McMaster University - Marmor Yearbook (Hamilton, Ontario Canada)

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fzdfate... Qfwvs Xi W'--5-was-w-'sq Uv Dr. Norman Macdonald, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., F.R. Hist. S. It is with regret that we mark here the retirement, at the end of this session, of Dr. Norman Macdonald, Messecar Professor of History and Head of the Department from active faculty duties after twenty-four years at McMaster. Born in Scotland, Dr. Macdonald studied for his B.A. at Queen's University, for his M.A. at Harvard, and he received his Ph.D. from Edinburgh University. This was followed by a period of study at Cornell. After lecturing at the University of Manitoba, Cornell, and two smaller American colleges, as well as serving as a tutor at Edinburgh University, he joined the McMaster faculty in 1930 as Assistant Pro- fessor of History. He was subsequently promoted to Associate, and then Professor of History. In 1951 he was appointed Messecar Professor and Head of the Department of History. Dr. Macdonald is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. It gives a great deal of pleasure, this year, to extend congratula- tions to Dr. G. P. Gilmour and Dr. C. H. Stearn on this, their twenty- ftfth year as members of the University faculty. Dr. G. P. Gilmour, B.A., B.Th., B.D., M.A., D.D., D.C.L., LL.D. Now President and Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. Gilmour was born in Hamilton and educated at McMaster, which was then located in Toronto. While at McMaster he obtained the degrees B.A., B.Th., and B.D. He continued his studies at Mansfield College, Oxford, and received his M.A. from Yale. From 1923 to 1928 Dr. Gilmour was the minister of Baptist churches in Montreal and Toronto. In 1929 he was appointed Lecturer in Church History here at McMaster, and when, in 1941 he was appointed chief executive officer of the University with the title of Chancellor, he was Professor of Church History. In 1950 Dr. Gilm.our's title was changed to President and Vice- Chancellor with the appointment of Dr. E. C. Fox as Chancellor. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity has been conferred upon him by both Victoria College of the University of Toronto and by St. Andrews College in Scotland. Acadia University has conferred the degree Doctor of Civil Laws, while both Laval and Queen's Universities have granted the degree Doctor of Laws. Dr. C. H. Stearn, M.A., B.D., Ph.D. Professor C. H. Stearn, scholar of Queen's College, Cambridge, graduate in Honour Classics from that University. He obtained his Honours Degree, Bachelor of Divinity, in Oriental Languages at Lon- don University after two years' further study in Leipzig. Returning from Germany just prior to World War I, he served as an Army Chaplain from 1916-1919 in Egypt, East Africa, and France. After a ten-year period of teaching in Bishop's Stortford College, England, he came to Canada in 1929, since when he has received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto. Since 1929, Dr. Stearn has been Professor of Classics and Head of the Department here at McMaster, and since 1942 Director of Extension and Summer School.

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De. 5 24456 ' Dr. Steward Basterfield C1884-19543. Professor of Chemistry in Hamilton College. Dr. Basterfield came to McMaster University less than four years ago, following his retire- ment as Dean of Regina College in Regina, Saskatchewan. Although his appointment was on a part-time basis only, he made a most valuable contribution in his work with junior classes in chemistry and particularly in his course for seniors in the History of Science, which he initiated at the University. Born in Halesowen, England, and educated in Birmingham Cat whose university he received his B.Sc. degree in 19081, he came to Canada as a young man of 26. He was appointed instructor in chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan in 1914, just two years after its first building was opened. After receiving the Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1920, he was made Professor of Organic Chemistry at Saskatchewan and remained there for twenty years. Then, for ten years, he was the able and beloved Dean of Regina College. Dr. Basterfield was a man of diversified gifts. He was an excellent teacher, thoroughly com- petent in his subject and deeply interested in his students. His research work at the University of Saskatchewan was published in a score of scientific papers and was of such high quality as to win for him election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada 119335 and a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. But he was no narrow specialist. His interests extended to the other sciences and, further still, to the history of the sciences and to their relation to such other studies as history, philosophy and religion. After coming to McMaster he had time and oppor- tunity to cultivate these interests more intensively. His unusual breadth of interest and scholar- ship and his skill as a writer and speaker not only benefited his students and stimulated his colleagues but brought him recognition far beyond the University. At the time of his death. he was on a lecture tour through the Maritimes for the Chemical Institute of Canada. He was particularly concerned to bring together the interests of the sciences and the human- ities. In recently published articles he spoke out against any perversion of science by undue em- phasis on purely material values and declared that in spirit, science is akin to the humanities in its love of truth and its recognition of what is of permanent value in human life. Short as was his period of service here, it was long enough to bring honour both to the University and to himself. In his passing we have lost a thinker competent both in science and philosophy and a distinguished champion of an outlook which combined both devotion to truth and the highest human interests.

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zeadclemfa Wleaaag , , , Education is under discussion today at all levels. lf' the problem appears to be sharper at thr- secondary school level, it is be- cause the numbers involved are greater and the work more open to public view. Universities are in a mood of self-criticism, too, and many voices utter doubts as to whether universities are really producing a product worthy ol' the name of a university. The ambi- tion to complete a degree is said to outweigh the desire to have a trained and liberal mind, and the thought of marketing one's serv- ices profitably is said to becloud the real issue of having something that no market value can assess. It would be wrong to suppose that the dedicated life and such academic virtues as intellectual honesty, insatiable curiosity and mature judgment are lacking among us, and equally wrong to suppose that such virtues used to be universal among university people. Young people from our universities are, on the whole, ad- mirable, and in many of them the idea of self-dedication is strong, whatever their calling in life. They are humbled by their sense of their ignorance, grieved that society has in it so much inefficiency. laziness and injustice, and patient in the face of problems that grow in complexity rather than diminish with the years. I trust that humility, sorrow and patience are among the characteristics of the classes of 1954. Nor is it to be overlooked that these virtues are most admirable and useful when they are exer- cised in the fear of God. That such a consideration can no longer be forgotten or dismissed as secondary is the theme of many an utterance, and the pulpit has no monopoly in this matter. cijzifuzczzr.