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Person/organization

McPherson, Kathryn

  • Person

In the spring semester 1989, Kathryn McPherson was instructor for Women Studies 202, "History of Women in Canada." As part of the course work, McPherson assigned students to conduct a 2-3 hour interview with a British Columbia woman. Students were encouraged to select a woman over 60 years of age, and the interviewer was responsible for the themes covered. The interviews were recorded and deposited in the Archives.

McTaggart-Cowan, Patrick

  • Person
  • 1912 - 1997

Patrick McTaggart-Cowan was a distinguished meteorologist who served as the first president of SFU.

McTaggart-Cowan was born in Edinburgh on May 31, 1912 and immigrated with his family to Canada in 1913. The McTaggart-Cowan family settled in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Patrick McTaggart-Cowan attended the University of British Columbia, graduating with an honours degree in Mathematics and Physics in 1933. He proceeded to further studies at Oxford as a British Columbia Rhodes Scholar, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Natural Science in 1936. In 1939 McTaggart-Cowan married Margaret Palmer, with whom he had two children: a daughter, Gillian, born in 1942; and a son, James Duncan, born in 1944. Patrick McTaggart-Cowan passed away in 1997 at the age of 85.

Patrick McTaggart-Cowan was well known in Canada as a meteorologist, scientist and educator. After Oxford, he joined the Meteorological Service of Canada. As officer in charge of the meteorological service in Newfoundland from 1937 to 1942, he pioneered weather services for the first transatlantic passenger flights. During W.W.II, McTaggart-Cowan was chief meteorologist for the RAF Ferry Command, and was responsible for forecasting weather conditions for delivery of airplanes from North America to Europe. McTaggart-Cowan's skill in forecasting won him the gratitude of hundreds of pilots ferrying planes across the Atlantic, and earned him membership as an Officer of the British Empire in 1944. From 1945 to 1963, McTaggart-Cowan worked for the Meteorological Service of Canada in Ontario, where he became the Director in 1959. In 1963, McTaggart-Cowan accepted the position as first president of Simon Fraser University, and moved back to British Columbia. He helped to guide construction of the University, oversaw the hiring of professional staff, and helped to set up the academic structure of the university which opened in 1965. In 1968, McTaggart-Cowan was asked to resign his position as President by the Board of Governors. McTaggart-Cowan went on to head the Science Council of Canada from 1968 until his retirement in 1975. While with the Science Council, he was appointed by the federal Minister of Transport to head the Task Force Operation Oil in 1970 to clean up the oil spill in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia. After retirement, McTaggart-Cowan moved to his farm in Bracebridge, Ontario where he continued to take an active part in environmental and science policy issues, such as acid rain, water pollution, and science education. He also became a beekeeper.

Patrick Duncan McTaggart-Cowan was the recipient of a number of international medals and honours. His national contributions earned him 7 honourary doctorates from across Canada, including those from the University of British Columbia and from Simon Fraser University.

He was created an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1979. In addition, he received a Coronation Medal in 1953 and the Canada Centennial Medal in 1967. For further information, see autobiographical notes, F 65-1-0-1.

McWhinney, Edward

  • Person
  • 1924 May 19-2015 May 19

Edward (Ted) Watson McWhinney, the youngest son of Matthew McWhinney and Evelyn McWhinney (neé Watson), was born in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia on 19 May, 1924. He attended secondary school at Lismore High School, where his father taught, and later at North Sydney Boys High School. He married Emily Sabatzky in 1951, herself a distinguished economist and financial planner. They chose Canada as their adopted home and both became citizens, eventually settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. Emily died in 2011, just a few weeks before what would have been their 60th wedding anniversary. Ted died on his 91st birthday in 2015.
During World War II Ted served as secretary to William McKell, Premier of New South Wales and then received permission to enlist in the armed forces. He earned a commission as a Pilot-Officer in the Air Force and was sent to Canada for training, where he remained for the duration. His elder brother Joseph also served in the Air Force but was killed in a bombing raid over Germany in 1944. On returning to Australia after the war, Ted resumed his studies at the University of Sydney and graduated with an LLB in 1949. That same year he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. He passed the New South Wales Bar in 1950 and, in 1951, was appointed as a visiting lecturer in Law and Political Science at Yale University where he also attained his doctorate.
Being fully fluent in several languages including French, German and Russian, Ted conducted post-doctorate research and work throughout Europe, including The Hague, Berlin, Pisa and Geneva. Over the course of his extensive career he became an expert in constitutional and international law, as well as space and aviation law. He held full chairs at the University of Toronto Law School, the Centre for Russian Studies at McGill University (also Director of the Air-Law Institute), Indiana University (as Director of International and Comparative Law) and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. In addition, he collaborated with and guest-lectured at numerous other institutions such as the University of Paris (Sorbonne), the University of Heidelberg, the Max-Planck-Institut, Meiji University in Tokyo, The Hague Academy of International Law, the College de France, the University of Madrid, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Institut Universitaire of Luxembourg, Institut Gosudarstavo I Pravo in Moscow, the Jagellonian University of Cracow, the Chinese Academy, the University of Peking, the Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, and other world centres and institutes.
In 1967, McWhinney was elected to the Institut de Droit International – the first Canadian to gain membership - and from 1999-2001 served as President of that organization. He was also a titular Member of the Academie de Droit Compare, a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitrations at The Hague from 1985-1991, and a Member and Special Advisor of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly for three years. Over the course of his career he served as a Crown Prosecutor, Royal Commissioner of Enquiry, and Consultant to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s he served as Constitutional and International Law Advisor to several Quebec Premiers (highly specializing in matters relating to the Meech Lake Accord and Quebec sovereignty), to the Premier of Ontario, the Federal Government of Canada and to a number of foreign Governments. Some other areas of law he specialized in included the Iran vs. USA aerial incident in 1988, the return of property following seizures during wartime, Canadian federalism and constitutionalism, the role of the Governor-General in Commonwealth nations, legal contexts of terrorism and the constitutional rights of indigenous peoples.
In 1993 Ted was elected as a Member of Parliament for Vancouver-Quadra, representing the Liberal Party. He served two terms and was, successively, Parliamentary Secretary (Fisheries) and Parliamentary Secretary (Foreign Affairs). Following his retirement in 2000 he and Emily became heavily involved in the establishment of the Edward and Emily McWhinney Foundation for International and Comparative and Federal Law which, to date, has provided numerous scholarships and grants to students all over the world.
Ted was the author of 30 books (two in French, one in German), co-authored a further 14 books, and wrote approximately 500 papers which were published or translated in nine languages. He also contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, served as a guest columnist in op-ed pieces for various Canadian newspapers, and appeared as a frequent commentator on national television and radio programmes in both French and English.
Ted and Emily had no children. He was survived by his elder sister, Evelyn, and several nephews.

MDA

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