On Friday evening, April 13, 1979, The University of British Columbia lost one of its most distinguished and beloved scholars and alumni when Professor Ray Daniells died quietly at his home on Allison Road.
A native of London, England, Roy Daniells came to Canada at the age of eight. He received his public and high school education in Victoria and attended The University of British Columbia, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He went on to the University of Toronto, where he obtained the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.
Professor Daniells joined the U.B.C. faculty in 1946 as Professor of English, after being Head of the English Department at the University of Manitoba for nine years. He was appointed Head of English in 1948, a position he held until 1965, when he was named the first University Professor of English Language and Literature in recognition of his scholarship in English literature and his activities as poet and writer.
Roy Daniells was author of two volumes of poetry: Deeper into the Forest, and The Chequered Shade. He contributed criticism, poetry and prose to Canadian and American scholarly and general periodicals. He is best known for his studies in 17th Century English literature, particularly for the book: Milton, Mannerism and Baroque.
Professor Daniells served for almost four terms as a member of the Senate of this University, 1948 to 1954 and from 1969 until the end of 1974.
Professor Daniells was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He became its President in 1970, at which time he was honoured as the recipient of the Lorne Pierce Medal. The citation read in part for "achievement of special significance and conspicuous merit in imaginative or critical literature."
He served for a term as chairman of the Humanities Research Council of Canada. In 1972 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in recognition of "outstanding merit of the highest degree, especially service to Canada and to humanity at large." He held honorary degrees from Queen's, Toronto, McMaster, New Brunswick and Windsor Universities, and in 1975 U.B.C. conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Letters Honoris causa.
Professor Daniells was one of UBC's outstanding teachers, and was widely known as a witty and entertaining speaker.
Members of Senate convey to his wife, Laurenda, their daughters, Susan and Sara, and other members of the family its deepest sympathy.
Professor Emerita Charlotte David was born on November 16, 1919 in South River, New Jersey. She obtained her B.A. (Texas) in 1942 and M.A. (Columbia) in 1943. Early professional posts included those of Director, Group Work and Recreation, Blythedale, Valhalla, N.Y.; and Director, Children's Recreation Program, Metropolitan Hospital, New York City. Then in 1960, Dr. David completed her Ph.D. (Portland) in clinical psychology, offering a doctoral thesis on the interpersonal patterns of occupational interest groups. Meanwhile, appointments as Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Portland and as Staff Psychologist of Portland's Morningside Hospital rounded out her American job experience.
In 1962, Dr. David was appointed Assistant Professor in what became UBC's Department of Special Education. There she consolidated a reputation for teaching excellence. Thence she reached out to wider constituencies. A 1964 publication on perceptual learning problems in brain injured children stirred interest among scholars. So too, television appearances during 1964-65 provided a general audience with some of the issues and challenges of special education. One of these was scientific inquiry at the on-campus Observation Unit, eventually named the Research Unit for Exceptional Children. Financially activated by the British Columbia Association for Retarded Children, it came under Dr. David's directorship as a collaborative venture involving the Faculties of Education and Medicine (pediatrics and psychiatry), the Department of Psychology, the School of Social Work, and participating teachers.
Occupation with the media, however, did not free Dr. David from yet more direct community interaction. Organizations from school boards and teacher associations to study centres and health societies requested her time, energy, and judgment. These she generously supplied. As well, she served with distinction on the Professional Advisory Board, Vancouver Epilepsy Society; the Board of Directors, Children's Foundation; and the Executive Board, Speech and Hearing Clinic, Sunnyhill Hospital. In 1966 she was elected Chair of the Professional Advisory Committee, BC Association for Retarded Children, and the next year became President of the British Columbia Psychological Association. Nor did discursive duties as acting department head in 1964 dull Dr. David's keenness for promoting sharply focused projects of lasting importance. In the spring of that year a cooperative research program emerged under her direction. Its aim was to enquire what factors were at work when, at the end of kindergarten, children aged five to six appeared unready for Grade 1. The Vancouver School Board lent its full assistance.
The cooperative research program augured yet more ambitious pursuits. In 1967 Dr. David received provincial and federal funds for a Centennial Crusade Series Project of the Canadian Association for Retarded Children (today the Association for Community Living). These assets enabled development on campus of the British Columbia Mental Retardation Institute. As its coordinator from 1967 - 1975, Dr. David brought together an operational committee of UBC faculty from nursing, pediatric neurology, psychiatry, physical education, recreation, special education, and social work. She involved Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria. And she advised and supported faculty participants as they began their research, enriched their respective departmental curricula, and planned and conducted their campus-wide seminars.
After its inception during the 60's, Professor David was also closely related to her department's preschool program for handicapped children which by then shared its temporary quarters with the British Columbia Mental Retardation Institute. Over the years, their aging Acadia Road hut outlived its utility. In aid of replacing it, Professor David searched for benefactors among her many sustaining contacts. The while she deployed staff, wrote users' specifications, and from Special Education and the Vancouver-Richmond Association for the Mentally Retarded secured operational funds for the preschool itself. The outcome proved spectacular. May 20, 1976 marked the opening of the Bob Berwick Memorial Centre on Osoyoos Crescent. This handsome, spacious building equipped with activity rooms and a swimming pool was entirely financed through the fund raising efforts of the Variety Club of Western Canada, Tent 47, assisted by the Vancouver Sun's House of Hope Campaigns. Professor David's initiatives in this and like cases did not pass unnoticed. In 1977, the UBC Alumni Association presented her with the Honorary Alumnus Award in recognition of her significant contributions to the University. In turn, the Variety Club bestowed upon her its highest accolade -- the Heart Award -- acknowledging her humanitarian gifts to society.
Unquestionably Professor David's most noteworthy personal quality was her outstanding ability as a university professor. Students consistently ranked her as a wise and brilliant teacher combining rare communication skills with warmth and clarity of thought. Under her influence a generation of teachers became sensitized to children's disabilities and the corresponding concerns of parents and families. No doubt her chief professional attributes were her extraordinary organizational talent and thoroughly convincing public bearing. The one enabled her to identify, place, and manage faculty appointed to the British Columbia Mental Retardation Institute from disparate disciplines and departments. The other helped realize sophisticated programs and facilities as exemplified at the Berwick Centre.
Professor David died on May 18, 1999. Students of old recall her authentic presence, profound knowledge, and respect for their efforts. Practitioners note the enduring relevance of her philosophy. Colleagues miss her selfless tenacity. Thanks also to her understanding, countless children and adults in need of special education confront their futures with dignity and purpose.
The Senate expresses its sense of loss in recording the death of Adam Urias de Pencier. His career was marked by distinguished service as chaplain in the First Great War and by a long and faithful incumbency as Archbishop and Metropolitan. He was for many years President of the Anglican Theological College and a member of Senate. It pleased him to recall that he has been a member of Senate at its first inception and his last years of devoted service were gladdened by the sight of much that had once seemed, to him and to his colleagues, remote and difficult of achievement, coming to fruition in his own time.
The death occurred on November 23rd, 1962, at the age of 68, of Ira Dilworth, formerly a Professor of English in this University, a distinguished alumnus, and for three years a member of the Senate. It is an occasion when we can pay tribute, many of us in the light of warmly personal memories, to a man of steadily widening influence. For he not only began his career as a teacher, he was in a sense a dedicated teacher all his life. The values and enthusiasms he directly communicated to those who knew or heard him became in turn a leaven in the lives of a larger community and of fresh generations.
From 1915 to 1934 Ira Dilworth taught English at Victoria High School where his powers as a teacher were matched by administrative talents that made him principal in 1926. He also was twice elected President of the B.C. Teachers' Federation. The inspirational quality of his teaching, widely acclaimed, never meant a sacrifice of care for detail and for a high standard of work. His direction of the annual Shakespeare production and his share in the morning assembly brought dramatics and music into the life of the school; his friendly interest in pupils and former pupils, many of whom he invited into his home, opened for them cultural horizons that were new and exciting. Because these talents and interests inevitable took him into the life of the community, the cultural growth of Victoria owed much to his vitality and unselfish zeal.
As Associate Professor of English at the University of British Columbia from 1934 to 1938, he attracted large numbers of students to his lectures on the poetry of the Romantic Movement. Here his infectious enthusiasm and sensitive interpretations extended his influence through the maturer level of those who were themselves to become teachers. From 1938 to 1940 he was also the director of the Bach Choir.
The blend of aesthetic interests and administrative gifts soon carried him on to a larger sphere of activity as regional director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a post he held from 1938 to 1947. He also helped to organize the Vancouver Community Arts Council, and in 1945 became its first president. By his move to Montreal he enlarged further the scope of his work and influence, becoming general manager of the International Service of the C.B.C. in 1947, director of programme production for Toronto in 1951, director for Ontario in 1953, and director of all C.B.C. English networks in 1956. Through these years until his retirement and even afterwards, his distinctive qualities and energies were employed in fostering the cultural life of all his fellow-Canadians, especially by developing the creative powers of younger people, whom it was his delight to know and assist.
Although this outline of a career can establish the facts of a steadily increasing influence, it can do little to suggest the grateful memories of a personality at once gay and serious, warm and sensitive. Ira Dilworth knew the diligent and exacting labours of an editor, in his texts for high school use, in his own college anthology of twentiethcentury verse, and in his preparing of Emily Carr's prose for the press. Yet he was not one of those scholars whose intensive exploring of a specialized field results in a number of books and articles; he was rather one whose humanistic passion for literature and the arts took the form of an urge to communicate, and whose knowledge and insights were employed in stimulating and encouraging others. His untiring efforts to hasten recognition of Emily Carr as a writer are on record in her own affectionate words; his many-sided contributions to Canadian cultural awareness are a matter of public acknowledgment. This pleased him, but he would be just as pleased to have us record, in the words of one of his favourite poets, "that best portion of a good man's life,/ His little, nameless unremembered acts,/ Of kindness and of love."
Blythe Eagles, one of the last of the great pioneers of this University, and a former Dean of Agriculture, passed away on July 13 of this year.
Dr. Eagles was born in New Westminster in 1902. He enrolled in the Faculty of Arts at UBC in 1918, graduating with the Governor-General's Gold Medal in 1922. After Graduate study at the University of Toronto, he joined the Faculty of Agriculture as an Assistant Professor in 1929, progressed to Professor and Head of the Department of Dairying in 1936, and was appointed Dean of Agriculture in 1949. Dean Eagles held this last position for 18 years until his retirement in 1967.
Dean Eagles' long academic career was interrupted only once, between 1932 and 1934, when, as a result of major retrenchment during the depression, he served as a research chemist with the Powell River Pulp and Paper Company.
As a young academic Blythe Eagles was an active participant in the Great Trek campaign and was honoured for his leadership by a special award in 1966. Two years later he received an Honorary Doctor of Science from his Alma Mater. Dean Eagles' entire life was one of service to this University. His energies were devoted to the betterment of students, faculty and the entire academic community. He rarely missed an opportunity to add his name to every committee, every task force, alumni group or organization which sought to promote the University.
He was also a pioneer of this province. He grew up along the Fraser River with his family who had settled there in 1885. During his long career he commuted daily from the home he built on the shoreline of Deer Lake in Burnaby, once recalling that no traffic lights impeded his route to Point Grey.
Blythe Eagles was a noted scholar with an impressive record of research and publication. He served for twenty years on the Senate and was active in the B.C. Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and the Agricultural Institute of Canada.
A true founder of this University and one of its most beloved and loyal friends, Blythe Eagles will be long remembered.
To his surviving family the Senate of the University extends its deepest sympathy.
Henry Elder was born in Salford, Lancashire, England, in 1909. He received his education in the School of Architecture at the University of Manchester, the Manchester College of Technology and the Royal Technical College in Salford. He began a teaching career in 1933 at Manchester as well as a private practice where he specialized in theatre design. Professor Elder served with distinction in the British forces from 1940-46 designing ordinance factories and doing weapons research. For his accomplishments during the Second World War, he received from His Majesty King George VI membership in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
In 1958, he emigrated to North America when he was appointed professor in charge of graduate studies in architecture at Cornell University. President Norman MacKenzie recruited him to direct the School of Architecture at UBC in 1962. He remained director for twelve years until his retirement in 1974. Henry Elder was an advocate for change and he developed a school that the Commonwealth Association of Architects called "unique in the English-speaking world". Elder used a number of methods to develop a creative sense in his students. His directions were controversial and unorthodox. He encouraged student representation in all of the school's committees and he fostered the increased enrolment of women into the School of Architecture. He stated that "The most significant change is that the school has been concerned with understanding architecture rather than the production of architects". In many ways his School of Architecture, its students and its faculty mirrored the changing culture of society in the late 1960s.
Professor Elder served on the UBC Senate from 1963-66 as a member at large. He was critical about the status quo in the University, the city and our society. He was, in turn, both criticized and lauded for his unique approach to educating students and faculty about architecture. He firmly believed that "students should not lose sight of their real purpose in changing civilization". Professor Elder was recognized nationally and served on the Architectural Advisory Board in Ottawa, the Wascana Centre in Regina, and was a Lieutenant-Governor appointee to the Architectural Institute Council of B.C.
Senate wishes to record its deep sense of loss sustained through the passing of Mr. H.O. English on August 4, 1954.
Mr. Harry Oswald English died suddenly on August 4, 1954.
He had taught in Victoria for thirty-two years, having been appointed to the staff of Victoria High School in 1922 to teach Agriculture. Later he specialized in General Science and Health Education. Mr. English joined the staff of the Provincial Normal School in Victoria in 1938 and became Principal in 1944 succeeding the late Dr. V.L. Denton.
Mr. English prepared prescribed school texts in General Science; he was author of "Mastering our Environment", and co-author of "Science and Life" and "Science and Progress".
During his ten years as a member of Senate, Mr. English showed a keen interest in young people; he was always on the side of youth, anxious that students should receive the advantages of a good counseling service and of a well-developed athletic programme. He was serious in out-look, and intense in his interest in all developments at the University of British Columbia.
Mr. English discovered and emphasized a man's good points. As Normal School Principal, he seemed to have a faith that each young person in his school could succeed; his convictions and personal influence were so strong that he, in turn, convinced prospective teachers of their innate powers, and encourage them to tackle and to overcome their problems. The qualities most evident in his personality were those of modesty, faith, strength, determination, energy.
Mr. English was a lover sports, a keen athlete, and a believer in the true values of athletics. During his University years he played many games and was a member of a winning hockey team in the Allan Cup series. He was taking part in trophy play on the 10th hold of Uplands Golf Course, Victoria, on the evening of August 4th, when he collapsed and died of a heart attack.
Mr. English was tireless in his daily tasks. Deeply religious, he was on the Board of Stewards of the Metropolitan Church in Victoria, where for years he assisted in directing finances and the building programme. The vigorous spirit of the pioneer prairie farmer had remained in him, and he applied his knowledge of Agriculture to his home garden in which he grew prize raspberries, sweet corn and stringless beans. The same spirit was revealed also in the practical and forthright manner evident in his personal relationships and in the administration of his school.
The Senate records its deep sense of loss in the sudden and untimely death of John Morton Ewing, Principal of Victoria College since 1944. His long connection with education began when he was trained as a teacher in this province, Born in Nazareth, Palestine, where his father was a missionary, he had spent his student days in Edinburgh and come to Canada at the age of twenty-one. After teaching in the schools of North Vancouver for several years, he joined the staff of the Normal School and, in the fifteen years of his service there, acquired a wide reputation as a public speaker. He wrote with marked critical insight, on educational and psychological subjects; under the pseudonym "Pedogogos" he contributed for many years a monthly essay to The B. C. Teacher. He was perhaps best known to the public by his radio addresses and his participation in panel discussions on the national network. He held degrees from Queen's University and the University of Toronto. His devotion to the welfare of Victoria College and to the problems of individual students was unremitting. His energy and disinterestedness made a made for him on many of Victoria's cultural and artistic organizations. He lived to see the institution he served emerge from the difficulties of the war years with an enhanced reputation in the community.
No recitation of his qualities and achievements can convey what those who knew him best will always remember: his transparent honesty, his unflagging zeal, his personal modesty and charm. His influence was greater than he ever knew; his example and memory will be a continuing presence to those with and for whom he laboured.