This hand-bound and beautifully illustrated volume, together with its hand-crafted display case, was presented by the University of British Columbia Faculty Association to the University in 1935.
In 1933 the Faculty Association began considering a means by which it could honour its deceased members. It was eventually decided that a memorial book, listing the names and accomplishments of their colleagues – those who had died either while in the service of the University or after their retirement – would serve as a suitable tribute.
The Association hired E. Geoffrey Cullwick, professor of electrical engineering at UBC and an amateur bookbinder of great skill, to construct such a book of the finest materials available. J. Roy Ogston was retained as calligrapher and illustrator. The display case or "repository" was designed by UBC’s official architects, Sharp & Thompson, and built by the University’s cabinet maker. The original budget of $150 was later supplemented by the University administration to allow completion of the case.
The finished Memorial Book was delivered to the Faculty Association at its annual general meeting of October 3rd, 1934. All those present agreed that it was a work of fine craftsmanship and outstanding beauty. Unfortunately Dr. Cullwick was not present, having recently transferred to the Military College of Science in Woolwich, England. However, in response to the Association’s letter of thanks and appreciation he wrote:
… I am very glad indeed that I had the privilege of leaving behind me this book which is for such a sacred purpose. It was a labour of love, and to me was but a poor token of my feelings for the University and the Faculty, as a member of which I spent six very happy years....
Guidelines also had to be developed for determining whose names should be included in the book. After a great deal of discussion, the Association eventually decided that the Memorial Book should include "the names of members of the Faculties of the University of British Columbia" who had died either while in the University’s service or after their retirement; the names of teaching staff of the affiliated colleges (at that time Victoria College, Union College, and Anglican Theological College); and "such other names as may be proposed from time to time by a Memorial Book Committee, to be appointed by the President [of the University]".
The Memorial Book and Repository were officially unveiled by His Excellency the Earl of Bessborough, Governor-General of Canada, on April 9th, prior to being granted an honorary degree. After being welcomed at the Library by Chancellor R.E. McKechnie, President L.S. Klinck, and other University dignitaries, the Governor-General entered the Faculty Common Room where the book rested in its display case. The President of the Faculty Association spoke eloquently about the book and the motivation behind its creation, calling on the Chancellor "to accept this gift in the University’s name", and concluding:
In selecting the epitaph which appears on the outer cover of the book it was felt that nothing could be more fitting than the noble words from Pericles’ immortal oration over the Athenian dead, "… woven into the stuff of other men’s lives".
The Governor-General then opened the book to its fly-leaf and signed his name.
The University Librarian, John Ridington, had been appointed "Custodian" of the Memorial Book by the Faculty Association, and in that capacity he and his successors kept the book in the Library – first in the Faculty Room, later in the front hallway.
The book quickly became well-known within the University community and beyond. In August 1935, in the wake of the death in an airplane crash of Reginald Brock, Dean of Applied Science, Alan P. Morley wrote in the Vancouver Sun:
[T]he Book of Remembrance [is] the most valued of all the tens of thousands of books within [the Library's] grey stone walls, for in it the Faculty records those of its number who have lived and worked and died in the service of the University.
Now the name of Reginald Walter Brock has been added to its pages.
This is a name which will bear itself proudly among those already there, for... if any man’s work has been woven into the stuff of other men’s lives, it is the work of the man who died with such tragic suddenness this week….
In the ensuing years, the President’s Memorial Book Committee met periodically to make recommendations for updating the book. The committee would come to include several prominent faculty members, among them Garnet G. Sedgewick, Alden F. Barss, Frederick H. Soward, and John E.A. Parnall. The committee was responsible for confirming the deaths of faculty members and senior administrators; determining their full names and the correct spelling; and deciding what information should be included with their entry in the book (eg. positions held, degrees). The cost of updating the book was usually charged to the University administration – when Registrar John Parnall became chair, it was funded through the Registrar’s Office.
Rather than being updated annually, it became customary to wait until there are several names to be added, so that the book was updated only every few years. While this was considered more efficient, this eventually led to lapses when the book came to be neglected, and no funds were assigned for its maintenance.
J. Roy Ogston continued to be responsible for inscribing and illuminating the Memorial Book until 1963. After that he was no longer available to do the work, and for almost a decade the book was not updated. It was eventually moved to the Registrar’s Office for safe-keeping.
In 1971 Professor G.P.V. Akrigg wrote to UBC President Walter Gage, noting with regret that the display case was standing empty in Main Library. He wrote eloquently about the institutional history represented by the Book of Remembrance. It listed both prominent University figures – "old friends… Danny Buchanan, Max Cameron" – and lesser-known faculty members – "Roger Clubb, the young assistant professor of my own department [English] who drowned trying to rescue his son from a flood-swollen stream in the Grand Canyon". Urging Gage to arrange to have it updated and restored, Akrigg wrote:
… if somebody were to ask me if there was a heart in the great organism which is the university I would have referred them to that book… the teachers whose lives have gone into the making of UBC deserve this modest memorial.
Robert and Irene Alexander of North Vancouver were hired to bring the Memorial Book up-to-date. The Faculty Records Office provided lists of those faculty who had died since the last update, and the Registrar’s Office then forwarded those names to the artists for inclusion. The Alexanders completed the work in 1974, at a cost of $3600 (compared to $86.30 for the original illuminating and inscribing by Ogston).
Unfortunately, money has not been available to continue updating it. Since 1974 the Memorial Book, with its display case, has been moved from the front hallway of Main Library to the concourse (today’s Chapman Learning Commons), and eventually to Special Collections, where it remains to this day.
(Based on interviews with Helen Hahn and Irene Alexander, and sources held in the University Archives)