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What It Means To Be A University
President Today
NEW UBC PRESIDENT NAMED
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ENJoy 12 qloRJOUS <U)NCERT5«pAy FoRONly9! ^% I UBC ALUMNI ■ ■
Chronicle
VOLUME 28, No. 2, SUMMER 1974
FEATURES
5 INTRODUCING:
UBC President-Designate
Douglas Kenny
6 LIFE INSIDE THE
MEAT GRINDER
What it Means to be a University
President Today
Murray McMillan
12       MUTTERINGS AMONG THE
SPEAR-CARRIERS
Must Theatre at UBC Remain a
Cultural Museum?
Barry Pavitt
17       CREATIVE WRITING
CONTEST WINNERS
Trench Mist by David West
Ten Poems by Robert Bringhurst
20       HENRY ELDER
The Art of Living and
The Joy of Experience
Geoff Hancock
DEPARTMENTS
24       BOOKS
28       NEWS
32       SPOTLIGHT
38       LETTERS
EDITOR Clive Cocking, BA'62
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Susan Jamieson McLarnon, BA'65
COVER Roy Peterson
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Alumni Media (604-688-6819)
Editorial Committee
Dr. Erich Vogt, (BSc, MSc, Manitoba), (PhD, Princeton);
chairman; Mrs. R.W. Wellwood, BA'51, past chairman.
Robert Dundas, BASc'48; Mrs. F. Field, BA'42; Harry
Franklin, BA'49; Geoff Hancock, BFA'73; Dr. Joseph
Katz, (BA.MEd, Manitoba), (PhD, Chicago); Ian Mac-
Alpine, LLB'71; Robert McConnell, BA'64; Murray
McMillan, Arts 4; Mrs. Bel Nemetz, BA'35; Dr. Ross
Stewart, BA'46, MA'48, (PhD, Washington);
Published quarterly by the Alumni Association of the University of British
Columbia. Vancouver. Canada. BUSINESS AND EDITORIAL OFFICES:
Cecil Qreen Park. 62S1 N.W. Marine Dr., Vancouver. B.C. V6T 1A6. (604-
228-3313). SUBSCRIPTIONS: The Alumni Chronicle is sent to all alumni
of the university. Non-alumni subscriptions are available at $3 a year,
students $1 a year. ADDRESS CHANGES: Send new address, with old
address label if available, to UBC Alumni Records, 6251 N.W. Marine
Dr.. Vancouver. B.C. V6T 1A6.
Postage paid at the Third Class rate Permit No. 2067
Member American Alumni Council.
President's Message
The term of office of the 1974-75 Alumni Association
Board of Management has just begun and we have already
heard three major announcements affecting the University
of British Columbia.
In mid-June, the Minister of Education, Eileen Dailly,
introduced to the provincial legislature a new Universities
Act. As early as 1967 the association was on record as
favouring a coordinating agency for the province's universities. In our submission to the government's committee
on university governance in January 1974 we recommended the inclusion of faculty and students on the board
of governors of the university. We welcome these changes
as progressive steps forward in the rationalization of
higher education in B.C.
The new act, as it was introduced to the assembly did,
however, reduce alumni participation in both the board
and the academic senate of the university. We were most
gratified when the minister introduced an amendment
which gave us the opportunity to participate on the board.
Our alma mater has a first-rate academic tradition.
Your association believes that the graduates of UBC have
a strong interest in maintaining that excellence and we will
continue to work toward a greater participation in the
senate than the new act provides.
The Minister of Health, Dennis Cocke, announced in
June a proposed chronic care facility at UBC. This is not,
as some skeptics have suggested, merely an old folks
home. British Columbia has twice the national average of
senior citizens in its population on a per capita basis. We,
thus, have an obligation to lead the nation in teaching and
research in the fields of aging and those diseases and disabilities which become more prevelant with advancing
years. We welcome this opportunity which increases our
teaching and learning facilities in the extended care area of
the medical field.
The third major announcement was the appointment
of Dean Douglas Kenny of UBC's Faculty of Arts as
successor to President Walter Gage, who retires as university president in June 1975. Dean Kenny is an alumnus
of UBC (BA'45, MA'47)andhas spent 25 of his 51 years as
a teacher and administrator on our campus.
When Dr. F. Kenneth Hare resigned as president in
early 1969 he wrote "To succeed in the job, a man must not
merely have a tough constitution and a thick skin; he must
also be able to call on the resources needed to meet the
university's inescapable responsibilities, and he must be
able to give his colleagues some assurance that there is
light at the end of the tunnel."
Dean Kenny's administration of the Faculty of Arts
has shown him to have a tough constitution when he feels it
called for. He has a great deal of respect and support
among his colleagues and should prove a man capable of
success in the presidency of UBC.
We join with the university community to wish him
well in his year of preparation and his term of office.
As the newly elected board of management takes
office we are hopeful we can be alert to expanded opportunities to contribute to the whole university, serving not
only our members but also the university community and
the public. New issues will arise, new announcements will
be made and new responses will be required.
Charles Campbell, BA'71
President Everything's Under The Sun
^ vfe
.... But especially UBC Alumni and their families who join this year's UBC
Alumni Association travel program. Destinations are Hawaii, Spain's Costa
Del Sol and Mazatlan on Mexico's Pacific gold coast.
HAWAII... many departures, with hotels
in Honolulu and Maui. Your fare includes
round-trip airfare, hotels, airport
transfers and porterage and in Maui, a
U-Drive car with unlimited mileage.
Special rates for children.
SPAIN ... two and three week holidays
on the Costa Del Sol, Spain's sunny
southern coast... package includes
round-trip airfare, first class apartment
accommodation, airport transfers,
porterage and other extras,
(golf and tennis tours available, too )
MEXICO ... two weeks of sun in
Mazatlan, eight hotels and a range of
"prices to choose from ... fare includes
round-trip airfare, airport transfer^,
porterage and 14 nights accommodation.
And for the whole family ...
DISNEYLAND ... a choice of tours timed
to coincide with the school holidays,
October to April ... reduced rates for
children ... tours include round-trip
airfare, airport transfers, porterage,
accommodation and a book of tickets to
Disneyland (includes gate admission).
Why not add the SPIRIT OF LONDON
to the spirit of your THANKSGIVING
this year? ... P&O, the British cruise line
has a super Thanksgiving Weekend
Cruise around Vancouver Island planned.
This sleek ship leaves Vancouver harbour
Saturday evening, October 12 and returns
early Tuesday morning. There's all the
fun of a traditional ocean cruise —
including duty free shopping and a
superb Thanksgiving dinner ... Come,
run away to sea ...
For complete details of departure dates
and costs contact the UBC Alumni
Association, 6251 N.W. Marine Dr.,
Vancouver V6T 1A6 (228-3313).
Wouldn't you like a place in the sun? Introducing:
UBC President-Designate
Douglas
Kenny
UBC Dean of Arts Dr. Douglas T. Kenny, who has been
chosen to succeed Dr. Walter H. Gage as President of
UBC, believes one of the major challenges of his new role
will be to help improve the climate towards higher education in B.C.
"The University of B.C. must try to explain to the
population at large the true nature of the university," said
Dr. Kenny, a 51-year-old psychologist, following the announcement June 17 that he would succeed President
Gage when he retires on June 30, 1975. "I believe that the
central goals of a university should be to offer high quality
instruction and to encourage research. The latter is something that the public does not seem to understand — why
should a university devote such a large amount of its
resources and time towards research? But I believe that
improvements in society come about through fundamental
research. If research falters, scholarship falters and this
will have a deleterious effect on society as a whole."
Dean Kenny's appointment concludes a search which
lasted more than a year by a special 24-member committee
representing all sections of the university community. The
committee considered 150 candidates before submitting a
short list of recommended candidates for the board of
governors to make the decision on the appointment.
Dr. Kenny has been head of the faculty of arts since
1970. He has been deeply involved in university affairs
since he joined the faculty in 1950, serving on several key
university and senate committees, including chairing the
1968 senate committee that resulted in opening senate
meetings to the public.
A native of Victoria, Dean Kenny attended Victoria
College, then affiliated with UBC, from 1941 to 1943. He
then moved to UBC where he completed his BA in 1945
and his MA in 1947. From 1947 to 1950 he was a teaching
associate at the University of Washington where he
studied for his doctorate degree in psychology. In 1950 he
became a lecturer at UBC and two years later received his
PhD from the University of Washington.
Dr. Kenny, whose research interests are personality
and learning, developmental psychology and patterns of
child development, rose to become head of UBC's department of psychology in 1965. He became associate
dean of arts in 1969, rising to dean of arts a year later.
From 1963 to 1965 he was on leave of absence as a
visiting professor at Harvard University and a visiting
lecturer in Harvard's Graduate School of Education. He
was also a member of Harvard's Laboratory on Human
Development and the Centre for Research in Personality.
Dean Kenny is generally regarded as having wide
support among faculty in assuming his new position and
somewhat less among students, having been the object of
criticism by student leaders for his handling of several
issues in recent years as dean of arts.
A more complete report on President-designate
Kenny will be run in a subsequent Chronicle.
5  Life Inside The
Meat Grinder
What it means to be a university president today
Murray McMillan
"The University of Victoria invites
applications from or the nominations of,
candidates qualified for the position of
president..."
"Mount Saint Vincent University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, will appoint a
president for a term commencing ... applications and nominations will be received ..."
"York University invites applications from highly-qualified individuals
for the position of president ..."
"Nominations, applications and inquiries are invited for the position of
president and vice-chancellor, University of New Brunswick ..."
"The University of British Columbia
will appoint a president with effect from
July 1, 1975 ..."
The advertisements seem endless.
Universities, community colleges,
technical schools, all inserting expensive ads in newspapers and journals of
academic administration; all looking for
that one special man or woman whom
search committees have been charged
with discovering.
But why would anyone want the job?
The hours are exhausting, the pay
(compared with what a man with the
required skills could demand in industry) is not spectacular.
His academic credentials must be impeccable, his politics appealing to a
plethora of factions, his capacity for
consumption of rubber-chicken dinners
beyond that of most other men's digestive systems, his finesse as a mediator
little short of phenomenal, and his public relations sense finely-honed.
Bruce Partridge, former president of
the University of Victoria once came up
with a fine comparison. Administering a
university, he said, is a bit like trying to
operate a meat grinder from the inside.
Presumably the office-holder goes in
a whole man and comes out as very
expensive ground round.
So why would any sane man, secure
in a post which he finds interesting,
want to leave it and subject himself to
such a torture test?
In the past year, while Simon Fraser
University was hunting for someone to
fill the spot being vacated by Dr. Kenneth Strand, more than 90 names were
put forward for consideration. During
UBC's search for someone to take over
when Walter Gage retires on June 30,
1975, well over 100 persons applied or
were nominated.
Apparently scores of men and women
are anxious to attempt what undoubtedly is one of the ultimate academic
challenges — to administer a university,
administer it well, and come away after
one's term of office with a feeling of
accomplishment (and with skin intact.)
"There shall be a president of the
university, who shall be the chief executive officer and shall generally supervise
and direct the academic work of the
university," states section 57 of the new
Universities Act which was introduced
at the spring sitting of the B.C. legislature. The act continues:
"... the president has the power
"(a) to recommend appointments,
promotions and removal of members of
the teaching and administrative staffs
and the officers and employees of the
university;
"(b) to summon meetings of a faculty
whenever he considers it necessary or
advisable to do so, and at his discretion
to convene joint meetings of any or all
faculties;
"(c) to authorize lectures and instruction in any faculty to be given by persons other than the duly-appointed
members of the teaching staff; and
"(d) to establish such committees as
he may consider necessary or advisable."
The list goes on.
The Universities Act says the president has the power to do certain things.
The man may have enormous
influence on campus, but in reality his
powers are not great. Much of the time
he recommends certain actions. On one
side of him sits the board of governors
— men and women charged by the provincial government with the good management of the university, and on the
other side is the senate, in which is vested the academic governance of the institution.
He holds seats on both, must abide by
the decisions of both, and must act as a
communication link between them.
Beyond the decision-making bodies
are thousands of men and women employed by the university, to whom he is
their day-to-day boss, and there are
many more thousands of students
beyond them, whose lives his decisions
affect.
Looking back on his brief tenure as
president of UBC, Dr. F. Kenneth
Hare comments: "A university president is much like the mayor of a big city.
7 0Pr7C£
OF ...
THE
PRESIDENT
You can find a good
administrator, you can find a
good academic and you can
find a good public relations
man, but the problem is to
find a combination of the three.
He doesn't have enough resources, he
is subject to the provincial government,
and he is criticized for not doing things
when it is really not his fault — he
doesn't have the power to do them."
The man who preceded Dr. Hare in
the post, Dr. John B. Macdonald, outlines some of the problems presidents
face:
"The most fundamental difficulty has
been that their responsibilities as chief
executive officers have continued, both
legally and in the expectations of the
public, while their authority within the
university to meet those responsibilities
has been greatly diminished.
"If the president views his task as
that of providing academic leadership
he is thwarted by the complex structure
of senate, faculty councils and powerful
departments which consider matters of
academic policy to be their prerogative.
If he wants to up-grade the quality of
faculty he is subject to the advice of
committees selected by faculty and
these may be more interested in the preservation of the status quo than in making creative new appointments that may
rock the boat.
"When he defends academic freedom
in the face of unpopular positions taken
by faculty members, he may lose the
confidence of his board or the government which supports the university.
"If he argues for a higher priority for
his university among the competing
demands for public expenditure he is
greeted by indifference if not hostility,
by a public and a government grown
weary of trouble on the campus."
The position doesn't sound appealing, but it does have its material advantages, such as they are.
There is a president's house at UBC,
built at a cost of $61,219 in 1950-51,
which is perched on a three-acre site on
the cliffs above Wreck Beach. It is
doubtful that anyone would consider it
an architectural masterpiece.
At present it doesn't even house the
president. Walter Gage prefers to live in
his Vancouver apartment, so the official
house has become headquarters for the
department of adult education of the
education faculty.
There is a six-year-old green Old-
smobile which goes with the job. Travel
and entertainment budgets are, of
course, part of the deal. And then there
is salary.
How do you decide what a president
is worth per year in terms of hard, cold
cash? President Gage receives more
than $50,000 a year for performing his
tasks. His successor, Dean Douglas
Kenny, will receive $60,000.
When Simon Fraser University hired
Dr. Pauline Jewett to become its president effective this September, the
financial arrangements made public
were: $50,000 per year for five years,
with possible cost-of-living increases, plus a year's sabbatical on full salary at
the end of the term.
Money might be a strong underlying
incentive to many who apply for the job,
but it is seldom mentioned in discussions of what might attract applicants to
the position.
The task of ferreting out the right man
to be the institution's chief executive
falls to a search committee which must
sift through scores of nominations, letters of praise and curricula vitae — considering, pondering, rejecting, eventually interviewing, and possibly, just
possibly, at the end of it all coming up
with names of people they'd like to see
fill the post.
The final decision rests with the board
of governors.
In May, 1973, when President Gage
announced his intention to retire, the
board struck a broadly-based, 24-man
advisory committee to begin the laborious task. It included board members,
senate members, deans, faculty members, alumni, undergraduates and
graduate students.
At SFU the procedure was similar.
An 18-member committee eventually
submitted three names for consideration by its board of governors and from
that list Dr. Jewett was chosen.
As well as asking for nominations and
applications, the UBC committee asked
anyone interested to give his or her
ideas on what qualities are most important in a president.
Repeatedly, in any discussions about
the requirements of the job, the word
that comes out is "leadership". What
the man lacks in actual power he must
make up for with leadership.
John Bremer, who for almost a year
was the man appointed by the provincial
government to examine B.C.'s education system, and whose groundwork
laid the foundation for the new Universities Act, says a university president
must have great powers of leadership if
he is to succeed in the job.
"I don't think the president, as an
officer of the university, has much
power, but an appointed president can
bring with him enormous powers of
leadership that will enable him to move
the institution.
"He must be not only a leader in the
academic community but he must be
accepted as a leader of the greater
community and be accepted as such
outside the university. You can find a
good administrator, you can find a good
academic and you can find a good public
relations man, but the problem is to find
a combination of the three."
Former president Macdonald, now
executive director of the Council of Ontario Universities, sees the president's
task as one of trying to synthesize the
"forces for progress" in the university
into an expression of the university's
goals and purposes and to get that
/ think the dilemma of the
president is in finding the
golden mean: enough
authority to function and not
too much to become a
one-man band. Administering a university is
a bit like trying to operate a
meat grinder from the inside.
statement generally (though not unanimously) accepted.
"That is the beginning of academic
leadership, and it's just as important
now as it ever was," says Macdonald.
He sees the president's office as the
only place from which the university is
viewed as a whole.
"The university should be able to rely
heavily on the president's judgment to
resolve conflicts and overcome the
conflicts of interest which affect almost
everyone else in the university. Such
reliance on the president is unusual
today and I think universities are the
worse for that fact."
But how do you rely on an office that
is weak in basic structure?
UBC's presidential establishment
has traditionally functioned with one
man at the centre, two deputy presidents and some secretarial help, and
that's about it. There are no executive
assistants who are permanently attached to the office and who would act
as problem-solvers and planners for the
man at the top.
A large amount of the administrative
work which might be handled in the
president's office, were it much
stronger, is now taken care of by faculty
at the departmental and faculty levels.
At Simon Fraser, one-third the size of
UBC, there are three vice-presidents,
each with administrative assistants,
who aid the chief officer. By sheer numbers alone they add a good deal of
strength to the presidential office.
The result of the weak office at UBC
is an incredible workload for the president. Walter Gage has been aptly described as a "work-aholic." It is seldom
that one walks by his parking spot between the Lasserre Building and the
Main Mall administration building that
the 1968 green Oldsmobile isn't parked
there.
Gage is president, dean of inter-
faculty and student affairs, and a working professor. He spends 11 hours a
week in the classroom, teaching
mathematics. Whether the man who
takes over from him will keep up the
teaching load and the seven-day-a-week
schedule remains to be seen.
Like John Macdonsld, Dr. Norman
MacKenzie looks back on his years as
president of UBC from 1944 to 1962 and
sees that there has been an erosion of
authority from the office.
"I think that I had, and was expected
to have, more influence on university
affairs than would be possible for a president today. Whether this was good or
not would depend on the points of view
of the people involved and on the nature
and the temperament of the individual
who happened to be president.
"It was more or less taken for granted
that in the final analysis somebody in the
university had to make a decision, popu-
10 lar or unpopular, and it was understood
that this person was the president, myself. I wasn't restricted in the way that
the president today is likely to be restricted by committees and representatives of the various groups within the
university. It was voluntary and informal."
During the terms of the three men
who have served as president of UBC in
the past decade, the power of the office
has diminished.
Says university librarian Basil Stuart
Stubbs:
"The old idea of a university president was really some kind of educational super-power — a man to actually
manage the university and take it where
it should go. John Macdonald said 'this
is going to be a graduate institution' and
by god he made it one. I don't think a
person could do that anymore —
perhaps by indirection, but not through
direct power. I think the dilemma of
the president is in finding the golden
mean: enough authority to function and
not too much to become a one-man
band."
In September Pauline Jewett becomes president of Simon Fraser University. Why did she take the position?
"I had been interested in the idea of
being in a position whereby I could,
let's say, run something ... a position
whereby I could have some direct
influence on curriculum or educational
programming. I wanted to be involved
in the developing of exciting programs
and getting through to the public and
government on what the university is all
about and why in the years ahead, a
university education will be more important than ever. I felt I could put my
convictions across more if I actually
was the president of a university."
She leaves a post as director of the
Institute of Canadian Studies at Carleton University to come to SFU. She has
served as a member of parliament and
feels it is important to have at least some
high academic officials who are comfortable in the spotlight of public attention, acting as champions of higher education.
"I happen to be a public sort of person and I think to have those sort of
people is desirable, someone who can
relate to the public and talk to them and
tell them what you are doing and why it
is important. I'm not saying that
everyone who is in the president's position should do this, but I think a few of
us should."
She looks to the challenge of the task
with great enthusiasm. "The idea of
working a lot doesn't throw me — I do it
now. I tend to be a person who works
very full-time when I'm working and
then I have to do something completely
different to get a break. The idea of a
100-hour-a-week job doesn't bother
me."
What are her hopes for her term of
office?
"I think any president wants to see
intellectual growth, otherwise you
could be just conducting any kind of
business. You want to see first class
people come into the university and you
want to look back and see that there has
been the excitement of challenge for faculty, staff and students, that there has
been a kind of ambiance which was intellectually stimulating."
Simon Fraser is a young, compact institution, and within that framework it
might well be possible for one person to
achieve those goals.
But the University of British Columbia is far larger, far older, much more
hobbled by its traditions — much more
diverse in every aspect, and that makes
the challenge all the greater for the man
who takes over from Walter Gage.
Many people wonder if it is even
possible to govern something the size of
UBC, let alone create any sort of atmosphere on campus which would bear
the trademark of an individual.
Says John Bremer: "The one thing a
president at UBC might hope to do is
keep the thing on an even keel, at least
keep it afloat, even though it may not be
going any where." □
Murray McMillan is a fourth year
arts student and a part-time writer
for the Sun.
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11 Mutterings Among
The Spear-carriers
Must Theatre at UBC Remain a Cultural Museum?
Barry Pavitt
"I strongly believe that Vancouver is
where the next cultural explosion will
take place in Canada," says Stephen
Katz, artistic director at Vancouver's
Playhouse Theatre.
"When it comes to Canadian theatre.
UBC" is irrelevant," says George Ryga,
playwright.
The deep rift between town and gown
could not be more pithily summarized.
It is a deeply unfortunate rift in this
period of growing concern over Canadian culture.
But why does such a gap exist at all?
One reason is the stated philosophy
of UBC's theatre department. The department according to its head. John
Brockington. operates as an academic
12
ancouver is        discipline,   a   program   within   the
university's liberal arts curriculum. He
insists that he docs not run a theatre
school nor a professional training
course. Bui the balance between
academic and practical work in theatre
is delicate and difficult to maintain.
After all. from an insider's, a
student's, point of view there arc those
practical courses in acting and directing. Students arc allowed to participate
in the "semi-professional" productions
on the main stage of the Freddie Wood
Theatre. And many of the people in
Vancouver's professional stage world
have come out of UBC.
Small wonder, then, if students have
difficulty in appreciating that academic
emphasis  or the denial  of repertory
theatre functions.
Outsiders are even less inclined to
respect the line distinction. They asked
pointed questions about the relationship
between the university and Ihe community. They regard the Freddie
Wood's facilities with admiration (it is
one of the best equipped theatres in
Canada), anil the amounts of money
which can be spent on productions with
awe. Ciiven these facts, they ask. why is
the Freddie Wood season so confined
(four productions per year), and so limited in its repertoire? Why is there so
little emphasis given to contemporary
and Canadian drama? Whv is UBC not M
V
cal awakening, leading it, rather than
serving as a museum of the classical and
traditional canon?
It is as if a kind of self-imposed
hermetic seal isolates UBC from Vancouver at large.
Consider these facts.
Some eighty per cent of the seasonal
subscribers to the main stage productions are from the university community itself.
The recent Aits Access meeting at
Simon Fraifer University, which was
sponsored by the provincial government and which was attended by more
than a thousand delegates, received no
input from UBC's theatre department.
And that meeting was held with a view
to establishing an Arts Council in B.C.
comparable with those in Ontario and
Quebec.
The B.C. League of Playwrights held
a seminar in December to which all
radio, television and theatre producing
units in Vancouver were invited, simply
with a hope of opening lines of communication. None of the universities
sent representatives: the only academic
interest (and that not encouraging), was
shown by Vancouver City College.
It is hard to believe that our theatre
department had its origins in U BC's old
Extension Department — the only one
with direct contact with the outside
community!
A comparable situation pertains to
Spear curriers sans spears ... students
playing thugs and prostitutes in UBC
main stage production of "The Three
Penny Opera."
the choice of plays for the Freddie
Wood season. When the B.C. League of
Playwrights wrote and asked for a list of
the main-stage productions for the past
five years, the answer showed that there
had been one contemporary English
play and two contemporary American
plays. This would indicate that there is
not quite an unbroken emphasis on classical drama for one thing. But it also
indicated that Canadian theatre is
persona non grata, to be relegated to
very occasional productions in the
Dorothy Somerset Studio. Last winter's student production of the
musical comedy "No, No, Nanette"
was a smash hit, which goes to show
what students can do with an
opportunity.
Writing on this point in the Canadian
Theatre Review recently, UBC theatre
professor Dr. Donald Soule suggested:
"But giving respectable productions to
more new Canadian plays could be just
giving us the illusion that we're creating
a national culture, while in fact maybe
we're just congratulating ourselves on
being here. The fact is (and it's true in
most countries), there aren't very many
good Canadian plays, past or present.
And for any theatre a good play is still
more worth doing than a merely
Canadian play."
That negative "there aren't very
many good Canadian plays" must mean
there are some! Which ones? When are
they produced at UBC?
(The real Vancouverite would also
add that not only do we want to create a
national culture, we also desire a regional one, and if we look hard enough
we have the ingredients for it!)
Professor Soule goes on to write
about the necessity of creating proper
conditions for new playwrights to discover and develop their talents. "This
means the playwright should enter not a
production situation but a workshop
situation."
14
Well and good. But what is the case at
UBC?
A student playwright, accepted in the
creative writing department needs to
have one of his plays produced in order
to earn his degree. A student director in
the theatre department must produce a
play in order to qualify for his degree.
Simple enough: collaborate.
But then the difficulties arise. That
aspiring playwright needs a good experienced and well-tested director to
give him the help and encouragement he
requires. He wants technical discussion
and time and space to explore his talent
and create a good script. But the theatre
department's faculty are tied up by the
academic and practical demands of producing those main-stage extravaganzas
which are their pride and joy.
The aspiring director will be
examined finally on his production.
Among his problems are finding actors,
designers, stage managers and technicians (those who can fit this work into
their own course requirements and assistance in main-stage plays), to help
him mount a good — that is, a passing —
production. He is therefore very disinclined to add to these worries the uncertainties of an unknown script. It is much
safer to go with an established play.
Result? What might have been a fruitful, cross-fertilizing process is virtually
non-existent in practice.
So a promising inter-departmental
program has been in operation for some
years, but is the despair of its participants. Eight playwrights have actually
graduated since 1965 and of these, two
went outside the university to get their
plays put on.
Despite the protestations of lack of
time and overstrained facilities, one
gets the impression that a more basic
reason for the failure of this program is
lack of faith. The theatre department
simply does not believe that the talented
playwrights are there among the students and so will not commit itself to
such a program.
The possibility of UBC serving as a
theatre school for actors is just as un-
forthcoming. Some time ago the department discussed establishing a
bachelor of fine arts in acting. 11 decided
that the National Theatre School in the
east was sufficient to meet the needs of
available Canadian talent (the National
School accepts sixteen students each
year out of the 400 or so who audition
for a place!)
Yet the fact remains that until the
Playhouse began some voice and
movement classes, UBC was the only
local institution where an actor could
get any good training. As far as the west
is concerned most knowledgable people
recommend the University of Calgary.
Not a praiseworthy situation for UBC,
one of Canada's biggest universities in
Canada's third largest city. Yes, student actors do participate in
the main-stage productions. The reason
why these are called "semi-
professional" is because Equity actors
are cast in the plays as well as the students. One well-known local actor says
it is a pleasure to work in these performances because of the high quality
maintained, the long rehearsal time allowed and "what we learn from the students!"
He is reluctant to be named, certainly
when he is critical of the lack of repertory experience offered to a student
actor, and he knows about this from
first-hand experience, for fear that it
might jeopardise his chances of further
work at the Freddie Wood.
Students who have taken part in the
glossy productions are divided about
the educational value of the experience.
Some are obviously pleased and proud
to have worked with the pros. Others
resent the fact that they cannot get more
than "spear-carrier" roles. (Like student playwrights, designers and directors, they are too amateur to be inflicted
on paying audiences!) They also complain that often the Equity actors are
aloof or "director-oriented" — that is,
so concerned about their relationship
with the director that they haven't the
time or energy to help the student actors
in their work.
(Incidentally, most students are fearful of being quoted by name — the kind
of disease that permeates so many departments in this university, where
anything may be said in SUB or the
Graduate Centre, but nothing may get
back to the faculty for fear of reprisals).
At best the concept of a "semi-
professional" season will permit students to experience some of the actualities of commercial theatre in operation (especially its heartbreaking disappointments). At worst it makes a mockery of the overriding philosophy of an
academic emphasis, because so much of
the time, energies and resources of the
faculty and permanent staff are devoted
to an avowedly professional enterprise.
In this the students are an essential
work force, but only on the periphery of
the exercise.
Some kind of assurance that the accent on academic work in the department was part of an effort to maintain
and increase the vitality of theatre in
Canada (and especially in Vancouver),
would go a long way in calming suspicions about UBC.
If its faculty directors were invited to
work in other theatres locally or nationally; if its academic writings were well-
known and influential; if famous
dramatists, directors and actors were
brought in to work with students in the
Freddie Wood or Dorothy Somerset
Studio, then one could be more
confident that UBC was fulfilling a public trust.
But is this the case?
Peter Hay, a Vancouver drama critic, says that he "bitterly resents the
misuse of public money" when he considers that a publicly-financed institution can be so autistic as to ignore the
urban community in which it functions.
He points this remark by recalling that
as a critic who broadcasts and writes for
national media he cannot get complimentary tickets for review purposes.
This remoteness is underlined by
another critic, James Barber, when he
states that "putting through a call to
John Brockington is like putting through
a call to God." This is in contrast to the
other, more P.R.-minded theatres in
Vancouver.
This may not mean much to faculty
secure in their occupation and reputation, but it affects students as anyone
can tell who has spoken with them after
big "first night."
In the article by Professor Soule, already cited, approving mention is made
of the  Playhouse, the Arts Club,
Tamanhouse Theatre Workshop,
Troupe and Theatre One for their
pioneer work in "developing ... native
playwrights and plays." He offers special commendation to the New Play
Centre for its encouragement of Canadian playwriting.
But UBC's participant in the adventurous exercise of the New Play Centre
is Professor Doug Bankson of the creative writing department. Very rarely
does one see people from UBC's
theatre department there — except, of
course, students. One student who attends all of the New Play Centre's readings and productions says bitterly, "the
only time you see a theatre department
prof there is when he has to attend because he is grading some student's
play."
Another point worth making, in passing, is that the Universities of Alberta
Students performing in experimental
drama at the Vancouver Art Gallery
... something rarely seen at UBC's
Freddy Wood. Students at least have important roles
backstage ... operating (top) the
theatre lighting and (bottom) doing
performers' makeup.
and Saskatchewan have both sponsored
open play-writing competitions in the
past year, and have also had
playwrights-in-residence. Such ideas
don't seem to have caught the imagination of the UBC department.
Alright, if UBC's theatre department
is not in the forefront of the novel, the
contemporary, the Canadian, the innovative and experimental theatre,
what does it do?
Most people agree that there are excellent courses, well-taught, offered by
the department, and that hundreds of
students are given a solid and critical
academic appreciation of theatre and
theatre history. Well, that is how it
should be; it is an academic teaching
department in a first class university,
after all.
But the problem remains that the
Freddie Wood season is the high profile
and it is on this that the department is
most often judged. The philosophy be-
16
hind the choice of plays is "broadly
educative"; it teaches the audiences.
The program is essentially of the
museum and laboratory kind; with a
preservative and re-discovery function.
In essence, classical theatre.
No thoughtful person could argue
with the need for this in Vancouver, or
with the justification that plays within
the traditional canon must be known in
order to have a balanced appreciation of
what theatre is.
But, only four plays a year? Only
lavish, high quality productions? Only
faculty directors and professional
back-stage staff (designers and technicians), with "assistance" from the students? Only an emphasis on paying customers with season tickets? Only a
melange of Equity and student actors?
Only famous plays from Europe and the
States?
For that is the pattern, year after year
after year.
Last summer the students produced a
summer stock series which was a delight, even if the standards were not of
the highest sophistication. And, what's
more, it was very well attended so that
they were able to repay the small
financial subsidv they had received and
still have a little over to pay to themselves.
It makes one wonder why there is not
more uninhibited student theatre at the
university. Apart from occasional
Mussoc productions in the old auditorium, it is difficult to recall any performances outside the regular theatre
department seasons.
One alumnus of UBC, now ensconced in provincial politics, regrets
the passing of the Players' Club. Most
politically he too declined to be named,
but he feels that the absorption of this
club within the theatre department spelled the end of real student theatre at
UBC. Now just about everything which
is done on stage here comes under the
aegis of the department — the Freddie
Wood itself is fully integrated into it.
This is tantamount to saying that
every theatrical experience at the university is bounded by the philosophy
and practice of the department. Not
much chance for anything different
from its overwhelming influence.
Perhaps unadvertised things do happen
in the engineering building basement or
the poultry sheds. If so, one would certainly like to know about them. Theatre
can always do with both expansion and,
more important, variety.
Granted that in the ages-old debate
about what communities a university
should serve and what demands (from
conservative education to cultural
avant-gardeism) it can properly meet,
the departments of an arts faculty have
the most difficult balancing acts to perform. Granted, too, that theatre, because it displays itself so prominently to
the public eye, is a focal point in these
controversies (and perhaps there is an
added edge; that artistic temperament
which emotionally supports all lovers of
the Artful Seductress.) Still, if the demands and expectations cannot be reconciled within one department, then at
least they should be aired and discussed. The barriers between UBC and
Vancouver, between faculty and students should be breached.
There is still too much basic mistrust
of students; too little real search for potential talents. One could go further and
claim that a lot of promise is stifled and
dies stillborn under a weight of "rigour-
ous academic standards." We have not
yet reached that comfortable era when
there is genuine and free cooperation
between all the elements which compose a university department, and in
this situation the theatre department is
no exception.
If as Stephen Katz and anyone who
moves around the theatrical world of
Vancouver believe, we are on the verge
of exciting developments here then
UBC will have to make some
modifications to its attitudes. If it
doesn't, then its sole contribution will
be in the shape of disgruntled drop-outs. CREATIVE
WRITING
CONTEST
WINNERS'
On the following pages
are excerpts from two of
the winning entries in the
first-ever UBC Alumni
Chronicle Creative
Writing Contest. Trench
Mist by David West, Arts
2 was awarded first prize.
A radio-play, Tyson's
Chair by Ian Slater, a
graduate student was
second and collection of
poems, Ten Poems by
Robert Bringhurst,
another graduate
student, was third.
TRENCH-MIST
David West
The Road
Toward the Etruscan nightmare of
flying pinwheels the caisson joggles
along the rough dirt road, its four horses
and the driver listening to the curses of
the man who rides the second-
out-horse.
Their flat steel helmets glint in the
seeming sheet lightning which covers
the horizon ahead and the scene seems a
still shot taken from an old camera —
grainy and blurred with the possibility
of a raindrop on the lens.
To either side of the gouged track,
half-gnawed trees stand, stumps black
in the never ending flashes, and an occasional branch shaking to the reverberations of distant thunder.
A long whistle parts the air and then
explodes in a flash and stench and shock
of bursting blood vessels at the side of
the road. Undisturbed, the caisson
bounces up over a hump in the road, its
two wheels flailing mud up into the cold
evening air. The two men huddle necks
closer into their gray overcoats. They
press on, bouncing more quickly.
A sudden squeal parts the earth from
the sky and the stars from their fire —
the men, their mouths open, raise hands
to ward off the projectile — flesh crawling and bumping up in defense.
With a plop the eruption of a sun, mud
flies from beneath the horses hooves as
the shell drops to the ground — and
stays silent beneath the slowing wheels,
the neighing — the grim jubilation of the
horseman as he turns to speak of luck...
The Road: Renny
Renny is held by the reins in his hand.
He cannot release them. He cannot feel
their weight in his calloused, glove-
protected hands.
The road curves around a hill up
ahead, and to the side there are apple
trees. The woods are black and bare and
the air nips at Renny's nose. He feels
his horse sway in step with the other
horse in the team and he sees the faint
puffs of vapor on the air every time the
horses snort. The puffs remind him of
some childhood memory: an express
train or perhaps a burning village.
Renny has a brown mustache which is
cut in the military manner. His uniform
is neat despite the hole in one glove. His
.45 is no weight at all on his hip. He
holds his crop curled and rigid. He can
use it to salute in the smartest manner.
The lieutenant thinks Renny is the
smartest trooper in his squad. Except
for the lieutenant, Renny has no friends.
But to see him smartly astride his mount
is to worship him. Renny would like to
be either a soldier, or Jesus Christ. He is
a soldier. And horses like him, which is
important on the Road.
Renny does not understand horses.
But he has the crop. When he uses the
crop, sends it scalding the air like lightning, the horses understand him.
The rest of the squad is up ahead.
Somewhere beyond the next hills.
Renny has been left behind to bring the
new cables on the wagon as soon as they
arrived. He steals a look back at the
wagon, loaded with the large spools of
wire. The squad has had several hours
lead on him in getting to the front, and
the wire will soon be needed.
He twitches the reins lightly as the
team starts around the bend. The hill is
to his left and the horses are pulling to
the right. Renny can almost sense something in their mood. But the crop gently
nudges the left horse.
The road is fairly wide here and the
team snorts louder. His horse begins
champing and the pace is broken. The
horses rear up in harness. Renny drops
his elegant crop, clutching to stay
mounted, gripping with his knees. The
team turns, with the wagon lurching,
then righting itself. The team breaks
into a trot. Impossible dust rises from
the road. Renny struggles to stay on and
finally calms the team before they have
gone too far. With difficulty he turns
them up the road. The horses protest
with painful noises. Renny is confused.
He steps down and picks up the crop.
The horses snort and sneeze at him, as if
to spread their emotion on the air.
Renny grasps his crop and mounts
again.
This time he uses the crop firmly. The
17 horses turn their heads to the side. He
strikes. They turn to the left. He nudges
with his knees. The team slows, but
Renny feels certain of his victory and
they continue to advance. The horses
cower and shiver. And suddenly they
are around the corner.
The stench of powder and blood
nearly overpowers Renny. He stares at
the two dead horses, lying strewn in bits
on the ground. He pieces together the
fetlocks and pieces of wagon-wheel. He
shudders at the sight of tree stumps and
jagged branches and craters torn in the
ground and even in the road itself. From
the scattered rations he guesses that a
supply convoy has been shelled by the
heaviest artillery.
Suddenly. Renny understands his
horses. He becomes horse. He smells
horse. He is torn, bleeding horse from
his guts. He leans forward in the saddle
and vomits.
Finally, weak and empty he looks up.
The clouds are gray and the trees are
bare. There is only the wind. The fresh
wine. It is pure and cool on his face. But
it dies down. Now the stench is back.
He must move on.
Ahead, there are more trees and
another bend. The horses have become
used to the stricken road for they turn
the corner with only slight hesitation.
Renny clutches his crop, and the team
comes to a stop. His fingers around the
crop are white through the holes in his
glove. He stares, the whiteness spreading with the fear, through his empty gut
and into his face.
On the ground lies a headless figure
wrapped completely in a ground-sheet.
Renny is held helpless by this nameless
ghost. And the great black horse stands
over the figure, cut loose from his
traces, dripping blood from the great
sheel tear in his crest, dripping foam
from bloody lips. The sad muzzle
swings from Renny to the fallen outrider, stares wistfully for one moment,
then, with strange foreboding in his
eyes, fixes his gaze on Renny.
The Road: The Trench
Renny doesn't care about the lines as,
with the warm weather, the troops
18
withdraw before the advancing enemy.
The road crawls with lines of men and
horses moving westward. New
trenches are dug that cross the line of
retreat and the lines of men disperse
along these trench lines. On the maps,
lines stabilize and the army is at rest.
Renny blinks in the sunlight. He
looks at his new friends, Eddie, Walker
and a fellow called Hal who has just
been transferred to the new un;t after
recovering from his wounds. Tl e men
don't belong to Renny's unit. Renny
has lost his unit — the cable wagons and
horses — during the retreat. So now
Renny is temporarily attached to the
trenches.
Renny ponders the grimy cards in his
hand. Then he raises Walker fifty cents.
Walker throws in his hand and Renny
takes the pot. He doesn't show his
hand.
The Corporal comes up and laughs at
the expressions on the faces of the other
poker players. He knows Renny's secret. Walker can accuse him of cheating,
but the Corporal knows. Renny is
lucky. This is his fourth win and the
others are starting to glower from where
they squat around the close little circle
and the money on the bedroll between
them and the ground. And Renny
knows the secret as well. He has known
ever since the bleeding black horse
turned to him.
Eddie takes the cards and shuffles.
He says they'll play baseball. Renny
likes baseball. It's the one with seven
cards and lots of wild cards. They
ante-up. Renny tosses the coins from
the top of his pile while Walker and the
others reach into their khaki pockets for
spare change ...
The Corporal watches the game. It's
between Renny and Walker again.
Eddie has left the game and is nowhere
to be seen. And Hal is just sitting there,
his eyes far away. It's a big pot this time
and Walker bets heavily. The Corporal
looks at Walker's hand and sighs. He
doesn't think Walker will pull off the
bluff.
The betting is finished. Walker's bluff
has failed. And Renny lays down his
cards. The Corporal counts the wild
cards in disbelief. He's never seen any
thing like it. Walker's face falls and he
tosses the cards down on the bedroll.
Renny looks at them and rakes the
money over to his side of the bedroll.
The game is over but it reminds the
Corporal of a game he played once.
With a good hand once too often, when
every one hurled their cards into his
face. That had been a lucky day.
The shelling is drawing nearer now
and something about the noise seems
strange to the Corporal. The sound is
not the explosion of shrapnel. He looks
up at sudden near explosions in the direction of the forward post. He sees a
mist of steaming yellow rise from the
ground of the copse. He watches geysers of it heave with the explosions as
the shells march from the copse to the
trench. Then he is clutching frantically
through his gear stacked in the trench,
grasping the ugly, goggled snout of a
mask and slipping it into place, forcing
himself to breath slowly, with the
fingers of mist groping towards and
around him.
He stumbles to help the others.
Walker, he sees, has his mask already in
place. But the figure is growing blurred
and he stumbles forward. Even Hal
takes his eyes off the leaves long enough
to don his mask, then he stumbles, near
blindly, away from the trenches. The
Corporal watches him go, bewildered
but needed elsewhere.
He sees Renny, the lost trooper,
without his gear, clutching madly at
eyes and throat, mopping wildly at his
face with a soiled cloth, choking and
then rolling on the ground, screaming
then lying still again as his hands close
about the bedroll, upsetting the stacked
coins .in a sudden rain of silver in the
sunlight and yellow mist.
Eddie staggers up to the Corporal and
Walker. They gaze at Renny for an instant with compassion, and then the
three move forward to man the trench
wall against the attack that is sure to
follow the gas.
And as they pass Renny, it seems to
the Corporal that a triumphant neighing
is followed by hooves clattering down
some road into the distance, but the
sound of his breathing is loud in the
mask, and he will never be quite sureD LOVE SONG
This will sing in the margins
of the darkness like a reason
for the interims for which
there never will be any reason.
I made it to make meaningless
the questions
of three lovers.
One was very much afraid;
one wanted all my days;
one wonders
where I go on autumn nights
like this, when there is death in the air.
ESSAY ON ADAM
There are five possibilities. One: Adam fell.
Two: he was pushed. Three: he jumped. Four:
he only looked over the edge and it unsteadied him. Five:
nothing worth mentioning happened to Adam.
The first, that he fell, is too simple. The fourth,
fear, has been tried and proved useless. The fifth,
nothing happened, is dull. The choice is between:
he jumped or was pushed. And the difference between these
is only an issue of whether the demons
work from the inside out or from the outside
in: the one
theological question.
THE STONE AND THE WING
The spindrift of the stone
over the motion of the chisel,
latticed into the crosscut of the light,
and the glistening umber
dust off the caught
wing of an uncaught moth
climbing the thumb,
a pumice with a glint like
flint, almost evaporating,
almost reassembling the air. Robert Bringhurst
— from Ten Poems
19  HENRY ELDER
The/4rt of Lining and
The Joj/of Experience
Geoff Hancock
Like a medieval scholar, Henry Elder
gets a sense of joy just by signing his
name. His signature belongs on an illuminated manuscript, with golden
dragons, deer, birds, rabbits coiled in
the design of the H, the rest of the letters
accented by the clear blue sky of knowledge.
This knowledge comes only after you
pass through what the medievals called
"clouds of unknowing." A distressing
period when the mind has to reject conformist ideas, Elder says.
"But once you get through the clouds
of unknowing you get a sense of joy by
filling the mind with one's own ideas."
Joy. The key word to understanding
Henry Elder. He repeats the word in his
writings, in his conversations, in his
twinkling blue eyes and silvery goatee
above his trim bow-tie.
Not just blue eyes. Twinkling blue
eyes. A standing joke in the school of
architecture is that empty bottles of
twinkle drops have been found in the
wastebaskets because Elder always
seems so happy.
"Architecture is concerned with two
things: the art of living and the joy of
experience." His soft voice shows just
a trace of his Lancashire, England,
birthplace. "Joy is the test of knowing
you are doing the right thing."
Elder retired in June after twelve con-
Henry Elder, joyful retired
architecture department head, glows
happily over his plans for his
retirement home on Saltspring Island.
troversial years as director of UBC's
architecture school. Since he succeeded
Frederick Lasserre in 1962, Elder's
concern has been with understanding
the role of architecture in the future. Is
architecture a practical discipline using
science and technology or is it an
academic discipline with conflicting
theories and ideas?
Elder says architecture is academic.
The role of the architect is changing and
there is no new definition. That means a
search for a new meaning of architecture. Experimentation with teaching
methods. Controversy in the profession. Within the department. And because creativity is difficult to teach, the
school of architecture became a unique
place which did not fit into the university.
Sitting at a comfortable teak table in
his Lasserre office overlooking Freddy
Wood Theatre and, to the north, the
mountains and waters of Howe Sound,
Elder, never without pencil in hand,
quickly draws a number of small
sketches. The square with the arrows
pointing inwards represents the system.
The camel-humped line is the process.
"Universities have to choose between a system and a process. The university system is learning and regurgitation. But the process is indefinite. One
can't really determine what comes out
the other end," Elder says.
A system is an argument with a series
of self-contained parts going in depth.
All problems are pushed into the system.
"In the past to introduce creativity,
errors have been introduced in the system. The error is the thing that causes
wonder, like the most beautiful of errors, the Virgin Birth."
But the whole of creative effort falls
into the process, Elder says, and the
trouble with universities is they are
bogged down by systems. The system
becomes a prison and "it is very hard to
go over prison walls." The school of
architecture and all the creative arts do
not fit into the university at present. A
system can be taught but not a process.
' 'There is no system of grading within
a process. All you can do is recognize
the potential of a student and see that he
works to that potential. Universities
have to start thinking in terms of admitting there are two alternatives. The
trouble is, it's easier to deal with things
you can prove than things that are plausible."
Elder stresses that good architecture
develops sensual response. "For example, the medieval church. Music to
hear, incense to smell, colour and
pageantry to see, the chalice and rosary
to touch, the taste of bread and wine.
This then, is the real meaning of architecture, the excitement of the
senses. The more senses excited, the
more successful the work is."
Elder calls architecture his mistress,
a jealous seductress who demands time
and attention.
One of Elder's students, Sean
McEwen, third-year architecture,
points out, "Henry chose architecture
21 The difference between an experience and an
education is that everything in an experience is
unknown. So there is a need for innovation. The
best way of learning is to get the courage to make
mistakes.
for a purpose. He didn't fall upon it.
Architecture is the only discipline that
can and has to cover everything because
it deals with environment, people and
change. It's the only field where you can
do everything. That's why Elder calls it
the mistress of the arts."
McEwen said Elder has been a man of
ideas throughout his career but never
deeply involved with building design.
This is what causes the controversy.
Architects build buildings, don't they?
"Henry's concern is more environmental, the issues of life style and the
joy of existence for the human being."
Elder calls his philosophy "whol-
ism". It means seeing everything in
terms of everything else. A building
may look nice on a drawing but it causes
a wind tunnel in the street which badly
affects people. Ideally, architecture is
like a Japanese garden. House, garden
and landscape are one with harmony
between them, yet there is a distinction,
a high sense of order and symbiosis.
McEwen said he felt Elder's years
were largely unrewarding because of
pressures which started downtown in
the construction industry. "They can't
approve of 'wholeness in diversity'.
They want to see students as budding
members of an anachronistic view of
what architecture is all about."
Downtown architects, however, say
that students do not receive enough of a
practical architectural training to be
useful in an office. After graduation as a
bachelor of architecture, a student must
apprentice for two years before writing
the Architectural Institute of B.C. registration exam. Zoltan Kiss, a Vancouver architect, says nobody in the
profession can afford the time and
money to train a student during his apprenticeship. Kiss said it is unfortunate
that after seven years of training an architect is of limited use for another one
or two years. "They can write good reports and speeches. I call them half-
people."
Warnett Kennedy, architect, agreed
with Kiss in that Elder's philosophies
do not cover the true situation of practical architecture. "Some of us in the profession say there is an air of unreality
about Henry's teaching."
Kennedy said putting up a building is
like playing a fiddle, that is, you actually
have to pick up the instrument and play
the tune. This cannot be done by the
22
intellect or an understanding of musical
theory.
But architect Ned Pratt thinks Elder
is taking a courageous step. "Any
stupid guy can learn to draw nuts and
bolts at industrial school in a year or
so," Pratt said. Pratt was impressed
with Elder's insistence that the profession was more valuable if people are
aware of social, city and living problems. Unfortunately, Pratt added, most
offices want to see some working drawings.
Students say architecture is more
than just putting the windows in the
right place. Charles Haynes, third-year
architecture, says Elder changed his
life. "I learned how to think."
Both students and faculty are quick to
point out that the belief that the school
turns out "artsy" types is obsolete.
More students from U BC go into offices
than ever before because of their ability
to appraise an architectural situation.
Sean McEwen said the Faculty of
Applied Science, of which architecture
is a department, has a traditional "put
up buildings" viewpoint which was a
source of friction with Elder's enlightened ideas.
"Henry's the action and there has
been a reaction constantly. He tries to
bring so much and can't succeed because he is always fighting the bureaucratic Neanderthals."
Elder's only course, Experiments in
Space, was packed every year. Some
students took it for three years. In this
course, Elder looked at architecture
with a lifetime of structural, political
and philosophical thought.
"Except for this course the pressures
on him kept the creative energy in,"
says McEwen.
The main pressures, said McEwen,
seemed to stem from continuing disagreement between the Faculty of Applied Science and the architecture
school over Elder's approach to architecture, from the fact that tenure decisions are made outside the school and
from the fact that off-campus activities
have been constantly resisted by senior
university administrators.
Elder says there are bound to be differing opinions among the sixteen faculty members but he prefers to turn the
term 'conflict' into 'diversity'. One faculty member said simply and non-
committedly that there will always be
strong sides pro and con. Donald Gut-
stein, a part-time lecturer, says Elder
didn't interfere with teaching methods
but he didn't control them either. "If
two members had dissenting views he
would support both," Gutstein said.
Student Peter Chataway said,
"Henry's so together but the school is
so apart."
Throughout all this Elder maintained
a low profile. He has been called an
invisible man.
"I think the energy should be inside
the school, not outside. The students
should express themselves rather than
the director. The school is not a leader
but a partnership," Elder says.
What does Elder do when he goes
home? As director he was often out
three or four nights a week but he did
find time to relax in his modernized
settler's cottage on the banks of the
Seymour River in North Vancouver.
Here he is no longer a scholar but Henry
Elder, harpsichordist. Bach enthusiast.
"The harpsichord is so much more
musical than the piano, more full in
tone. A wonderful instrument. It gives
satisfaction, you see."
For those extra quiet moments Elder
has a clavichord "which is so quiet you
can get up in the middle of the night and
play it, as I often do."
As a retirement gift the architecture
school presented Elder with a new
harpsichord.
He is also fond of eighteenth and
nineteenth-century English poetry.
"Sometimes the answer to an architectural problem is found in poetry." Elder
was a member of poetry clubs in London, England and at Cornell University, New York, when he headed the
graduate program in architecture. He
was a founding member of the Canada
Council Poetry Club.
Elder has accomplished three things
at UBC. First, he created a school concerned with understanding architecture
rather than with producing architects.
By changing the emphasis from form as
the end of architecture and placing it on
the process, Elder opened a path for
architects to explore other ways of solving life's problems. The answer may not
be in buildings but something else.
Secondly, he established a graduate
school for architects, the only one in
Canada. A first degree is required which
is supposed to guarantee academic maturity. Most other schools in Canada
have a five-year program starting in
second year. "Although Henry would
rather accept students on the basis of
their sketches instead of on their
marks," one student said.
Third, Elder established a school
which places responsibility and creativity over technical competence. The
Commonwealth Accreditation Committee praised the school as "unique in
the English-speaking world" on granting accreditation a little over a year ago.
The University of Toronto was banned
for five years because its formal approach was not up to par and the University of Manitoba was put on a two-
year probation. One member of the
committee said in a private letter to
Elder that he had "created a paradise of
architectural education."
Unlike the rest of the university
Elder has tried to do something different
each year. The aim is to sharpen the
creative sense of his students with
"spring adventures."
"The difference between an experience and an education is that everything
in an experience is unknown. So there is
a need for innovation. The best way of
learning is to get the courage to make
mistakes," Elder says.
One class was deposited by helicopter on a glacier. Another class was deserted on an island. Last year's workshop was spent on Mayne Island and at
Ocean Falls. One workshop was on a
barge in English Bay.
By disorienting students you can find
out who they are. "You see who eats
the blackberries first," says student
Charles Haynes.
Besides novel lectures and tutorials,
Elder has tried many experiments.
Notorious projects include the impossible problems. Design an edible fruit.
Design an experience on a white sheet
of paper using a felt pen. Design a space
within a space. More conventionally, he
has brought in guest lecturers, preferably the best in a field, and directed study
abroad. Last year, second-year students went to Greece.
"A student sees a new world of images and asks why they exist. This is part
of the creative challenge. It lies at the
question level of why and ends in how.
Difficult to get the answer back, however," Elder said.
Ten years ago the school was turned
over to students for a week in the spring
term. "From this we could find out what
the students wanted to do. They always
wanted to go downtown. One of their
favourite places was Beaulah Mission.
Because it was a 'no place' it could become a 'place'." Through downtown
involvement, faculty and students
played an influential role in stimulating
redevelopment of Gastown and False
Creek.
On January 1, 1975, Prof. Robert K.
Macleod, BArch'56, a native of Vancouver who is currently director of the
Institute of Advanced Architectural
Studies and professor of architecture at
the University of York, England, will
succeed Elder as director of UBC's
school of architecture. Prof. Wolfgang
Gerson will serve as acting director
until Prof. Macleod joins the faculty.
Has Elder's experiment succeeded or
failed?
A major tenet of his theory of education is that it is not possible to fail an
experiment. The important thing is the
experiment. If you have not done what
you set out to do, then maybe you have
done something else. Finding out what
you have done is part of Henry Elder's
learning process.
Elder intends to retire to Saltspring
Island where, like some medieval scholar on the edge of a Renaissance, he will
continue to process, experiment and
discover.
"The procedure from chaos is always
towards order. We've probably gone
through chaos as part of the educative
process," Elder says. "The challenge
now is not in the schools but in learning,
not in houses, but in living." □
Following his own teaching, Henry
Elder's new Saltspring Island home is
to be in harmony with the
environment.
Architecture is concerned with two things: the art of
living and the joy of experience.
23 Redefining the
Borders of Tedium
Lowry
by Tony Kilgallin
Press Porcepic
Erin, Ontario, $8.95
BARRY PAVITT
The rich reserves of Malcolm Lowry's
genius have created an academic industry. Books, articles and dissertations
flow from academic assembly lines with
the regularity (and similarity) of Model
T Fords.
When reading a study like Tony
Kilgallin's Lowry, one wishes that an
intellectual energy crisis could brake
the output.
Although an obvious labour of love, it
suffers from all the disabilities of unimaginative drudgery. It will neither inspire new readers for the novelist nor
excite old admirers.
Kilgallin writes while wearing two
mortar-boards; biographical scholar
and literary critic. His book is divided
into three parts (cabbalists may be able
to do something with this.)
The biographical Part I is a collage of
long quotations from eminences like Sir
Michael Redgrave, William Empson,
Earle Birney, and also such lesser
luminaries as the proprietor of the Deep
Cove General Store. Its value is doubtful (since Kilgallin makes no attempt to
synthesize it all), and its interest purely
ephemeral.
Oh yes, if you suffer oppression from
a literary know-it-all you may squelch
him with tidbits like the fact that
Lowry's father won the Sandow medal
in 1904 for being "England's Best Developed Man, in his category." Or then
again you might enliven a tedious party
by remarking, en passant, that "on his
active days (Lowry) was able to wolf
down a lamb chop dinner for five then
abruptly leave the table to play Haitian
tunes on the piano."
But do petty inconsequentialities
need a scholarly memorial?
Occasionally Kilgallin ventures a
generalization of his own, summing up
the stormy relationship between Lowry
and his wife as "an unverbalized symbiosis, an association advantageous and
necessary but also ironically harmful,
parasitic and destructive for one or both
Lowrys." And that —judicially comprehensive — is that!
While the comments adduced to the
long quotations are as penetrating as a
decorative jam spoon, consider this
conclusion to the whole of Part I, "his
life ended by necessity; but to alter
Auden's eulogy on Yeats, his writing,
forever metamorphosed in the guts of
living admirers, will always be The
Voyage That Never Ends."
Far be it for anyone to discourage
biographical research, but surely the
craft of the biographer must be more
thoughtfully creative than assembling a
mish-mash of details, impressions,
anecdotes and reminiscences, or else
what is the point?
Just as there is little of value in this
biographer's scholarship, so the literary
critic's work is calculated to re-define
the borders of tedium. Part II is meant
to elucidate Lowry's novel
Ultramarine, but before this we are
treated to a summary of the plots of his
school magazine short stories. Although this exercise is utterly pointless
("histrionic description, confident narration, unconventional plots and situations as well as easily recognisable literary references and unpredictable endings — an interesting and precocious
beginning if neither outstanding nor extraordinary"), it does prepare us for
what is to come.
Those "easily recognisable literary
references"!
When not gleefully chasing them
down and bombarding his reader with a
multitude of allusions, analogies,
influences and quotations, Kilgallin resorts to judgments of supremely pompous vacuity, "the contrasts between
Dana's thoughts and the stichomythic
dialogue of the crew throughout the
book are emphatically ironic in illustrating interior and exterior modes of consciousness. The abrasion of these
modes creates not only double perspective but the important interfacing
conflict of values that wages within
Dana."
Was ever student in this way wooed?
Was ever reader in this way won?
Thank Heavens that "space prohibited" including all the literary allusions
in Ultramarine.
And Part III, on Under The Volcano,
is no better. Following Lowry's own
exegesis of the novel, Kilgallin's "consideration ... will parallel its chapter-
by-chapter commentary, expanding
where possible on the depth-charged
symbols and themes."
Well, it was possible all right. An extraordinary symbol-hunt and reference-trade ensues. In one section, for
example, he ponders the names used in
the novel. This is the shortest of his
remarks, "although Geoffrey (beloved
of God) Firmin does have a namesake in
Thackeray's Philip Firmin, he seems to
be closer to Saint Firminus, martyred at
Amiens, and San Fermin, patron saint
of the Spanish bullfighting town of
Pamplona celebrated by Hemingway."
How many students have breathed a
sotto voce "so what" when given this
24 kind of literary scholarship? Add to this
the fact that there is the whole of literature, the cinema and cabbalistic lore in
which to track Lowry's original inspirations and you may well shudder at the
scope of Kilgallin's subject.
It is a pity that a book so handsomely
produced (beautiful typesetting, illustrations and binding), on a topic enthusiastically embraced by its author
can offer no more than pedantry.
Prof. Kilgallin was an assistant professor of English at UBC from 1967-73.
As Contemporary as
Button-down Boots
Contemporary Voices:
The Short Story in Canada
selected by Donald Stephens
Prentice-Hall, Toronto
$5 cloth, $2.95 paper
BARRY PAVITT
When I first read Morley Callaghan's
story "Let Me Promise You," I stopped in amazement at the third sentence:
"In her black crepe dress with the big
white nun-like collar and her black hair
drawn back tight from her narrow nervous face she looked almost boldly handsome." It cried out for red-pencilling.
Never have so many adjectives done so
much disservice in so weak a sentence.
And Callaghan has written much better
stories.
Going on to Mavis Gallant's "My
Heart is Broken" (a very slight tale),
one discovers the elderly wife of a
road-construction worker using speech
like, "to resume what 1 was saying to
you." She probably cooked his baked
beans in Chateauneuf du Pape!
Hugh Garner in "Red Racer" has a
Quebec farmer "listening to the nasal
twang of a pseudo-cowboy from a New
Brunswick station singing a lament
while he chorded dismally on a mail-
orderguitar." Authorial intrusion about
as contemporary as button-down boots
and bombazine black!
Oh God, three tedious stories. Here
were Canadian Davids hurling their
pebbles at Literature — and missing by
a country mile. It was a shame. And
these were stories selected for a volume
entitled Contemporary Voices.
It's lucky that years of academic
prospecting have persuaded me to ignore the rubble at the entrance to any
mine. I dug on and found gold salted
away.
Margaret Laurence is here, evoking a
Prairie sensibility in the most
skyscraper-bound reader. Her command of childhood feelings and speech
is masterly. So too is her ability to move
one through a complex of developing
emotions until character and reader
merge into one another imperceptibly.
"Horses of the Night" is a finely-
written story, delicately toned and
beautiful.
Quite different, but just as absorbing,
is Jane Rule's "Theme for Diverse Instruments." This superb piece of writing is more like a study than a conventional story. It is the rendering of a
character — a strong-willed mother of
extraordinary dimensions — and a family formed and partially crystallized
within a field of force laid down by that
extraordinary personality. Mythic, allegorical, ritualistic and hymnal modes
are dove-tailed into colloquial statements with neither a join nor crack to
betray the workman's hand. Jane
Rule's style in this piece is sharp and
powerful; utterly unsentimental but full
of the strongest feelings. The end effect
for the reader is not so much that he is
introduced to a character as to an art.
"Theme for Diverse Instruments"
stands before one like a classical sculpture, complete of itself, demanding an
observer's aesthetic admiration.
Centre-piece for this volume is Malcolm Lowry's rambling story "The
Forest Path to the Spring" — not exactly "contemporary" but very, very
good. Never having been an aficionado
of Lowry, I was lucky to catch, for the
first time, his unique rhythms (mental
and literary) and become hypnotized
into conversion. This is heightened autobiography and beautifully moulded
prose, where Dollarton's mud-flats are
endowed with the reality of Faulkner's
Yoknapatawpha County or Dylan
Thomas' Llareggyb, and the story flows
into and out of Lowry's mind-
environment like a brilliant, viscous
tide. It is a piece conceived on a large
scale and its flaws are unimportant scars
in all that poetic grandeur.
Below the level of these are a number
of good interesting stories (the volume
contains fifteen in all) and, praise the
editor, west coast writers are well represented for a pleasant change. A wide
range of Canadian experience is included. Regional areas are mapped out
from sea to sea, and even abroad.
Stephens' selection is as carefully
checked and balanced — with the exception that no French-Canadian writers are included — as anyone could
wish.
But overall the stories follow tried
and true formulae. The selection is not
quite adventurous enough. There is little experimental writing. Most of the
stories lack the taste of newness, of the
1970s contemporary.
Then, in his short preface, Stephens
comments on the multiplicity of styles
and diversity of backgrounds of the
writers, "both academic and fiercely
non-academic." This theme is compounded in the irritatingly brief head-
notes which introduce each contribution, where bibliographic information
lingers on the writers' academic backgrounds (if any). Why?
A preoccupation with the university
is a bug-bear of Canadian literature.
Many writers are as influenced by this
association as the critics. But if what is
contemporary in Canadian writing is to
be found only within the academic orbit
(attracted or repelled) then it is an unhealthy cultural situation.
And if Contemporary Voices is truly
and completely representative of the
"growing body of creative writing in
Canada," then our vein of gold is not
yet an Eldorado.
Donald Stephens, UBC associate professor of English, is associate editor of
Canadian Literature. Barry Pavitt is a
doctoral student in English at UBC and
a freelance writer.
Drifting Home on
A River of Cliches
Drifting Home
by Pierre Berton
McClelland & Stewart
Toronto, $6.95
GEOFF HANCOCK
In the summer of 1972 Pierre Berton,
his wife, seven sons and daughters, a
boyfriend and a nephew drifted 600
miles down the Yukon River on three
fat rubber rafts. This summer vacation
is immortalized forever in Berton's
twenty-first book, Drifting Home.
The book is a short triple-layered account of a leisurely journey which begins at Lake Bennett, British Columbia,
and ends two weeks later, in Dawson,
Berton's home town. The journey
nicely coincides with the publication of
the revised edition of Klondike,
Berton's 1958 bestseller.
Berton's little odyssey follows the
route of the original gold seekers of 1898
and along the way Berton points out
certain visible remnants of the goldrush
days. But the real interest of Drifting
Home comes not from the rusting relics,
but the insights into three generations of
Bertons.
Berton looks at the Yukon through
three sets of eyes; his father's, his own
and his children's. Through his father's
eyes, Berton shows a goldrush Daw-
25 son, the largest city north of San Francisco. Through his own eyes, Berton
sees a decaying mining town, characterized by heaps of tin cans and no
Coca-Cola until another summer vacation took him to Banff. And through his
children's eyes Berton speculates on a
new goldrush into Dawson — rich with
tourists and reverently reconstructed
historic sites.
The touching memories of Berton's
father provide the most interesting
anecdotes of Drifting Home. Francis
George Berton, who came to the Yukon
seeking gold and stayed on as a government mining recorder, was a man who
enjoyed life with a rare enthusiasm. His
interest in everything from butterflies to
animated cartoons obviously sparked
young Pierre's formative years.
Each chapter in Drifting Home
represents a day on the journey and
from this loose vantage point Berton
leisurely explores the past, present and
future. A lake named after an obscure
officer plunges him into a childhood
memory. An entry in his father's diary
recalls the bustling days of the Klondike. Berton notes attempts to restore
the historic Dawson and fears the Dawson of tomorrow will be crammed with
chicken palaces, motels and asphalt,
something that has already happened to
Whitehorse. And throughout these
memories and speculations, the chubby
rafts are drifting down the everchanging
river.
Regular Berton fans will probably be
disappointed in Drifting Home.
Berton's famed journalistic eye vacillates between such stale thoughts as
whether civilization's onslaught will destroy the north and "I find the odyssey
of the salmon miraculous." When these
pithy insights dry up, Berton thoughtfully provides the lyrics to the singsongs
around the campfire.
As an archeologist Berton never fails
to dig up interesting details about rotting
log cabins and sunken paddlewheel
hulks. But as a prose writer Berton's
imagination is not his strong point.
Drifting Home is clogged with limpid
pools, shocks of red hair, impish grins,
pixie faces and sleepy hamlets nestled
beneath great mountains.
There is also familiarity to much of
this book. With liberal excerpts in
Macleans and Chatelaine prior to publication (including more interesting
photographs), Berton has got a lot of
mileage out of a two-week vacation.
Berton hopes the evocation this journey provides his children will be passed
on to posterity. But aside from Berton's
well-deserved fame, this time he's produced a pot-boiler.
Geoff Hancock, BFA'73, is currently
working towards an MFA  degree at
UBC.  Pierre Berton graduated from
UBC with a BA in 1941.
26
Recycled Essays
Of Dubious Value
Dramatists in Canada:
Selected Essays
edited by William H. New
University of B.C. Press
$5.50 paper
MICHAEL MERCER
In the introduction to his Dramatists in
Canada: Selected Essays, W.H. New
refers to his edition as "a loose retrospective survey and summary of Canadian drama." To call this volume
"loose" however, is to call a
flea-market a little cluttered; and to find
value in either, one is compelled to
rummage through a great deal of rubbish. With the exception of four previously unpublished essays, it is simply an
indiscriminate gathering of material that
has appeared in Canadian Literature
over the past twelve years. All brought
together, it would seem, on the unsteady premise that good or bad, they
have something to do with Canadian
drama.
At the outset, Mr. New informs us
that "in order to preserve the
chronicle-like aspect of the collection,
the writers have not been asked
artificially to update their work." I'm
not sure I understand why the process
of updating the essays should be considered 'artificial', but I do know that the
economic consideration of doing page
reproductions from Canadian Literature far outweighs the cost of commissioning new articles and setting them up
in type. But then again, what matter if it
works. The unfortunate thing is that it
generally doesn't. Age, even in a
flea-market, is no guarantee of value.
Thus, within Dramatists in Canada,
the reader will find an article on radio
drama by George Robertson that first
appeared in 1959. A rather pedestrian
and uninformative piece that reads like
a pep-talk to discouraged continuity
writers, it makes reference to no Canadian plays and no Canadian dramatists.
It closes with an optimistic glance to the
future and a hope for better things in
radio and television. Fourteen years
have passed since it was written, and
there is no indication in Mr. New's
book of what transpired in the interim;
and since there is no indication in the
essay of what occurred even before
1959, I fail to understand why it was
included.
With the better pieces, the reluctance
to update, artificial or no, robs the
reader of valuable insights into the
movement and development of theatre
in the past decade. A case in point is
William Solly's "Nothing Sacred" — a
highly sensitive examination of the
levels of humour in Canadian drama. It
was originally published in 1962, and as
a result is unjustifiably out of date in its
frame of reference. With Solly's lively
awareness of the living theatre around
him, he is given to quick incisive comment on the contemporary — McGill's
My Fur Lady, Spring Thaw or Wayne
and Schuster — and what he might have
added if given the opportunity to reflect
on the decade that followed could
hardly be considered an artificial addition.
One essay, however, that warrants
no alteration is Canadian playwright
Merrill Denison's 1928 appraisal of the
state of our theatre. Ironically enough,
this highly eloquent and despairing assessment is the least dated in the volume
— an indication, perhaps, of how little
things have improved for the Canadian
playwright. "Until the national intentions of Canada are greatly clarified,"
he asserts, "the theatre would at best be
an artificial graft supported with as great
travail of the spirit and the purse as a
native orange industry."
Denison's essay, in fact, would have
made instructive reading for some of the
contributors. Most particularly, his assertion that: "No great play was ever
written for publication. It was created
to be played, and until this consummation, it is still a chrysalis." A truism in
dramatic criticism — that is, responsible criticism — is the belief that print is a
way of preserving plays, and not of presenting them. But notably few of the
selections in Dramatists in Canada
demonstrate a sensitivity to the living
theatre, or even the vaguest awareness
that something lies beyond the printed
page. The criticism is literary as opposed to dramatic, and, to borrow
Denison's metaphor, is more concerned with the chrysalis than the developing creature within.
One of the most blatant offenders in
the volume, Ann P. Messenger's
"Damnation at Christmas," a study of
Herbert's Fortune and Men's Eyes, is a
classic in irresponsible criticism. The
essay opens with the incomprehensible
claim that the play succeeds only by
virtue of the fact that its final scene is set
at Christmas. Without it, the drama
would "be little more than a piece of
rather pedestrian dramatic journalism.''
The statement is incomprehensible because, as even the most casual theatregoer must know, a play can never be
saved by its final act — chiefly because
the audience wouldn't be there to see it!
A drama inevitably unfolds in time. It is
a linear event in reality, in spite of Miss
Messenger's literary perception. Con- sidering the North American success of
Fortune and Men's Eyes, both on stage
and film, her final claim that "for a first
play ... it has unusual quality," seems
haughty in the extreme. But this haughtiness takes on a ludicrous quality when
considered in the light of one of the
statements she makes within the body
of the essay. "The play I think would
stand or fall on the character of Mona,
though I hesitate to make such a statement without having seen the production." Without having seen the production ! Her apparent belief that a play can
be redeemed by its final act may find
some explanation here — as might the
pitfalls of studying a chrysalis.
Since this is one of the four articles
prepared specially for the volume, one
might be tempted to question the editorial discretion of Mr. New. His own
essay — also one of the four — is a
turgid and imprecise study of the plays
of Simon Gray. One might question initially what it's doing in a volume entitled
Dramatists in Canada since Gray lives
in London, England, writes forthe BBC
and the West End stage and all his plays'
characters are Englishmen. Considering that the book totally lacks any assessment of a number of the recent
Canadian playwrights — Beverly Simons, David Freeman, David Wat-
mough, and David French to name but
a few — the choice of Gray is a contentious one.
As it stands, the article may be questioned on a dozen different levels. From
such foggy statements as, "The telescoped form of the drama, however,
gives Gray an appropriate medium for
his sharp tongue" — whatever that may
mean! — to the divine inference that a
split stage showing "adjoining rooms in
a hotel" is somehow "the stage counterpart to swift camera changes and
montage.'' At one point speaking of the
impact of one of Gray's dramas, Mr.
New concludes that "Sleeping Dog
captured its audience." The play in
question, was in fact a BBC television
production, and one is at a loss to grasp
how he came to this judgement without
the assistance of a comprehensive survey. Such evidences of the airy sweep
of unsubstantial criticism are not restricted to this essay, unfortunately, but
to much of Dramatists in Canada.
"The very existence now of so many
active young writers," we are told at the
end of the introduction, "augurs the
need for encouragement and continuing
criticism." But one despairs of the fate
of the young playwrights if they must
look to such as this for either encouragement or criticism.
Dr. W.H. New is associate professor of
English at UBC and associate editor of
Canadian Literature. Michael Mercer,
MA'70, is a Vancouver freelance writer
and author of several radio dramas for
CBC.U
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27 (MEWS
Branches Activity
Grows and Spreads
Vancouver readers may disagree violently as
to whether Vancouver Sun columnist Allan
Fotheringham is a "poor, pathological,
dim-witted bastard" (as one put it) or "the
greatest cobweb blower and guff remover in
Canadian journalism" (as another enthused), but UBC alumni in Toronto and Ottawa were united recently in their appreciation of his talents as a wit and political raconteur.
Once described by TIME as "the most
consistently controversial columnist in
Canada today," Fotheringham, BA'54, took
time out from following the federal election
campaign to speak to a sell-out alumni luncheon in Toronto on June 7 and a lively wine
and cheese party in Ottawa on June 13. By all
reports, both events were immensely successful, with Fotheringham providing witty
and irreverent insights into British
Columbia's current political scene.
The events were among the highlights of a
very active spring branches program.
It began with an alumni branch seminar at
U BC which attracted branch representatives
from all over Canada and the U.S. The seminar was held to discuss common problems
and consider ideas for improving the program.
On April 6, Edmonton alumni held a dinner dance at which former B.C. Hydro
chairman Dr. Gordon Shrum, DSc'61, gave
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior
Stewart Udall (top, right) answers a
question from two very interested ladies
following his speech to the annual alumni
dinner in May. More than 300 alumni
turned out to hear Mr. Udall's
forward-looking speech on energy in which
he argued for an end to the North
American style of wasteful living.
Also at the annual dinner, alumni
past-president George Morfitt (centre)
congratulates former B.C. Hydro
co-chairman Dr. Hugh Keenleyside (left)
on being awarded the Alumni Award of
Merit. Dr. David Suzuki, UBC zoology
professor, was named an Honorary
Life Member of the alumni association.
Both also received gifts of original Indian
art and (below) special events committee
chairman Mrs. Mary Wellwood took a
special interest in Dr. Suzuki's tooled
copper motif.
28 an informal and — as usual — amusing talk.
Due to the air strike, it turned out to be a very
eventful trip for Dr. Shrum: it included a
harrowing 20-hour train ride (complete with
derailment) followed by an 18-hour bus ride
back to Vancouver. For his dogged endurance, Dr. Shrum was later awarded the
Order of the Battered Suitcase.
The first UBC alumni branch meeting in
Newfoundland was held on May 10 and it
was a big hit: almost half the grads living in
that colourful province attended the dinner in
St. John's. The attractions, of course, were
Leona Doduk, BA'71, alumni field secretary, who spoke of new developments at
UBC, and Canada's only living "Father of
Confederation", the Hon. Joey Smallwood,
LLD'54.
The Powell River alumni branch began a
program of community involvement on June
7 with an informal seminar co-sponsored by
the Chamber of Commerce in which alumni
and others explored Powell River's future.
Speakers included Dr. Timothy O'Riordan,
SFU associate professor of geography; Phil
Paulson, UBC graduate student in planning;
city planner Doug Robinson; and, representing the alumni association, alumni board of
management member-at-large David Dale-
Johnson, BA'69, a UBC graduate student in
urban land economics.
Finally, on June 29 graduates living in the
Tokyo, home of one of our newest branches,
held an informal social evening where, it is
reported, they got all nostalgic while viewing
slides of UBC.
UBC Series Features
Noted Lecturers
The Vancouver Institute will celebrate its
58th anniversary this fall with what promises to be a first-rate program of distinguished lecturers.
The new president of Simon Fraser University, Dr. Pauline Jewett is expected to
open the 12-lecture fall series .
The Institute, a program of free Saturday
evening lectures,  is  intended  to  involve
In Toronto and Ottawa alumni gathered to
hear the Fotheringham philosophy. At the
Ottawa function (top) James Munro,
BSF'50 (right) and C. Vernon are in deep
discussion and (above) Stan Fogel, MA 70
and Toomas Vilmansen, MASc'70 (right)
seem to be enjoying themselves. Guest of
honor, Allan Fotheringham (right), listens
unbelievingly to all the nice things
branches secretary, Leona Doduk (below,
right) is saying about him in her
introduction. In Toronto, Cecilia Long,
BA'32 andH. John Funk, BA'48, (below,
left) were part of the standing-room-only
audience ■ members of the community in the intellectual life of the university.
"The program is open to anybody and
everybody," said Institute president Elsje
Armstrong. "We try to present a program
of distinguished speakers dealing with a
wide range of topical issues. This year we
think we've got a particularly exciting program."
Other speakers confirmed for the fall include: Dr. Ken North a petroleum energy
expert at Carleton University; Dr. Bernard
Saint-Jacques, UBC associate professor of
linguistics and expert on bilingualism in
Canada; architect Arthur Erickson who
will give "A Personal View of China";
Lord Wolfenden, speaking on "Crime and
Sin"; UBC English professor Dr. Geoffrey
Durrant, speaking on "The Educated
Man" and B.C. Human Rights Commissioner Kathleen Ruff speaking on women's
rights. The full list of speakers will be announced later.
Three other speakers who appear likely
to be coming for the spring series of the Institute are philosopher Karl Popper;
Elizabethan music expert and minstrel
Martin Best, who will give a lecture-
demonstration; and the noted Canadian
literary critic Northrop Frye.
This year the Institute program will be
put on in the Instructional Resources
Centre in Health Sciences, instead of the
Buchanan Building. The move was made
because of the need for more space and improved audio-visual facilities.
New Class of Senior
Students on Campus
Senior citizens from all over British Columbia are coming to Point Grey this summer to
become students again.
Up to Chronicle press time, more than 200
people aged 65 or over had enrolled for a
variety of regular undergraduate credit
courses and special interest courses under
UBC's new Summer Session program for
senior citizens.
"The response has been most enthusiastic," said Dr. Norman Watt, UBC Summer
Session director. "As a result of telephone
calls, we've mailed out from this office over
500 questionnaires. Out of that, I think we'll
get a total of between 200 and 300 people
signing up."
Under the senior citizens program there
are no tuition fees for the courses, no exams
or essays (unless the people choose to write
them) and free bus service to and from the
campus and free campus housing. It is all
part of a move by the university to provide
greater access to higher education.
In the credit courses, Dr. Watt said the
senior citizens had enrolled for everything
from Chinese art to philosophy to physics.
In the special interests courses, which
were developed specially for the program,
the greatest interest has been shown in studying creative writing, nutrition, gardening,
geography of B.C., history of B.C., fitness
and estate planning.
Dr. Watt said 30 people from places as far
apart as Grand Forks and Nanoose Bay had
applied for free campus accommodation.
Alumni Branches in Edmonton and
Newfoundland had distinguished guest
speakers. In Edmonton, (above), Dr.
Gordon Shrum chats with Mildred
Kennelly, BA'67, secretary-treasurer of the
Edmonton branch executive. In St. John's,
Joey Smallwood, (right) wowed them with
his speech. In the background is Pat
Draskoy, BA'61, branch representative and
chairperson for the dinner.
Volunteers Wanted To
Help Foreign Students
International House is looking for alumni
volunteers to help foreign students entering
UBC this year to find accommodation and
adjust to Canadian society.
More than 300 new students from 70
countries will enter UBC this fall. As it has
done for several years, International House
is running an Emergency Housing Program
and an orientation program, Reach-Out '74,
for these students.
In the Reach-Out '74 program, alumni
are needed to correspond with overseas
students on an individual basis to acquaint
them with Canadian customs prior to their
arrival. In addition, such alumni can be
helpful in meeting the foreign student on arrival, assisting in finding accommodation
and generally acting as a personal contact
in Vancouver.
In its emergency housing program, International House would also like to develop a list of people who are willing to
board an overseas student for one to three
days after arrival until they get settled.
Alumni wishing to help International
House in either of these important and useful programs, should phone 228-5021.
Alumni Bursaries Aid
Part-time Students
UBC Alumni Fund expansion of its bursary
program is making it possible for an important and growing segment of the student body
to receive financial aid — the part-time students.
The fund has contributed an additional
$5,000 to the Alumni Association Bursary
Fund, making the total available to this program $30,400. The bursary fund is now also to
be made available to help part-time students,
many of whom are married women and working people, who often need financial help
as much, if not more, than full-time students.
Continuing generous donations by alumni
to the Alumni Fund has made this possible.
Last year, alumni giving totalled $320,600.
So far in the 1974 campaign, donations continue to flow in at a healthy rate.
30 A look at Powell River's future was on the
program, (top) and Molly McLaren, BA '23
and Craig McArthur, editor of the Powell
River News were there to learn at the
seminar, co-sponsored by Powell River
alumni. (Below) Nadine Johnson, BHE'65,
home economics division president,
welcomed the new home economics grads
during their ring ceremony at the Graduate
Student Centre.
Big Band Bash For
Reunion Days '74
Reunion Days' 74 promises to be a swinging
affair — and with a little difference twist for
grads of the 40s.
The grad classes of 1939, '44 and '49 plan
to hold a Big Band evening at the Commodore Ballroom with Mart Kenny and his band
on Saturday, October 19. So dust off your
stomping shoes!
Otherwise, the other graduating classes returning to campus on October 19 — the grads
of 1929, '34, '54, '59 and '64 — will do their
swinging (following a campus tour) with a hot
rum party and banquet.
For the athletically-inclined, there will be
a men's golf tournament — a women's golf
tournament (dates to be announced) at the
University Golf Course and the 3rd Annual
Chronicle Squash Tournament and Bunfeed.
This bizarre event will take place October 5
in the Thunderbird Sports Centre. □
Branches
Anyone?
Interested in becoming involved in
alumni branch activities in your area?
Here are your local representatives:
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Campbell River: Jim Boulding (Box 216).
Castlegar: Bruce Fraser (365-7292).
Cranbrook: David Shunter (426-5241).
Courtenay: William Dale (338-5159).
Dawson Creek: Roger Pryke (782-5407).
Duncan: David Williams (746-7121).
Kamloops: Bud Aubrey (372-8845).
Kimberley: Larry Garstein (427-2600).
Nanaimo: James Slater (753-1211).
Nelson: Judge Leo Gansner (352-3742).
Judith Bussinger (352-7277). Penticton:
Dick Brooke (492-6100). Port Alberni:
George Plant (723-2161). Powell River:
Randy Yip (485-6309). Prince George:
Neil McPherson (563-0161). Salmon
Arm: W.H. Letham (832-2264). Victoria:
Kirk Davis (386-2441). Williams Lake:
Anne Stevenson (392-4365).
THE PRAIRIES
Calgary: Frank Garnett (262-7906).
Edmonton: John Haar (425-8810), Gary
Caster (465-1342). Winnipeg: Gary Coopland (453-3918).
EASTERN CANADA
Ottawa: Gerry Meyerman (232-1721).
Toronto: David Papau (488-9819).
Montreal: Lyn Hobden (866-2055).
Halifax: Carol MacLean (423-2444).
Newfoundland: Pat Draskoy (726-2576).
UNITED STATES
Denver: Harold Wright (892-6556). Los
Angeles:  Don Garner (342-2967). New
Mexico: Martin Goodwin (763-3493).
New York: Rosemary Brough (688-2656).
San Francisco: Stewart Dickson
(453-1035). Seattle: Gerald Marra
(641-2714).
FOREIGN
Australia: Christopher Bangwin (12 Watkins Street, Bondi, Sydney). Bermuda:
John Keeffe (P.O. Box 1007, Hamilton).
England: Alice Hemming (35 Elsworthy
Road, London, NW 3). Ethiopia:
Taddesse Ebba (College of Agriculture,
Haile Sellassie I University, Dire Dawa,
Box 138, Addis Ababa). Hong Kong:
Thomas Chung-Wai Mak (Department of
Chemistry, New Asia College, 6 Farm
Road. Kowloon), Ronald S.M. Tse (Department of Chemistry, University of
Hong Kong). Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia: Kwong-Hiong Sim (51 Wayang
Street, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
(East). Scotland: Jean Dagg, (32 Bentfield
Drive. Prestwick). South Africa:
Kathleen Lombardi (Applethwaite
Farm, Elgin, C.P.). Tokyo: Maynard
Hogg (1-4-22 Kamikitazawa, Setagaya-
ku, Tokyo). Paul Richardson (2-1-15
Minami Azabu. Minato-ku, Tokyo).
31 ;raru
Now that he's retired to Winnipeg, Harry
Mosher, BASc'27, has taken up lawn bowling in a big way. Last summer he was a
member of the Winnipeg team that represented Manitoba in the Canada Games ...
As a librarian, Doris Crompton Andersen's,
BA'29, (BLS, Washington) business was
other people's books. Now she's very busy
as an author herself. Blood Brother and
Ways Harsh and Wild both have B.C. settings — and it seems she has another one
underway on the Yukon ... Veteran
Vancouver Sun columnist Mamie Maloney
Boggs, BA'29, has semi-retired her typewriter. She has stopped writing a regular column, but there will be occasional dispatches
from Ladysmith-By-The-Sea.
After 18 years of carefully looking after the
Squamish Public Library, Freda Lasser
Clarke, BA'31, has retired. She worked as a
volunteer for most of those years, building
the community's public collection from a few
cupboards of books in the Legion hall, to its
present 7,000 volumes ... Principal of the
B.C. Institute of Technology since 1967,
Dean H. Goard, BA'32, retired at the end of
June after 34 years in the field of vocational
education. Prior to moving to BCIT he was
principal of the Vancouver Vocational
School ... The Toronto Men's Press Club
honored colleague Stuart Keate, BA'35, in
February, making him a member of the
Canadian News Hall of Fame. Keate has
been publisher of the Vancouver Sun since
1964 ... Professor Robert W. Wellwood,
BSF'35, (MSF, PhD, Duke), of UBC's
forestry faculty will be a Commonwealth
Visiting Professor at the University College
of North Wales, Bangor in the coming
academic year. We understand that Mary
MacKenzie Wellwood, BA'51 is having a go
at the Welsh language and is looking forward
to meeting some Welsh nationalists.
The Chemical Institute of Canada has
honored Dr. Genille Cave-Brown-Cave,
BA'39, MA'40, for his contributions to
chemistry. A professor of chemistry at
McGill, he is winner of the Fisher Scientific
Lecture Award for his work in analytical
chemistry ... Patricia Macrae Fulton, BA'39,
has been appointed B.C. regional manager of
the federal government's New Horizons
program which encourages senior citizens to
remain active in community life and fosters
32
Pat Proudfoot
It's a very nice office, (comfortable, she
says) a wall-full of law books, nice chairs,
Mexican prints on the wall, an enormous,
yellow marigold growing in a pot and a
sign on the door saying Judge Proudfoot.
Patricia Fahlman Proudfoot is the first
woman to be appointed to the federal
bench in B.C., as a judge of the county
court. Law has always been her "big
thing. I canneverremembereverwanting
to be anything else but a lawyer."
But being a lawyer took some doing.
She took a BA in history and psychology
at UBC in 1949. "I thought maybe I
wouldn't have the ability or maybe
wouldn't like law once I got into it'.' If this
happened "I could drop back and go into
counselling or something. I'm fond of
people". She graduated in law in 1952.
She recalls that there was not much
student financial aid available and "as the
youngest of ten children there wasn't too
much money around." She worked at the
Hudson's Bay, in a machine shop and at
Safeway. There are still times now
when she packs her own groceries. "Kids
now just toss the tomatoes in the bottom
and throw the cans on top. They ruin
everything — and with the price of food
... The girl at the cash register always
says 'My, you pack that well'."
She went straight into articling and a
year later set up her own practice. "Law
was probably more work than I thought it
was going to be." And she only managed
to take her first holiday in 1957. In 1959
she married Arthur Proudfoot "and had a
weekend honeymoon" before carrying
on with the law. This pace kept up with
very few breaks until 1969 when she and
Arthur travelled for a few months "but I
got itchy feet and came back into practise
in the middle of 1970."
In 1971 she was appointed to the provincial court. "I never thought about
being a judge. I was too busy with my
practise. A provincial court judge was
one thing but I certainly had no idea that I
would be appointed to the federal
bench." The county court deals with
more serious crimes — all criminal indictable offences with the exception of
murder and rape — the summary convictions appeals, civil cases not exceeding
$3,000 and appeals on the provincial
court. "And then I'm sitting in appeal on
my former colleagues," she says with a
laugh.
She's neverfelt affected by discrimination. "I know that other women have had
problems, but I just haven't felt it." At
university it was marks that mattered and
extra help was willingly given to those
who needed it. "I can't say I had any
problem finding a spot to article —
everyone did." For her it was just a problem of finding a spot with money. "They
were offering $40 a month and I was supporting myself. One lawyer even suggested I pay him for the privilege of being
there. Eventually I got a spot paying $100
a month."
'' I can only recall one person coming to
see me — Pat Fahlman — and objecting
to my being a woman. He was a middle aged man, about 55. I never got his
name. He came in the door and said 'Oh,
a woman', turned around and walked
out." She thinks it's great that women are
moving into new areas — pilots, auto
mechanics, truck drivers — and at the
same pay. "I wouldn't like it if the men
made more than I did for the same work.''
There is one small ambition that Pat
Proudfoot would have if she ever happened to leave the bench. "I'd like to see
if I could get myself up the ladder of the
commercial world" — something like the
board of directors of a big B.C. corporation, MacMillan Bloedel or B.C. Tel.
What does she think of today's law students and young lawyers? "I could be
wrong, but I get the impression that many
more students are interested in looking
after people's rights than looking for
money." The system of legal aid today
makes this kind of involvement possible. "I enjoy the young lawyers. I enjoy
talking to them, I'm a good listener in
court, if a young chap has done a lot of
work I'm not going to slap my book
around or throw my pen down. I'll sit and
listen ...."
This summer she plans to get out her
golf clubs again. "I used to have a 14
handicap — and I'm not going to spend
my whole summer holiday reading law."
It's your honor. Judge. friendships among retired persons ... John L.
(Jack) Gray, BSA'39, a former Chronicle
committee member, is manager of the
newly-formed British Columbia Dairy
Foundation.
Two more for our list of UBC judges — A.
Stewart McMorran, BA'41, Vancouver's
long-time city prosecutor and William J.
Trainor, (BSc, Alberta), LLB'50, who returns to B.C. from several years with the
federal justice department ... Robert W.
Bonner, BA'42, LLB'48, has stepped down
as chairman of Canada's largest forest products company, MacMillan Bloedel. He
joined MB in 1968 after serving as attorney-
general in the Social Credit government. He
plans to join Arthur Fouks, BA'41, LLB'49
in the new legal firm of Bonner & Fouks.
They originally formed a team in their UBC
days for McGoun Cup debates that brought
the debating trophy to UBC ... Paul J. Frost,
BASc'44, a supervisor with Crown Zellerbach, Camas, Wash., is chairman of the pulp
testing committee of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry. He has
been active in the association since 1953 and
has served as chairman of several committees. Currently he is also chairman of his
local school board.
Philip Arthur Jones, BSA'49, (MSc, PhD,
Wisconsin), is technical director, technical
department, agricultural chemical division of
FMC Canada, in Burlington, Ont. For the
past few years he has been on the faculty of
South Dakota State University.... Canada's
first vintage model track and field championships — actually called the Canadian Masters Track and Field Championships — for
athletes 40 years and over was held at the end
of June in Richmond, B.C. The events are all
age-grouped with an emphasis on the noncompetitive aspects. One of the chief organizers is John Pavelich, BPE'49, BEd'54, a
former Commonwealth and Pan-American
Games shot-put competitor ... At UBC's
Centre for Continuing Education there are
some changes coming up, Director, Gordon
R. Selman, BA'49, MA'63, has resigned to
become an associate professor, specializing
in adult education in UBC's education faculty. The associate director of the centre,
John P. (Jack) Blaney, BEd'60, MEd'65,
(EdD, UCLA) is leaving to become
Canada's first dean of continuing education
— at Simon Fraser University.
Heart disease researcher Albert R. Cox,
BA'50, MD'54, has been named dean of
medicine at Memorial University, Newfoundland. Dr. Cox was an associate professor of medicine at UBC before moving to
Memorial in 1969 ... Michael G. Oswell,
BSA'50, has taken over as director of the
development and extension branch of the
B.C. department of agriculture ... A new
address for Louis D. Burke, BA'51, after August 1 — the Commercial Section, Canadian
Embassy in Berne, Switzerland. He has
served as a member of Canada's trade mission in several countries in South America Mamie Boggs
and in Australia ... Moving up in the federal
civil service, George Robert Gregory,
BSA'51, BEd'63, is now chief of manpower
planning and staff training and development
for the marine division of the ministry of
transport ... Arthur W. Groll, BA'51, is
vice-president of Pan Canadian Petroleum in
Calgary.
Development economist, Peter F.M.
McLoughlin, BA'51, (PhD, Texas), has
joined CD. Schultz & Co., Vancouver, as
principal economist. He has had a wide-
ranging academic career — teaching in the
Sudan, California, Toronto, and chairing the
department of economics at the University
of New Brunswick. ... Veteran civil servant,
James R. Midwinter, BA'51, (MA, Oxford)
is now assistant secretary to the federal
cabinet. He moved to that position from the
Jack Gray
post of general director, resource industries
and construction branch of the federal department of industry, trade and commerce.
A UBC Rhodes scholar, he spent 10 years in
assorted exotic external affairs posts in
India, South and Central America before
being posted to Ottawa ... UBC's new dean
of commerce, Noel A. Hall, BCom'52,
(MBA, California) (DBA, Harvard), has
been a member of the faculty since 1953 and
recently has also headed UBC's Institute of
Industrial Relations. His work as an arbitrator and mediator in industrial disputes —
the B.C. forest industry and the 1972 air controllers strike — have brought him wide recognition.
Children need special attention and protection when they become involved in legal
matters, and British Columbia now has a
Roy MacLaren
special court to deal with them. The Royal
Commission on Family and Children's Law
chaired by Mr. Justice Thomas Berger,
BA'55, LLB'56, is responsible for establishment of the new Unified Family Court.
The first two young lawyers recruited to be
B.C.'s first family advocates are Jane Auxier
Ruzicka, LLB'71 and Gary Somers, LLB'69
... Roy W. MacLaren, BA'55, is chairman
and chief executive officer of the Canadian
branch of Ogilvy & Mather, an international
advertising organization. ... After four years
as a psychology instructor at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, Joyce Hops,
BA'56, EdD'69, has become the college's
first woman dean. She is now associate dean
of instruction ... While Harry Penny, BA'56,
BSW'56, MSW'57, tries to keep the McMaster University school of social work (of
THE OPINIONS
EXPRESSED IN OUR PAPER
ARE NOT NECESSARILY
OUR OWN.
The editor and publishers of the Sun have certain opinions
and beliefs, which are frequently expressed on the editorial
page. But elsewhere in the paper you will often read totally
divergent views, expressed by our own staff writers. We feel
this is not only natural, given the varied backgrounds and
attitudes of our editorial staff... but that it is also a healthy
and dynamic situation. Our belief is that people look to their
daily newspaper not merely for accurate and factual reporting
... but for stimulating and informed opinion on the whole
range of problems and issues which confront us today. We may
not always agree on solutions to these problems ... but we do
offer a uniformly high calibre of opinion, expressed with
style, skill and integrity.
n ®he %ncouper Sun
34 which he is director) sailing on an even keel,
he has other nautical duties as well — he
recently became commodore of the Royal
Hamilton Yacht Club ... K. Marion Smith,
BSN'56, (MSN, McGill) is filling the new
post of associate executive director of the
Registered Nurses Association of B.C. She
was previously assistant director of nursing
at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
A very topical paper was presented by
Kathleen Archibald, BA'57, (MA, Illinois)
(PhD, Washington University) to the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science recently — The Social Context of
Inquiry: Problems of Forbidden and Discouraged Knowledge. She is associate professor of public health and community
medicine at the University of Washington,
Seattle ... William G. Meekison, BA'57,
MD'62, has taken over as director of the
Boundary Health Unit in the Lower Fraser
Valley. ... Devising a housing policy for a
city the size of Toronto is a mammoth task,
but it is being tackled by Michael Goldrick,
BCom'58, (MA, Queen's), (PhD, London).
He was elected an alderman in Toronto in
1972 and is now chairman of a city council-
appointed work group on housing. "The
provision of adequate shelter for citizens
ought to be the most important function of
municipal government," he says ... How do
you prepare for being a parent? Deborah
Greenberg Hordiner, BA'58, MSW'59, is
helping parents in the San Francisco area
adjust to having little ones around through a
course called Infant-Parent Relationships,
part of the San Francisco community college
parent education program.
Dider Hasselmam
search and long-range planning for the welfare division of the department of health and
welfare in Ottawa ... A study of The Collective Farm in Soviet Agriculture, has won Dr.
Robert C. Stuart, BCom'61, the Genevieve
Gorst Herfurth award for outstanding research in social studies at the University of
Wisconsin. He is currently associate professor of economics at Rutgers University.
Educators from 10 countries gathered in
Tokyo in March to discuss curriculum development, and among them was Earle K.
Hawkesworth, MEd'62, who is Alberta's
deputy minister of education ... Douglas R.
Piteau, BSc'62, (PhD, Witwatersrand) is a
member of the Canadian Advisory Committee on Rock Mechanics. The group advises
Marion Smith
on engineering problems in rock and open pit
mining and encourages mining research in
Canada... Stuart Robson, BA'62, (PhD, Oxford), professor of history at Trent University, was one of 20 university teachers honored for their teaching by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.
Making every penny work for you has long
been the financial philosophy of Vancouver
Sun business writer, Mike Grenby, BA'63,
(MS, Columbia) and his wife Mandy. Their
recent book on the subject is entitled My
Darling Dollar, and now Mike is giving some
very down-to-earth financial advice in a regular column syndicated to six Canadian newspapers .:. Richard C. Malone, BA'63, has
Edwin R. Black, (BA, Western Ontario),
MA'60, (PhD, Duke) has begun a five-year
appointment as director of the school of public administration at Queen's University,
Kingston. Before this appointment he was an
associate professor in the Queen's political
science department ... Didericus P.H. Has-
selman, (BSc, Queen's), MASc'60, (PhD,
California), has been promoted to full professor of metallurgy and material science at
LeHigh University, where he is also director
of the university's ceramic research laboratory ... University of Alberta has appointed
C. Robert James, BASc'60, MASc'61,
PhD'64, to head its department of electrical
engineering ... Is religious experience a
therapeutic factor in the rehabilitation of
drug addicts? Katie Peters, BSN'60, is off to
New York to find out. She received a $6,000
Canada Council grant to continue her research in drug rehabilitation. At present she
is co-ordinator of counselling services at
Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo.
One of Carolyn Johnson Bolt's, BA'61,
newest projects is a musical play on the late
Maurice Duplessis, long-time premier of
Quebec. It is her third play in as many years
dealing with themes from Canadian history.
"I'm interested in creating a myth out of
Canadian history." Though she may deviate
from the textbook a little to give herself some
more room, she says that her characters are
authentic. The new play is scheduled for
production by Toronto's Young People's
Theater this fall ... Economist T.Russell
Robinson, BCom'61, (MA, PhD, Yale) is
now assistant deputy minister for policy re-
■ classics
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261-3833
CHARGEX or MASTER CHARGE
35 taken over as publisher of the Winnipeg Free
Press, a post previously held by his father.
Before joining the Free Press in 1966 he
worked on both the Ottawa Journal and the
Toronto Globe & Mail ... WilUam C. Wed-
ley, BCom'63, (MCom, Columbia) is chairing a special committee which is examining
problems in the development of the Pember-
ton Valley, north of Vancouver.
Forestry researcher Alexander Jablanczy,
PhD'64, one of the refugees who fled from
Hungary during the 1956 uprisings and eventually helped establish UBC's Sopron division, has retired as a scientific liaison officer
for Environment Canada in Fredericton,
N.B. ... Robert C. Handfield, BSc'65, (MA,
PhD, Princeton), is leaving the academic life
as chairman of geology at Catawba College,
North Carolina, to be senior geologist with
Gulf Minerals of Canada in Toronto... Delta
School trustee Suzanna Vanden-Berg Kelly,
BEd'65, is a very busy woman. In addition to
trying to stimulate innovative programs for
the Delta schools, she has two young children of her own to look after — and she's just
completed her first year of law school at
UBC.
6
SHARED YOUR
GOOD HEALTH!
BEA+BLOOD DONOR
Rutherford
McRae
1774 West Broadway
Vancouver, B.C.
Interested in buying or
selling real estate
in Vancouver?
For advice and assistance
without high pressure
salesmanship, call me
anytime.
Joan Bentley
224-0255 Res.
733-8181 Bus.
Suzanna Kelly
The Fraser-Fort George Community Services Board in Prince George has named D.
Anne Bogan, BA'66, to be its executive director ... In the Kamloops area Hugh Millar,
BA'68, (BSW, MSW, Windsor) is coordinator for the Community Resources Society ... Today it's a bit like the impossible
dream, but Edmonton families who are living
on low incomes but still aspire to own their
own homes are being given counselling and
assistance by Leslie Bella, MSW'69. She's a
community worker with the city social services department, who takes a special interest in helping people get the most for their
housing dollar ... Bruce Housser, BA'69, is
now assistant to the president of Hy's of
Canada.
IDs
Jo-Anne Jorowski Siorpaes, BLS'70 and
her husband, Mansueto, are going to be
spending the summer operating a remote alpine inn in the Italian Alps outside Cortina —
perfect for keen hikers and backpackers ...
Barrett (Barry) Soper, BEd'70 and Louise
Lind Soper, DDHy'70 have decided to hang
up their skates and retire from amateur ice-
dance competition. They have won the
Canadian Senior title for the last four years
and are currently ranked ninth in the world.
They're not quite finished with skating
though, they plan to skate professionally during the 1975 amateur skating club carnival
season in the U.S. and Canada.
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Ambrose, BASc'64,
(Diana E. Warner, BA'63), a son, Gregory
David, Jan. 28, 1974, in North Vancouver
... Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bingham, BA'67,
MSW'70 (Rosemary Smith, BSP'70), a
son, Jesse David, Jan. 31, 1974, in Abbotsford ... Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Bird,
BSc'65, LLB'71, (Bridget Murray,
BA'66), a son, Alastair James, Jan. 18,
1974, in Vancouver ... Mr. and Mrs. David
Bohach, BASc'67, a son, Donovan Phillip,
Oct. 23, 1973, in Kwakwani, Guyana ...
Mr. and Mrs. John A. Bond, BASc'64,
MASc'67, a daughter, Alison, April 1,
1974, in Ottawa ... Mr. and Mrs. David
Carlyle, (Pat Hay, BEd'65), a son, Drake
Archie, August 19, 1973, in Red Deer, Alberta ... Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Deering,
LLB'71, a son, Robert Mark, Jan. 9, 1974,
in North Vancouver ... Dr. and Mrs.
George W. Jakeway, BSc'64, MD'70,
(Elizabeth Scholefield, BSR'67), a daughter, Carolina Joan, May 4, 1974, in
Cochabamba, Bolivia ... Dr. and Mrs. John
M. Green, PhD'68, (Jane Scholefield,
BSc'64, MSc'66), a daughter, Valerie, May
9, 1974, in St. John's, Newfoundland ...
Dr. and Mrs. Mark Mealing, BA'60, (Kay
Coxworth, BEd'63), a son, Gavin Alasdair
Eric, Feb. 10, 1974, in Castlegar ... Mr.
and Mrs. Patrick Parker, BCom'68,
MBA'69, a daughter, Amanda Jane,
November 14, 1973 in Vancouver ... Mr.
and Mrs. Donald F. Sturgess, BSc'59, a
son, Christopher Thomas, March 27, 1974,
in Montreal ... Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Vic-
cars, LLB'72, (Susan Devereaux, BA'69),
a son, Thomas Michael, February 4, 1974,
in Calgary ... Dr. and Mrs. F. Graham Wilson, PhD'70, (Adrienne Allen, BA'65), a
daughter, Jill Patricia, Oct. 16, 1973, in
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.
Atkinson - Cardin: Richard C. Atkinson,
BASc'65 to Judith M. Shark Cardin,
BA'65, BLS'69, Dec. 8, 1973 at Whistler
Mountain ... Howes- Gehring: Ian T.
Howes, BSF'71 to Janet Mary Gehring,
BSc'72, March 16, 1974 in Delta ...
McLarnon - Jamieson: James G. McLar-
non, PhD'73 to Susan V. Jamieson, BA'65,
May 4, 1974 in Vancouver ... Nichol -
Sturgess: Alexander E. Nichol, MA'70 to
Kathleen Sturgess, BA'70, MLS'73, April
2, 1974 in Vancouver.
Frederick (Bud) Bailey, BSA'51, April 1974
in Sardis. For the past 17 years he was a
staff member of the B.C. Electric Co. and
later B.C. Hydro. Survived by his wife,
two daughters and two sons.
John David Beaty, BASc'41, December
1973 near Georgetown, Guyana. A longtime member of B.C.'s forest industry, he
was founder and president of Beaty Laminated (now Crown Zellerbach) and most
recently was vice-president of Gregory Industries and Acorn Forest Products. At the
time of his death he was president of the
Boys' Club of Vancouver. Survived by his
wife (Jean McLeod, BA'38), three sons
(Leonard, BA'69), three sisters and a
step-brother.
Thomas Wilfred Brown, Q.C, BA'25, September 1973 in Vancouver. Editor of The
Ubyssey in 1924-25, he began his practice
in Prince Rupert and was named king's
counsel in 1950. Six years later he was
sworn in as a justice of the B.C. Supreme
Court. Survived by his wife and daughter.
John H. (Jock) Byers, BSA'41, (MS, PhD,
Oregon State), April 1974 in Urbana, Illinois. An associate professor of dairy science at the University of Illinois, he served
36 as an animal science advisor at Nehru University, India, from 1968-72. He was active
in the YMCA and was named the YMCA
Layman of the Year in 1963. Survived by his
wife, three daughters, a brother and a sister.
Lewis John Clark, BA'32, (MSc, Washington), (PhD, Oregon State), March 1974 in
Victoria. Until his retirement in 1970 he
headed the department of chemistry at the
University of Victoria. Last September his
book, Wild Flowers of British Columbia,
was published. It is filled with beautiful
colour photographs, and represents a lifetime project of Dr. Clark's. He was an avid
outdoorsman and mountaineer (climbing
the Matterhom in 1962) and was a member
of the Sierra Club of B.C. and the Alpine
Society of Vancouver. In the 1920s he held
the B.C. records for the 100 and 220 yard
dashes. Survived by his wife (Ethel Farquhar, BA'34), a son and two daughters
(Shiela Clark Semadeni, BPE'61).
Hazel Wilbrand Dean, BA'18, MA'20, February 1974 in Oakland, Calif. Predeceased
by her husband, Curtis, BASc'23, she is
survived by a son, two daughters and eleven grandchildren.
Richard Carlyle Ellis, LLB'50, June 1974,
accidentally near Esquimalt. He was the
current president of the Canadian Rugby
Union and a past president of the B.C.
Rugby Union. In his undergraduate days
he played football and rugby and was one
of the organizers of the Joker's Club, a
campus organization formed by ex-service
personnel that managed to combine service
to the university with some wildly assorted
hi-jinks. Survived by his wife and five children.
Donald A. Eriksson, BArch'63, March 1974
in Edmonton, Alberta. A practising architect in Edmonton, he is survived by his
wife, two sons, parents and brother.
Rebecca Moscovich Gelman, BA'36, March
1974 in Los Angeles. Since 1954 she had
worked with The Motion Picture and Television Fund of Los Angeles as director of
social services and administrator of the
Country House and Lodge. Survived by
her husband, daughter and five brothers.
Janet Lee Hunter, BA'66, (ARCT, Toronto), December 1973 in Vancouver. A
teacher and librarian in Richmond, she is
survived by her mother.
Robert A. Lance, BA'66, March 1974 in
Vancouver. An active sailor with the Royal
Vancouver Yacht Club for many years, he
was a member of the UBC Sailing Club,
serving as treasurer in 1964-65. He was a
member of Zeta Psi. Through his company,
Photype, Bob had been closely connected
with the Chronicle for the past two years.
He will be missed. Survived by his parents
and sister.
Alexander M. Richmond, BASc'27, January
1974 in White Rock. He spent his early
years as a mining engineer, later joining the
pulp and paper division of B.C. Forest
Products. Survived by his wife and three
daughters.
Esther F. Tervo, (BA, Queen's),  MA'43,
November 1973 in Victoria. Survived by
her sister, Clara, BA'31.
Samuel Warnock, BASc'35, January 1974
in Victoria.
Leslie Anne Whitcutt, BA'73, December
1973 in Vancouver. Leslie was taking a
qualifing year at UBC before beginning
graduate work. Her photograph in the SUB
plaza appeared in the Summer 73 Chronicle
with the story on UBC's blind students.
Survived by her father and mother (Ollie,
BEd'73), two sisters and a brother. The
Leslie Anne Whitcutt Memorial Fund has
been established at UBC to help needy
blind students. Donations may be made
through the UBC Alumni Fund or the university finance department.
George Brooks White, (BA, Toronto),
MA'37, December 1973 in Vancouver. A
retired teacher, he is survived by his wife,
son and daughter Ruth, BA'45. D
A Postie's Lot
IS Not    Specially, when he brings the
A Uannv        Alumni Records Department
M nappy       bags of Alumni'Unknowns'..
OrlS ■ ■ ■ So if you're planning to
change your name, address or
life style... let us know — and bring a little
lightness to a postie's walk, (enclosure of your
Chronicle mailing label is helpful)
Alumni Records
6251 N.W. Marine Drive
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1A6
Name
(Maiden Name) 	
(Married women please note your husband's full
name and indicate title i.e. Mrs., Ms., Miss, Or.)
Address
Class Year
37 UBC ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF
MANAGEMENT
1974-75
Honorary President: Walter H. Gage,
BA'25, MA'26, LLD'58.
Executive:
President: Charles (Chuck) Campbell,
BA'71; Past President: George Morfitt,
BCom'58; 1st Vice-president: Kenneth
Brawner, BA'57, LLB'58; 2nd Vice-
president: James Denholme, BASc'56;
3rd Vice-president: R. Bernie Treasurer, BCom'58; Treasurer: Paul Hazell,
BCom'60.
Members-at-large (1973-75)
Donald J. Currie, BCom'61; David
Dale-Johnson, BA'69; David Grahame,
BA'69; Charles Hulton, BSc'70; Helen
McCrae, MSW'49; Donald MacKay,
BA'55; Elizabeth Wilmot, BSR'66.
Members-at-large (1974-76)
Judy Atkinson, BA'65, BLS'69; Joy
Fera, BRE'72; Michael Ferrie,
BCom'53; Fraser Hodge, BASc'69;
John Hunt, MD'58; Robert Johnson,
BA'63, LLB'67; Barbara Ann Milroy,
BHE'51; John Parks, BCom'70,
LLB'71; Oscar Sziklai, MF'61,
PhD'64, Robert Tait, BSA'48.
Representatives of Alma Mater Society
Gordon Blankstein; President, George
Mapson, Treasurer.
Ex-Officio Members
Jennifer Clark, BSN'69; Gordon Ellis,
BSc'73; Dr. M.T. McDowell, BPE'68,
MPE'69; Dr. Erich Vogt; Charlotte
Warren, BCom'58.
Representatives of Faculty Association
Dr. Meredith Kimball, President; N.E.
Omelusik, BA'64, BLS'66, Treasurer.
Representatives to Senate
Beverly Field, BA'42, T. Barrie Lindsay, BCom'58; Frank C. Walden,
BA'49.
LETTER
Chronicle story erred
In the spring 1974 issue of the UBC Alumni
Chronicle, a news item appears on page 30
entitled, "Ethel Johns Scholarship Goal of
Nursing Alumni." I would be delighted if the
statement were accurate that the nursing
alumni division is "hoping to gather enough
donations to be able to establish a graduate
scholarship in honour of UBC's first director
of nursing, Ethel Johns," with the goal of
building up a sufficient fund "to provide a
$3,000 scholarship in perpetuity."
The nursing division is already committed
to building up a Golden Jubilee Scholarship
Fund for graduate study in nursing. To the
best of my knowledge, the division has not
reached a decision to launch a campaign for
donations to the Ethel Johns Memorial Scholarship Fund. Certainly, no such announcement was made at the reception in my honour
on February 5.
Since royalties alone could not possibly
build up the Ethel Johns Memorial Scholarship Fund to the required level, I earnestly
hope that donations may be received from
other sources, particularly from members of
the nursing division of the UBC Alumni. But
I would be sorry if a premature announcement of intent to launch a campaign for this
purpose were to place in jeopardy the initiation of such a campaign by the nursing division in the future.
Incidentally, the same news item contained an error in the title of my book, and did
not give the publisher, so that people receiving the Chronicle who might wish to order
the book and to contribute in this way to the
Ethel Johns Memorial Scholarship Fund will
not find the necessary information in your
publication. The title of the book is,
Watch-fires on the Mountains: The Life and
Writings of Ethel Johns. It was published in
December 1973 by the University of Toronto
Press, and the list price of the book is $12.50.
(Miss) Margaret M. Street,
Associate professor emerita of nursing.
Vancouver
Nepotism charge weak
In response to Mr. Klenman's letter in your
Spring '74 issue dealing with the "univer-
sities'hiring of Canadians"polemic, I would
like to offer the following.
If the Canadian university discriminates
beyond the' 'two equal candidates" situation
against scholars from other countries, then it
obviously is settling for less than the best. In
this I agree totally with President Gage. I am
Canadian enough to believe that if all things
considered, two applicants for a university
teaching position are equal, and only one is
Canadian, the Canadian should get the job.
I feel that foreign scholars who come to
teach in Canada are first of all not of the
narrow chauvinistic variety, otherwise they
probably wouldn't have left their own country, and secondly that for the most part, in
my own experience at least, they have
proven most worthwhile as scholars and citizens. The only legitimate charge against
them seems to be that of nationalistic
nepotism. Even that charge is weak when
one considers that the nepotism is institutional rather than nationalistic. The charge
becomes even weaker when one considers
the extreme degree of institutional nepotism
and chauvinism in our own country, especially surrounding the eastern "Mecca" in
Ontario.
If a foreign scholar comes to Canada to
teach at a university and thereby take up
residence in this country, I feel he has earned
the right to partake to the fullest in the
academic, social and political life of Canada,
although I do feel he has a responsibility to
become a citizen of Canada when he is eligible. On the other hand, I am not impressed
with the credibility of a person who criticizes
such a "foreigner" when that person has
himself made his home in a foreign country.
If I remember my U BC geography correctly,
Sherman Oaks, California,is in a foreign
country.
Bruce E. More, BMus '65
Assistant Professor
University of Victoria
Tar and feather the sob
With your Spring '74 issue congratulations
are in order. Mr. Norman Klenman's letter
has hit the nail on the head and the rhetoric
above him by Dr. Robert M. Jordan exposes
what has been a suspect situation for too
long. Our Carleton University friends have
openly accused the latter of hiring Americans before advertising in Canadian media.
Your editorial judgement is quite sound and
hopefully readers will now mount the public
protest needed to tar and feather the stuffy
and hard-headed SOB back across the line.
I appreciate your moves in this direction.
Karl Ricker, BSc '59
West Vancouver, B.C.
38 Go by phone instead.
"Steve, how do the plans I just sent
look to you?"
"They look great. Just great."
It's more efficient. And economical. Long
Distance. Conference Calls.Wide Area
Telephone Service (WATS). Or Faxcom,
to transmit documents and drawings.
Go by phone. It won't hang you up.
'Seeing is
believing/'
j\ Trani-Cinada
Y Talaphona Syttam
B.C.TEL ®
'You can talk with us." Peter and Paul
and Bloody Mary.
As far as the Russians are concerned, tomato juice is for
breakfast, not for vodka. Vodka, they told us, was meant to
be taken straight. Sometimes with a plate of tangerines, or
some hot tea as a chaser. But nyet with tomato juice.
That was before we took Alberta Vodka to Leningrad and
poured a few Bloody Marys. Then our Russian friends had
to admit we were onto a great idea. Da!
They tried it a number of ways. Mixed and straight. And
Alberta Vodka met with smiles of approval in a country
famous for its own.
Canadians approve of Alberta Vodka's quality, too. That's
why it's now Canada's best-seller at the popular price.
Alberta Wmm Vodka
It takes more than a Russian sounding name
to make a great Vodka.
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