MUFA's First 50 Years: the Presidents Reminisce
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MUFA’s First 50 Years: The Presidents Reminisce Prepared by the McMaster University Faculty Association Edited by B. W. Jackson November 2001 President’s Photo on this page Presidents of MUFA photographed on the steps of the Alumni Building, April 13, 1999 FRONT (left to right): Phyllis DeRosa-Koetting (Executive Assistant), Gerry Field, Grant Smith, Henry Schwarcz, Catherine Beattie, Frank Jones, Norman Lane, Joan Field (Executive Assistant 1975-89), Martin Johns, Norman Shrive, Jean Jones, Norman Rosenblood, Kelly McCaughey (Secretary) MIDDLE: Ed Daniel, John Lott, Daphne Maurer, Bill Carment, Shepard Siegel, Lorraine Allan, Jack Kirkaldy, Don Dawson, David Winch, Stephen Threlkeld, John Platt BACK: David Blewett, Berners Jackson, Les King, Marianne (Kristofferson) Walters, Gerry King, Henry Jacek Contents Editor’s Preface — B. W. Jackson vii M. (Kristofferson) Walters 85 Acknowledgements A. A. Lee 90 — T. M. K. Davison: 2001/02 ix S. F. H. Threlkeld 91 M. W. Johns: Recollections of D. M. Winch 93 McMaster from 1947 to 1952 1 P. L. Newbigging 100 1951/52 - 1954/55 4 D. R. Inman 103 The Beginnings: C. M. Johnston 5 D. A. Dawson 116 M. W. Johns 10 J. M. Jones 119 F. W. Waters 11 G. W. King 120 J. D. Bankier 13 H. P. Schwarcz 123 J. E. L. Graham 15 J. N. A. Lott 127 H. A. Dulmage 18 D. M. Maurer 132 H. E. Duckworth 20 G. K. Smith 139 H. W. McCready 21 E. E. Daniel 146 H. Kleerekoper 22 D. Blewett 148 N. D. Lane 22 S. Siegel 152 R. W. Thompson 26 L. Allan 154 A. H. Black 27 P. J. George 156 J. S. Kirkaldy 29 H. Jacek 157 G. S. French 37 A. L. Robb 162 B. W. Jackson 39 C. Beattie 165 D. W. Carment 42 L. J. King 168 F. N. Shrive 46 J. Platt 176 B. N. Rosenblood 47 B. Lynn 182 A. N. Bourns 52 W. D. G. Hunter 53 G. W. King 59 F. E. Jones 63 Appendix G. Field 67 A. MUFA Presidents 186 M. Levinson 69 B. MUFA Executive Members 187 H. F. Guite 77 C. MUFA Staff 194 Editor’s Preface B. W. Jackson First, MUFA’s thanks to Bernadette Lynn for the idea for this book and for her part in its arrangement and organization. Editing this collection has been a pleasure. Indeed, “Editing” is really too grand a word to apply here. My task has been mainly proof-reading: tidying some punctuation, correcting typos, very occasionally tinkering with text in the interest of clarification. Except for some rather half-hearted, and therefore not entirely successful efforts to regularize what some may regard as fundamental matters of capitalization, hyphenization, etc., there has been, of course, no attempt to impose a uniformity of style or of presentation. Apart from its impudence, such an undertaking would be aimed at destroying one of the principal attractions of the book, which is its variety: not a variety of topics (for, indeed, given the purpose of the book, the same topics are of necessity discussed again and again) but a variety of approach and of personality, as these are reflected in style; and also a variety imposed by the passing of time and the changes, often subtle, that, over a span of fifty years, affect our ways of looking at things, and therefore our style of writing about them. So we observe in the book the changing fortunes of “collegiality”, a central topic, although not always specifically, throughout most of these papers, from its somewhat tentative advocacy by the Executive Committees of the Fifties, to its acceptance and promulgation by those of the Nineties as fundamental in the operation of McMaster University. From Parking to Pensions, from Government cutbacks and Government interference to Remuneration and the changing conditions for MUFA membership, from Promotion and Tenure to the Status of Women Faculty, from Ta Panta and the Newsletter to strikes and threats of strikes, from Campus Security to Academic Freedom, from the involvement of Senate and Board of Governors to the aspirations and rights of students, from the shape of the campus landscape to the positioning of campus buildings, of causes lost and causes won, of battles fought and refought and then fought again: these and such as these are the subjects of the story. The viewpoints of past Presidents of MUFA, and those found in its archival material, enliven the telling. Ideally the book would consist entirely of the reminiscences of former Presidents of the Association, but, of course, many of them are no longer with us, and some others have been unable, for one reason or another, to make a submission. Where this would have resulted in gaps in the story, these have been filled by archival material, by an excerpt from Charles Johnston’s book on McMaster, and by an interesting and useful “Recollection” of the early years from Martin Johns. In the various headings of chapters or sections throughout the book, where the President’s name precedes the dates of his or her term of office, what follows is the reminiscence prepared for this book; where the date of office precedes the President’s name, the material that follows is archival, consisting of one of more of the following: minutes of past meetings, relevant correspondence involving members of the Executive Committee, Presidential year-end reports, excerpts from Newsletters, and other miscellaneous materials where any such materials bear on the activities of MUFA during the period concerned. Prior to 1972 MUFA had no office space, and prior to 1974 no secretary or executive assistant. Consequently the archival material for the preceding years is scarce, and, for two of those years, non-existent. The remarkable thing is that any of it survived at all, and even more remarkable is the industry and ingenuity with which Phyllis DeRosa-Koetting and Kelly McCaughey have managed to MUFA’s First 50 Years: The Presidents Reminisce — vii use it to provide a sense of MUFA’s activities during those years. Following those years records are more complete, but the work of the two ladies in using them to provide a continuous narrative where the absence of certain presidential reminiscences would have left serious gaps in the story deserves not only our gratitude but out admiration. Speaking as one whose term of office came before 1974, I find myself consumed with envy of those Presidents whose terms followed that date. Man and woman they heap praise on the secretaries and executive assistants, lauding their abilities, their diligence and their devotion, confessing that they themselves could not have managed without their help and guidance. However, if it was my misfortune to be President of MUFA before there were such guides and counselors, it has been my good fortune, as editor of this book, to work with the two ladies named just above, and to experience the kind of help and counsel they can so abundantly provide. The construction of this book is in itself a tribute to these two, and throughout its pages can be found tributes to their predecessors in the MUFA office. The names of all of them appear at the end of this volume, and to them I think it should be dedicated, with the thanks and affection its pages so often express. MUFA’s First 50 Years: The Presidents Reminisce — viii Acknowledgements Tom Davison: 2001/2002 This book contains articles written by former Presidents of the McMaster University Faculty Association. There are also contributions from three Presidents of the University. Since there was no uniformity of approach demanded of the authors, there results a fascinating diversity of approaches to the charge to write about their "year". This variety shows that it would have been pointless to expect them to adhere to a blueprint for their submissions. For the years for which we have no presidential reminiscences, Phyllis DeRosa Koetting has scoured our archives and, with remarkable discrimination and insight provided a seamless record by filling the gaps with excerpts from Minutes and from Presidential Reports to the AGM. In these pages we learn that our Pension Plan has been a continual source of worry, that once there were salary increases of 10% and 15% back to back, that our mill rate has been kept really low, that a faculty member is not dismissed but removed, and in which year O.C.U.F.A became OCUFA. Finally , I thank Dr.B.W.Jackson for his help in preparing this manuscript for production, Phyllis for overseeing the whole operation, Kelly McCaughey for typing/retyping some of the manuscripts, and Bernadette Lynn, our President in 2000/2001 for suggesting this volume and for doing so much to make it a reality. MUFA’s First 50 Years: The Presidents Reminisce — ix Martin Johns Recollections of McMaster from 1947 to 1952 Because I am one of the few faculty members still alive from the era when the Faculty Association was being created, my recollections of the University in the period from 1947 to 1952 may be of interest. These comments have nothing to do with the Faculty Association per se, but they may cast some light on why the association needed to be created. The arrival of McMaster University in Hamilton in 1930 predated mine as a student by one year. It had a student body of about 400 and the departments were either one or two person departments. My father came from Brandon College to help Dr. Findlay in Mathematics in 1931. I registered in a third year pass program with a class that had already spent two years together in Toronto.