THE DOG STORY | MARTHA: THE WOMAN WITH THE JUMPER CABLES | ALUMNI NEWS AND EVENTS 14 Trek The Magazine of The University of British Columbia WINTER/SPRING 2006

Published by The University of British Columbia

Alumni Association Publications Mail Agreement # 40063528 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 1 Trek14 5 Take Note Editor Christopher Petty, mfa’86 Art Director and Designer Chris Dahl 14 The Dog Story Assistant Editor Vanessa Clarke From wild animals to workmates, family protectors, best friends and, now, medical Board of Directors Chair Martin Ertl, bsc’93, llb aids, dogs have become honorary humans. By Scott Yates Vice-Chair Doug Robinson, bcom’71, llb’72 Treasurer David Elliott, bcom’69

18 Martha: The Woman with the Jumper Cables Members at Large ’05 – ’06 Part one of a look at UBC’s retiring president. By Richard Littlemore Darlene Dean, bcom’75, mba’85 Gayle Stewart, ba’76 23 Why Mclean’s Rankings Rankle Members at Large ’04 – ’07 Don Dalik, bcom, llb’76 Do the annual university rankings in Canada’s national magazine help or hinder the Ron Walsh, ba’70

cause of post-secondary education? By William Bruneau Members at Large ’05 – ’08 Raquel Hirsch, ba’80, mba’83 25 Dialing for Cool Mark Mawhinney, ba’94 Where do students find music these days? The web? Satellite? At the record store? Appointments ’05 – ’06 Marko Dekovic, ba’01 Radio still has some cool, especially at UBC. By Jon Cornea Paul Mitchell, bcom’78, llb’79 Ian Robertson, bsc’86, ba’88 32 A Life in Pictures Jim Rogers, ba’67, mba The very first cinematographer inspires a new play and some new technology. Faculty Representative ’05 – ’06 Richard Johnston, ba’70, am, phd By John Vigna Senior Administration Representative ’05 – ’06 55 One for the Heart Dennis Pavlich, ba, llb, llm A new Alumni Centre will spell “home” to returning grads. Senate Representative ’05 – ’06 Chris Gorman, ba’99 28 The Arts AMS Representative ‘05 – ‘06 Spencer Keys, ams President

37 Alumni News Executive Director Marie Earl, ab, mla(stanford)

41 Class Acts Trek Editorial Committee Vanessa Clarke Scott Macrae, ba’71 Chris Dahl Christopher Petty 47 In Memoriam Sid Katz Herbert Rosengarten

Trek Magazine (formerly the UBC Alumni Chronicle) is published three times a year by the UBC Alumni Association and distributed free of charge to UBC alumni National Wildlife Federation and friends. Opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of the Alumni Association or << Recognizes UBC For Leadership in the university. Address correspondence to: Campus Sustainability The Editor, The National Wildlife Federation, North UBC Alumni Affairs, 6251 Cecil Green Park Road, America’s largest wildlife conservation agency, Vancouver, bc, Canada v6t 1z1 e-mail to [email protected] has presented UBC with a Campus Ecology Letters published at the editor’s discretion and may be edited Recognition Award for sustainability initiatives. for space. Contact the editor for advertising rates. As part of this honour, the Federation has Contact Numbers at UBC Address Changes 604-822-8921 created the Campus Ecology Yearbook, e-mail [email protected] available on its website www.nwf.org, which Alumni Association 604-822-3313 toll free 800-883-3088 offers a comprehensive look at UBC’s Trek Editor 604-822-8914 UBC Info Line 604-822-4636 sustainability efforts during the 2004/2005 Belkin Gallery 604-822-2759 academic year. Bookstore 604-822-2665 Chan Centre 604-822-2697 UBC is on track to meet and surpass the Frederic Wood Theatre 604-822-2678 Museum of Anthropology 604-822-5087 Kyoto Protocol’s 2012 target of reducing green- Volume 61, Number 1 | Printed in Canada by Mitchell Press house gas emissions by 25 per cent. UBC is the Canadian Publications Mail Agreement # 40063528 only Canadian university in North America to Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Mary Bollert Hall, Records Department receive this recognition. 6253 nw Marine Drive, Vancouver, bc v6t 1z1

2 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Cover photograph: Martin Dee / UBC Public Affairs Cover: Getty Images; opposite: Martin Dee / UBC Public Affairs Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 3 TAKE NOTE

It’s Not Written in Stone ■ Living in the digital age, you might think that the fragility of acidic paper is PAINTED FACES, REUNIONS14 no longer an issue in the preservation of data. But electronic storage of informa- AND NOT PEEING ON YOUR HANDS tion comes with its own challenges. Its impermanent nature is one of these. In the 1999 movie,“The American a pilgrimage to a religious shrine. Methods for digital recording and President,” the beleaguered president comes So here’s the question: What is it about storage rapidly become obsolete – think under attack by the other party for his new Canadian universities that they don’t gener- 5½ inch floppies – and in order to pre- girlfriend and his very liberal views. At ate that kind of passion, that kind of pride? serve and retrieve records they must be one point the president watches a TV news Our newly formed Alumni Affairs team migrated from older to newer technolo- clip of his adversary who says something (made up of the Alumni Association and gies. The intangibility of the electronic like, “My opponent, with his very smart a university unit, Alumni Relations) is material and the potential technological Princeton degree, might try applying some working hard to change that. We’re look- pitfalls involved in migration make it of what he’s learned to our present eco- ing under the hoods of all our existing vulnerable to alteration. Whereas paper nomic problems.” The president snaps the programs – from the Achievement Dinner records are all about preservation, digital TV off with disdain and says, “I went to and Regional Networks to this magazine record-keeping is more about faith- Stanford, you moron.” – to see what we can do to make them all ful reproduction and re-storage than Canadians understand the wry, slightly more attractive and more relevant to your maintenance of the original format. Still snobby humour because, being fed Amer- life. We’re introducing a new website and another issue is that outdated (but pot- ican culture from an early age, we know e-networking system (TrekConnect) in the entially useful) electronic data tend to there’s some sort of pride-based alumni Spring that will open up new ways for you get updated rather than archived. rivalry even among grads of the most to communicate with old classmates and Professor Luciana Duranti is chair exalted universities. We also understand with the university. We also have a major of Archival Studies at the School of that if we inserted “McGill,” and “UBC” in building plan in the works, the Alumni Library, Archival and Information the above dialogue, most readers – Canad- Centre, which will become the place on Studies. She is leading an international ian or otherwise – would likely say, “Huh? campus that caters specifi cally to the needs effort to explore and tackle the issues I don’t get it.” of our alumni. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Luciana Duranti is leading an international effort to tackle the archival issues surrounding digital information storage. That sense of intense school pride fi lters The point of all this new effort is to down to many of the lesser US schools, too. show you that UBC, as one of the most in- My otherwise-staid brother-in-law, a con- fl uential institutions of your life, is worthy involved in electronic data storage. The ences and Humanities Research Council Rohde will be working on the Phelophepa tract lawyer, graduated from the University of your interest, your involvement and your International Research on Permanent of Canada’s Major Collaborative Research Health Train – South Africa’s “Train of of Oregon in the 1970s. Guess who painted support. Authentic Records in Electronic Systems Initiatives (sshrc-mcri) and the National Hope”– with a multidisciplinary team his face green and yellow to sit with 71,000 Then, if we’re successful, maybe we (Interpares) Project group is working Historical Publications and Records Com- bringing basic medical, dental, and eye care other screaming fans at the Holiday Bowl could substitute, say, “McGill” and “UBC” to establish guidelines and standards for mission. to remote areas of the country. They will be where the U of O Ducks played against the into this very old joke: A Princeton grad how information is recorded and kept so joining the train for the Eastern Cape part U of Oklahoma in San Diego on December and a Stanford grad are in a public wash- that it may be more easily migrated with At War with HIV/AIDS of the journey, studying the role community 29? (The Ducks lost in a heart breaker, room using the facilities. The Princeton minimal threat to its integrity. This will ■ UBC nursing students are researching nursing can play in hiv/aids-related educa- 17-14.) grad fi nishes up and goes to the sink to be of paramount importance in areas hiv/aids treatment and prevention while tion, prevention, treatment and support. So, why is it that such an expression of wash his hands. The Stanford grad heads like health care records. providing medical care in South Africa’s They will also examine the effects of trad- support from a UBC alumnus (or from an straight for the exit. Duranti is seeking input from many Eastern Cape. Fourth-year students Nash itional healing beliefs of the local Xhosa alumnus of any university in the country, “At Princeton,” the fellow at the sink quarters, and experts in archival systems Dhalla and Sarah Rohde are spending a six people. for that matter) would be unlikely? The says grandly, “we learned to wash our from 20 countries are involved in the week practicuum in urban hospitals and Both students have previous experience football T-Birds, even when they’re on a hands after using the toilet.” project. China (one of the project’s fund- rural clinics here where the hiv infection working with medicine on the margins. hot streak, rarely get enough fans to justify “At Stanford,” the other says as the exit ers) has already adopted some Inter- rate is over 20 per cent. “The huge incidence Rohde spent time working with refugees opening a concession stand. But it’s not just door shuts, “we learned not to pee on our pares recommendations on authenticity of the disease can seem overwhelming,” says in India before pursuing nursing. Dhalla, sports: My b-in-law rarely misses a reunion hands.” requirements as law. The Interpares Dhalla, “but I believe it’s possible to make a with nine years’ experience as a tb out- – he seems to go to one every few years And we’d all laugh knowingly. Project has also received funding from, difference.” reach worker in Vancouver’s aids-plagued – and every visit to the campus sounds like – Chris Petty, editor among other sources, the Social Sci- As part of their program, Dhalla and Downtown Eastside, has seen the positive

4 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Photograph: Martin Dee / UBC Public Affairs Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 5 Enough exposure to mercury can cause brain and kidney WELCOME TO UBC OKANAGAN TAKE NOTE GIVING SOMETHING BACK damage. Fourth Year Mining student Cody Hopkins took one of Viega’s courses at UBC, became involved in the project, and went to effect community health care can have. “My experience has shown Indonesia last summer to find out how bad the situation is there. He “Giving something back” has be- Earlier this year I visited with alumni me that supportive health care – literally bringing health-care services administered breathing tests to miners and measured the mercury come a popular concept in today’s cul- in Hong Kong, Seoul and Singapore. Our to people on the street – can work.” contamination in their respiratory system. “Depending on the meth- ture. Oddly enough, it seems the busier graduates have spread out around the Rohde and Dhalla organized this voyage with the collaboration od they use to extract gold from the mercury-gold amalgam, miners we get and the more complicated life world, playing signifi cant roles in govern- of the UBC and University of Fort Hare schools of nursing for the could measure anywhere from 5000 to 20,000 nanograms per cubic becomes – from 12-hour workdays ment, education, the performing arts and largely self-directed course Exploring Avenues of Nursing Practice. “I metres of air, compared to 20 nanograms, which is normal in urban and constant information overload to business. I’m always impressed by these believe hiv is a defining epidemic of our generation and the oppor- North America,” he says. Back in Canada, Hopkins has been help- the demands of family and the increas- grads because they have such a strong feel- tunity to work alongside South African nurses on both prevention ing to find workable solutions for replacing existing methods or ing instability of the world – the more ing about UBC: they recognize that it has and care is unique,” says Rohde. “I hope this experience will give me rendering them less harmful. These include designing a contraption we feel the need to get involved in our played an important part in their lives, and a perspective on a worldwide health crisis and provide me with skills (built from easily findable household objects) that prevents release of community. Volunteering has become has prepared them well for the work they to work in any setting where this epidemic is critical.” mercury into the air when burning the mercury-gold amalgam. The a way of balancing the demands of our do now, no matter where they may be. Global Mercury Project is funded by the United Nations. lives with a desire to make our community a better place. I recently met with alumni in Washington state and Califor- At UBC, volunteers are an essential part of our daily oper- nia, and later this spring I shall travel to Toronto, Ottawa and Quicksilver and Gold ■ ations. Without them, the university could not function. Prac- London, UK, to meet with alumni there. Visits like these by the On the list of dangerous jobs, gold mining ranks near the top. The A Promising Worm ■ tising health care professionals volunteer their time to train university’s faculty and staff help get the word out about UBC, threat is posed by the use of a mercury-gold amalgam that is then A brainless, one-millimetre worm may hold the key to treatment burned to vaporize the mercury. This method is typically used by of memory loss and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. UBC students in real-world medicine; busy business people provide and go a long way to bolster our recruitment efforts abroad. their expertise to developing curriculum for the next genera- International students and faculty alike are taking notice of rural miners in some developing countries for the extraction of very psychology professor Catherine Rankin is studying the C. elegans small amounts of gold usually passed over by large companies. As nematode for clues to the development of genes related to habitua- tion of fi nancial movers and shakers at the Sauder School UBC. Our research, our teaching and our international relation- of Business. From the Board of Governors and Senate to the ships with other universities – we have exchange agreements a result, some mercury makes its way into the environment and the tion, the ability to filter out irrelevant stimuli. bodies of the miners, who have a lot of direct contact with the poison With only 302 neurons, a two-week lifespan and hermaphro- docents at the Museum of Anthropology and the Botanical with more than 120 institutions worldwide – have resulted in Gardens, volunteers do something of what they love for free, UBC’s being ranked among the top universities in the world. during the course of their work. ditic reproduction, C. elegans makes a perfect research subject. Its The Global Mercury Project exists to introduce modern mining extremely low neuron count – rats have billions of neurons – makes for nothing more than the betterment of the university. Our university has developed a global reputation as the up-and- And “giving something back,” it can’t be denied, sometimes coming place to be. technologies to developing nations where gold miners still use meth- this worm well suited to the study of neuron development. As well, ods that endanger their health and that of the environment. Chief in 1998 it became the first multi-cellular animal to have its genome comes in the form of money. While some of us grumble that We are also active members of world-wide research and UBC is “always asking for money,” it’s no secret that UBC has learning networks, like the Association of Pacifi c Rim Universi- technical advisor for the project, Engineering professor Marcello sequenced. “It’s like working on an animal with an instruction Veiga, says that the world is currently witnessing the biggest gold manual,” says Rankin. an active fundraising department – it raises more than $100 ties and Universitas 21. Our participation in such organizations million annually for projects across the university – and the gives us privileged access to important educational and research rush it has ever seen. “In more than 50 countries, 15 million people Rankin hopes to isolate the genes related to habituation in C. are working as artisanal gold miners, including four million women Elegans. “We can then understand the rules and apply those prin- majority of that money is raised from alumni. From Irving K. initiatives, and opens the way to partnerships with all kinds of Barber’s $30 million gifts to establish the Learning Centre at exciting possibilities. and two million children,” he says. ciples for genes in other animals including human beings.” This information should prove useful in treating schizophrenics, who UBC Vancouver and the School of Arts and Sciences at UBC This focus on internationalization is contained in the univer- Okanagan, to the $100 gift made by an anonymous alumnus sity’s vision statement: UBC, aspiring to be one of the world’s have difficulty filtering out background stimuli, and people suffering Mining for Good Health: Gold miners in Indonesia risk their lives by using from trauma-related memory loss or the effects of severe childhood to a Creative Writing scholarship, the idea of donating to this best universities, will prepare students to become exceptional university is both attractive and compelling. global citizens, promote the values of a civil and sustainable dangerous practices for extracting the ore. neglect. In 1990, Professor Rankin discovered that the C. Elegans nema- The Alumni Association, too, is dependent on the urge to society, and conduct outstanding research to serve the people of “give something back.” Our annual Achievement Dinner is de- British Columbia, Canada and the world. tode would move backwards if she tapped the side of its Petri dish. However, it would learn to ignore the taps if they were repeated sev- fi ned by a volunteer committee; this magazine is overseen by a And the key element of that statement, the element that volunteer editorial committee. Our global Regional Networks sharpens all the others, is “…prepare students to become excep- eral times, and could remember this training for at least 48 hours. By tracking genes related to memory and synapses, Rankin can observe are powered by the energies of volunteer alumni abroad, and tional global citizens.” Increasingly, our world is faced with chal- our reunions would not happen without the tireless energy of lenges that transcend single locales or individual communities: the changes in the nematode as it learns – the amount of these genes produced is proportional to the amount of stimulation it receives the men and women who put it all together. poverty, economic inequality, pandemics, toxic environments, We alumni are the university, and it is our responsibility and the abuse of human rights among them. How do we train during development. Along with other research in the field, Rankin’s work shows that rather than being immutable, genes do change to give something back – be it time or treasure – to make sure our future generations to meet these challenges? By making the UBC continues to be one of the world’s best universities. realities of global life part of our curricula, by making it pos- with experience. “Prior to that, we saw genes as a software program sible for students to experience those realities fi rst hand, and by that always runs the same, but that’s not the case at all,” she says. * * * instilling in them a sense of global responsibility. “Instead, think of each gene as having one or more volume knobs. A few weeks ago, UBC lost two of its most dedicated alumni. We shall continue to produce alumni equipped with the And these can, within a certain range, be turned up or down by its Tom Brown, president of the Alumni Association in 1946-7 skills, the knowledge and the desire to work in a global con- experience.” was a supporter and advocate for UBC for decades, and Bill text, and through their achievements, UBC will continue to be a Webber, long-time teacher and mentor, was an infl uential pres- growing presence in the world. Eating Disorders ence in the Medical Alumni Association. Both will be missed. ■ There is a notoriously low recovery rate for people who suffer Martha Piper, President, The University of British Columbia from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, and an alarm- Martin Ertl, bsc’93, Chair, UBC Alumni Association ingly high mortality rate: 10 to 20 per cent of patients die from

6 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Photograph: Cody Hopkins Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 7 TAKE NOTE meeting the needs that an eating disorder life to rival some of the world’s best. high-ranking government officials and policy fills,” explains Geller. Thanks to the generosity of Alice’s niece, experts. They were particularly impressed More than 100 people with eating dis- Kelly Norton, this collection will find a new with the students’ model negotiations for real complications of their condition. Josie Geller, orders and 20 survivors will participate in home at UBC. When the Beaty Museum of political entities such as the un and nato. director of research at the Eating Disorders the study, along with families and friends. Natural History opens in late 2008, Alice The group also helps raise money for inter- Program at St. Paul’s Hospital and associ- The study will also attempt to explain an Stein’s vast array of shells will be displayed national causes, such as landmine awareness. ate professor of Psychiatry, thinks the key to anomaly that cropped up in the results for visitors to enjoy. It will also be used as a The irsa recently became the first fighting these statistics may lie with the level of earlier research: those supporters who teaching tool for students and as reference student program to be recognized by and nature of social support experienced by agreed their loved one shouldn’t be pushed material for researchers. the Canadian Bureau for International someone with an eating disorder. to change, but instead allowed to recover “The Alice Stein shell collection is a sub- Education. “To be recognized as most out- Research – and common sense – shows at their own rate, also exhibited the most stantial and dazzling representation of marine standing program in Canada is an enormous that a healthy social support system helps in controlling personality traits. biodiversity,” says Dr. Brian Leander, assistant honour,” says Fernando de la Mora, irsa recovery from illness or trauma, but Geller professor in UBC’s departments of Zoology president and International Relations stu- says that people with eating disorders often She Collects Sea Shells . . . and Botany. “Although cataloguing this par- dent. “When it comes to civic engagement describe the social support they receive as ■ Her family calls her one of the ori- ticular collection is still in its infancy, many and global citizenship, I think this shows our inadequate. A characteristic of eating disor- ginal hippies, and Alice Stein lived up to specimens are recorded in enough detail to be members are really walking the walk.” ders that may influence social support, or the name. Travelling about the US, Cuba of value to the broader scientific community.” The students can be proud that their a patient’s perception of it, is that patients and the Bahamas during the 1950s and Dr. Leander points out that molluscs are efforts help to keep important issues on the don’t always cooperate in their treatment 1960s, Alice collected shells and made among the most successful and diverse life table and under discussion. “By reaching out and there is a high rate of relapse. friends with everyone she met. When she forms on Earth, with nearly 100,000 species to countries – including the US, which has Geller specializes in factors relating later settled in Oregon – where she built a described so far. He says that the structural still not signed the Ottawa landmine treaty to readiness to change. Together with post house largely through exchanging labour diversity found in mollusc shells provides – we are showing how students can keep an doctoral fellow Erin Dunn, her three-year and materials for shells – Alice continued an excellent vehicle for demonstrating the issue on government agendas,” says Mora. study to better understand the relationships to add to her collection. People she’d met developmental and evolutionary histories of The students’ activities bring them into between individuals with a disorder and during her sojourns sent her new speci- complex biological systems. The Alice Stein contact with high-ranking policy-makers, and their supporters, usually family and friends. mens and she acquired entire collections collection contains several uncharacterized their impressively realistic model negotiations She says it’s not uncommon for people from others. fossils and some extremely rare variants in are deemed a useful resource in preparation to regard eating disorders as straightforward And so, when natural populations, such as sinistrally (left- for the real events. On the strength of UBC problems that can be easily remedied. But she passed away handed) coiled shells. students’ performance in other simulations, “it’s unfair to ask individuals to give up their in 2004, Alice “Perhaps most significantly, the Alice Foreign Affairs Canada invited them to eating disorder until they’ve decided they owned a collec- Stein shell collection will, along with other participate in a model of an upcoming Hu- want to, and have found alternate ways of tion of marine outstanding collections at UBC, enable the man Security Network ministerial meeting. Beaty Museum to convey vital concepts to the “Working with policy makers is enriching our public. These include ecological interconnec- educational experience exponentially. And to tions, distant evolutionary kinships and the our surprise, the diplomatic community has fundamental role of biological variation in the been very interested to hear what students persistence of species on Earth.” have to say on global issues,” says Mora. The Beaty Museum of Natural History – made possible by an $8 million gift from To Each His or Her Own alumni Ross and Trisha Beaty – will showcase ■ When a species is exposed to certain con- unique and significant specimens such as the ditions, it can adapt to those conditions and Alice Stein collection, and will help the public develop distinct mating preferences (biased make informed decisions on ecosystems pres- towards finding mates with similar adapta- ervation, as well as communicate the cutting- tions), eventually developing into a new spe- edge research carried out by the Biodiversity cies. It’s all part of creating biodiversity. Research Centre, a team of more than 50 This much has been proved in a study scientists dedicated to the study of biodiversity. carried out by UBC Zoology post-doctoral fellow Jim Vines. He studied stickleback Students Speak Up populations in four BC lakes representing ■ Some of the best programs on campus are four different types of habitat. The stickle- initiated by students, and the International back populations have developed different Relations Student Association (irsa) is an feeding methods based on adaptation to their exceptional example. The association pro- localities. Two groups feed in open water, motes discussion on international politics and while the other two populations are bottom- The Collector: Alice Stein (seated) travelled far and wide during a lifetime of shell collecting. foreign policy and has attracted the notice of feeders. “We found that when given a choice Student Activist: International Relations student Fernando de la Mora has a keen interest in civic engagement.

8 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Photograph: Martin Dee / UBC Public Affairs Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 9 TAKE NOTE Clyde Hertzman used a method called the able talking about sexism, or racism, or class the Tung Lin Kok Yuen, Canada Society, Early Development Instrument to gauge politics,” says Kershaw. “But findings from and the foundation in 2004. The Society’s their physical health and well-being, social the atlas suggest that we all need to consider Vancouver temple offers Buddhist rites, lec- between unfamiliar males from other lakes, competence, emotional maturity, language these issues more carefully if we’re commit- tures, and seminars for Buddhist followers females almost always chose the males from and cognitive development, and communica- ted to creating nurturing neighbourhoods.” and the public at large. their own feeding environment,” says Vines. tion and general knowledge. To determine But it doesn’t always follow that a “Buddhism stresses the need for kind- This observation also helps to explains why the socio-economic status of communities neighbourhood with socio-economic challen- ness at every level from person-to-person more than one species of stickleback can and school districts in which the children ges produces a higher incidence of vulnerable relations to global action,” says Ho. “I exist in the same lake. live, the project reviewed more than 1,000 children. Just the opposite has sometimes believe this powerful practice fosters peace “Adaptation somehow changes mate indicators. The atlas’ creators hope this will been the case. The atlas will hopefully help and change within ourselves and in the preference so females only accept mates from allow them to pinpoint which socio-eco- researchers gain more detailed understand- world.” their own environment, effectively stopping nomic factors have the biggest bearing on ing about aspects of environment that either The program will offer teaching, interbreeding between populations in differ- child development. positively or negatively impact develop- research, public lectures and symposia that ent habitats. This in turn allows populations “We now have an amazing amount ment. It will also prove a valuable guide will probe the interface between spirituality to diverge into new species,” he explains. of data to look at,” says project lead Paul for developing child Care policies. A major and public policy, how principles of peace, Kershaw, an assistant professor with help. funder of help is the BC Ministry of State compassion and cross-cultural acceptance The Atlas of Child Development “The atlas allows us to ask how we are for Child Care. Based in UBC’s Faculty of interact with secular decisions and action. ■ Relationships between childhood develop- doing in raising our young children, and Graduate Studies, help is a research institute The program will be located in the Institute ment and the socio-economic status of com- also how we as a community, and a country, involving the efforts of grad students and of Asian Research and operated in collabora- munities are now easier to examine thanks to can do better.” faculty from both UBC campuses, sfu, uvic, tion with the faculty of Arts department of a comprehensive tool developed by the UBC- The project has revealed a number of bcit and Thompson Rivers University. The Asian Studies. based Human Early Learning Partnership factors that contribute to developmental atlas can be viewed at: http://ecdportal.help. UBC is a recognized leader in teaching (help). Researchers have created the BC vulnerability in children. They include com- ubc.ca/atlas/BCAtlasofChildDevelopment_ and research on Asia with programs that Atlas of Child Development, a colour-coded munities with higher than usual incidence of CD_22-01-06.pdf date back seven decades and a large number system of maps based on census statistics single parenthood, men who don’t typically of internationally renowned scholars. In and data collected from an assessment of perform child-care, a large income gap Buddhism First for North America recent years, UBC’s connections with the Asia 44,000 BC kindergarten children. between genders, men working in sub-man- ■ UBC has established North America’s first Pacific region have expanded dramatically to The children were assessed for school agement positions, and individuals speaking Buddhism and Contemporary Society pro- include research linkages, faculty and student readiness, since this is a good indicator of a foreign language at home. gram thanks to a $4 million gift from The exchanges and joint programs. their future development. help director “Policy makers are often uncomfort- Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation. Robert HN Ho, president of the foundation, Tools for Better Blood is a supporter of Buddhist studies in Canada, ■ Physicians use transfusions of blood plate- Hong Kong and the US. lets where clotting is required to staunch Ho and his family members share an bleeding. Since platelets only account for illustrious history of philanthropy and sup- about 7 per cent of the blood’s volume, sev- port of public health and education. His eral units of blood are required for one such grandfather, Sir Robert Ho Tung, was knight- transfusion. As well, refrigeration renders ed for his services to the British crown. Born platelets unviable so they must be used with- of a Chinese mother and European father, Sir in five days of donation to avoid risk of bac- Robert made his fortune from land purchase terial contamination, the available supply of and development. He supported the 1911 platelets is nearly always low. Furthermore, Chinese Revolution, which saw the over- the quality of still-viable platelets is variable, throw of the Qing dynasty. and until now no dependable tool existed to Ho’s father was Kuomintang General test viability. Robert Ho Shai-Lai, fourth son of Sir Now, researchers at UBC have Robert. General Ho defended China dur- developed a one-step device for measuring ing the Japanese invasion. He served as the quality of platelets that would prevent Ambassador to Japan for the Republic of the premature destruction of healthy platelets China from 1952 for four years before he (consequently boosting supply by up to 20 served on a Nationalist China military dele- per cent) and allow a better blood product gation to the United Nations for 10 years. match for patients. Robert Ho was born and raised in The Dynamic Light Scattering Platelet Hong Kong. He earned a ba from Colgate Monitor (dls-pm) may not have a catchy Buddhism Program: Robert HN Ho has established University in New York in 1956 and an msc name (nor acronym, even), but together with North America’s fi rst Buddhism and Contemporary from Columbia in 1958. In 1994, he founded improved storage practices and handling Society program at UBC.

10 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 11 TAKE NOTE

operations the device has the potential to increase platelet storage time to as long as two weeks. The dls-pm was developed by Elizabeth Maurer, a clinical assistant pro- fessor of Pathology and Canadian Blood Services scientist. Already patented by Canadian Blood Services, it is hoped that the tool will become available within five years. A prototype for the dls-pm was built by fourth year Engineering Physics student Keddie Brown. It works by passing a beam of light through a vial of platelet concen- trate. The platelets scatter the light and researchers then study the resulting patterns to establish platelet shape, response to tem- perature change, and the number of micro- particles they shed. These measurements give an accurate indication of platelet viability.

UBC LEEDS the Way ■ UBC’s Life Sciences Centre (lsc), the lar- gest building on campus, opened in 2004 to help accommodate researchers and rising number of medical students. But it also ful- Virtual Healing: Virtual reality therapy holds promise for treating neurodegenerative diseases. fills another of the university’s main aims: to promote the values of a sustainable society. Its green design has been recognized with Virtual Hope and it is research unique to North America a Leadership in Energy and Environmental ■ Strokes or neurodegenerative diseases (McKeown started work on it while still at Design (leed) Gold certification, a much like Parkinson’s cause motor damage that Duke University in North Carolina). Subjects respected and still rare designation awarded impedes a patient’s ability to control move- watch a screen with images of coloured balls by the United States Green Building Council. ment. Nerve pathways deteriorate and elec- that appear to be moving towards them. The lsc’s green credentials are impres- trical signals can no longer be transmitted They are instructed to reach out and try and sive. It consumes half the water and almost between brain cells responsible for control- catch the balls. The electrical activity in their one third less energy than conventional ling muscle. muscles is measured simultaneously. This buildings and emits far fewer greenhouse Research has shown that synthetic Virtual Reality (vr) therapy may be available gases. It maximizes the use of natural light stimulants such as amphetamines prompt as a treatment within five years. and ventilation, translating to an annual the production of the brain chemical “The beauty of the vr environment saving of $200,000 on electricity costs. It norepinephrine, a natural substance that is that we can match stimuli to the elec- was built with minimum construction waste behaves like a neurotransmitter allow- trical activity from muscle groups to learn using locally-available, recycled materials ing signals to pass between cells. It also precisely how stimuli are affecting move- wherever possible. helps patients “relearn” movements even ment,” says McKeown, who holds a degree Two other campus buildings have won years after the initial damage. But treating in Engineering as well as his md. He and awards for their sustainable design: the people with amphetamines involves too colleagues now want to learn more about c.k. Choi Building and the Liu Institute for great a risk of heart attack. the longevity of the benefits of the therapy. Global Issues. In 2003, Point Grey became Instead, professors Ian McKeown, at McKeown is also working with colleague Canada’s first campus to receive Green the Pacific Parkinson’s Research Centre Professor Jane Wang from the department Campus Recognition from the US-based at UBC Hospital, has been looking for of Electrical and Computer Engineering National Wildlife Federation. alternative ways to stimulate the brain to to develop the tool as a measure of motor produce those same spikes of norepineph- activity for use in rehabilitation. McKeown LIfe Sciences: UBC’s spectacular Life Sciences rine required to rebuild neural pathways. is a member of the Brain Research Centre Centre at 52,000 sq. metres is the largest building on He administers sensory stimuli to prompt and also works with the Vancouver Coastal campus. the brain’s production of norepinephrine, Health Research Institute. ■

12 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Photograph: Martin Dee Photograph: Martin Dee Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 13 PETS AS MEDICINE

The Dog Story

Although I have enjoyed the company of dogs in the past, I do not have one currently. A divorce a decade ago cut what leash there was to my last dog, a sloppy, lackadaisical Golden Retriever. I do not miss him. Stanley Coren would say that’s because the animal that finds rolling in (and occasion- dog, Sailor, and I did not have a good fit. ally eating) poop an olfactory and epicu- Coren, an experimental neuropsychologist rean delight. In one of his books Coren at UBC, is better known to people outside explained the licking of dogs as a way of his specialty of human sensory processing expressing a desire for food. But he also as the guy who writes books about dogs. says it’s an indication of who’s running the Actually, they’re about more than dogs. show. They’re explanations of the remarkable “I’m willing to accept that,” he says. interconnectedness of two species. “For people who don’t like that behaviour, “My real interest is not just the dogs, there’s a Scotty (Scottish terrier) or Westy but the human/animal relation- (West Highland white terrier). ship. That is what tickles my They say, ‘Pet me twice a day, curiosity,” Coren says from the by Scott Yates I’ve got work to do.’” farm he shares in the Fraser In my dog days I had ani- Valley with his wife and two mals that gave me real pleasure dogs. and their passing brought genuine grief. Coren won election to the Royal I’ve also had dogs that lasted less than Society of Canada on the basis of his three months in my house. I didn’t know research into the nature of left-handedness it at the time, but that makes me part of a and the affects of birth stress and sleep statistic about how long it takes the aver- on human health and behaviour. But with age dog owner to get an animal that fits. training in both animal and human psychol- One of the dogs that drove me crazy ogy he is among a very few scientists with was a Brittany Spaniel pup (with papers) the background to analyze relationships and the only dog I paid three figures for. In between people and their dogs. the child-centred home of a newborn and “Most of my colleagues train in one or a three-year-old toddler, there wasn’t much the other. I’m fortunate. I’m dual trained. time for the dog. Little Sparky made up That gives me a bit of an edge and also, for the lack of attention by chewing down obviously flavours my interest,” he says. small ornamental trees in the backyard. I Coren comes by his passion honestly. gave her to an older couple. He loves dogs, particularly the friendly The other dog that didn’t last was a ones he describes as “kissy face.” I would Malamute mix, found lost in the woods. I Dog-gone: Stanley Coren and friends. Dogs have describe them otherwise, not able to imag- gave Lucky away when, no longer content become an essential part of our social environment. ine being licked on the face and lips by an to sleep on top of the hot tub cover, he

14 Trek Winter/SpringWinter/Spring 20062006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 15 THE DOG STORY to get the same dog, because a dog is as dingo or perhaps all three. Fifteen thousand pays $8,000 to have the genetic defect in Aren’t you a sweetie-pie!: much a product of his experience as he is years ago there was a raison d’être for bring- his dog’s legs repaired. A television com- Dr. Stanley Coren with one his clawed through it. At the time, I thought of his genes.” ing dogs inside the circle. They’ve were hunt- mercial advertises Christmas gifts for dogs. “kissy-face” friends. these dogs were the problem. Coren makes I remember a few dogs fondly. ers, guards, garbage collectors, herders, four Billions of dollars in North America are me understand it’s really a relationship Duchess, a mongrel mix that would chase legged labourers. Pampered pet is of recent spent on dog related food and veterinary thing. rocks when I threw them, but would vintage. It wasn’t too long ago that dogs services. It bothers me. He has developed a list of 16 person- never give them up without a fight, Suzy, were considered the poor person’s horse or Coren suggests I lighten up. ality traits, (among them, shy, dominant, a German Shepherd that ran, romped and mule. They hauled small wagons through “The vast majority of people have a hard-hearted, tricky, unaggressive, cunning) rolled with me through my early teens, London and New York, often used and healthy relationship to dogs. Yes, you might to measure dog owners’ level of dominance, Shanna, a happy terrier that learned to abused by owners who could always obtain buy your dog a present or include a pack- extroversion, trust and warmth. With the scale my body if I supported her neck with a replacement. The British Parliament began age of treats under the Christmas tree, but input of dozens of experts in dog related my hand, Mattie-Sue, a dog the vet gave to put an end to that, successfully passing a I think for most individuals it does not take fields, meanwhile, he created a list of seven me because I sniffled when another dog I’d bill in 1822 outlawing cruelty to animals. away from their ability to interact with oth- dog types including friendly, independent, ers,” he says. Besides, data on the benefits protective, consistent, clever, steady and self- of having a dog are well established, help- assured. With the intelligence of a two year old child, ing to lower blood pressure, among other Some believe the perfect dog is an acci- things. And for children, having a dog in dent of nature, a fortuitous intersection of dogs can learn upwards of 110 words or signals. the family is even a predictor of more stable canine and human connectivity. Coren, on Cats, which are less trainable, are said to have future relationships. the other hand, says there are no accidents. “The speculation is that you come “God created man, but man created the intelligence of about an 18 month old and a home from a ratty day and your partner dog,” he says. vocabulary of about two dozen commands. had a ratty day and if you demand affec- He contends we constantly change tion, you’re going to get in a fight. But dogs to fit our lifestyles. At one end of the Lassie is there. You get your dose of affec- continuum are the kissy face canines Coren found on the street had to be put down for As with so many things, the pampered tion, you don’t make demands. You don’t prefers. On the other are killer beasts that cancer. These were dogs for which I felt a pet part of doggie development started with start a fight and the cumulative stress is came out of blood sports favoured by the profound connection. royalty. Kings and queens, emperors and released,” he says. British in the early 1800s. Such contests are But what is that connection? Coren empresses all liked dogs, and several breeds People who walk dogs know intui- still popular, though not as public. Searching says we have created dogs that have a today owe their progeny to specific reigns. tively what researchers have measured. the internet under the phrase, “game bred,” remarkable ability to understand and share Coren is quite keen on the Cavalier King Strangers have a more positive response reveals kennels specifically breeding vicious our feelings. In other words, we have cre- Charles Spaniel, a dog bred by the 15th to a person who is accompanied by a dog. dogs. Pitbulls, a cross between bulldogs ated dogs with empathy. That’s one of the Century English king to emphasize a loving One recent report Coren quoted found and terriers are the ultimate fighters. Some most interesting aspects of Coren’s research and gentle disposition. that people were more likely to speak to are so vicious, litters have to be taken from and involves the sort of stories you might Most dogs are bred to retain a puppy- handicapped individuals with a dog. Other mothers at five weeks, lest she kill the pups. hear Alan Thicke narrating on the televi- like instinct called neoteny. It is why you’ll research shows that simply photographing “There, we have created monsters. But sion program, Animal Miracles! see an older dog cavorting like a youngster, a person with a dog makes him or her more in 1835 there were others who wanted to Consider the case of the Collie and the but you’ll never see cows kicking up their approachable. It would appear politicians humanity on dogs, linking us to them as ty’s alliance with our four-legged friends. create a classic fighting dog in the style of a house fire. Asleep in the home’s recreation heels, as you might their calves. With the have learned that lesson, although Coren much as them to us. During the flooding Coren has convinced me that in a society proper companion for a British gentleman room, the dog could have exited the house intelligence of a two year old child, dogs can pointed out, some of them are genuine dog of Hurricane Katrina, one of several mis- increasingly isolated from itself, dogs just to take into the club,” Coren says. Bulldogs, via its dog door into the backyard at the learn upwards of 110 words or signals. Cats, lovers. Bill Clinton wasn’t. George W. Bush takes attributed to the Federal Emergency make sense. I don’t have a dog now, but fierce looking, sweet creatures, were the first smell of smoke. Instead, the Collie ran which are less trainable, are said to have the is. Management Agency, was its failure to I’m pretty sure I will again. As much as I result. “We can deliberately manipulate dogs through the fire, barking to alert family intelligence of about an 18 month old and “The President of the United States take into consideration people’s pets. abhor the tendency of some people to go and it doesn’t take long. In 10 or 12 years members. Regrouped outside, it was the a vocabulary of about two dozen commands. walks around carrying a Scottish Terrier. He Leaving them behind was not an option overboard in their affections, I understand you can completely change the breed.” dog, not the frazzled family that recognized But doesn’t speaking of dogs as having can do anything he wants. He can have an and a large group refused to evacuate better now why they do. Just as God is said Now that cloning dogs has been per- one of the pack was missing. He ran back the equivalent intelligence of young children aide carry it, (but) he comes from a fam- without their animals. In one instance, an to have created man in his image, we have fected, you can also have a replica of belov- into the house barking. “That Collie had lead seamlessly into thinking of them as ily where dogs are important,” Coren says, enlisted soldier, following orders, took a created dog in ours revealing, in most cases, ed dog that has died. Coren laughs at the ample opportunity to go to safety and it four-legged children? On a walk in a park, I adding that for people in power, a dog may Yorkshire Terrier from an elderly evacuee. a reflection of the most honest, loyal and notion. “A lot of people expect a cloned dog didn’t. I certainly consider that heroic,” see a couple pushing their miniature poodle be the only honest relationship they have. A nearby officer gave the dog back, telling affectionate parts of ourselves. ■ to arrive with all the memories and behav- Coren says. in a baby carriage. Downtown, a woman “They never betray you. They never sell the soldier the dog was medicine. Medicine iours of the old dog,” he says. “If you’ve got But they’re still animals, right? A four- carries her Chihuahuas in a harness designed their story to the National Inquirer.” for the mind. Scott Yates, mfa’86 is a reporter for Capital a zillion dollars, do it, but you’re not going legged relative of the wolf or hyena or after the ones used for newborns. A friend That’s the kind of loyalty that has sold That’s how I’ve come to see humani- Press, and lives in Spokane, WA.

16 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 17 Martha the woman with the jumper cables

Martha Piper leaves UBC in June after nine years as chief executive, and her impact will be felt for years to come. As an academic, administrator, fundraiser and shameless promoter of UBC, she ranks with the institution’s most illustrious presidents. Here, in Part One of a two-part profi le, Richard Littlemore looks at the personal side of UBC’s 11th president.

Martha Piper can grab you by the eyes. Not physically, of course. It’s the attic and papier mache puppets in the basement. Outside, there was a figurative grip, but it’s a death grip nevertheless. always a game of tennis or baseball or an impromptu swim in the lake. The moment arises periodically, and almost always unexpectedly. Martha was a good student in an unspectacular school. All four The 11th president and vice-chancellor of the University of British siblings excelled, “and my parents never suggested that there were dif- Columbia will be chatting in that warm, casual, “call-me-Martha” way, ferent expectations for me than for my brothers.” In high school, she and suddenly something will change. She’ll pause, draw a breath and “signed up for everything,” writing for the newspaper, playing in the shift just enough to attract your glance. When you look, you see square band and singing – “badly” – in the choir. She played no organized shoulders, a determined chin and a flash of fire in Martha’s own wide- sports because there were no girls’ teams. “Even in gym, we all waited set blue eyes. And then she has you. You will listen to the next point in the back row, gossiping and hoping the ball didn’t come to you.” and you will not look away. Martha graduated at the top of her high school class, but still The remarkable part – one of many remarkable things about Dr. found herself unprepared for university. “I got a ‘c’ in my first chem- Martha C. Piper – is that she can do this without istry class,” she says, and she’s clearly still smarting seeming threatening, or even pushy. Because Martha from the ignominy of such a mark. doesn’t ever tell you what to think; she tells you what by Richard Littlemore In the tenth grade, Martha volunteered at a local she thinks and she does so with such conviction, such rehab centre and made the decision that she would absolute determination, that you can’t help but accept like to go into health care. At least, she thought she the sincerity of her position. would get an education in the health care field before getting mar- This willingness to commit herself unreservedly to what she has to ried and going home to raise children. At the time, she regarded a say, may also explain why so many people feel that they know Martha profession as something that a woman might fall back on in the event personally, even if they hardly know her at all. that her husband was felled prematurely by a heart attack or a bus. * She chose physiotherapy because she didn’t want to be a nurse and Martha Cook Piper was born on November 27, 1945, the third couldn’t imagine being a doctor. She chose the University of Michigan of four tightly packed children. Just six years separates the eldest, because it had a good physiotherapy school. another girl, from the youngest, one of two boys. Martha grew up in All of which sounds straightforward, but it glosses over a couple a big house, right on Lake Erie, in Lorain, Ohio, a little steel town just of important points. The first is the influence of Martha’s mother, who west of Cleveland. Her father, Dan Kates Cook, was a lawyer, as was grew up in a relatively poor family in Detroit in the 1920s and ’30s, a his father. Her mother, Margaret Julia Guest, was a homemaker (at the time when even wealthy young women were not expected to go to uni- time, people would have thought: “obviously”). versity. But Margaret Guest had a rich uncle: Edgar Guest, the “Poet of “My life was shaped by my family,” Martha says now. Father was the People” whose syndicated column ran in the Detroit Free Press and the disciplinarian, mother was “free,” reigning over a house that was 299 other newspapers. Guest recognized in Margaret a raw but lively “never dirty, but always chaotic.” Inside, there were dress-up boxes in intelligence that demanded attention and, passing over Margaret’s three

18 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Photograph: Martin Dee Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 19 brothers, he paid her tuition to the University of Michigan, whence in the director’s chair. Dean Cruess was looking to change that situa- 1. “We acknowledge good works in a clear, non-partisan way.” Three years ago, Martha Piper became a grandmother to Charlotte she graduated in 1938. It was there that she met Martha’s father, and tion, Martha says, adding “I was the warm body.” He appointed her as (Which is to say, Martha says, “thank you” better than anyone in the Piper Elgie. In the days that followed, Martha spent every spare hour there that she cemented a lifelong appetite for education in general soon as she received her degree. business.) with Charlotte, taking turns with Emily reading from the Great Big and for reading in particular. (For example, she was, at time of writ- If it was a risk to give such a position to someone with no adminis- 2. “We speak to the national role, albeit sometimes using UBC Book of Mother Goose. “Those old fairy tales are full of morbid details ing – just shy of her 90th birthday – enrolled in a college course on trative experience – without even tenure – it would prove to be one of examples.” – babies falling out of trees – and the nurses would just stare at us,” says British poetry.) the great gambles in Canadian academic history. Martha is inclined to 3. “We constantly relate universities to the goals and priorities of the Emily. “But I was thinking, ‘Hey, these are classics!’” A second early influence was Martha’s paternal grandfather, a turn any praise back to Dean Cruess – “He worked with me and he was current government.” Emily is officially Dr. Emily Piper, 34, a consulting psychologist at BC retired judge who moved in with the family when his own wife died very supportive” – but it’s clear that his judgment, perhaps even more It’s partly for these reasons – for her very public successes with the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and a clinical instructor at UBC, who in the mid-1950s. Martha was about 10 at the time. Grandfather was than his mentoring, was well-rewarded. Chretien and Martin administrations – that Martha is sometimes seen in addition to looking after Charlotte, also maintains a private practice a voracious reader, an avid conversationalist and someone who clearly Somewhere during this period – actually in 1971 and 1976 – there as a capital ‘l’ Liberal, notwithstanding that she has enjoyed equal suc- on the side. Her younger sister is now Dr. Hannah Piper, 29, who, having loved being in the midst of his extended family. He taught Martha was an outbreak of little Pipers, specifically Emily and Hannah. As with cess dealing in Alberta with Conservative premier Ralph Klein and in graduated from Princeton (bsc) and Harvard (md) is in the midst of a about baseball, listening to games on the radio, he taught her about all families, the children brought joy and complication. Hannah, espe- her early days in BC with ndp premier Glen Clark. general surgical residency, also in Vancouver. the world as a member of an armchair travellers’ club, and he impart- cially, provided Bill Piper with an opportunity to really prove what it But if you suggest a partisan affiliation, you are apt to find yourself, Does that suggest that the expectations were high in the Piper house- ed all manner of grandfatherly wisdom. (See sidebar: Always Carry meant to be a supportive husband. “I was just finishing my phd when quite suddenly, locked in Martha’s determined glare. She was, herself, hold? Jumper Cables) my youngest daughter got bacterial once guilty of complaining about government, Martha says. Dr. Peter “My parents probably would say no, but I have to say yes,” Emily A third influence is one that is meningitis,” Martha says, adding Meekison, then vice-president Academic at U of A, a favourite men- says. For example, “I would have been happy to fill out one application as relevant today as it was in 1967. that she was both terrified and tor and, Martha says, “a really astute guy,” stopped her cold and said, for university; but my parents said, ‘Let’s try 25.’” Once the giggling dies Martha had met Bill Piper at a local ALWAYS CARRY JUMPER CABLES guilt-stricken, believing that her “Those people were elected by the public and you are part of a public down from that bit of overstatement, Emily goes on to describe filling church group while she was still in out 25 (twenty-five) university applications, “one third to ‘great schools,’ Among the popular themes in Martha Piper’s speeches, 2½-year-old daughter had become institution.” high school. They went off to dif- one third to ‘middling schools’ and one third to what my dad calls ‘shoe- few have resonated so completely – or enjoyed as many infected at the McGill daycare “I decided then and there,” Martha says now, “that I would always ferent universities to do their under- applications – as the “jumper cable” speech. centre. Martha offered to quit her graduate degrees (Bill Piper went to As Martha tells it, her paternal grandfather sat her down studies and become a stay-at-home the College of Wooster, southwest when she reached driving age and instructed that she must mom, a proposal that Bill nixed of Cleveland) and then got together And after nine years – during which the UBC student population grew by “always, always carry jumper cables in your car!” Given bat- immediately. seriously while at home in the sum- tery technology in 1961 and given the ravages of an Ohio win- From that point forward, the 30 per cent, the budget by 65 per cent, and research funding from both government mer before their senior year. They ter, this was an intelligent caution. Pipers employed a nanny who married soon after graduation. But Grandfather Cook was a retired judge and still a would come in during the day and, and private sources doubled – there are still policy-by-policy quibblers, “He’s probably influenced me practicing lawyer. He drove late model Cadillacs and seldom while not quite playing Mr. Mom more than most people realize,” but no one who would suggest she wasn’t up for the job. had need of a boost himself. Rather, the jumper cables were (he has a phd, an md and a hand- Martha says of her husband of 38 there to connect him to the wider world, to enable him to give some academic career in his own years. “He’s always supported and help where it was needed. right) Bill Piper was the parent you encouraged me.” Martha has taken the caution seriously – no Boy Scout could always reach in a hurry. (“I For the next decade, Martha in schools.’” Emily doesn’t say how many accepted her, but she allows was ever better prepared – but she has interpreted the advice don’t even have my mother’s work honour the electorate and whatever government they elected.” And if more or less followed Bill. They that she considered a nice range of options before settling on Colorado less as a matter of automotive reliability and more as a call for phone number,” Emily Piper says you look at her record in securing funding for such programs as the both studied at the University of College for her undergraduate degree. She did her phd at the California social responsibility. And, clearly, if she had her way, education now. “Really, what would be the Canada Research Chairs and the Indirect Costs of Research, it has been Connecticut (where Martha added School of Professional Psychology. is the jumper cable she would wish for every citizen. point? I can’t keep track of her a remarkably successful strategy. an ma in Child Development to her travel schedule, let alone her daily In 1997, Martha made the move that would catapult her from a With the family having consolidated in Vancouver, the extended bsc in Physical Therapy), and then calendar.”) national figure to an international one, coming to UBC as the 11th presi- Pipers now spend most Sunday evenings together, enjoying gourmet they moved on to Bethesda, md, In 1985, Bill was offered a pos- dent and vice-chancellor. Then-UBC chancellor Bill Sauder, who was meals prepared in tandem by Martha and Emily’s husband Damon Elgie. before Bill, (who is a professor in the ition at the University of Alberta, chair of the search committee, is delighted to take credit for the hire. “They cook together,” Emily says. “You don’t dare go into the kitchen department of Psychiatry), got a faculty position at McGill in the late and Martha was delighted to fi nd that the university was also in the Struck by her energy and integrity, “I pretty much pushed her through when they’re in there.” Martha and Bill also try to spend Friday’s at 1970s. market for a new dean of Rehabilitation Medicine. She accepted that the committee,” Sauder says, adding that, even in spite his high expecta- Emily and Damon’s house, giving grandmother Martha one more oppor- Unable to get a work permit in Quebec without fluency in French, position and was appointed vice-president Research in 1993. In 1995, tions, “She turned our far better than I had imagined.” tunity to shower Charlotte with little gifts, sourced from Martha’s travel Martha opened a daycare centre at Concordia University while she that portfolio was expanded to include External Affairs. Those expectations were perhaps not uniformly high. Dr. Herbert destinations around the world. began studying a third language (she had taken Spanish in university). It was in this role that Dr. Martha Piper began to establish a nation- Rosengarten, executive director in the Office of the President, reports And for the future? Martha and Bill have recently moved out Once her French was serviceable, she resumed her physiotherapy al reputation. She had already distinguished herself in her chosen field, that, after Martha’s first extraordinarily upbeat public speaking engage- of Norman MacKenzie house and into a new home on Chancellor practice at the Hôpital Saint-Justine, and from there, still feeling that having published widely on issues of child development. “But it was as a ment, many staid faculty members responded with a horrified, “Oh my Boulevard. They plan to stay in Vancouver, and if you want more detail “I didn’t have enough information,” she returned to academics at political lobbyist that she really made her mark,” says Dr. Allan Tupper, God! She’s a cheerleader,” a president more suited to an undergraduate than that, you will have to practice patience. In response to any such McGill, where she completed a phd in Epidemiology and Biostatistics who was a colleague at U of A and is now associate vice-president college than an international research institution. questions, Martha will draw a breath, square her shoulders, stare into in 1979. Government Relations at UBC. “One of the biggest recent changes (in “They didn’t allow for her shrewdness or her strong intellect, her your eyes – and not tell you anything. What followed was one of those instances that Martha is inclined the Canadian polity) has been the growing role of the federal govern- persistence and determination,” Rosengarten says. And after nine years It’s a convincing moment. ■ to pass off as incredibly good luck. The dean of Medicine, Dr. Richard ment in education and especially in research. Martha has been critical in – during which the UBC student population grew by 30 per cent, the Cruess, was searching for a new director of McGill’s School of shaping those policies.” budget by 65 per cent, and research funding from both government and Richard Littlemore is a freelance writer living on Vancouver Island. He Physical and Occupational Therapy. There was no doctorate available Dr. Tupper points to three reasons for Martha’s success – for UBC’s private sources doubled – there are still policy-by-policy quibblers, but has been Martha Piper’s speechwriter for the past 7 years. in the discipline, and, at the time, there had never been a phd holder success – on this front: no one who would suggest she wasn’t up for the job.

The pdf version of this article has been changed slightly from the 20 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 21 original, by request, to protect the privacy of the family. Every autumn, Maclean’s magazine publishes a “Universities Issue” and a separate, more costly Why Maclean’s Rankings Rankle Guide to Canadian Universities, with various rankings of universities across the country.

The editors gather infor- To give the question even more point, over place in the reputation ranking, even though it mation in various ways, the past twenty years new rankings have was only fourth in general ranking. but mostly through the joined the old: the Globe and Mail has one, Five years ago, UBC’s rankings fell. It wor- institutions themselves. and the granting councils (Sciences, Canada ried the administration. Steps were taken. UBC Maclean’s says the Council, Social Sciences and Humanities, reviewed the way it reported student-teacher Guide outsells the usual Medical Research) have theirs. Then there’s ratios, and the way it counted how many stu- Maclean’s run by a factor of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking of dents were being taught by tenured professors ten. It’s a money-maker for Rogers Corp., the the top 500 universities in the world (UBC is rather than by part-timers or sessionals. latest owners of the magazine. 37, whatever that means). And we have rank- In 2003, 2004, and 2005, UBC did move— When the rankings first appeared in ings by citation counts (number of times other from fifth to fourth place. President Piper still 1992, they caused joy in some quarters (the researchers quote the work of professors at plans to push UBC past Toronto, McGill and University of Toronto), and misery in others any one university) in every field. UWO. But that is no easy matter: UBC stu- (Trent University). But in that year, premiers It all matters, as a high rank means that a dents will have to out-do the rest of Canada Ralph Klein (Alberta) and Bob Rae (Ontario) university has to be taken seriously. And we in entering averages. And UBC will have to announced their intentions to connect univer- don’t want to spend too much time thinking find a way to get more of its students out sity funding to “market measures,” (Klein) and what a low ranking would mean. and graduated “on time,” reduce class sizes, “performance indicators” (Rae). The worry Maclean’s says it judges the increase the number of stu- – or the source of joy, depending where you “comparative strengths” of dents taught by tenured profes- were in the rankings – was that systems like public universities in Canada by William Bruneau sors and do something about Maclean’s would be used to decide at least by counting things. The key that pesky library. Somehow some university funding. In the end, Maclean’s questions are: Where are the or other, UBC would have to rankings were not used this way, but provin- brightest first-year students? Where are the persuade alumni, and academic and business cial performance indicators were. Any joy was smallest classes? Where are the most tenured leaders that UBC deserves high levels of fund- replaced almost at once with hand-wringing. faculty? Where are the richest library resourc- ing and support, just because the rankings say Fourteen years later, the shine has begun es? Which university has made the largest so. to wear off the rankings. They attracted less commitment to student services, scholarships University rankings are, then, a kind of attention in the media this year than at any and bursaries? And which university has the craziness. After all, Canada’s great public uni- time since their creation. In all the provinces best reputation for quality and innovation? versities have legislated mandates. They are the use of performance indicators contin- Most of these questions are answered with supposed to prepare people of all ages and all ues but has not replaced reasoned and less simple arithmetic. A library with three million backgrounds to function well and happily as arbitrary ways of deciding how to support copies of Whittaker’s Almanac would win citizens, to work as professionals in a bewil- universities. But even in those universities and over UBC’s with two million carefully selected dering range of fields, to act as creators and colleges that refuse to participate in them, volumes. Incoming student averages are calcu- thinkers, shaping generations to come. This the rankings attract worried attention. At the lated without considering the historic, social, is a matter for very long-term thinking. The University of Saskatchewan, President Ivany cultural, or any other resources that make curriculum and the research-and-development remarked in 2003 that he dared not refuse students interesting and strong. done in these places are best put in the hands Maclean’s informational inquiries, as the polit- Faced with the rankings’ simplistic arith- of practised researcher-teachers, working ical price would be too high. metic, faced with their popularity, and faced together with the public. The work of higher The fact remains: rankings have become a with the dangers they pose, Canadian univer- education depends on effective and open uni- part of the vocabulary of students, pundits, sities have adopted two strategies. Universities versity senates and boards, broad accessibility governments, and profs in Canada. They either ignore them, or pick out rankings that to all who could benefit. demand and deserve close and sceptical study. suit them. In 2003-4, UBC trumpeted its first Alas, a university that passively accepts

22 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 23 MACLEAN’S RANKLES At UBC, as elsewhere in Canada, a further is open and considered and sometimes slow. One need not be a music-phile to notice some- result of rankings has been an increase in the Access to the university’s riches is broad and rankings and indicators will soon forget this bureaucracy of “reporting.” Universities must fair. The university does its work equitably. thing strange with the sounds emanating from mandate and accept a long series of shotgun make detailed statistical reports on nearly It is a collection of professors whose effective- our radios, day to day, station to station: it’s a marriages with passing economic fantasy. everything they do. From the innocent days ness would end in an instant if their academic subtle similarity. It isn’t just that the songs sound Remember the idea that every university stu- in the late ’60s when UBC professor Robert freedom and tenure were seriously threatened. dent should consider a career in the dot-com Clark helped create offices for straightforward It is a body of students whose energy, curios- too close to call – whether that last number was industries? In this case, the rankings-driven uni- budget and program planning, UBC has been ity and social power will make courses worth by the same artist as the one just before – or how versity isn’t much different from the automobile frog-marched into a new world. It is a world of taking and teaching, and whose future is to manufacturer who really does have to worry endless detail and management and close super- reconstruct culture. the DJ’s voices and humour seem faintly familiar about markets and public fancies. vision and control. We should have known. It is a body of talented staff members whose from city to city, province to state, with all the There is another, highly practical aspect to Another reason for the rankings’ persistence commitment is to the whole society, not just to the craziness: U of T, McGill, UBC, Laurentian is that they are part of a movement. The move- the next ranking or the next pay cheque. same sampled sounds, the same voice selling fast and many more have found a dreadful paradox ment favours efficiency (but produces costly It is a collection of administrators who help food or far-away vacations. in rankings. Government may note an improved bureaucracy and hasty decisions), and it claims keep the place safe from mindless market inter- Quietly, calmly, something ranking or indicator. But that may justify less to be “accountable” (but not to the public, only vention, to co-ordinate the work of all the oth- public funding, not more. The reason is, if to the market). ers in the community, and to keep the purpose Dialing for Cool went unnoticed and radio you’re good, why not give your poorer, strug- 2. Universities in the Passive Mood of the university constantly before the public. executives made a decision for gling neighbour university the cash it needs, so In plain language, the frenzied rush to be The great goal of these superposed communi- it can be good too? At the same time, declines #1 and stay that way makes universities less ties is the remaking of minds, the refashioning us all. Somewhere, someone in the rankings invite punishing cuts. autonomous. Yes, universities may be more of skill, and increased moral consciousness of concluded that humour and obnoxious behaviour Universities cannot win the rankings game. immediately responsive to the pressures of gov- everyone in community. are what best rouses us from our state of rest. So why are rankings still with us? ernment and industry. But to whose tunes are A university worth the name depends on sus- 1. Maclean’s is Not Alone they truly dancing? tained, society-wide support. It has significant Morning drives should as well have similar From the earliest years of the Thatcherite and Canadian experience suggests the profound public funding. It can rely on long-term public antics, but with of course a healthy dose of Reaganite neo-conservative experiments, new unwisdom of a university system whose task is and private commitment to the university’s ways to rank and categorize sprang up annually to respond, to do as it is told, and to consider overriding purpose. For that reason, the aca- advertisements to digest. From station to station, across Europe and North America. The inten- its identity is revealed in Maclean’s. But remem- demic community must constantly talk to its format after format, it is no mystery what has tion was to justify bureaucratic control – cost- ber Mr. Rae and Mr. Klein. Their views have supporting communities. benefit analyses of courses in English and Art, weight and momentum. No wonder the rank- If it could be shown that ranking contributed happened. Radio is big business. studies of the cost per square metre per student ings are still around. directly to all, some or even one of these things, In business terms, it’s consolidation, the spawn of politicians’ love affair of BSc degrees in Chemistry, Degree Quality 3: A Horse Race I would back off the criticisms I have made. with conservative economic policies, to open up the bastions of public enter- Assessment Boards, and so on – and to provide Everyone knows universities compete with I accept that some university practices invite prises domains. In the 1990s, the US – and Canada in a roundabout way new techniques of financial management, so one another for reputation, students and cash. statistical summary and description. But it is – removed regulations limiting levels of ownership on broadcasters. Mergers sustained cuts in public expenditure could be In that sense, Maclean’s has been a good thing, hard to see how or why universities benefit and acquisitions (m&a, not to be confused with t&a, which of course in more easily justified. making the annual university horse race a bit from it, or how ranking could help or “inform” radio talk is “traffic and accidents”) became the way of the radio-exec. Since the late 1970s in the countries of the more amusing than it would otherwise be. The Canadian society and Canadian politicians. Bigger is better, bigger is cheaper, larger markets mean more dollars. I think oecd (Organisation for Economic Cooperation horse race analogy points to a human fascina- Ann Dowsett Johnson of Maclean’s says we all know the rhetoric. and Development), rankings and statistics were tion: people like to look at races, to be excited rankings help to “inform” students and their While in cultural terms many saw it as the commodification of a form of all the rage. The British brought in a highly by them, and even to bet on them. parents. She has a point, but one suspects Ms communication, it was just another opportunity for profit. In the US, Clear bureaucratic and expensive system of reports But this kind of competition often brings out Johnson means the rankings inform us about Channel Communications, after the intoxication of a spending spree to and inspection. Neo-conservatives said they the worst in those competing. Where does this the magazine, just as much as they do about acquire more than 1,200 megawatt stations, has been criticized for censor- wanted less government, but acted to ensure notion fit in the definition of “university”? Is universities. Come to think of it, Maclean’s ship and for laying off thousands of workers. From banning bands critical there would be much, much more government there a place for driving ambition, manipula- comes first. ■ of the Republican government’s foreign policy, to cutting back on expenses involvement in higher education. tion and the fastest possible adaptation to the at local stations, Clear Channel is the hegemonic hoard community radio In the United States, state and federal ever-changing economic environment? It is William (Bill) Bruneau taught in the depart- lovers abhor. governments acquired a new fascination for impossible to deny the existence in universities ment of Educational Studies from 1971 to Not to point fingers though, the homogeneity of the airwaves has been “performance indicators,” which were used of people who do those things: drive, manipu- 2003. He writes mostly on the history and steadily securing itself, the marriage with the major record labels far too not to improve quality or accessibility, but to late, adapt to economic fantasy. But they are politics of Canadian and European universities. convenient. The practice of payola has run rampant, so that artists only justify immediate cuts and heightened bureau- not the university. His most recent book (co-authored with David make the airwaves if their label pays to have them played. Is there no cratic control in higher education. There, as What, then, is the university? Gordon Duke) is a biography of BC composer space in a deregulated radio market for a diverse voice, one that embraces in Canada, the new system had a partner in For the purposes of a piece about rankings, Jean Coulthard, but he has also co-authored Groovin’: CiTR disc jockey Canadian content because it too is a part of the annual rankings produced after 1983 by the university is, or should be, a community. (with Donald Savage) a surprisingly long Hilary Stout lines up the tunes our cultural landscape? Where the informa- US News and World Reports, the parents of It relies on reason and debate to do its central book on performance indicators and rankings, in 1979. Klaus Nomi maybe? tion, be it music, news, sports or the arts is by Jon Cornea Maclean’s. work of teaching and research. Its governance Counting Out the Scholars (2002). the focus, not just the filler.

24 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Photograph: Courtesy UBC Library Archives Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 25 THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ALUMNI NEWS | WINTER/SPRING 2006

The internet claims a stake: the ability to people are fed up with? What about digital Dialing for Cool connect and communicate with like minds audio broadcasting? A new player in the mar- around the world on what is the latest rage, ket, offering, along with crystal clear audio, or get turned on to the discovery of a new text, images and potentially even videos dialed Long gone are the days of the dedicated DJ, music-world darling. Websites like pitchfork. in on its own receiver (read: purchase another ducking payola, patiently shuffling through com, or a personal favourite betterpropa- gizmo). Though, don’t we have enough prob- Chronicle crate upon crate of the mediocre, to amaze ganda.com offer free, legal mp3 downloads, lems keeping peoples’ minds on the road, eve- us with the gems of passion and inspiration. descriptions of the bands, and the most useful rywhere busy hands already dialing cell phones Today’s DJs sound more like carnival ride invention, “similar music” links, and they are while driving. More distractions? Please! conductors, calling out to see if we want to go fantastic. But it takes time and energy to sift So does that mean radio will continue to faster! Yet most of us are left wondering if that through the seemingly endless lists of artists, be the darling of the driver? It survived 8- ride couldn’t have been something, well, a little the task accomplished by the DJs of radio tracks, cassettes, cb Radios, cd decks, multi more interesting. past, and the one so appreciated by listeners. cd changers in the trunk: you name it, radio There was a day when listeners could tune There is no denying the ubiquity of handheld has prevailed. Ipod wants in on the action, but in, check out what was fresh, what was hap- mp3 players, and the ease with which we can you know, I still wager that radio will remain. pening, have a laugh, or just plain sing along. fill them with all manner of music, thought to There’s something about that sizzle of static But where is it now? I know it must exist. That be cool. But if one seeks the wisdom of wise between the stations, or the sweet satisfaction medium through which to tap that slippery ears, seasoned critics who know where music of dialing it in. Yet, it hardly seems worth it if notion of what’s cool, the mysterious morph has been and where it might go next, where all we have are prerecorded DJs, constant com- that is what’s HOT. A station that means more does one turn? mercial interruption, or the latest reincarnation than just the dollars and cents, full of ideals Will it be satellite radio, with its bulk of the Pop Star of the week. concerned not only of the outcome, but atten- offers of hundreds of stations to satiate the What about originality, community engage- tive to the action. sonic appetite? Isn’t it just that sort of thing ment, and some sort of local focus? Is it too much to ask to be connected to time and space anymore? And then, like the faint trickle of a signal on the AM dial, driving the long highways of the great Canadian expanse, enter realiza- tion. Our community does have its very own station. citr 101.9 at UBC has been broadcasting local, Vancouver- brand community radio for more than 62 years. With a focus on UBC events and happenings, citr personalities pride themselves on searching through the crates, and on reminding us of the beauty of our diverse culture. Providing programming not focused on the latest hit of the week, but on the passion of those who love what they are doing and to express something about their world, and that world is Vancouver. Radio grounded in the place we call home may just be that elusive gem some call, “cool.” So dial it in, dig the cool. After all, it’s from where we’re from. ■

– Jon Cornea is working on a master’s degree in resource management at UBC. He is also a singer songwriter in what he calls “folktronica,” or heavy 26 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 metal folk rock. Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 27 arts theatre

For more information on theatre events call 604-822-2678 or visit the website at www. theatre.ubc.ca

Picasso at the Lapin Agile March 8-18, 7:30 pm Frederic Wood Theatre Written by Steve Martin, this hilarious look at art, science and the life of ideas proposes a meeting between Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso – who become instant rivals.

Brave New Play Rites New Plays by UBC Creative Writing Stu- dents March 29 - April 2, 2006 Frederic Wood Theatre Students from UBC’s renowned Creative Writing Program and from its acclaimed Theatre Program combine forces to show- case their talents. www.creativewriting.ubc.ca/about/brave- new/index.htm

POV Film Festival Short Films by UBC Film Students Fri April 28 & Sat 29, 2006 The RIDGE Theatre (3131 Arbutus Street) The Persistence Of Vision Film Festival presents fi lms written, produced and directed by students from UBC’s celebrated Film Production Program. Two evenings of fi lm culminate in an awards gala on Saturday Lyle Wilson the belkin art gallery school of music Jasper Wood (violin) with Sara David Buech- Scholarship Winners Concert night. www.fi lm.ubc.ca/pov/ December 2005 - March 2006 ner (Piano) Sun April 2, 3:00 pm Haisla artist Lyle Wilson (who designed For information on exhibits, please con- For information on these and many other Wed March 15, noon Recital Hall Dirty Hands the Raven logo used at the annual Alumni tact the Belkin at 604-822-2759 / www. free and nearly free events, please contact Recital Hall A Festival of the Performing Arts at UBC Achievement Diner) is publicly carving an belkin-gallery.ubc.ca or the Belkin Satellite the School of Music or visit their website: UBC Korean Ensemble Spring, 2006 eight-foot tall yellow cedar sculpture in the at 604-687-3174 / www.belkin-gallery.ubc. www.music.ubc.ca, 604-822-5574, Eugenia Choi (violin) & Jane Coop (piano) Thurs April 6, noon Various Campus Venues Great Hall. Entitled “Wee-git Releases the ca/satellite. [email protected] Wed March 29, noon Recital Hall Check website further details Light,” the carving tells Lyle’s version of an Recital Hall www.theatre.ubc.ca ancient story in which Wee-git (which means Stan Douglas: Inconsolable Memories UBC Recital Hall ‘Great Man’ in the Haisla language) brings Stan Douglas has an international repu- Pop music from the 1960’s to the 1990s The Third Annual University/College Big Borealis String Quartet with David Harding, museum of anthropology light to the world. tation for photography, fi lm and video redesigned for the jazz big band. Including Band Festival viola installations. This exhibit presents a new songs from The Beatles, Sting, Steely Dan, Sat April 1, noon – 10:00 pm Bloch, Webern and Mozart For more information on these and other fi lm work and a series of photographs from Gino Vanelli, Chicago, Stevie Wonder. Featuring a new big band jazz performance Fri April 21 & May 24, 8:00 pm exhibits, please contact the museum or visit Cuba. The fi lm is based on Tomas Gutier- every hour and fi fteen minutes. Recital Hall their website: www.moa.ubc.ca, rez Alea’s Cuban masterpiece Memories of UBC Student Composers 604-822-5087, [email protected] Underdevelopment (1968). Thurs March 9, 8:00 pm, Recital Hall

28 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Previous page: Russ Heinel / UBC Public Affairs Photograph: Stan Douglas, Malecon, 2004 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 29 Quartetto Gelato arts Sat April 8, 8:00 pm Performance of music from cities on the route of the Orient Express. the chan centre Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Tickets are available at the Chan Centre Sat April 22, 8:00 pm Ticket Offi ce in person or through Ticket- One of the premier instrumental ensembles. master (www.ticketmaster.ca or 604-280- 3311). Some Chan Centre events are free Stuart McLean’s Canada but still require tickets. For more informa- Sun April 23, 3:00 pm tion on upcoming events, please call 604- Stuart McLean returns for another after- 822-2697 or see www.chancentre.com. noon performance of A History of Canada, plus, a live performance of a new work Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir entitled I Remember Wayne, a look at Sat March 11, 8:00 pm Canada’s national game. Poulenc, Britten, Kreek, Pärt Krystian Zimerman (Piano) SUBSCRIBE TO TREK MAGAZINE Romeo Dallaire Thurs April 27, 8:00 pm AND NEVER MISS AN ISSUE! Sun March 12, 7:30 pm Trek Magazine comes out three times UBC Chamber Strings Birdsong: Persian Poetry of Rumi Fri March 17, 8:00 pm Fri April 28, 8:00 pm annually, but we can’t afford to send Rena Sharon (piano), Mark McGregor Edward Henderson’s setting of the poetry it to every grad every time. We send (fl ute), Eric Wilson (conductor/director) of 13th century Sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi. smaller mailings (75,000 vs 160,000) to Featuring the tar (played by Amir Koush- grads who have shown some interest UBC Symphonic Wind Ensemble kani), a Persian plucked instrument used for in UBC through volunteer work, Thurs March 23, noon performing Classical Persian music. attending a reunion, class or lecture, Sat March 25, 8:00 pm donating money, or even by just Ewa Podles (Contralto) phoning and telling us they want all Vadim Repin (violin) & Nikolai Lugansky Sun April 30, 3:00 pm ■ three issues. Volunteer subscribers, of (piano) course, go to the top of the list. Fri March 24, 8:00 pm If you would like to subscribe ($50 would be swell, but you be the judge), Swing Soft, Play Loud Sun March 26, 3:00 pm call our offi ces, visit our website or cbc Orchestra presents Hugh Fraser (trom- send in the little form below. bone) Campbell Ryga (sax) Kenny Wheeler Don’t miss an issue! (trumpet) Sara Davis Buechner (piano) Yes! Send me every issue! University Singers Name ______Thurs March 30, 8:00 pm 40 voice choir, featuring Handel’s Messiah Degree (s) and Year ______Address ______Bach and Beyond Series: Dido and Aeneas ______Fri March 31 & Sat April 12 8:00 pm ______VSO, Bramwell Tovey, Susan Platts (mezzo- e-mail ______soprano), Nathaniel Watson (baritone), UBC telephone ______Opera Ensemble ❒ Cheque ❒ Visa ❒ Mastercard Card #/Exp date ______UBC Symphony Orchestra Signature ______Fri April 7, 8:00 pm Please send cheques to: UBC Alumni Association Kevin Zakresky (tenor) Jesse Read (direc- 6251 Cecil Green Park Road tor) Students of the School of Music and the Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1 university community perform. Featuring Finzi: Dies Natalis Music students wielding mallets

30 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 31 Actors Patti Allan, Allan Morgan, Dawn Petten, Juno Ruddell, Andrew Wheeler and Jonathan Young in a Spring, 2005 workshop production of Eadweard Muybridge.

On June 15, 1878, in Palo Alto, California, Eadweard Muybridge Arts Festival headliner, “Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of In just five months Muybridge shot close to 20,000 photographs. photographed the first fast motion serial images of a horse that Eadweard Muybridge.” The play combines historical events with His subjects included athletes, tradesmen and teachers. He also captured a moment of suspension when no hooves touched the a fictional narrative on Muybridge’s professional and eccentric photographed hospital patients to document their abnormal ground. The man who sponsored the experiment was the horse’s personal life, and employs innovative lighting technology that will movements, as well as animals and birds. The human models often owner, railroad builder and former governor, Leland Stanford, change the landscape of theatre performance. posed nude and performed activities that seemed unrelated to sci- who would later found Stanford University. Eadweard Muybridge was a former landscape photographer ence: a woman throwing herself on a heap of hay; a man hitting A Life in Pictures The 12 images – taken in about half a second – were cap- who considered himself more an artist than a scientist. “Studies a baseball or pounding a nail; a woman fanning herself. These tured through 12 cameras, each equipped with an electrically in Motion” tells the story of how, in 1874, upon discovering that images created not only a lasting artistic effect but marked the UBC Mounts the Light and Dark of Eadweard Muybridge controlled mechanism that operated a special shutter. Each shutter his young wife, Flora, was pregnant with the child of Colonel beginning of an obsession with imagery and the moment in which was connected to a series of underground wires at short intervals. Larkyns, Muybridge confronted Larkyns and shot him dead. time is stopped and dissected, revealing a world invisible to the When the horse made contact with them, the shutter of each Tried for murder, Muybridge was acquitted on the grounds of jus- naked eye. camera released, thus freezing motion for a fraction of a second. tifiable homicide and abandoned both his wife and son. Despite Playwright Kevin Kerr, winner of the 2002 Governor General Muybridge gained international acclaim for his Stanford experi- his troubled personal life, Muybridge’s professional life flourished. award for the play “Unity” (1918), worked on “Studies in ment and that brief moment heralded the age of motion pictures He invented the Zoopraxiscope, a machine that projected images Motion” for nearly two years. His fascination with Muybridge and cinema. so the public could see realistic motion, a system that became the began 10 years ago while doing research for “Brilliant,” about On January 17, 2006, award-winning playwright, Kevin Kerr, precursor of the motion picture. In the mid-1880s, Muybridge, another Victorian-era genius, Nikolai mfa’91 and award-winning designer, Dr. Robert Gardiner, head awarded a significant grant from the University of Pennsylvania, Tesla. of UBC’s Theatre, Film and Creative Writing department, told the used this technique to produce more than 100,000 sequence pho- “I saw this strange Muybridge film of by John Vigna story of Muybridge’s life in the PuSh International Performing tographs at his compound on campus. little 1.5 second loops of people and ani-

32 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Photos by Tim Matheson Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 33 mals moving in tiny parcels of action,” he says during a lunch break lent thing to do because a great deal of creativity in the arts happens rehearsal, as well as what the implications of his new technology Gardiner says. “I’m not there yet. But I’m very close right now, in rehearsals at the Frederic Wood Theatre. “The people were the outside of the university with people who don’t teach or who aren’t means to dramaturgy. one week into rehearsal, to putting the right lights on. That’s most fascinating because they were the most elaborate. They were students.” “What does this mean to the way we put a play together?” something you wouldn’t normally do in ordinary stage lighting nude and in front of this strange backdrop of a black and white grid Gardiner’s research involves replacing standard theatre stage Gardiner says. “Maybe nothing. Or maybe there’s a whole range until a few days before you open because you couldn’t. It’s excit- and doing basic gestures like walking, throwing a ball, or odd prat- lighting with a special video projector. A play generally requires of possibilities that are ultimately low tech enough that anyone ing for the actors and directors who are not used to working in falls like one woman dumping a bucket of water. Some of the move- between 100 and 400 lighting fixtures. Gardiner, with “Studies in can do them. One of the things true of theatre is that big effects rehearsal light until the week before the show.” ments were so pathological that I found them haunting, these little Motion,” is using two (one in front, one from above) – digital video always cost millions. Theatre is always in a dialogue between a In the end, the play’s the thing, and one of the main things living moments pre-cinema. I felt privy to something special.” projectors operated by a laptop. “With a wide angle, stationary light Shakespearean nothing and a grand opera everything. So in a “Studies in Motion” does, through Kerr’s script and Gardiner’s Kerr’s fascination with the strange world that seemed to per- source, we can light the whole stage and do anything that we could sense I’m trying to move the spectacular possibilities of grand stage lighting, is pose a number of far-reaching, philosophical meate Muybridge’s motion studies inspired him to develop a story do with thousands of stage lights. It provides more creative flexibil- opera towards the Shakespearean bare, empty room. The image questions. based on the subjects themselves, as well as Muybridge. He dis- ity at a lower cost because there’s no need to call in a new crew to is delivering a lot of story content and that takes technology. “The photograph and cinema have changed our lives,” covered that Muybridge had a dramatic back story: marriage to change the lights.” The best playwrights like Kevin Kerr are very good at this. When Gardiner says. “We are who we are as a consequence of the guy a woman half his age, her affair, the murder of her lover and the In all collaborations, whether between Muybridge and Stanford they’re writing a play they have a film running in their head.” who took a picture of a moving horse, who decided if he could abandonment of her child. “How does that relate to the world he or Kerr and Gardiner, there exists a mutual respect, a synergy that Kerr echoes Gardiner’s comments on the collaborative ele- take enough of it, he could reanimate that horse. We’re trying, in creates after that time? Is there something that could be explored happens in order for a concept to reach completion. “What we really ment of working from very different aspects of the creative proc- a very indirect and storytelling way, to wonder whether this has between the analytical and rational world of his photography and liked was that Robert Gardiner was using non-traditional lighting to ess. “We’ve integrated everything so that Robert could work sceni- been de-humanizing. We don’t connect with speed or with each that very animal, passionate world of his past life?” light space, blending medias, blending the worlds of film and compu- cally and interface with the story. So his ideas could inspire the other in the same way that people did before video games and At around the time that Kerr and the Electric Company (the ter animation with live performance,” says Kerr. Like Muybridge in script and the script could inspire the design and the direction.” movies. We make movies called “Terminator 2” and video games theatre company he co-founded) considered producing a play about the late 1880s, Gardiner’s work is revolutionary. His exploration of But as with all creative processes, the greatest challenge is that are possible because of Muybridge. How much of technical Muybridge, Dr. Robert Gardiner, who Kerr once studied under at light, imaging and movement is pushing the boundaries of traditional time, something Muybridge understood in his obsession to freeze possibilities drive what we should do and what we actually do?” UBC, approached them to see if they would be interested in collabo- lighting but as with all technological advances there are significant it and capture motion. For Kerr, this challenge means the pressure Kevin Kerr, excited as he is by the integration of technol- rating on a project. Gardiner had received a three-year, $205,000 challenges. of working with all layers of the production concurrently, from ogy in “Studies in Motion,” returns to the basic principle of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (sshrc) grant for “We’re still in the land of software that is a bit buggy. It doesn’t movement sequences and a large cast, to fresh script changes and storytelling. “There’s an engaging human story here, specifically the development of technology in theatre and he was interested in do everything we want it to do and takes a while to learn,” Gardiner the technological element of new lighting. Muybridge and the models,” he says. “Seeing characters struggle bringing on a professional theatre company to work with UBC staff says. “The biggest challenge is in trying to keep perspective as with questions of what Muybridge left behind. Ultimately, I hope and students. Currently, he is piggybacking on a software program called we’re fusing all of these elements and leaving ourselves just the play offers us a view of different moments from our past, “Up until this project, sshrc hadn’t done anything like this. Isadora, developed by Troika Tronix in New York. He does, howev- enough room to make discoveries and changes when they are nec- including this very moment where we are getting this new way of Most of their projects focused on fish studies up north, that sort of er, envision a day in the near future when he can hand off his version essary,” he says. looking. And in doing so, that the eyes are getting a treat that is thing,” says Gardiner over coffee in his cluttered office of books, of the software to programmers and have them develop it for theatre For Gardiner, the challenge is synthesizing technology with stimulating and exciting and opens up potential for imagination video cameras and multiple computer screens. “But with “Studies in designers worldwide. Meanwhile, he faces the additional challenge of the narrative. “I’m interested in combining the storylines, the so an audience can walk away full of ideas.” ■ Motion,” they wanted to widen the sshrc umbrella. It’s an excel- integrating his lighting innovations with the play, as it evolves during image and the lights so audiences are not being distracted,” – John Vigna is a Vancouver writer.

34 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 35 alumninews

REGIONAL NETWORKS

Have you ever wondered if there are any other UBC alumni living in your neck of the woods? Well, since UBC grads live and work in more than 130 nations around the world, there’s a good chance there are. Soon, you’ll be able to connect with these people through our under-construction TREKCONNECT service, due to be launched in April. Anyway, here’s a snapshot of where UBC alumni live.

BC – 133,408 Rest of Canada – 19,689 Members of the Class of 1945 headed back to campus in November to mark the 60-year United States – 7,540 anniversary of their graduation. They enjoyed brunch at University Golf Club, and then rode a shuttle to Mexico & Central America – 91 the Chan Centre to take part in a special convocation ceremony. Photo Dianna DeBlaere Ladicos. South America – 149 Western Europe – 1,690 Eastern Europe – 45 REGIONAL ACTIVITIES NEW CONTACTS Asia – 3,359 Africa – 230 It was a busy end to 2005! In November, MALAYSIA Middle East – 208 President Piper travelled to Calgary accom- The UBC Alumni Association Kuala Lumpur Caribbean – 134 panied by four UBC luminaries. UBC alumni was officially registered in May 2005. At its Antipodes – 678 listened as they presented on their areas of first meeting on Dec. 6, president of the com- South Pacific – 13 expertise in some “Classes Without Quizzes,” mittee Zulkifli Ali, BScAgr’73, msc’75 hand- followed by dinner with a speech by Martha ed the baton over to new regional rep James We’ve established regional alumni networks in Piper. Jiam bcom’94, gr’95 and the new executive more than 50 cities around the globe to help Alumni celebrated the festive season at committee, who will hold office for 2 years you stay connected. Share your ideas, update a number of events during December. Groups (2005 & 2006). Thanks to Mr. Zulkifli Ali for your e-mail address and get involved by help- of UBC grads living in Los Angeles and New his contributions over the years and look for- ing to build a vibrant alumni community York, for instance, cheered on the Vancouver ward to his guidance on forthcoming activi- in your area. Visit our website to find your Canucks as they took on the local teams. In ties. Thanks, too, to Mr. Goh Joon Hail for alumni representative at www.alumni.ubc.ca/ January, Hong Kong-based grads attended his assistance in getting the registration of the regions. If you don’t see a listing for your area, a concert by the UBC Wind Ensemble, who Kulala Lumpur Alumni Association underway. contact one of the alumni relations officers played to a full crowd at the City Hall Concert listed below to start a new network! Hall. This was the first time in the history INDONESIA of UBC that a musical group has toured in In Jakarta, outgoing representative Chris Shawn Swallow (Thompson Okanagan) Asia. The concert proved popular, and Gerry Bendl bsc’91 is handing over to Joanita UBC-Okanagan Campbell ba’76, Consul General of Canada in Tjandrawinata ba’04 and Jimmy Sunaryo Kelowna, BC Hong Kong, was among the attendees. Martha basc’05. Chris is moving to Dubai, United [email protected] Piper was also visiting Asia and hosted an Arab Emirates and might well pick up the afternoon tea with the governors and execu- mantle there. Valerie Tse (Asia Pacific) tives of the Hong Kong Alumni Association at Asia Pacific Regional Office the Four Season’s Hotel on January 8. She has JAPAN Central, Hong Kong also travelled to Singapore, Seoul, Seattle and In Tokyo, Jay Magee ba’97 is handing over to [email protected] San Francisco in recent weeks. Alumni in these new rep, Kozue Saito basc’01 masc’ 03, cities heard what the UBC experts that accom- Tanya Walker panied her had to say about Korean literature, Thanks to all outgoing reps for their contribu- UBC Vancouver, BC infectious disease, Canadian Olympics, Canada- tions and hard work and a warm welcome to [email protected] US Relations, and environmental issues. those who are filling their shoes.

36 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 37 alumninews Class reunions planned to date: Land & Food Systems • bcom’76: Sept 22, 2006, at the Royal for more details at 604-520-3006 or drde- [email protected] or Tanis Knowles Nursing All Years: luncheon at Cecil Green Aggies ’60s Decade Reunion – June 23- Vancouver Yacht Club in Kitsilano. [email protected]. at [email protected]. Additional informa- Park House. Please contact Cathy Ebbehoj, 25, 2006, at the 108 Guest Ranch in the • bcom’81(25-year anniversary): Details tbc. • Med ’86: We need your email addresses! tion on the June 2006 conferences can be (bsn’75, msn’99) for details at 604-822-7468 UPCOMING REGIONAL Cariboo. For more details, please contact Please contact Darline Beck, alumni relations To make sure we have your updated con- found on the following websites: or [email protected]. EVENTS Bob Holtby bsc(agr)’67, msc’72, at 250- coordinator for Sauder School of Business, at tact information or for more information • June 14 – 16: Planners for Tomorrow Home Ec ’56: Lunch at the Botanical 832-7865 or email him at bholtby@sun- 604-822-6027 or [email protected] regarding this reunion please contact either (Canadian Association of Planning Students Gardens Visit the calendar of events often at the wave.net Marguerite Collins at marguerite.collins@ conference hosted by scarp at UBC) www. Arts & Science ’56: Reunion luncheon at Alumni Affairs website at www.alumni.ubc. Forestry ubc.ca or Dr. Steve Larigakis at slarigakis@ plannersfortomorrow.ca Green College Great Hall. ca/events/index.html for what’s happening in Class of 1946 60th Diamond Anniversary • Forestry ’56: 50th Anniversary Reunion will shaw.ca. • June 18 – 20: World Planners Congress Pharmacy ’66: Details tbc, please contact your region. Stay tuned for details on recep- Reunion November 2006 be held June 20-22, 2006. For details, please (hosted by the Canadian Institute of Chuck Willett for more details at 604-922- tions, All Canada Universities gatherings, Class members Audrey Hetherington, contact Stan Chester at 604-921-9880 or Physical Education Planners and the Planning Institute of British 3429 or [email protected]. parties to welcome new grads, and student Muriel Murdoch and Bob Morris have [email protected]. • Phys Ed ’51: 55th Anniversary Reunion Columbia) www.wpc2006.com imagine ubc 10 year reunion: tbc. send-offs. formed an organizing committee and are • Forestry ’68: May 20, 2006. Join us for – please contact Ken Hodgert at (403)686- • June 19 – 23: World Urban Forum (WUF) pleased to announce the reunion will be a day of lunch, a tour of the new Forestry 4533 or via email at [email protected]. www.unhabitat.org/wuf/2006 REUNIONS 2006 held in late November, building and more! Contact Gerry Kramer for Unless otherwise stated, 2006, and will include more details at 604-535-6892 or kramerg@ Law Reunion Weekend celebrations, details tbc. please contact Marguerite a special convocation inac.gc.ca. • Law ’56: Details tbc Please contact Marguerite Collins at 604-827- Collins at marguerite.collins@ ceremony at the Chan • Law ’76: Details tbc 3294 or [email protected]. ubc.ca or at 604-827-3294 Centre and followed by Nursing • Law ’81: 25th anniversary reunion. for more information on a get-together. For more • Nursing All Years: Reunion Weekend lunch- Message from classmates: “It is hard to reunions. information regarding the eon Saturday September 30, 2006, at Cecil believe, but in 2006 it will have been OTHER ALUMNI EVENTS reunion, please contact Green Park House. Want to organize your 10, 25 years. So it is time for us to reunite, ALUMNI REUNION Muriel Murdoch at 604- 25, 30 or 50th Nursing Reunion? Have your check out the grey hair, talk about our Dentistry WEEKEND 266-6804. class reunion at our luncheon! children (now themselves in university or • Faculty of Dentistry Alumni Reception at the Let UBC Welcome you back! • Nursing ’66: June 24–25. Join us on beyond) and down some of the old plonk. Pacific Dental Conference Join friends and classmates Ten years ago, the Class Saturday for a tour of the Nursing build- Please contact Ted Murchison at Muchison Friday March 10, 2006, 5:30 – 7:30pm, to revisit campus and rekin- of 1946 established an ing and campus, followed by dinner at the Thomson and Clarke (tmurchison@mur- Location: Pan Pacific Hotel . For more infor- dle some of that blue and entrance scholarship on Botanical Garden. On Sunday, we’ll enjoy chisonthomson.com) or Marina Pratchett at mation, please contact 604 822-6751 or den- gold spirit. Alumni Reunion the occasion of its 50th brunch at University Golf Club. For more Fasken Martineau Pratchett (mpratchett@ [email protected]. Weekend will be held from year reunion. The award details, please contact Lynn Sutherland at van.fasken.com) and volunteer to help, • Oral Health Centre Open House Friday September 29 to is offered to an outstand- 604-936-4041 or email her at sumac@telus. express your support for the reunion or let Saturday March 11th 12 noon to 3 pm at Sunday October 1, 2006. ing student entering the net. us know how much you really hate class Dentistry Oral Health Centre, 2151 Wesbrook university from secondary reunions.” Mall, UBC. A light lunch will be provided. Calling all members from the school. The class is excited Medicine • Law ’96 – Details tbc Faculty, staff, students and alumni welcome! classes of 1996, 1981, and to continue fundraising for • Med ’54: May 8-11 at the Tin Wis resort in To rsvp or to receive more information, please 1956! Alpha Gamma Delta alumnae celebrated the 75th anniversary of their sorority this scholarship as it cel- Tofino. For more information, please contact School of Community and Regional call 604 822-6751, or email at dentalum@ Come and celebrate the mile- with a reunion on October 2, 2005, at Cecil Green Park House. ebrates 60th reunion later Albert Knudsen at 604-943-6748. Planning interchange.ubc.ca. stone anniversaries of your this year. The organizing • Med ’56: May 25-28, 50th Reunion The first School of Community and graduation! Please contact committee request that Weekend. Contact Drs Thais and Lee Kornder Regional Planning (scarp) reunion will be Arts Marguerite Collins at 604-827-3294 or mar- YEAR-ROUND CLASS in the meantime class members be on the for more information at [email protected] held this June, coinciding with a number • Living the Global City [email protected] to plan your 10-, 25-, REUNIONS lookout for ways that they can contribute or at 604-224-7819 (please call after March of exciting planning events taking place in UBC has launched Living the Global City, an and 50- year class reunions. to this scholarship in honour of the class. 28, 2006). Vancouver. Scheduled for Sunday, June 18th eight-month series (October 5 – June 6) com- Pharmacy If you have immediate questions regarding • Med ’61: Interested in organizing your class at the Westin Bayshore, the reunion will fol- bining lectures, panel discussions and commu- Program of Events: Pharmacy ’53: June 6-7 in Victoria. Contact this scholarship or are interested in making reunion? We would love to hear from you! low the Canadian Association of Planning nity events to explore the range of issues and Bob Alexander at [email protected] or a donation, please contact Michelle Orr at Please contact Marguerite Collins, events Students event that scarp will host during factors – from the cultural and experiential Friday September 29 Louanne Twaites at [email protected] 604-822-8904 or [email protected] coordinator for Alumni Affairs, at 604-827- the 2006 cip/pibc World Planners Congress. to the economic and social – that help attain BBQ for alumni who work at UBC. Pharmacy ’56: Calling all classmates! There’s 3294 or [email protected] Immediately following the World Planners sustainable urban development regionally and a reunion in the offing for this fall. Contact Sauder School of Business • Med ’67: Summer of 2007, details tbc. Conference will be the World Urban Forum. internationally. Living the Global City will Saturday September 30 Murray Dykeman and make sure we have • The Sauder School of Business is seek- Please contact Patrick MacLeod for more All interested scarp alumni and friends are demonstrate how critical thinking and com- Kick-off pancake breakfast at Cecil Green your contact information at 604-988-0901 ing reunion committees for the classes of details at [email protected] encouraged to visit the alumni website for munity engagement are essential components Park House. or [email protected] bcom’96, mba’81 and mba’96. • Med ’76: Do you want to get involved and updates at www.scarpalumni.ca. Please be in implementing effective public policy locally “Classes Without Quizzes” (faculty presenta- Pharmacy ’86: A reunion is being planned for • bcom’56: Details tbc. Please contact plan your class reunion? If so, please contact sure to save the date and pass on the reun- and globally. Alumni and friends are welcome tions), Campus Tours and more! the fall. Please contact Juliette Hum for more Darline Beck, alumni relations coordinator Marguerite Collins at Alumni Affairs at 604- ion information to your scarp colleagues to join us at the various events. For date & information at [email protected]. for Sauder School of Business, at 604-822- 827-3294 or [email protected]. and friends. For more information on the locations, please visit www.wuf3.ubc.ca/pro- 6027 or [email protected] • Med ’81: Please contact Dr. Ron De Marchi reunion, please contact Gary Holisko at gram/living.html

38 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 39 alumninews UBC Alumni Affairs will also be part- and the university, and who like the idea of nering with the Faculty of Science to offer meeting new people and learning new skills. class ACTS The Three Course Connection Science Of course, we do all of this with a twist of • Arts & Science ’56: 50th Anniversary Mentor Lunch. Set for March 1 and 7, the imagination and lots of fun along the way! Alumni event is a chance for 100 science students Most recently, Young Alumni events have Science to start brushing up their networking skills been focused on the less fortunate among We depend on our readers to send us notices Renowned artist, naturalist and environ- in a business lunch setting with 20 science us. Two groups of Young Alumni spent time for Class Acts and In Memoriam. Please mentalist, Robert Bateman, will be giving alumni on hand to help them. at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank in direct your information to vanessa.clarke@ the Spring Biodiversity lecture on March 30, Alumni will also be involved in a men- December and January. They pitched in and ubc.ca, or to our mailing address (see page 2006. This is the second in a series of lec- toring event, Walk on Georgia, aimed at shared a few laughs at the same time. Watch 3). Digital photos must be 150 dpi or better tures open to the general public and the uni- international students, and a panel presen- out for more philanthropic activities this year. to be included in the magazine. Please note versity community as part of the Biodiversity tation for 4th year arts students, part of In the past, these have included fundraising that Trek Magazine is also posted on our Research Centre’s outreach program. For the transitioning program known as Arts after Katrina, the HSBC Child Run, and being tickets and event details, please visit: www. Peak. part of a variety of projects through UBC’s website. biodiversity.ubc.ca/museum/ More details With new programs continually being Learning Exchange. will be available in mid-February 2006. developed, we would like to increase our Many more attended the Student database of available, working-age alumni Leadership Conference in January, where Law in the Lower Mainland willing to be men- they connected with current student leaders 40s March 28, 2006: Toronto dinner with guest tors in varying capacities that range from and introduced these soon-to-be grads to the speaker the Right Honourable Beverly speaking on a panel to arranging a work- Alumni Association. Young Alumni Committee Mary-lou Forian ba’48, ma (u of Texas) McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada, present- place visit or tour to meeting mentees on Chair Marko Dekovic and Natasha Norbjerg has had a long and illustrious career as a ed by UBC Law and the UBC Law Alumni a bi-monthly basis. If you would like to be presented a workshop on networking, all the conservation scientist in museum collections. Association. Details to follow on the website included in this database, please contact while reminding student leaders that they are Her expertise is deterioration and structure www.law.ubc.ca/alumni Dianna at [email protected] with “alumni in training” and that UBC life does of organic materials used in artifacts in your name, degree and some brief points not stop after graduation. The Young Alumni museum collections and in outdoor heritage Mentor a Student about your career since leaving UBC so were also invited to address the entire SLC sites. She has been a guest scholar at The The opportunities for alumni to connect we can see what program could benefit delegation and introduce the keynote speaker Getty Conservation Institute, part of the with students have grown considerably this from your expertise. We are also look- (and UBC alumnus) Justin Trudeau. Getty Center complex in Los Angeles, since year. We started off with Science Career ing for mentors based in the Okanagan to As you can see, 2006 is shaping up to be September and will complete her work there Expo in November, when 20 UBC science take part in new programming at UBCO. another exciting year for the Young Alumni this February. She is conducting her own alumni came and talked to 550 science To get involved with these programs (still Network. The UBC Alumni Association is research on the characterization of the dis- students about their career paths providing under development) please contact Shawn moving ahead with the planning of a new colouration in fungal fox spots in archival them with some valuable guidance about the at [email protected] with your name, UBC Alumni Centre. There have already been old paper and works of art on paper … Eric world of work. On January 13, we did it all degree and info about your career path. several information sessions, one of them spe- McConachie basc’49 was inducted into the again with the Arts Career Expo, similarly cifically for Young Alumni. It was a unique Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame in June, well attended. This spring we will match Young Alumni: Enjoy it while you can chance to communicate the views, ideas and 2005. He joins his brother, Grant, who was alumni with students in the UBC-Vancouver The sweet bird of youth sticks around for opinions of UBC’s newest graduates. Young inducted in 1974. The citation noted that School Board Transition School for Gifted a very short period of time, so a word to Alumni are excited at the prospect of a new Eric’s “creative aptitude as an innovator, his Adolescents for a short-term mentoring the wise: play with it all you can before its home on campus. skills as a market analyst, and his success relationship to help the young participants wingbeats fade away in the distance, gone May 2006 will see the first graduating in initiating the concept of the Regional understand how their interests can become forever like so much bubblegum. But here’s class from UBC Okanagan. We are looking Jet and following it through to test fl ight careers. a great way to cash in while you can. If you forward to welcoming these newest Young have greatly benefi ted aviation in Canada.” graduated within the past 10 years, then Alumni into our vast network of more than you qualify as a Young Alumnus! 220,000 alumni worldwide. The UBC Young Alumni Network is If you are a Young Alumnus and want CORRECTION here to serve recent UBC grads who want to get involved, or have any suggestions for In the last issue, we mentioned that to stay in touch with not-so-old classmates future Young Alumni events, philanthropic Michael Robinson LLB’78 had become or otherwise, we’d love to hear from you. Ronald Smith, ba’69, dlit’02 the third member of his family to We want our programming to reflect the real receive an Order of Canada (along with More than 80 alumni and friends gathered interests and needs of UBC’s recent grads. Stay his uncle, Basil, and father Geffrey). at the UBC Aquatic Center on November 4 for a tuned for our upcoming financial workshop to We neglected to mention that Michael swimming reunion. Tor Bengston is pictured (left) be presented by the Association’s newest affin- also followed in the family footsteps as with Bob Hindmarch, former director of Athletics. ity partner, Clearsight Wealth Management. a Rhodes Scholar. He is from the class of ’51, the earliest year rep- Information will be posted on the website resented. shortly: www.alumni.ubc.ca ■

40 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 41 class ACTS Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus being water skiing, snow skiing and and Alex Nichol ma’70 have sold their very of Physics. A native of Chandikara, India, driving his ’59 Impala convertible … 70s successful winery, Nichol Vineyard, located Ram endured prejudice in the 1940s as Linda Rogers ba’68, ma’70 has strong on the spectacular Naramata Bench region an Indian pursuing a college education in family connections to UBC. Her father, Rick Cuttell bpe’78 has been inducted into in the south Okanagan. They have moved After graduating from UBC, Eric contin- his native country after its hard-fought O. J. Hall ba’42, llb’48 was a univer- UBC’s Sports Hall of Fame. While compet- over a few valleys to South Slocan, where ued his studies at mit and Stanford. His independence from Great Britain. He was sity solicitor and graduate of the fi rst ing for UBC, Cuttell was acknowledged by Kathleen’s mother, Maxine Sturgess (Chap- professional career started as assistant a physics lecturer at his alma mater, Agra Law class. He founded the UBC Alumni many to be Canada’s best all-round track man) ba’30, once lived and taught several director of Flight Development with cp University in India, and after attaining Chronicle and edited the Ubyssey with and fi eld man. He was a three-time Cana- grades in the one-room school. Retirement Air, Vancouver, and he was still with his phd became an assistant professor at his buddies Stu Keate and Pierre Berton. dian champion in both the long jump and will involve Alex getting back into Chamber the company when they introduced the Punjab University. In 1965, he joined the He also chaired the Vancouver Institute high jump and won fi ve Canada West golds Music in the West Kootenay area and Kath- world’s fi rst jet airliner (purchased from brand new Physics department at suny during the fi fties. Linda is a success- in them too. This 1972 Olympian, who once leen pursuing interests which have been on de Havilland). He was based in London, Cortland. He chaired the department ful writer who is poised to publish won medals in six different events at the the back burner for the past 16 years while England before returning to Canada and from 1981 to 1998 and was acting chair her latest book, The Empress Letters, CanWest Championships, is one of the few the couple ran their vineyard and winery ... a few years later became sales engineering in 1999. in 1986, the Cortland College this fall, a novel based on Victoria and to jump seven feet and still holds the Cana- Sharon Shepherd bsc(pharm)’73 has been manager for Canadair Ltd. in Montreal. Student Association presented him with the opium trade … Jim Rogers ba’67 dian university record in the long jump ... elected Mayor of Kelowna. She’s lived there He was involved in the development and its Oustanding Faculty Member Award. has been named to the executive of Musician/composer Alexina Louie bmus’70 with husband Michael Shepherd bsc’71, marketing of several aircraft. He formed He was always very much involved with the Million Dollar Round Table, an has been named to the Order of Canada … md’75 since 1977. They have two kids, Sean his own successful consulting company, faculty governance and is a member of international association of fi nancial Kathleen Nichol (Sturgess) ba’70, mls’73 and Nicole. Sharon served on a number of Aviation Planning Services Ltd., in 1967. several Scientifi c societies. He and wife professionals. He heads Rogers Group It provided consultation to companies and Saroj have two grown daughters, Anjali Financial, a consultancy fi rm based in governments in more than 30 countries. and Anupama, and reside in Cortland Vancouver … Jane Saborio (Butcher) It was Eric who initiated the concept of ... Wayson Choy ba’63, author of The ba(hons)’64, ma’68 has been a profes- a regional jet by suggesting to Canadair Ram Chaturvedi, phd’63 Jade Peony and All That Matters has sional artist for the past 16 years. Her an adaptation to their existing Challenger been named to the Order of Canada … second solo exhibition was held in the executive jet and drumming up enough Arthur Hanson bsc’65, msc’69 has been historic Angela Peralta Theatre in old commercial interest to make it a viable appointed a Trudeau Foundation Men- town Mazatlan, Mexico, from January proposition. Since then, 1,200 Regional 60s tor, one of nine chosen last November. to February. To learn more about her Jets have been sold around the world. In Trudeau Mentors provide guidance to work, see www.artists.ca/gallery/jsabo- 1994, Eric started up his second consult- Robert A. Brucker ba’65 was a public Trudeau Foundation Scholars, outstanding rio.html ... Writer and publisher Ronald ing company, avplan Inc. He is a Fellow school teacher in bc for 33 years. He doctoral candidates in the social sciences Smith ba’69, dlit’02 has been named of the Canadian Aeronautics Society and retired in 1999 but is continuing to work and humanities. Arthur is Distinguished a 2005 Canada-US Fulbright Scholar, Space Institute, and a member of the as an external student teacher supervi- Fellow and Senior Scientist (and for- a prestigious title reserved for a select Royal Aeronautical Society, the Aerospace sor with the faculty of Education at UBC mer president/ceo) of the International few in Canada and the United States. Industries Association of Canada, and the Okanagan. His daughter, Laurie Brucker, Institute for Sustainable Development in Mr. Smith recently took up the inau- Air Transport Association of Canada. graduated from the Sauder School of Winnipeg. An avid environmentalist, he gural Arizona State University chair in Business with her mba this spring and was appointed by the prime minister in Creative Writing at the Piper Center now works in Victoria for the ministry of 1994 to the National Round Table on for Creative Writing, with aspirations 50s Advanced Education … David G. Butler Environment and Economy … Gary Lewis to nurture new writers and to explore msc’61, phd, dsc, frsa, cbiol, fibiol, basc’64 retired in July 2005 after teaching with them developments in Canadian Bobby Koch bsc(pharm)’50 has been emeritus professor of Zoology and profes- for the last twenty-fi ve years at Okanagan literature over the past 40 years. During inducted into UBC’s Sports Hall of Fame. sor of Medical Physiology at the u of t University College. As an associate profes- his stay at the Piper Center, Smith hopes A UBC hockey star during the late 1940s, retired in 2001. Professor Butler actively sor, he taught Statistics, Strength of Ma- to share with his students the cultural Koch led UBC’s 49/50 Hall of Fame team continues his research, which has been terials, Structural Design, Hydraulics, and diversity of literature written by new to victories over the best university com- supported continuously by the Natural Contract Law in the department of Civil Canadians. He also hopes to offer a petition the US and Western Canadian had Sciences and Engineering Research Council Engineering Technology at the Kelowna comparative study of short fi ction and to offer. The one-time nhl prospect’s 27 for more than 40 years. He continues to campus. Prior to that he taught at bcit for poetry from both sides of the border, goals in 19 games in 49/50 is the second train both undergraduate and postgraduate two years, after 10 years varied experience exploring these works both geographi- best average in UBC history. Koch con- students with enthusiasm. He has pub- in industry. “Teaching and working with cally and aesthetically. Finally, he as- tinued to play professional hockey after lished more than 100 scientifi c papers and young and older adults was rewarding as pires to comple a fi rst draft of The Sea, graduating … Basil Stuart-Stubbs ba’52 has a world-class reputation in Compara- well as fun,” he says. “It gave me great joy The Rose, a novel he recently began … has been named to the Order of Canada. tive Endocrinology … Ram P. Chaturvedi to see so many lives changed when new Ray Vickson bsc’65 retired in Septem- He was UBC University Librarian from phd’63, a member of the State University and challenging careers became available ber 2004 after 31 years on the faculty 1964 to 1981 and is credited with build- of New York (suny) Cortland Physics to our graduates.” Gary lives in Kelowna of the University of Waterloo. He and ing the department of Library, Archival Department faculty for 40 years, retired on with his wife, Darlene, and participates wife Lynne Vickson ba’65 are enjoying and Info Studies. January 22. He received the designation of in many outdoor activities, his favourites their retirement home in Victoria.

42 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 43 consultancy company in September 2005 from UBC alumni would be greatly ap- Global is an integrated forest products class ACTS tion Awards. Yolanda is now based in called acFairbank Consulting. Angela preciated … Dan Johnson msc’80, phd’83 company that mills dimensional lumber Toronto, having just started a fi ve-year has more than 25 years of international organized and chaired the International and produces pre-fab home and cottage residency training program in Obstetrics experience, a bachelor’s degree in French Conference of the Orthopterists’ Society, building packages. His kids are swimming and Gynaecology … Kyle Dickau bfa’05 volunteer boards during the 1980s and and Spanish, and a master’s in Translation held August 14-19 in Canmore, Alberta. with the Prince George Barracudas and he is the Vancouver winner of the Bank of 90s, including Girl Guides of Canada and from the Monterey Institute of Interna- This world meeting on all aspects of hopes that they will be able to swim with Montreal’s 1st art student art competi- Kelowna Youth Soccer. She was elected tional Studies in California. Educated in research concerning locusts, grasshoppers the Thunderbirds when they come of age tion … Beatrice Julia Gill ba’01, ma (U of to the Kelowna City Council in 1996 and Vancouver, Quebec, California, France, and crickets is held every four years … ... Alice Ifeoma Eni ba’94, bed’95 (med in New South Wales) and Colin W. Norman has been reelected ever since, topping the Switzerland, Spain and Belgium, Angela Heather Jeam Malcolm ba’86, bed’92 has progress) has had a son. Magnus Uzoma bcom’98 have announced their engage- poles in 2002. In May, 2005, she received has had a long career in translation and just completed her ma in French at uvic. Jungclaus was born on Friday September ment. A late summer wedding is planned the ym/ywca Woman of Distinction Life- interpretation, and has studied more than She is currently teaching French and Eng- 9, 2005, at 2:00am. Little Magnus was for this year. Beatrice works as a project time Achievement Award for outstanding 10 languages. She worked six years in lish Immersion in Vernon, BC ... Malik Ra- a healthy eight lbs fi ve oz. and went administrator in UBC’s Centre of Inter- community service … After 28 years with Belgium and eight years in Hong Kong. nasinghe, masc’87, phd’90 fie (sl), ceng home the same day … Bonnie Kawchuk national Relations … Aaron Keay bed’02 Nortel Networks (the fi rst 20 with Nortel’s Most recently, Angela was working in the is a professor in Civil Engineering and vice bmus’92 combined her music degree in participated in his fi rst Ironman event in subsidiary Bell-Northern Research), James Caribbean assisting tourists in six languag- chancellor at the University of Moratuwa voice with a masters of Education from stifl ing heat in Penticton, bc, last August. (Jim) Yan basc’69, masc’71, phd’77 re- es. Business and leisure activities combined in Sri Lanka. He is also an independent non- Harvard to found a women’s leadership Expecting a time of 13 hours, he man- tired in January 2005. While at Nortel, Jim have taken Angela to six continents and executive director on the Board of Directors coaching fi rm called The Leading Voice aged to complete the course in 11 hours had held technical and management posi- 80 countries and have provided her with of Lanka ioc, a subsidiary of Indian Oil (www.theleadingvoice.com). The fi rm and 20 minutes. He emerged from the tions responsible for research on solutions detailed insight into numerous cultures Company. After completing his phd, Prof. works with high-potential women to swimming part of the race in 1800th place to improve the performance of telecommu- and a deep understanding of international Ranasinghe was appointed senior lecturer at address their experience of voice in the (almost last in his age group), but passed nication networks. He and wife Rose are business practices. Angela has frequently the UoM. Since then he has been involved in workplace. Beyond her wildest imagin- 1300 other competitors on his bike. Dur- still in Ottawa where he spends some of his taken an active part in cultural bridging all facets of academic activities in engineer- ings, she lives in Washington, dc … David ing the marathon, he moved up another time as an adjunct research professor in the among Asians and Africans, North and ing, including conducting and publishing Musto ba’94, md’99 is thrilled about the Jeff Toyne, mmus’99 200 spots and fi nished in around 300th Systems and Computer Engineering depart- South Americans and Europeans. The a large volume of pioneering research on arrival of the newest Musto on December place. “Not bad considering there were ment of Carleton University … Ken Witzke services she offers include multilingual engineering economics, especially in the 28, 2005. Baby Kate and mother Lisa are 100-odd pros and the fact that it was my mba’71 has been inducted into UBC’s business solutions, language and culture theory and applications of risk analysis and thriving as are older sister Emma and big 00s fi rst one,” says Aaron. “Insert I am a hor- Sports Hall of Fame. Witzke was UBC and bridging, information gathering, interpret- management. He has published two books bro’ Luke ... Henry Reeve basc’95 chaired rible swimmer and you get the picture. Canada’s dominant volleyball spiker dur- ing and translating, customer relationship and more than 85 research papers, 54 of the organizing committee for the annual Vivian Butler (Chu) ba’99, bed’01 and But it was amazing and defi nitely not my ing the 1960s and ’70s. He is an inductee building, negotiating and problem solving, which are internationally referred. He was meeting of the Society of Naval Architects Graham Butler ba’00 were married on last,” … Andrew Johann Salgado bfa’05 in Canada’s Volleyball Hall of Fame and and international seminars and photogra- appointed associate professor in 1996, and and Marine Engineers held in Houston, December 27, 2003, and recently wel- was chosen by the Canadian government in UBC’s Hall of Fame as a member of the phy. She invites you to visit her website at full professor in 2000, when he was appoint- Texas, in October. He and wife Tiffani comed their daughter into the world on as the sole representative for Canadian 66/67 UBC team. He provided elite power www.acfairbankconsulting.ca Any referrals ed head of Civil Engineering. He was elected recently celebrated their fi fth wedding July 27, 2005, at 5:31 pm. She weighed painting at the 5th (Jeux de la) Fancopho- hitting for several champion UBC volley- dean of Engineering, the largest faculty of anniversary … Lars Ronning basc’97 has seven lbs ... Yolanda Butt bsc’99, nie Games in the capital city of Niamey, ball teams as well as for Canada. He also Engineering in Sri Lanka, in 2001. Under his been elected to succeed fellow alumnus ma’01, md’05 has won a contest run Niger, in December. “My proposal was competed on UBC’ s track team – winning Malik Ranasinghe, masc’87, phd’90 leadership, the faculty established the Univer- Henry Reeve as chair of the Texas section by elle Canada magazine by amassing to paint a map of the world in a ‘mosaic- gold in the shot put – and on the universi- sity Industry Interactive Cell, which resulted of the Society of Naval Architects and the greatest number of reader votes. She style’ that I have used previously in other ty’s varsity eight-oared crew. in a dramatic increase in funding to the uni- Marine Engineers. He celebrated his 10th convinced readers that she was not only works, and then to paint each country versity. ... Delwin Stander llb’89 has left wedding anniversary with wife Mad- smart, but also dedicated to furthering as its respective fl ag,” said Andrew in a Sliman, Stander and Co. to form Stander eleine in August … Jeff Toyne mmus’99 women’s health. “I think that far more recent interview. “It was a really intense 80s and Co. and specialize in litigation and was commissioned by the Vancouver can be done to empower women to par- proposal that I wasn’t even sure if I could mediation solutions. Contact Delwin at Symphony Orchestra to write new works ticipate in preventative health and treat- pull off, but I fi gured that taking a chal- The 1986/87 Men’s Soccer Team has been [email protected] that would premiere during the vso’s ment,” said Yolanda. “By choosing me lenge and a risk was worth the gamble, inducted into UBC’s Sports Hall of Fame. 2005/06 Musically Speaking series. He as the winner of this contest, I feel that as opposed to sitting in a comfort zone.” This team ranks alongside the best of is one of fi ve composers selected by the Canadian women have said that they Although he didn’t win a medal, it didn’t UBC’s Canadian soccer champions with 90s orchestra as part of the Olympic Com- agree with me.” As well as her “Smart detract from the experience. “It was an overall season record of 11-0-2. Its 33 missioning Project to create a new three Girl” status, Yolanda netted $10,000 to probably the single greatest experience goals for and 3 against featured 10 shut- Graham Astbury bcom’94 moved to minute piece celebrating the upcoming use toward the promotion of women’s of my life,” he says. “The games took a outs, 9 of them recorded by goalie Brian Yellowknife, Nunavut, in January 2005. xxi Winter Olympic Games (Vancouver health. For more information, visit www. backseat to everything else, and interac- Kennedy – one of four from this team to He loves it there, what with the snow- 2010). Jeff recently returned to Vancouver lovewhatyousee.ca. Yolanda is no strang- tion with the other athletes and people play professional soccer. The ’Birds out- mobiling, boating and the Aurora. He is after several years in Los Angeles. While er to success. She was class president of became everyone’s focus. I’ve never seen scored their opposition 7-0 in the national working for NorthwestTel in Operations there, he scored or orchestrated more than her 2nd year medical class and during people behaving with such camaraderie, ciau (cis) championships winning a third … After 10 years of success with Cana- 50 fi lms, including two Academy Award her senior years was vp of External ever. It was incredible.” You can learn straight national title, the fi rst for coach dian Forest Products Ltd., Larry Chrobot nominees. Jeff’s work, entitled No Fan- Affairs for the Medical Undergraduate more about Andrew’s experiences and Dick Mosher … Angela Fairbank ba’82 bsf’91 is now the General Manager of fare, premiered in the Orpheum Theatre Society. And she was a 2005 nominee career on his website: www.andrewsal- started her own international business Winton Global in Prince George. Winton in December … for the ywca Young Women of Distinc- gado.com … Tanya Marie Snow(Gibson)

44 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 45 student at Clark, Wilson in Vancouver. class ACTS MEMORIAM patient son-in-law to Gladys Simmons; highly She plans to use her half of the $20,000 in respected qc lawyer and senior partner of fellowship to study the position of Bull, Housser & Tupper; gentleman, mentor bsn’94, mha’04 and husband Michael shareholders and shareholder equity and friend of many. His passing was sudden are pleased to announce the birth of their in a corporate restructuring under the and unexpected, because he was still at the fi rst child, Oliva Gabrielle, on October 2, Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Constance M. Heibey bed’69 died peacefully height of his life and career. 2005. A future alumna, Olivia was born Act (ccaa). The fellowship is awarded and suddenly on July 26, 2005, in the com- Bill was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, with a full head of hair and a fabulous to support “an original analysis of pany of her daughter Elaine and favoured in 1932. His parents settled in Alert Bay, bc, smile and is keeping both of her parents innovative ways to improve the insol- son-in-law Allan Lam of Squamish … Dr. where he fi rst developed his appreciation for busy and happy ... After completing her vency system, a historical analysis of Jack Allen Freeman bsc(agr)’49, msc(agr)50 the spectacular natural environment of the ma in Art History and Curatorial Studies particular features of the system or an … Isabelle Eleanor Nelson basc(Nursing)’47 British Columbia coast. Bill’s school years at York University, Siobhan Smith BA’03 exploration of any other insolvency- were as a boarding student at Shawnigan has returned to Vancouver to work as the related idea.” Authors from any part of Thomas Herbert Anstey Lake School and his summers moulded an en- publicity coordinator at the Morris and the insolvency community – practising bsc’41, msc’43, phd terprising young man working in bc’s fi shing Helen Belkin Art Gallery on Point Grey trustees and lawyers, as well as academ- The eldest of four children, Tom was born industry near Alert Bay. campus ... Shauna Towriss llb’05 has ics and students – are eligible to apply ... and grew up in Victoria, where he learned At UBC he made lifelong friends playing been named as co-recipient of the First Jamie Travis ba’03 won the bravo! Fact early on about “mucking about in boats.” He rugby and later received Big Block athletic Annual Lloyd Houlden Research Fellow- Award for Best Young Western Canadian often spoke of the summers spent surveying awards. After taking time out to run his fami- ship, awarded by the Canadian Insolvency Director of a Short Film at the 2005 the bc coastline as the best summers a young Tom Brown ly hotel in Alert Bay, Bill married Patricia and Foundation. Shauna is currently working Vancouver International Film Festival sailor could possibly have. During army began studies at UBC law school in 1959. as a judicial law clerk at the bc Court of for his fi lm Patterns (www.patternst- training in Brockville he met and later mar- He articled at Bull Housser & Tupper Appeal until June 2006. She was selected hemovie.ca/). The award comes with a ried Wynne Ferguson, who was a volunteer in 1980. Since retiring Tom maintained an in the Spring of 1962, and was called to the for the position last year while an articling Jamie Travis, ba’03 $5000 prize. ■ and a sight for sore eyes in her uniform. active interest in computers, reviewing new British Columbia Bar in July 1963. His un- During the war Tom saw active duty as a programs, and maintained his horticultural shakable work ethic and professional prow- Canadian offi cer serving in a British Airborne interest through Friends of the Farm. He ess were the foundations on which he became Division. has authored and edited several books and one of Canada’s most respected wills and In 1949 he obtained his phd in horticul- papers. estates lawyers. After 42 years of practice, his ture from the University of Minnesota and As a family man, he was always keen career showed no signs of abating. Bill was went on to a distinguished career with the to lend a hand or cheer on the children in appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1996. Dept. of Agriculture. He made an outstand- all their endeavours. He’d often lead the Bill’s service to his community was ing contribution to every research station he sing-songs on his many travels across the signifi cant. He served as a director of Athlone touched. An early adapter, Tom recognized country with the three children and Wynne. School, and chairman of the Board of Direc- the possibilities of computers in scientifi c Always the fi rst to raise his hand to vol- tors of Crofton House School. Among the research. By the early 1960’s he was fast unteer, he worked endlessly for the Scouts, more than 40 organizations he was serving tracking genetic experiments on the Defence children’s choir, many horticultural societ- as director at the time of his passing were Research computers at night. The family ies, the Canadian Canloan Offi cers, various Shawnigan Lake School Foundation and moved to England in 1968 so that he could yacht clubs, church groups and guide dogs Lion’s Gate Hospital Foundation. enhance his computer knowledge with a year for the blind. He loved spending time with his fam- of post-doctoral studies. Towards the end of After Wynne passed away, Tom moved ily, especially grandchildren, by the water’s his career, he was involved with technology to the caring retirement community of Crys- edge at his summer home on Galiano Island. transfer to developing countries. tal View Lodge where he met and married Bill’s friends and family were the focus of his When Tom moved to Ottawa as director his new neighbor, Dorothy Moore. They personal life. He was a man of the highest general for Western Canadian Stations, he have lived life to the fullest, traveling the integrity and he will be deeply missed. assumed authority for international devel- world, being active with the Bethany Baptist opment and worked tirelessly for decades Church, and caring for each other and their Tom Brown ba’32, ma (Oxford), mbe on the International Irrigation and Drain- families, including 13 grandchildren. May An infl uential and long-time member of age (the “ditch diggers”) executive. He was the fair winds be with you always Tom. the Vancouver business community, Wil- also involved in outreach programs in India liam Thomas Brown has died aged 93. He (dryland farming), Kenya (cereal develop- Bill Bice bcom’58, llb’62 attended UBC in the 1930s before carrying ment) and Tanzania (grain production). He Bill Bice passed away on January 17, 2006. on to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He was a has been honoured by his fellow agrologists He was the beloved husband of Patricia; hero of wwii, losing his eye while in action in and various scientifi c societies for his work, loving and proud father of Catherine, Jil- France, and was awarded an mbe. including his election to presidency of the lian and Richard; cherished grandfather to Later on he became well known in Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1970 Emily, Willy, Victoria, Geoffrey, Nathan, Vancouver’s business community, heading and becoming a fellow of that organization Hazel, Oliver, Elsa and Sophia; caring and until 1978 Odlum Brown Ltd., the invest-

46 Trek WinterWinter/Spring 2006 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 47 inMEMORIAM on the family homestead on April 15, 1910. by daughter Sharon (Tony) Ackerman and the rcaf. He received his pilot’s wings in from 1952, including a term as President in She and older brother Ronald were later grandsons Wayne and Daryle Ackerman of October 1944. Before he could be posted 1966/67. He was one of the chief visionaries joined by younger siblings Goldwin, Lucille Kelowna, bc; grand-daughter, Cynthia (Ste- overseas, the war came to an end. He then in the Granite Mountain expansion, which ment fi rm founded by his father. He was also and Ronald. At a young age, Vilda lived for ven) Quiatt and great-granddaughter, Daria resumed his studies at UBC, and completed made Red Mountain a world-class ski area. a respected and sought-after board member a short time in Michigan and California be- Quiatt of Washougal, Washington; and son, a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering Basil also loved sailing, and enjoyed sum- for many other fi rms. fore returning with her family to their farm Ian (Rosemarie) MacNeil and granddaugh- in 1948. mers at Christina Lake from 1954 until his He was president of the UBC Alumni near Vanguard, Saskatchewan. ter Janell MacNeil of Nanaimo, bc. They He moved to Trail, bc, in 1949 to illness in 2002. He was also associated with Association between 1945 and ’46. His During the warm weather, it was not were also survived by sister-in-law Blanche work for Cominco Ltd. He loved the West the Kinsmen and Rotary service organiza- name is also strongly associated with the uncommon for the children to leave the MacNeil of Langley, bc, Theresa Weppler of Kootenays and it was there that Basil was to tions. Vancouver Foundation, which in no small house barefoot, only putting on their shoes Kelowna, bc, and six nieces and two neph- remain for the rest of his professional life. In After retirement in 1989, Basil and part he helped develop into the respected after reaching Burton School so they would ews of bc, Alberta and Scotland. 1950 he married Doolee Merry, of Trail, and Doolee moved to Vancouver to be closer to philanthropic institution it is today. He also not wear them out. Later on, riding horse- While all alumni of UBC have personal began to raise a family. In addition to duties their children, all of whom had moved there. lent his time and infl uence to the Nature back during the good weather or being stories to tell, those receiving their post- as engineer and to his growing family, Basil He was active in his remaining years for the Trust of British Columbia (of which he was a pulled in a horse-drawn sleigh for seven secondary education in the fi rst half of the believed very strongly in community service. family; as a mentor for his three grandchil- founder), the Vancouver Public Library and miles during the cold Saskatchewan winters twentieth century certainly had different In 1968 he was elected to the Trail School dren and as artist’s assistant to his wife. the Spencer Foundation for Young People. permitted Vilda and her siblings to gain a challenges from today’s students. Two world Board and served as member and Chair un- Basil is survived by his wife of 54 years, Tom Brown received the Order of Can- high school education, an asset greatly val- wars, the Great Depression and little op- til 1982. In addition, Basil was an avid skier Doolee; his fi ve children: Ellen, Julia, Basil J. ada in 2004. The citation stated: “William ued by the Weppler family. portunity and/or encouragement for women and strong supporter of Red Mountain Ski (daughter-in-law Maureen Yau), and Quentin Brown has generously shared his profession- Vilda attended Normal School in to attend university made my mother’s Club, serving in various executive functions in Vancouver and Nadine in Auckland; three al acumen for the betterment of his commu- Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, (1928-1929) and educational journey particularly interesting. nity and his province.” He is predeceased by returned home to teach at Burton School, Educated women of her generation helped wife Daphne and leaves three children. a one-room multi-grade schoolhouse. She to open the doors for the women of my and loved to play softball with her students. future generations of women to pursue their Vilda Josephine MacNeil (Weppler), bsc’44 When teachers’ salaries became non-existent, dreams. Basil McDonnell (Dip. Public Health Nursing) Vilda changed professions and received her Vilda, the second oldest and fi rst daughter, registered nurses’ training (1934-1937) at St. Melville Gerald Thomson bsc(agr)’47 was born to Gustav and Josephine Weppler Joseph’s Hospital in Victoria, bc, and Educa- Gerald Thomson died peacefully on July 13, tional politics and was actively involved in tion in Public Health (1943-1944) at UBC. 2005. Born March 7, 1922, into a pioneer rusi. Gerald was a proud recipient of the After nursing in a variety of locations Vancouver family, Gerald attended Vernon Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for volunteer Vilda MacNeil in bc and at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illi- Prep School, University School, and after service. His interest in Scottish history was nois, Vilda did “the unspeakable.” She fell in serving with the Canadian Scottish Regiment manifested in his extensive research of the love with the brother of one of her patients! in wwii, graduated second in his faculty at genealogy of the Thomson and FitzGerald Vilda and John were married at St. Andrew’s UBC. He received his msc degree from the families. Gerald is survived by his wife of 53 Cathedral in Victoria on July 4, 1945, and University of California (Berkeley) in 1949. years, Diana; daughter Nora Greig (Geoff raised their family in Port Alberni, bc. John During the 1950s, Gerald was in charge Eldred); son Donald (Sophia); and grand- worked on the Lady Rose, in construction of various ecological research projects at sons Shaun, Andrew and Byron. The family on the war-time houses and Woodward’s Canada Agriculture. In 1958 he relocated his wishes to thank the staff at Crofton Manor, store, and at Alberni District Plywood while young family from Victoria to take over the Pacifi c Spirit Community Health, vgh and Vilda continued to teach at Smith Memo- management of a number of historic family attending paramedics for their care and sup- rial and Alberni District Secondary School properties in Vancouver. Gerald was Found- port over the past few weeks. Donations in and nurse at West Coast General Hospital. ing Chairman of the Townsite Committee Gerald’s memory may be made to Heart and Sometimes John would say, “Which hat will and actively involved in Gastown rejuvena- Stroke Foundation. you be wearing today?” Whether the task tion. He served on committees or the execu- consisted of sewing, knitting, canning fruit, tive of many organizations including boma Basil McDonnell BSc’47, MSc’48 driving students to and from school, pushing and bomi, the Community Arts Council, 29 April 1924 – 6 February 2005 a wheelbarrow, or having a picnic in the the Community Planning Association, the Basil McDonnell was born in Winnipeg, woods, no task was too big or too small. She Downtown Business Association, the New Manitoba, second son of William (Bill) Mc- enjoyed them all! Westminster Downtown Business and Prop- Donnell and Doris Harward Baker. His early Retiring to Victoria in 1970, John and erty Owners Association and Kiwanis. years were spent in Winnipeg and Lake of Vilda had a few years to enjoy together. Gerald was a life member of Terminal the Woods surrounded by family: elder sister Predeceased by her loving husband, John, City Club and Vancouver Board of Trade. Frances, brother Bill and sister Audrey and on March 25, 1984, Vilda died peacefully In 1976, Gerald helped organize acsoh’s many Baker cousins. Later, the family moved at Dufferin Place on March 4, 2005 in Habitat Forum at Jericho during the un to Calgary, and then Vancouver, where Basil Nanaimo, bc. We love and miss you both. Conference on Human Settlements. He had graduated from Magee in 1940. He studied Vilda and John are lovingly remembered a strong interest in the military and interna- at UBC until 1943, when he enlisted with

48 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 49 inMEMORIAM new Junior High School, and he became its Geoffrey Harold Cushon skilled raconteur and even better listener. ing until the London job started. He spent a inaugural Student Council president. After msc’85, phd’95, rp Geoff always made room for new friends in year in London and had a wonderful cultural grandchildren: Marc, Matthew and Serena; graduating from high school, he went to UBC Beloved son of Evelyn Cushon and Allan his already huge circle of close, long-time experience exploring galleries and museums his sister Audrey Hill of Toronto; and many and worked at the Mission Tree Farm for Cushon (deceased 1993), Geoff died unex- friends. His friends welcomed him into their and taking in theatre productions. Dian went nieces, nephews and cousins across the several summers. After graduating, he got pectedly on August 10, 2005, in Nanaimo families, where he was a brother in spirit to visit him in the summer and he enjoyed country. a teaching job in East Vancouver, but soon bc. He will be lovingly remembered by his and favourite visiting uncle to their children. showing her London before they made a trip decided that he would rather be coaching or mother, sister Joan, brothers Bob (Liliane) He loved his family, his many friends and to Scotland, where they took in the Fringe When Basil lost his struggle with Alzheim- in business. and Jim (Deb), nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles their children, and they loved him. Festival. er’s, his family contacted the Division of Twenty-two years ago, Victor and Calvin and many, many friends. Memorial donations may be made to a Following his year in London, Michael Neurology at UBC to ask how Basil’s ex- Holoboff began their business, Gemini Spots Geoff was born April 28, 1956, in charity that promotes conservation of for- returned to Smithers, where he taught part- perience could help in the research into this Inc./Victor Racquets, importing shuttlecocks, Winnipeg and grew up in Charleswood. ests and the natural world, or to the Heart time and worked on developing materials for disease. When they learned that there was sports equipment and sportswear. The com- After graduating from Lakehead University and Stroke Foundation, 200 – 6 Donald St. the Historica website before returning to UBC no means at UBC of storing brain tissue pany has expanded considerably since those in 1980 he went on to UBC and obtained Winnipeg, mb r3l 0k6. to begin his phd at the Centre for the Study of for use in ongoing research, the McDon- early days. his msc in Forest Ecology (1985) and phd Historical Consciousness. nell family contributed the seed money to Badminton was Victor’s main interest in Science Technology and Society Studies Michael Cromer ba’95, bed’02 Although Michael traveled widely and kick-start the creation of the UBC Brain throughout his life. He started playing at a (1995). Michael was born on July 4, his father’s enjoyed other cultures, he always liked coming Tissue Bank, which opened in September young age at the Silverdale Community Hall Geoff’s career was devoted to forest birthday, the best birthday present his father back to Driftwood, which he considered his 2005. It is the hope of the family that the in a small junior club coachd by his father. As ecology in both Canada and the usa. His would ever receive. He grew up in Drift- home base. He was very close to his parents, Brain Bank will grow into a research facil- he was growing up, he was eager to play in passion for the environment and nature wood, one of the special breed of Drift- Dian and Bill, and had a special bond with his ity that will allow researchers to investigate Newton Steacy tournaments and was a ranked junior. When made his position as Regional Research wood boys. He went to school at Muheim, brother, Jamie, and later his sister-in-law, Lisa. Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases older, some of the tournaments he enjoyed Ecologist for the coast with British Columbia Chandler Park, and later Smithers Second- In the last two years he took great pleasure in to fi nd causes, and ultimately, cures. playing in included the ones in the Fraser Val- Forest Service his dream job, where he got ary. The nurturing he received at all three being Uncle Mikey to Jamie’s daughter Eliya. thew, Mitchell, Meghan, Adam, James and ley, Nelson, Victoria, Kelowna and Vancouver, paid to visit and explore the beautiful forests schools provided him with a lifelong love of Michael was a special person who lived Hilda Thomas ba’48, ma’65 William. He is survived by brothers Archie as well as the provincials and nationals. He of the bc coast he loved so much. learning , fostered his inquiring mind, and his short life fully. He will be lovingly remem- Political activist and former senior lecturer (Lynda), Gerald (Elaine), sister Ruth and was ranked in the top four singles players Geoff’s friendly and gentle nature, his helped give him the confi dence that made it bered by his family and many friends. in UBC’s department of English Hilda many nieces and nephews. in Canada, as well as being ranked for both genuine interest in people, and his love and possible for him to live his life to the full. Thomas died on November 25, aged 77. Newton graduated from UBC, and men’s and mixed doubles. He competed in- enthusiasm for children, sports, books and When Michael fi rst left Smithers he Harlo Lloyd Jones, ba’47 She had been experiencing failing health for served as lieutenant in Germany and Korea ternationally in such tournaments as the All- especially for music endeared him to all entered the Arts program at UBC. The third Harlo Jones was born December 29, 1923, at a number of years, but remained engaged with the Black Watch (rhr) of Canada and England Badminton Championships, and the who knew him. He made deep and enduring year of his studies he did in Melbourne, Dinsmore, Sask. He died in Winnipeg October and active until the end. She joined the as captain in The Governor General’s Foot USA Open. Victor was a long-time member of friendships wherever he lived, studied, and Australia, and later traveled through Aus- 1, after suffering a stroke. He leaves a son, New Democratic Party when it was fi rst Guards. On entering Public Service, he the Vancouver Racquets Club and during that worked: Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Vancouver, tralia and Indonesia. He returned to UBC Maldwyn, and a daughter, Kathryn. He was established and was active at multiple worked for dree, the Privy Council Offi ce, time was also a competitive tennis player. Smithers, Seattle and Nanaimo. He was a for the fi nal year of his ba. Then he returned predeceased by a son and by his wife, Ethel, levels, notably fi ghting for women’s rights the Secretary of State and Indian and Na- As a coach for Badminton, bc, Victor to Smithers to work for a year before going who died in 2003. and environmental issues. She was involved tive Affairs (all in Ottawa). He was Deputy taught many juniors and adults and, orga- to Rutgers University in New York to do a He was a wartime bomber pilot who in establishing the Everywoman’s health Minister of Indian Affairs in Saskatchewan nized provincial coaching tours offering bad- Geoff Cushon masters degree in history. returned home with tales of daring raids and Centre, bc’s fi rst free-standing abortion and Chief of Staff in the Department of minton clinics to numerous clubs and schools After completing his degree, Michael close calls. It was his good fortune not only to clinic, in 1987. Multiculturalism in Ottawa. In memoriam throughout bc. He was the badminton and began working for the History Channel. survive but to have the literary skill with which Hilda had a passion for music and donations to the University of Ottawa Heart tennis professional at the Arbutus Club for Michael loved the vibrancy of life in New to share his war. with her husband Philip she founded what Institute would be appreciated. many years. York City and he loved his job, which gave Late in life, Mr. Jones wrote two memoirs, is now known as the Vancouver Folk Song When his mother, Daisy, began experienc- him the opportunity to meet and interview one detailing his military exploits, the other Society. She wrote a number of songs, her- Victor Milton Edward Conley bed’69 ing failing health, Victor started helping her many interesting people. The staff at the recounting life in a dusty prairie village. self, many of which were politcal parodies Victor was born in the Old Mission Hospital with the farm books. After she passed away, History Channel loved Michael too, but un- His boyhood reverie was shattered at age 16 (she was known for her great sense of in Mission City, bc, on July 23, 1946, to he took over the book keeping and became fortunately (due to immigration rules) were by the family’s receipt of a telegram in 1940. humour). Hilda was born in Kimberley. She Milton and Daisy Conley, and joined his two the president of Conley Farms on its incorpo- unable to offer him a permanent position. His older brother, Pilot Officer Dale Jones, 26, and Philip had three children. older sisters Jacqueline and Patricia. ration in 1996. he steered the farm success- Michael then returned to Smithers for had gone missing in action during the evacua- He is survived by his father Milton fully through several large expansions and a few months before going to Vancouver to tion at Dunkirk. Only later did the family learn Newton Steacy ba’52, cba, bth, cd (Eunice), sisters Jackie Perry (John) and Pat improvements, keeping meticulous records. work in the area of history and multi-media. that he had been shot down and killed. Newton Clements Steacy died suddenly Atkinson (Geoff), nieces and nephews Dale He had a wonderful grasp of the status of the He then decided to follow the family tradi- He was the fourth child born to Luther Ellis at home on Friday, August 5, 2005, in his (Janice), Kathy, David (Jennifer), Lauren business at any given time. tion of his grandmother Della Herman and Jones, the son of a Nebraska farmer, and Vera 78th year. He was the beloved husband of (Tim), and great-nieces Cassidy and Nicole. Victor passed away at his home on Octo- mother Dian Cromer and studied education. Juanita (née Woods), known as Hope, a doctor’s Barbara, dear father of Dean (Johanne), Victor was raised on the Conley farm ber 24, 2005, of a heart attack. He was very After he completed his education daughter. Harlo’s father owned a hardware Andrew (Georgina), Richard (Chantelle) and spent his early summers working there. much loved and respected and will be forever degree he decided he would like to explore store in Dinsmore, Sask., later adding a show- and Elizabeth (David) and adopted daugh- He attended Mission Central, Mission Ju- in our hearts. In lieu of fl owers, donations another part of the world and applied for a room from which to sell farm machinery and ter Justice Rose Boyko. He was the loving nior High, and Mission Senior High schools. may be sent to the Heart and Stroke Founda- teaching job in London, England. He came Model-T Fords. Grandpa of Anne-Elizabeth, Carleen, Mat- His class was among the fi rst to attend the tion or Badminton bc. back to Smithers and did substitute teach- The Jones family became prominent in the

50 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 51 inMEMORIAM He graduated in 1958 as Gold Medallist in Maya Sinclaire has always had dreams, the faculty of Medicine, then attended Cornell and step-by-step goals to achieve them. In for his internship and post-doctoral training. He her early years, her dreams and goals were village as the businesses flourished. Luther returned to UBC in 1961 in the department of aimed at escaping the Communist repres- Jones introduced electricity to Dinsmore, Anatomy, with research interest in the structure sion in her homeland, Czechoslovakia. Reinventing Herself installing a power plant. and function of the kidney. He was an exceptional When she finally got off the plane in “Squirt” Jones, as Harlo was known in his teacher – he taught gross anatomy, neuroanatomy, Vancouver in 1984 at the age of 21, Maya youth, pumped gas at his father’s business histology and embryology – and was recog- was dumbstruck. “It was like that cartoon Maya Sinclaire, bsc’92 on Saturdays and in the summer. He was so nized throughout his career for his skills in the you see where the fish cut a hole in the slight that he needed two hands and his full classroom and lab, and for his dedication to his tank and they’re now flopping on the table body weight to coax fuel to the top of the students’ needs. When he received his honorary and one is saying to the other, pump. degree in 2000, he was acknowledged for having ‘Now what?’” He tried more than once to join the rcaf. Bill Webber “impacted the careers of hundreds of medical and She had picked up a few His eagerness was not matched by the serv- dental students in this province and inspired even English words in textbooks in ice’s desire to have him. He was sent away more to greatness.” her homeland, but she soon from the Saskatoon recruiting centre with asphalt. My tour was over. I was 24 days Bill was also a dedicated volunteer. He served learned they were useless. “They orders to return with two letters of recom- short of my 21st birthday.” on the executive of the Faculty Association, and were all British words, like mendation. He was refused a second time He was promoted to flight lieutenant on the was a member of the university’s Senate for many ‘lorry.’” for being too skinny. The dejected would-be day of his release. years. But her goal was to earn her pilot returned to his studies at the University After the war, he joined a geological survey He was appointed associate dean in 1971, college degree. “When I left, of Saskatchewan, where he indulged every crew working in the Manitoba bush north then dean in 1977. UBC’s teaching hospital was against my parents wishes, my fatty food to be found on campus. He was at of Flin Flon, where he received a telegram opened during his tenure as dean. He served in father yelled at me, ‘You’ll never last accepted by a sympathetic doctor who informing him that he had been awarded the that position for 13 years until he was appointed make it without us! You’ll never recorded his weight as 118 pounds, which dfc. associate vice president academic in 1990, which go to college!’” was stretched over a 5-foot-10 frame. In 1946, he married Ethel Cloake, a nursing he held until 1996. Once in Vancouver, unable to After training all across Canada he was student whom he had met on a blind date on His leadership helped create many UBC speak English, she found a job assigned to No. 408 Squadron at Linton-on- New Year’s Eve, 1941. He earned a bachelor programs including the Centre for Faculty at a Czech restaurant, waiting Ouse, Yorkshire. Flying Lancaster and Halifax of arts at the University of British Columbia, Development and Instructional Services, the tables. “When Canadians came bombers, Mr. Jones took part in attacks on and then worked as a reporter at the Faculty Mentor program and the First Natinos in they had to point at what gun emplacements, buzz-bomb launch sites, Vancouver Sun before joining the Edmonton House of Learning and the Disability Centre. He they wanted on the menu. They night-fighter bases, and troop concentrations Bulletin. was also active in professional bodies locally and were all making fun of me,” she around Caen, France, as well as industrial He was in the Bulletin newsroom one nationally, serving on the boards and medical said. sites in Germany. day in 1949 when a bell on the teletype advisory committees of a number of Vancouver She wasn’t able to save any War was not without its light moments. machine heralded a news flash. A fire had hospitals, and played a major role in integrating money for college from her When he griped to his girlfriend about chaf- destroyed several businesses on Main Street in the teaching hospitals into UBC’s academic and minimum wage job, so she took ing to the back of his neck from scanning Dinsmore. “There go my father’s buildings,” research activities. up a loan and went to UBC. the skies for fighters, she asked him to turn he told fellow deskers. He was also active in the community, serv- She worked her way through around, removed her silk panties and then The war veteran rejoined the rcaf in 1950, ing leadership roles with the Osler Society, the college and earned her degree in tucked them around his neck. He used her spending another 20 years in uniform. He Vancouver Institute and others. He was a passion- agriculture, and set her sites on Maya Sinclaire shows off her invention, the AQUABlanket. underwear as a scarf on the rest of his mis- then worked for three years as a manager at a ate soccer player and fan, and the “Webber Boot” becoming a veterinarian. sions. Winnipeg hospital. was created by medical students for the annual “But I soon realized I was getting too His 32nd and final operation was a bomb- In retirement, he and his wife travelled medical school soccer tournament, a testament to old to end up with huge veterinary school to relax in the bathtub and maybe read once – a boon for kite enthusiasts and also ing run on Karlsruhe, a canal and railway extensively. He also returned to writing, win- the affection students held for their dean. debts. It didn’t make any sense,” says a book, the water gets cold very quickly. a potential source of propulsion for ships. hub. The attack was completed without ning a short-story contest sponsored by CBC In spite of all his accomplishments, he count- Maya, now 42. There are covers for swimming pools. “At first, I thought I needed to invent incident, but, on the return flight to base, ice Radio. He also published two memoirs, O ed his greatest success to be his role as teacher She got a job as a research assistant Why not a cover for a bathtub? So I cre- revolutionary things. Now I see that the began to form on an upper gun turret. Little Town: Remembering Life in a Prairie and mentor to students during his 44 years at at a lab in Vancouver, but her head was ated this insulated blanket that floats on way to get ahead is to take something peo- The gunner, who was new, began to panic; Village (University of Manitoba Press, 1995) UBC. still full of her dreams and goals. Maya the top of your bath water. The blanket ple already use and improve it. So many he had been the sole survivor of a crew that and Bomber Pilot: A Canadian Youth’s War He was also active in the Medical Alumni had always thought of new ways to do even supports your reading material.” brilliant inventors died penniless, and then crashed from icing. Order aboard the bomber (Vanwell Publishing, 2001). Association, and was on the organizing commit- everyday tasks – so it occurred to her: She came up with the idea, where else? 50 years later their inventions were accept- was restored only after the newcomer was –reprinted from the Toronto Globe and Mail tee to establish the Medical Student and Alumni she’d become a full time inventor. She was In the bathtub. “That’s where I do all my ed by society. I’m not going to be poor. I’m knocked unconscious with a fire extinguisher. Centre, located at vgh. determined to come up with one new idea thinking and reading,” she says. going to be a rich inventor.” ■ “We made it back to base without further William Webber, md’58, lld’00 His legacy will be honoured through the every day. She has many other inventions at vari- difficulty, landed, taxied into dispersal and One of UBC’s best loved teachers passed away recently established William Webber Lecture in Her most successful invention to date, ous stages of the marketing process. For For a look at Maya’s invention (and to got out of the airplane,” Mr. Jones wrote. in late January of complications from a stroke Medical Education. His family requests that dona- and the one closest to being marketed is example, the Kite Control Anchor, which view her marketing video) visit www. “I knelt and kissed the oil-soaked, pissed-on suffered three weeks earlier. tions be made in his name to the faculty. ■ the AQUABlanket. “For people who like can be used to guide up to three kites at aquablanket.com. – John Draper

52 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 53 One for the Heart

Artist’s rendering of the UBC Alumni Centre.

Remember your first days on campus? provide alumni a warm and welcoming space that makes it pos- Beautiful view, right? But big. Many of us felt disoriented and sible to plug into the campus quickly and easily. It will be located lost in the great maze of buildings, oddly-named streets (East in the heart of UBC Vancouver, distinctive and green-engineered, Mall? There’s no mall here!), unfamiliar faces and the challenge a landmark that will be easy to find no matter what changes have of getting across campus from one class to the next in seven min- occurred on the rest of campus. It will provide a place to get ori- utes flat. ented and meet or celebrate life’s milestones. It will contain links to By second year we finally felt in the groove, and by fourth UBC’s past and information about its future. year it was a bit comical watching the freshmen running around The UBC Alumni Centre will include a welcome area with a in circles. But by then there were friends and familiar profs, a staffed reception desk, social meeting areas, a wide variety of meet- favourite spot beside the pool tables in The Pit, and a sense that ing rooms for large events and small volunteer committees, a café this, finally, was our place. where you can meet friends for the start of day or for an afternoon After grad, some of us stayed in touch with university friends glass of merlot, a library with alumni-written books, copies of archi- and the odd prof, but over the years UBC, both the place and val and current publications and a Hall of Fame where you can the intellectual hothouse, became an old memory. Then, when we enjoy images and materials from our collective past. came back years later, the old feeling of strangeness and disorien- Alumni Affairs staff and volunteers have visited alumni centres tation came back with us. It just wasn’t our place any more. in Canada, the US, Asia and elsewhere, and are researching key ele- Part of what we do at UBC Alumni Affairs is develop pro- ments that make for a successful and engaging space. We are also grams and events that help reconnect you to both the place and assembling a team of volunteers headed by Alumni Association the people, and that help current students – our alumni in resi- board member Mark Mawhinney, ba’94, to assist with planning, dence – feel good about reconnecting later in life. One way of implementation, and fundraising. doing that is to make sure you have a place here that you can call If you would like to become involved, or if you have some sug- your own. We’re aiming to create a such a space on campus for gestions for how the space should work, please contact Barney Ellis- students and alumni that will always feel like “home.” This space Perry, ba’87, Director Professional Affairs, Alumni Affairs, at 604- is the UBC Alumni Centre. 822-1922 or [email protected]. Central, familiar and inviting, the UBC Alumni Centre will And prepare to engage. ■

54 Trek Winter/Spring 2006 Winter/Spring 2006 Trek 55