Faculty divided into departments, he became the Department of Forest Resources Management's first head. Additionally, he sat as chair of several committees within the Association of British Columbia Professional Foresters, served as president of the Canadian Institute of Forestry in 1980 and was the director of Gilbert Smith Products Limited of Barriere, British Columbia.

David C. Walker earned his two bachelor's degrees at the University of California Santa Barbara, one in zoology in 1968 and one in botany in 1970. He then completed a MA in botany at UCSB in 1972 and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in botany in 1980. In 1979 he became a research assistant with the Pulmonary Research Lab, and in 1983 Walker became an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UBC. In 1996 he was promoted to associate professor. During his career with UBC, Walker supervised the Electron Microscopy Laboratory of the Pulmonary Research Laboratory at St. Paul's Hospital (later the James C. Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research) and continued to perform his research in the areas of mechanisms of airway epithelial permeability (especially following cigarette smoke exposure), the morphological aspects of the process of leukocyte migration from pulmonary blood vessels into the airspaces in response to types of pneumonia. He also taught several classes and served as a graduate advisor.

Florence McNeil, a UBC graduate, successfully wrote poetry and fiction for adults and children. She won many awards for her work. In addition, some of her novels were translated into other languages and adapted for film. Perhaps her most well-known work was Breathing Each Other's Air. She also wrote for UBC's student newspaper "The Ubyssey" and the CBC radio program Canadian Short Stories. She also taught at a high school and three Universities Western Washington, Calgary, and UBC.

Lucy Mary Haweis (née De Vergette) of Peterborough married Lionel Haweis in England. In 1907 the family emigrated to Canada.

Hugh Reginald Haweis was a minister and writer. Ordained in 1862, he became curate of St. James, Marylebone in 1866. He was husband to author Mary Eliza Haweis and father to the painter Stephen Haweis.

John Neil Sutherland was born in Chilliwack in 1931. He was a graduate of the Provincial Normal School, the University of British Columbia (MA), and the University of Minnesota (Ph.D.). As a teacher and historian, Neil taught in Oliver, West Vancouver, and in the Faculty of Education at UBC. He also enjoyed his time as a visiting professor at universities in the United States, Scotland, Australia and Sweden. A pioneer in the field of social history in the 1960s and 1970s, he published significant work throughout a long and productive career on the history of children and childhood in Canada.

Adam Smith was a Scottish economist, philosopher, pioneer of political economy and a figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.

Ian Simpson Ross was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1930. He received his BA in English Language and Literature from the University of St. Andrew's (1954), a B.Litt. from Oxford University (1956) and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas (1960). After completing his Ph.D., Ross joined the University of British Columbia's Department of English as a lecturer. In 1982, he became department head. Ross became Professor Emeritus of English in 1993.

Stanley E. Read was born on February 7, 1900, in Rock Island, Quebec. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1923 and a Master of Arts in 1925 from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. After going to France on a scholarship from 1925 to 1927 and temporary employment at Bishop's College in St. John's, Newfoundland, Read moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1928 to work as an English Professor at DePaul University. While in Chicago, he met his wife, Ruth Read, whom he married in 1940. In 1946, Read moved to Vancouver and joined the Department of English at the University of British Columbia. He continued to teach in the department until his retirement in 1971. Read passed away in Vancouver on April 8, 1997, at the age of 97.

Read's lasting contributions to the University of British Columbia are numerous. In 1953, Read was one of the eight UBC professors. Along with writer Roderick Haig-Brown, they started a foundation at UBC with a small sum of money accumulated from various bets and fines for illegal or non-ethical fishing methods during a group fishing holiday at Upper Campbell Lake. The foundation, playfully called The Harry Hawthorn Foundation for the Inculcation and Propagation of the Principles and Ethics of Fly-Fishing, used its proceeds to purchase books on angling and game fishing for the UBC Library over time; produced what is now known as the "Harry Hawthorn Foundation Collection." For 34 years, Read was the Secretary of the foundation and organized their annual fishing trips. Read was also instrumental in the organization of UBC's International House and played a formative role in the founding of Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review.

Read wrote several articles, books, bibliographies, and book reviews about his academic interests and fishing hobby. Publications by Read include A Bibliography of Hogarth Books and Studies, 1900-1940 (DePaul University, 1941); Documents of Eighteenth-Century Taste (DePaul University, 1942); What Manner of Man Was He? Andrew Carnegie and Libraries in British Columbia (University of British Columbia, 1960); More Recreation for the Contemplative Man: A Supplemental Bibliography of Books on Angling and Game Fish in the University of British Columbia (compiled with Laurenda Daniells, 1971); and A Place Called Pennask: A Capsule History of the Pennask Lake Company Limited and the Pennask Lake Fishing and Game Club (Mitchell Press, 1977).

Read was also a hobbyist photographer and took many photos during his fishing trips and vacations with Ruth's wife. His photographs were featured in British Columbia: A Centennial Anthology (McLelland and Stewart, 1958). One of his photographs was used for the book's cover A Small and Charming World (Creekstone Press, 2001).

James E. Thornton (b. 1927) received his MA (1967) and Ph.D. (1972) in Adult Education from the University of Michigan. From 1969 until his retirement in 1992, Thornton taught in the Administrative, Adult and Higher Education Department at the University of British Columbia. His research interests concern the impact of educational, social and economic programs on the development and well-being of older adults. Current research interests are education for the third age: second careers, retirement, leisure activity, ageing in the workforce, and life-span learning and education. At UBC, Thornton introduced a graduate course in educational gerontology and ageing themes. From 1980 to 1990, he served as co-ordinator for the Faculty of Graduate Studies Committee on Gerontology. The Committee encouraged teaching and research programs in faculties, schools and departments.

Born in England, James St. Clair-Sobell received a B.A. (1935) and MA (1937) from Melbourne. In 1946, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Graz. He became one of Britain's most accomplished linguists and philologists. St. Clair-Sobell was appointed to the newly-created Chair in Russian and Slavonic Studies in the late 1940s at UBC, and he later developed the Department of Slavonic Studies.