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Volkoff Family fonds
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- Multiple media
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- Source of title proper: The title is based on the contents of the fonds.
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Fonds
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Physical description
72 cm of textual records and other materials.
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
George Michael Volkoff was a prominent theoretical physicist known for his pioneering work on neutron stars, his calculations for the design of the CANDU nuclear reactor during World War II, and his important role at the University of British Columbia as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. He was born in Moscow, Russia, on 23 February 1914. With his family, he emigrated to Canada when he was 10 years old – settling first in Winnipeg, then in Vancouver, where he attended Lord Roberts School. His father, Mikhail Mikhailovich Volkoff (spelled “Volkov” in Russia), was an engineer but could not find appropriate work in Canada. The family relocated to Harbin, Manchuria, in 1927, where George attended a Russian-language high school, and his father taught at a Russian technical school.
George returned to Vancouver in 1930 to attend the University of British Columbia, where he would earn a B.A. in physics in 1934, followed by an M.A. in 1936. He was a brilliant student, finishing top of his class in 1934 and winning the Governor-General’s Award. His mother died in Manchuria in 1928. His father returned to the Soviet Union in 1936, only to be caught up in the Stalinist purges of that period. In 1937 he was arrested and exiled to a work camp, where he died in 1940. Before this happened, however, he corresponded regularly with George. He also compiled his family history and collected various family documents, all of which he sent to his son before his arrest.
As a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, George wrote his pioneering paper, “On Massive Neutron Cores,” with J. Robert Oppenheimer as co-author. In this paper, he postulated the existence of neutron stars three decades before they were actually observed in nature. After earning his Ph.D. in physics at Berkeley in 1940, he continued to investigate topics in nuclear physics.
George returned to UBC in 1940 as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and, apart from his war work, remained there for the rest of his career – he was promoted to full professor in 1946. From 1961 to 1970, he was the head of his department, and in 1970 he was appointed Dean of Science, succeeding his brother-in-law Vladimir Okulitch – he held that position until his retirement in 1979.
During World War II, George lived in Montreal, where he worked in the Allied war effort at the University of Montreal, designing the first nuclear reactor to produce plutonium and other nuclear materials in connection with the Manhattan Project. It was completed in 1945, and the design became known as the CANDU reactor. For this, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1945 by UBC. In 1946, he was also made a member of the Order of the British Empire.
During the Cold War, George carried out important work as a liaison with scientists from the Soviet Union and translated many Russian-language physics articles into English. He served as the Canadian Association of Physicists president from 1962 to 1963. In 1994, George’s earlier work on neutron stars was largely acknowledged by his appointment as an officer of the Order of Canada.
In 1940 George married Olga Okulitch, whom he had met while he was a student at UBC. He had become good friends with her and her family. The Okulitchs were also Russian emigres – they had fled during the 1917 Revolution, eventually settling on a family farm in Abbotsford. Like George, Olga had been an outstanding student (B.A. 1933, M.A. 1935), majoring in bacteriology and microbiology, and was also an excellent scientist. While living in Montreal, she worked on the first commercial production of penicillin. She later taught at UBC and did research in industrial mycology. Olga and George would enjoy almost sixty years of married life together, living off-campus in the University Hill neighbourhood. They had three daughters: Elizabeth, Alexandra, and Olga.
Two of Olga’s brothers, Vladimir and George, also attended UBC, majoring in geological engineering and dairying. A third brother, Vladislav (“Lindy”), took the UBC agriculture occupational training course. Vladimir Okulitch became the first Dean of Science at UBC after the Faculty of Arts and Science was split in 1963; George eventually became general manager of Dairyland, and Vladislav became manager of the Okulitch family farm.
George Volkoff suffered a severe brain hemorrhage in 1996, which left him paralyzed but unable to speak. He spent the rest of his life in the extended care ward of UBC Hospital. He died on 24 April 2000. His wife Olga died on 10 January 2005.
Custodial history
Much of the Volkoff Family History series was created or collected by Mikhail Mikhailovich Volkoff before being sent to George Volkoff in 1937. After George Volkoff’s death, these materials and George and Olga Volkoff’s papers were kept by Elizabeth Bell (Volkoff) before being donated to UBC Archives in 2013 and 2022.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of records documenting the history of the Volkoff family, in particular the life and career of George Volkoff. It includes manuscripts, correspondence, research notes, academic records and other official documentation, certificates, published items, photographs (black and white prints of various sizes, black and white 35mm negatives, and digital scans from original prints), memorabilia, and digital media. The fonds is arranged in the following series: Personal – George and Olga Volkoff, Research and Reports, Published Articles, Volkoff Family History, and Photographs.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated to the University Archives in two accessions: by Elizabeth Bell in 2013 and by Elizabeth Bell and Alexandra Volkoff in 2022.
Arrangement
Language of material
- Chinese
- Russian
Script of material
Language and script note
Much of the manuscripts, correspondence, and official documents in the Volkoff Family History series are written in Russian (Cyrillic alphabet). However, some official documents from Harbin, Manchuria, are written in Chinese.
Location of originals
Oversized documents are stored separately in Box OVR 19. Two memorabilia items are stored separately in UBC Archives Artifacts Box 4. The CDs are stored in the Archives’ digital media collections. Item-level inventories are available for digital records; please ask archives staff about access. Photographs have been assigned series UBC 43.1/.
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Please see the finding aid for an inventory of files.
Uploaded finding aid
Associated materials
Sound recordings previously accessioned by UBC Archives include AT 0193-0195 "UBC during the Depression interview with Olga Volkoff" (transcript available). Also, AT 0716, "Reminiscences of Rudy Haering interview with George Volkoff," and AT 1758, an interview with George Volkoff as Head of the Department of Physics and Dean of Science. This interview has been digitized and is linked in the UBC Professors Emeriti Oral History Project fonds below.
Accruals
General note
The Volkoff family retains ownership of the two photograph albums, which were loaned to the Archives to allow for scanning selected photographs for the Archives’ collections. Photographs 43.1/59 to 43.1/116 are available as digitized images only. Please contact archives staff about access.
Physical description
Other materials include 163 photographs, memorabilia and compact disks containing 6.02 MB of digital records (1 pdf & 20 word docs).
Alternative identifier(s)
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Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- University of British Columbia. Dept. of Physics (Subject)
- Volkoff, Olga (Subject)