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University of Guelph Alumni Association

3 message from the

4 in and around the University

U OF G celebrates the

success of student

Allison Bachlet, who has

won a prestigious Rhodes

Scholarship, and launches

a new initiative with

Humber College in

Toronto to expand

opportunities for future

students. In addition, new

partnership agreements

with industry and gov­

ernment will strengthen

U of G research initiatives

in human health, food

and food safety.

26 alumni M atters

SPRING 2000

RESEARCH 12 UNDERSTANDING

FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY U of G researchers discuss the science and the concerns surround­

ing the use of genetic engineering to develop new food products.

By Alexander Wooley and Andrew Vowles

19 ALUMNI PROFILES

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS Three U of G graduates pin their career success

on ta lent and wise decisions.

By Lori Bona Hunt and Mary Dickieson

alumni M atters

UNIVERSITY of Guelph

Alumni Association

president Scott vanEngen

talks about the impor­

tance of working for his

alma mater and his com­

munity, while U of G staff

in Alumni Affairs launch

new programs to benefit

alumni and students. The

announcement of a new

alumni directory, job­

shadowing opportunities

and Alumni Weekend are

followed by news from

Guelph graduates around

the world.

6 research 'Notes

9

Spring 2000 1

-

Four Projects Approved for CFI Funding

Guelph ... official University of Guelph

faculty and staff newspaper

Guelph Alumnus Magazine ... offers news, features and

ipformation on alumni events

For More Information ... Call: Brian Downey Advertising Coordinator University of Guelph (51 9) 824 4120 Ext. 6665

2 GuELPH ALUMNUS

UNIVERSITY ~GUELPH

www.uoguelph.ca/-webadmin/ADGUIDE/

guelph alumnus Spring 2000 · VoLUME 32 IssuE l

Editor Mary Dickieson

Director Darlene Frampton

Art Direction Peter Enneson Design Inc.

Contributors Barbara Chance, BA '74 Lori Bona Hunt Andrew Vowles, B.Sc. '84 Alexander Wooley

Advertising Inquiries Brian Downey 519-824-4120,Ext.6665 E-mail bdowney@exec.admin.

uoguelph.ca

Direct all other correspondence to:

Guelph Alum11us

Communications and Public Affairs

University of Guelph

Guelph, Ontario NIG 2Wl

Phone 519-824-4120

Fax 519-824-7962

E-mail mdickieso@exec.admin.

uoguelph.ca

www.uoguelph.ca/ucomm/alumnus/

The Guelph Alumnus magazine is published

three times a year by Development and Pub­

lic Affairs at the University of Guelph. Its mis­

sion is to enhance the relationship between

the University and its alumni and friends and

promote pride and commitment within the

University community. All material is copy­

right 2000. Ideas and opinions expressed in

the articles do not necessarily reflect the ideas

or opinions of the University or the editors.

Canada Post Agreement# 1500023

Printed in Canada by the Beacon Herald

Fine Printing Division

ISSN 1207-7801

To update your alumni record or change

your address, please contact:

Development and Public Affairs

Phone 519-824-4120, Ext. 6550

Fax 519-822-2670

E-mail jeanw@alumni.uoguelph.ca

UNIVERSITY ff"GUELPH

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

message from the President

THIS ISSUE of the Alumnus reports on biotechnolo­

gy, a burgeoning field of research. You will read

observations that biotechnology has the potential to

transform food and food safety and may offer the

prospect of major benefits for human health, the envi­

ronment and the Canadian economy. U of G is a leader in this field, thanks in large part to

faculty, staff, students and many of you

alumni who have positioned the Uni­

versity as perhaps the country's pre­eminent centre of agri-food research,

teaching and technology transfer. Let me review some recent devel­

opments that have contributed to our

leadership position. In January 2000, we signed a partnership agreement with

the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

to create a Canadian Institute for Food

Inspection and Regulation, with a range of educational, research and commu­

nications programs. In the same month, the

MORDECHAI ROZANSKI

lie about our research, and contribute to the develop­

ment of public policy on crucial issues of the day.

Biotechnology will have long-range implications for

us all. Our research in this area, as in all others on this

campus, is conducted to meet exacting standards. Guelph

research is judged by experts from around the world,

even before our research results are published for all to read in refereed academic journals. In

addition, the University has established

research guidelines that lay down our

responsibilities and public obligations.

These guidelines govern every research

project carried out at Guelph, whether in conjunction with a private- or pub­lic-sector partner or not.

Why do we do this? To carry out our

academic mission, we must advance

knowledge through sound scholarship

and critical examination from all per­spectives: scientific, social, economic

Food System Biotechnology U OF GIS A

and ethical. One example of advancing these multifaceted

perspectives is our decision to hire a bioethicist based in the Centre (FSBC) opened on

campus. It will draw together

some 70 researchers from 11

departments and four colleges

to study biotechnology and genomics. The centre's pros-

PRE-EMINENT CENTRE OF Philosophy Department to

work with the FSBC. AGRI-FOOD RESEARCH, TEACHING

AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER. Biotechnology is not the

exclusive focus of this issue of

the Guelph Alumnus, nor is it the only realm in which Guelph perity will depend on enhanc-

ing current cross-disciplinary ties and extending them to new areas of research and learning.

Clearly, people care about what they eat, they care

about their health and they care about the environment.

When people care, they want to be able to make informed

choices and to assess benefits and risks. Such a dynamic context inevitably leads to healthy and vigorous debates

and, occasionally, divergent views. Biotechnology neces­

sarily and rightly attracts interest and scrutiny. At U of G, we welcome and encourage this, both in the interest

of advancing knowledge and as a reflection of our com­

mitment to academic freedom. Such debate also demon­

strates the valuable public role universities play in a knowledge-based society as we seek to inform the pub-

alumni, faculty and students demonstrate leadership roles. We stake our reputation not only on world-class

researchers, but also world-class students. Allison Bach­

let, a fourth-year student in nutritional sciences, was

recently named a Rhodes Scholar (you will read about her

on page 9). She will travel to Oxford University tl1is fall to pursue graduate studies in medical and clinical research.

1 hope you will share my admiration for the fasci ­

nating people profiled in this issue- alumni who have

taken on challenges in business, music and public

administration. Pushing the bounds of their own pro­

fessions, they are members of our collective communi­

ty in whom we can all take great pride. Read more about

their lives in the pages that follow.

Spring 2000 3

-

UJ a:>

~ I u V'l

z >= "' <(

:2 >­a:> 0 b I c..

• 1n an aroun U OF G, CFIA JoiN FoRcEs T o STRENGTHEN F oon INSPECTION

The Canadian Food Inspec­

tion Agency (CFIA) and U of

G have signed a partnership

agreement to create a unique

Canadian research, education

and communications pro­

gram in food regulation.

Doering. "The soon-to-be­

established institute will make

a significant contribution to

these goals and help us keep

pace with new technological

and scientific advancements."

The new institute will

serve as the umbrella for a

range of education, research,

communication and other

services, including:

The three-year agreement

will see the establishment on

campus of the Canadian Insti­

tute for Food Inspection and

Regulation to guide the two

organizations' collaborative

projects, as well as attract and

secure research;development

and educational funding from

the private and public sectors.

Guelph MP Brenda Chamberlain, CFIA president Ron Doering, cen·

tre, and U of G president Mordechai Rozanski shake hands on an

agreement that will enhance Guelph's food-safety research base.

a CFIA commitment to

employ co-op students;

a CFIA President's Schol­

arship Program for three

graduate students; and

support for the University's

SPARK program. "Food safety and the pro-

tection and the health of Cana­

da's animal and plant popula-

tions are the CFIA's top prior­

ities;' says CFIA president Ron

Mabley Accepts Scholarship at Florida State john Mabley, U ofG's vice-president (devel­

opment and public affairs) since 1996, is

leaving U of Gin July to accept a Regent's

Scholarship for doctoral studies in higher

education awarded to him by Florida State

University.

In the interim, Mabley will continue to

work closely with president Mordechai

Rozanski to provide active leadership to the

University's development and alumni affairs

activities, particularly to the Campaign. Dur­

ing this period, Communications and Pub­

lic Affairs will report directly to the president.

"I am grateful to John for the leadership

he provided for the very successful ACCESS

Fund campaign, which has added some $17

million to the University's endowment for

student assista nce," says Rozanski. "John has

also contributed importantly to the reor­

ganization of Guelph's development oper­

ations, and consequently, we are well placed

to move forward with both our annual

4 GuELPH ALUMNUS

fund-raising activities and the most ambi­

tious capital campaign in the University's

history. His seasoned counsel will be missed,

but I understand his decision to take advan­

tage of the opportunity he has been offered

in Florida. I'm sure the University commu­

nity joins me in thanking John for his sub-

stantial contributions and extending to him

best wishes for the future ."

Mabley says he feels privileged to have

worked with such a high calibre of staff and

volunteers in Guelph's advancement pro­

gram over the years. "I am especially proud

to have had the opportunity, working with

the president, provost and deans, to estab­

lish a more collaborative approach to fund­

raising. I am certain that the involvement

of the deans, senior development staff and

alumni volunteers in the colleges will yield

substantial future support for Guelph's

teaching and research priorities."

A 1970 BA graduate of Guelph, Mabley

adds that he is looking forward to main­

taining a volunteer support association with

U of G in the years ahead.

A search for a successor vice-president

will be launched immediately for the Uni­

versity's work in development, alumni

affairs and communications, Rozanski says.

niversit PEOPLE IN THE NEWS • CAMPUS HIGHLIGHTS • UNIVERSITY NOTES

Guelph Student Wins Rhodes Scholarship

Bachlet is a President's Scholar and a

peer helper award winner and received a

1999 research grant from the Natural Sci­

ences and Engineering Research Council to

study breast cancer. She has served as a

volunteer at local hospitals and nursing

homes, has sung with the U of G Choir, is a

fitness instructor for the Department of Ath­

letics and is an avid long-distance runner.

She also volunteers as a Sunday school

teacher at St. Matthias Church in Guelph.

Allison Bachlet, an honours B.Sc. student

in nutritional sciences, has won a

prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to pursue

graduate studies in medicine and clinical

research at Oxford University in England.

She is one of only two students from

Ontario - and 11 nationwide - to receive

a Rhodes Scholarship this year. The award

is worth approximately $25,000 US a year.

President Mordechai Rozanski says this

scholarship "is testimony to Allison's superi­

or academic accomplishments and, as impor­

tant, reflects her exemplary contributions as

a leader and volunteer in our community."

Students from about 20 countries com­

pete annually for 90 Rhodes Scholarships.

Created in 1902 and named for Cecil Rhodes,

the scholarships recognize "high academic

achievement, integrity of character, a spirit

of unselfishness, respect for dthers, poten­

tial leadership and physical vigour."

HEATHCOTE NAMED DEAN Prof. Isabel Heathcote has been

appointed dean of graduate stud­ies for a five-year term that began

Dec. 20. Associate dean of grad­uate studies since 1998, she has

served as acting dean for the past

13 months fo llowing the

appointment of her predecessor,

Prof. Alastair Summerlee, as asso­ciate vice-president (academic).

A graduate of the University

of Toronto and Yale Un ivers ity,

Heathcote joined U of G in 1991

and holds a joint faculty appoint­

men t in the School of Engineer­ing and Faculty of Environmental

Sciences. She will be responsible

for such tasks as overseeing U of

G's 26 doctoral and 49 mas ter's

programs, providing accreditation

information on those programs

to the Ontario Council on Grad­

uate Studies and administering about $1.5 million a year in Uni­

versity graduate scholarships and

research scholarships.

IN FACT ... About 1,670 graduate students are enrolled at Guelph this year, up from last year's 1,540 but below the high-water mark of 1,805 students in 1994/95.

CREATING ACCESS FOR DISTANCE LEARNERS The Office of Open Learning

and the new Canadian Learning Television (CLT) are joining

forces to increase learners' access

to distance education courses.

CLT is featuring eight U of G distance education courses on

its Web site at www.accesslearn­

ing.com/ courses. "This is an important way of

informing the public and there­

by increasing access to our

online courses," says Virginia

Gray, director of the Office of

Open Learning . "All of the courses are Web-based, and we

think they will be of interest to

the general population."

Course topics are anthro­pology, contemporary cinema,

development of human sexual­

ity, adolescent development,

masterworks of music, world

poli tics, serial murder and

humans in the natural world. This is not the first relation­

ship between U of G and CLT.

The station is promoting the

popular Department of Psy­

chology distance course "Death and Dying" and the televised

series based on the course, Death: A Personal Understand­

ing. That course includes a series

of 10 half-hour documentaries

that will air on CLT and will also

air nationally on Vision TV and " I

in the Uni ted States on PBS. It S 0

was produced by the Toronto- ~

based Sleeping Giant Produc- ~

tions. Each documentary ~ j;

explores a different issue evoked ~

by death. ~

Spring 2000 5

in and around the University

CFI funds Mass spectrometer A T EAM oF U of G researchers has received

Guelph's single largest award

from the Canada Founda­tion for Innovation's (CFI)

New Opportunities program to purchase a state-of-the­

art mass spectrometer. The spectrometer, an

instrument that measures

the mass of molecules, will further strengthen Guelph's

analytical capabilities in

molecular biology and

biotechnology. CFI's New Opportunities

program, which is designed to provide infrastructure fund­

ing for young researchers, is

providing $287,697 for the

equipment. In total, the

Guelph team expects to receive $719,244, including

matching funding from the

Ontario Innovation Trust and funding and in-kind contri­

butions from industry part­

ners and the University. CFI

and its provincial counterpart

each fund up to 40 per cent of

a project.

The new mass spectrom­eter will be used by nine co­

applicants and 14 other researchers in eight depart­

ments spanning four colleges across campus .

To date, U of G researchers

have received a total of $13.2

million in CFI awards, the

second-largest per-capita

share awarded to any Cana­dian university, and more

than $50 million from all sources of matched funding,

the Ontario Innovation Trust,

the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, and public and private

research partners.

6 GuELPH ALUMNUS

Honourees travel from afar

ford University. Three honorary degrees and more than

6oo degrees and diplomas were award­

ed during fall convocation ceremonies in

War Memorial Hall.

Honorary degrees were presented to mol­

ecular biologist Arthur Chovnick, a retired

University of Con necticut professor; Nunavut

artist Irene Avaalaaqiaq; and child psychol­

ogist Eleanor Maccoby, a professor at Stan-

Th e October co nvocat ion also brought

together the first grad uati ng class of th e

MBA in agri culture program, a joint pa rt ­

nership of Guelph and Athabasca Un iversi ­

ty. It is the only such MBA program in Cana­

da delivered electronica lly. Until convocation,

the MBA students had met in person only

once before duri ng the 30-month program.

U of G plans to renew natural science facilities U OF G IS SEEKING $50 million

from the provincial SuperBuild Growth Fund and $38.5 million

from private-sector partners to

renew the major buildings sup­

porting the natural sciences at

Guelph and to expand teaching

space for all colleges.

Announced as part of the

1999 Ontario budget, the

SuperBuild fund will make $742 mill ion available to post­

secondary institutions to help them build and modernize

infrastructure.

U of G's proposal outlines a

plan to build a sciences and

advanced learning centre that would enable Guelph to build

on its expertise in the natural

sciences while serving the teach-

ing needs of the entire Univer­

sity- particularly the social sciences and humanities -

witl1 an interactive modular lec­

ture facility. The centre would

also remedy serious health and

safety deficiencies in the Axel­

rod and Chemistry/Microbiol­

ogy buildings and help address the $22-million deferred-main­

tenance problem affecting those

buildings. The advanced learning cen­

tre will enable the University to meet student demand for qual­

ity science programs and ensure

that students have access to facilities ti1at mesh teaching and

research, promote leading-edge research and improve external funding opportun ities for all

research areas, particularly mol­ecular biology, genomics, mate­

rial sciences, food science and environmental science. Students

would benefit from increased

job opportunities as research

findings are incorporated into

course curricula.

In addition, the facility

would permit closer co-opera­tion and collaboration between

the College of Biological Sci­

ence and College of Physical

and Engineering Science.

Federal government depart­ments, independent regulatory

bodies such as the Canadian

Food Inspection Agency and equipment companies have

indicated strong support for the proposal.

, I

9 0 (J\

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~ OJ

"'

POULTRY RESEARCH GETS BOOST

THE CANADIAN POULTRY

industry is investing

$900,000 in an integrated teach­

ing, research and technology

transfer program at U of G.

FEDERAL AWARDS TO TOP MEDICAL RESEARCHERS

Representatives of the Poul­

try Industry Council, the Ontario

Ministry of Agriculture, Food

and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)

and the University signed a

memorandum of agreement

Dec. 22 to develop an Ontario

poultry program team.

"This joint project will sig­

nificantly enhance technologi­

cal advancement by Canada's

poultry industry," says U of G's

director of animal research, Prof.

Roger Hacker, Animal and Poul­

try Science. "This mission will

support competitive and sus-

Deborah Whale of the Poultry Industry Council, left, Deb Stark,

assistant deputy minister, Corporate Services Division, Ontario Ministry

of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and Prof. Roger Hacker raise

U OF G RESEARCHERS have

received more than $800,000

in operating and equipment

grants from the Medical

Research Council (MRC) of

Canada. The Guelph awards

were among $147 million in

new funding for health

research at universities, hos­

pitals and other research

institutions announced last

summer by federal Health

Minister Allan Rock and

MRC president Henry

Friesen. Half of the grants

will be spent in Ontario.

a glass of eggnog to celebrate a memorandum of agreement signed

to create a poultry program team.

ensuring premium food quality

and maximal food safety."

~ tainable production in the con-

8 text of the appropriate health ~ and welfare of poultry, poultry

~ production, n1anagen1cnt sys­

iri tems, and economic and envi­

~ ronmental issues of the poultry

5: industry, while at the san1e ti1ne

A new faculty position and a

bridging position will be created

for a poultry pathobiologist in

the Department of Pathobiolo­

gy and a poultry epidemiologist

in the Department of Popula­

tion Medicine. The Department

of Animal and Poultry Science

will maintain a poultry physi­

ology position currently occu­

pied by a faculty member.

OMAFRA will relocate the

provincial poultry extension

specialist to U of G and hire a

poultry health management

specialist to develop and imple­

ment a strategic plan for poul­

try health management.

At Guelph, funding has

been awarded to Profs.

Anthony Clarke, Microbiol­

ogy; David Evans and Kras­

simir Yankulov, Molecular

Biology and Genetics; David

Josephy, Chemistry and Bio­

chemistry; and Gordon Kir­

by and Jonathan LaMarre,

Biomedical Sciences.

I

U of G develops collaboration with Humber College In 1999, U of G approved a memoran ­

dum of understanding with Humber Col­

lege in Toronto that provided the frame­

work for discussing a new concept- the

development of joint degree and diplo­

ma programs with the college.

These programs would go beyond cur­

rent articulation agreements, in which stu­

dents earn a two-year college diploma

before going on to complete a degree at U

of G. Instead, the programs would be

completely integrated, with students phys­

ically located at Humber but taking cours­

es from both institutions and graduating

after four years with a degree from Guelph

and a diploma from Humber. The goal is

to have the program begin in fall 2002.

Prof. Alastair Summerlee, associate

vice-president (academic), says the col­

laboration will help U of G respond to an

expected 40-per-cent increase in demand

for university places in Ontario over the

next l 0 years.

The Guelph-Humber proposal would

allow U of G to increase enrolment with­

out direct impact on existing U of G facil­

ities, says Summerlee. It would enhance

accessibility to the University, particular-

ly for commuting students in the Greater

Toronto Area, and would give U of G a

physical presence in Toronto.

Summerlee says the fate of the proposal

rests on three key factors. The academic

programs must be of high quality and able

to draw the planned enrolment targets of

500 students a year, the University must be

successful in obtaining funding from the

provincial government's SuperBuild

Growth Fund for a building on the Hum­

ber campus, and the government must give

assurances that it will provide full operat­

ing funding for the program.

K U d 0 S • • • Prof. Janice Kulyk Keefer received the 1999 Marian Engel Award from the Writer's Trust.

Spring 2000 7

-

Alumni Collection Clothing Rugger Shirt, as shown, S-XXXL ................................ 79.9: Golf Shirt, white or tan, S-XXL ............................... ... 49.9~ Quarter-Zip Cotton Fleece, red, S-XXL ...... ... .......... .... 59.9: Cotton Tee, grey, S-XXL ........ ......................... ... .. ..... .. 24.9: Sherpa V-Neck, cream or navy, S-XL ................. ..... ... 69.9~ Ladies Tee, white, S-M-L ........................................... 22.9( Adjustable Cap, as shown ................ ...... .... .... .. ........ . 19.9 ~ Nylon Hooded Jacket, navy, S-XXL ...... ..................... 75.0(

Alumni Collection Gifts Marble Mug with Portico Design .............................. 6.98 Tie silk face, as shown .. ..... ... ...................... .............. 59.9: Portico Design Decanter ........................................... 49. 9( Matching Old-Fashioned Glass ............. ................ .. ... 10.0( Cedar Card Box ...... .. ... ...... .. ....... .. .......... ... ............... 19.9( Piece-of-the-Cannon Paperweight ............................. 29. 9~ Wooden Alumni Pen Set ........ ............ ....................... 49. 9( School Ring/Jewellery (Call for information)

Return the completed order form to: University Bookstore, MacNaughton Building, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON NlG 2Wl. Allow 2 wee

Customer Name __________ _

Address ____________ _

City ________ Postal Code __ _

Telephone (

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r:Gafonuu ~~"'10111·111

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*Shipping: $6.00 per item,

courier insured.

*Shipping

GST

PST

Total Invoice

Phone: (519) 824-4120 X3715 Fax: (519)763-1921 E-mail: bookstor @uoguelph.ca

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

research otes SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY • SCHOLARSHIP • SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS

BIOTECH NO LOGY NOT A THREAT TO

BUTTERFLIES NEW RESEARCII BY environmen­

tal biology chair Mark Sears

reveals that the Monarch but-

Mark Seans

terfly is alive and well , despite

media reports that it is threat­

ened by biotechnology.

Sears, who also chairs the

Canadian Corn Pest Coalition,

conducted fie ld research o n

pollen from Bt corn contain ing

Bacillus thuringiensis, a natu­

rally occurring soi l-borne bac­

terium that selective ly targets

specific groups of insects. Pre­

liminary findings show that the

pollen is not found in high

enough doses on most milk­

weed plants (the food plant of

Monarch caterpil lars) to hurt

the butterfly's larvae.

"Bt corn has always been

shown to be harmless to both

humans and an1ma ls," says

Sears, "and we now know it isn't

a major threat to the Monarch

butterfly."

An earlier U.S. study had

claimed that pollen from Bt

corn damaged Monarch butter­

fly larvae. The study sparked a

media fren zy and public con­

cern about genetically modified

foods. But Sears says the U.S.

study didn ' t demonstrate to

what extent its preliminary find­

ings applied to field situations.

The study was completed in a

laboratory, and th e dosage of

pollen used wasn't reported .

Sears is leading a two-year

project to dete rmine the eco­

logical effects of Bt -corn pollen

on selected non-target butterfly

species, including the Monarch.

His study focuses on Bt pollen

and how far it travels from the

corn field. Also participating in

this study are research associate

Diane Stanley-Horn and

research technician Heather

Mattila, as well as seed industry

representatives and corn grow­

ers. This research is sponsored

by the Ca nadian Food Inspec­

tion Agency and Environment

Canada.

SQUEEGEE KIDS LESS PRONE TO

DRUG USE SQUEEGEE KIDS ARE LESS likely to

use drugs and commit crimes

than other street youth, accord­

ing to new research by sociolo­

gy professor William O'Grady.

Squeegee kids also have a bet-

IN FACT ... Squeegee kids are less likely to use drugs and commit crimes than other street kids.

ter mental outlook, he says.

O'Grady, who began

researching unemployed youth

early this decade, surveyed more

than 100 squeegee kids in Toron­

to for his study, co-authored by

graduate students Rob Bright

and Eric Cohen. The study was

published in Security Journal.

The researchers found that

squeegee cleaners were less like­

ly to sell drugs, break into cars or

buildings, shoplift or engage in

violent behaviour than other

street kids. Non-squeegee street

youth also reported considerably

higher levels of depression.

In another study, O'Grady

found that sexual and physical

abuse leads many young people

to life on the st reets, and a lack

of housing prevents many from

finding regul a r paid employ­

ment. For this study, h e sur­

veyed 360 homeless youth and

found that those working in the

sex trade come from the most

disadvantaged backgrounds.

Sexual and physical abuse has

led them to leave home ea rlier,

which means they also have less

education and underdeveloped

work skill s, he says. Rates of

depression were the highest of

all youth surveyed.

STUDENT DESIGNS DIGITAL HEARING AID ED CHAU IS HELPI NG to solve the

number one problem plaguing

hearing aid use rs. The engi­

neering master's student is

developing a new digital hear­

ing aid that can screen out dis­

torting background noise.

Chau is among the millions

of people who cou ld benefit

from more powerful hea rin g

aids. ''I'm not happy with what

I have," he says, referring to the

devices he has worn for the past

seven years to compensate for

hereditary hearing loss.

Engineering professor Bob

Dony says his new graduate stu­

dent has excellent qualifications

to handle the technical side o f

this research. "The fact that he

Ed Chau and Bob Dony

wears heari ng aids is an inter­

esting addition to his comple­

ment of interests."

Chau has a $13,800-a-yea r

post-graduate industrial schol­

arship funded jointly by th e

Natural Sciences and Engineer­

ing Research Co uncil, U of G

and a Waterloo-based compa­

ny called dspfactory Ltd.

Digital processing power is

the key to solving background

noise problems, says Chau. "A

lot of the problem that people

such as myself have with hea r­

ing aids is that speech percep­

tion or speech intelligibility

decreases dramatically from a

quiet to a noisy environment."

Hearing aids of the future

Spring 2000 9

HIRE A GUELPH CO-OP STUDENT Physical Sciences • Applied Math & Statistics • Biochemistry • Biophysics • Chemical Physics • Chemistry • Computing & Information Science • Physics

Commerce • Management Economics

in Industry & Finance • Hotel & Food Administration • Housing & Real Estate Management • Agricultural Business • Marketing Management

B.Sc. (Technology) • Pharmaceutical Chemistry • Physics and Technology

Biological Sciences • Biomedical Technology • Environmental Toxicology • Food Science • Microbiology

Engineering Sciences • Biological • Engineering Systems & Computing • Environmental • Water Resources

Social Sciences • Child Studies • Economics • Family & Social Relations • Gerontology • Psychology

Environmental Sciences

MA Economics

are expected to be equipped

with detectors capable of direc­

tional processing, permitting

the user to focus on a conver­

sation even in the middle of

cocktail party rhubarb.

DIET SUPPLEMENT MAY BE

OVERPUMPED THERE MAY BE MORE smoke than

fire in claims about the athletic

and weight-loss benefits of an

increasingly popular "fat burn-

Prof. David Dyck and graduate

student Michael Morrison

er" called pyruvate, according to

a study by Prof. David Dyck,

Human Biology and Nutrition­

al Sciences.

Dyck found that pyruvate

had no effect on athletic per­

formance. And although he

didn't investigate weight loss

directly, he's strongly skeptical

of its supposed benefits in

reducing body fat.

Pyruvate is sold as calcium

pyruvate and is a natural sub­

stance available in health food

stores as a dietary supplement

to promote weight loss and ath­

letic performance. The market

for pyruvate IS significant

because people are increasingly

shying away from steroids and

other peLformance-enhancing

substances.

For his study, Dyck admin­

istered pyruvate supplements to

trained athletes, then observed

them during regular exercise. He

discovered that pyruvate made

no significant difference in per-

formance. In fact, he saw no evi­

dence that the substance was

even taken up by the body.

He plans to publish a paper

on the study next year.

SPANISH WRITERS REFLECT

POLITICAL CHANGE PROF. DOROTHY Odartey­

WeJlington, Languages and Lit­

eratures, spent three months

last summer settling into the

bustling literary circles of

Madrid. She was studying and

interviewing writers whose cur­

rent fiction reflects the political

and social changes in that city

over the past decade.

Supported by a research

grant from the Spanish gov­

ernment, Odartey-Wellington

hopes her work will contribute

to the development of a histo­

ry of the Spanish novel.

Contemporary writers, like

all citizens of Spain, are enjoying

the liberalization and freedom

that came with the end of Fran­

co dictatorship and censorship

in 1975, she says. Now they are

facing social and cultural chal­

lenges as they find their place in

the European Union. "It's an

Dorothy Odartey·Wellington

exciting time to be studying the

literature of Spain," she says.

Odartey-Wellington is shar­

ing her enthusiasm for penin­

sula literature with U of G stu­

dents and is redeveloping some

of the courses she teaches to

make them more accessible to

students outside the program.

"The study of literature bene­

fits from students who bring

different backgrounds and dif­

ferent ideas;' she says.

CANINE RESEARCH MAY HELP HUMANS

OVC RESEARCH THAT involves

using an alternative form of

radiation therapy to treat dogs

with lymphoma may one day

IN FACT ... OVC operates the only cobalt radiation therapy unit for animals in Canada.

have implications for the treat­

ment of human cancer.

The study conducted by

Prof. Tony Abrams-Ogg, Prof.

Stephen Kruth, Paul Woods and

Geri Ottewell of the Department

of Clinical Studies and Al Nor­

ris of the Veterinary Referral

Clinic looks at using "half-body

radiation" as an alternative ther­

apy for canine lymphoma.

Traditionally, a diagnosis of

lymphoma is followed with

chemotherapy, with the best

results involving up to two years

of treatment. As an alternative

to prolonged chemotherapy,

total-body radiation and bone

marrow transplantation pro­

duce equal or better results, but

their expense and side effects

prevent them from becoming

routine veterinary procedures.

Half-body radiation involves

treating only half the body at one

time, so healthy bone marrow

isn't damaged enough to require

a transplant. Dogs receiving half­

body radiation don't generally

suffer from the side effects that

accompany full-body radiation,

Abrams-Ogg says.

Half-body radiation has been

used on humans to alleviate pain

in advanced cancer cases, but not

as a replacement for total-body

radiation. The results of the OVC

trial indicate that half-body radi­

ation may be a good alternative

for treating the same types of

cancer in people, he says.

FARMERS GET LESS AID THAN U.S.

COUNTERPARTS A NEW UNIVERSITY of Guelph

study reveals that Ontario farm­

ers get less than half the gov­

ernment support that Ameri­

can farmers receive.

Brian Doidge of Ridgetown

College compared similar 500-

acre farms in Ontario and the

United States. Each had 200 acres

of corn, 100 acres of wheat and

200 acres of soybeans. The study

showed that the Ontario farmer

would receive $48.50 an acre in

government support and the U.S.

farmer would receive $90.51.

"That playing field is not

level;' says Doidge. "We in Cana­

da are at a disadvantage to our

neighbours south of the border."

The United States is consid­

ering providing another $7.4

billion in emergency aid for U.S.

farmers, which means the

American in Doidge's study

would receive $130 an acre or

2 1/2 times what's available to

the Canadian.

The study found that U.S.

programs encourage farmers to

grow certain crops, such as soy­

beans, that pay more in subsi­

dies, and that the programs are

set up so that all U.S. farmers

receive subsidies, regardless of

financial need.

IN FACT ... Ontario farmers receive less than half the support given to U.S. farmers

Spring 2000 11

•

by Alexander Wooley and Andrew Vowles

sensational WHY if FOODS AREN'T SO SCARY • ORGANIC FARMERS FRET OVER SPRE.j OF MODIFIED CROPS

sc1ence or sc1ence BIOTECHNOLOGY RES~~fi Ctio n·?FS T~H .~ .. ··oo·s

VER THE PAST SIX MONTHS, Canada's national

newspapers and other media have featured headline stories debating the pros and cons of

food biotechnology, and the controversy is destined to continue for some time yet.

Most scientists involved in genetic research would argue that the ability to shortcut

the evolutionary process is indeed sensational, but answering the second part of the ques­

tion is not a matter for science alone to debate. People must be able to trust the food they

eat, and that trust is based on human perceptions that are influenced by ethical values, eco­

nomics and politics, as well as by scientific evidence.

Many U of G researchers- animal and crop

scientists, molecular biologists, food

researchers, consumer studies experts, econ­

omists and philosophers- are contributing

their expertise to the debate on food biotech-

by the Ontario Research and Development

Challenge Fund, a provincial research sup­

port program matched by the private sec­

tor and the University.

z no logy in an effort to provide consumers with 5\ information to make informed choices.

current generation of these products are

transgenic plants with built-in resistance to

pests, meaning they don't need to be sprayed with pesticides. "Advances mean we could

eventually have less land under cultivation

and less of the environmentally harmful

effects of farming," says Prof. Alan Wilde­

man, Molecular Biology and Genetics, direc­

tor of the University's new Food System

Biotechnology Centre (FSBC).

Transgenic plants - and potentially,

transgenic an imals- are expected to help

boost food production for a growing world,

and Wildeman says research is under way at

Guelph to develop crops containing livestock

vaccines and medications that can be grown

by farmers rather than manufactured. Researchers predict the next generation of

GE organisms will have additional benefits

for human nutrition and health- in foods

>->-<(

~ Anticipated benefits ~ Why do proponents support the use of

~genetically engineered (GE) organisms in

~ food production? Guelph scientists involved a<

~ in transgenic work point to several envi-~ ron mental and health benefits. Among the

12 GUELPH ALUMNUS

Officially opened in January, the centre is an interdisciplinary initiative that could

receive up to $25 million in funding, includ­

ing an initial $6 million provided last year

that lower cholesterol and blood pressure

levels to avert heart attacks, for example.

To many, we are at the brink of a scien­tific revolution.

That "revolution" is the product of an evo-

lution in plant and animal breeding that has

taken place over tens of thousands of years,

but it was just over a century ago that Gregor

Mendel first studied the mechanism of inher­

itance in plants. That scientific knowledge

advanced selective breeding programs like

those initiated at Guelph in the early 1900s

by Prof. Charles Zavitz, who developed sev­

eral dozen new varieties of field crops.

Virtually all the foods we eat today have

Two Methods for Delivering DNA into Plant Cells Scientists use a bacterium that normally infects plants to carry a desired gene into

a plant cell (left), or the gene is injected under force into the cell (right). The end

result in both techniques is a transgenic plant .

DNA with desired gene

New DNA is cut and pasted into the Agrobacterium cell's DNA

Agrobacterium transfers the new

Tiny metal particles are coated with the new DNA

Particles are put into

DNA into plant cells " ... liiiiili-~ a particle gun and fired into the plant cells

14 GUELPH ALUMNUS

The new DNA is incorporated into plant chromosome

Plan t cells grow into plantlets with new properties in a petri dish

Plantlets are transferred to soil

How does gene tran

PRoF. LARRY ERICKSON and U of G colleagues in the Depart­

ment of Plant Agriculture are developing "super plants" to

provide extra protein in livestock rations or to trigger an

immune response in animals as a cheaper and more efficient

alternative to injectable vaccines. In the latter case, they use

the tools of genetic engineering to create transgenic plants

meant to confer immunity when fed to animals.

The accompanying illustration shows two methods sci­

entists use to insert a desired gene into a plant cell. The

most intriguing uses the bacterium Agrobacterium tume­

faciens as a carrier. In nature, Agrobacteriurn tumefaciens

invades a plant and infects it with crown gall disease. When

using the bacterium to genetically modify plants, scien tists

remove the disease-causing parts of Agrobacterium's DNA

and replace them with genes carrying the characteristics

they want transferred to the plant.

For example, to protect pigs against transmissible gas­

troenteritis, researchers insert a gene from the virus into

the DNA of Agrobacteriunz. This hybrid genetic material

is then injected into plant tissue, where it integrates into

the plant's DNA. The mature plant containing the gene

produces a protein that, when fed to p igs, stimulates an

immune response against gastroenteritis.

Because this gene transfer technique would not work

with cereal grains until recently, an alternative tech nique

called particle bombardment was developed. Researchers

mix foreign DNA with gold particles, then "fire" the m ix­

ture into a dish containing the plant tissue.

In both cases, the plant cells grow into plantlets tha t can

be potted in soil and will grow into a mature plant d isplay­

ing the new characteristic. Collecting seeds from the new

plant will carry the trait forward into successive generations.

Similar concepts underlie the development of transgenic

alfalfa and white clover in a project by Profs. Reggie Lo,

Microbiology, Patricia Shewen, Pathobiology, and Jud ith

Strommer, Plant Agriculture, to "vaccinate" cows agai nst

the bacterium that causes shipping fever, a form of p neu­

monia that is particularly debilitating to cattle.

The Guelph trio is investigating genetic engineering as

a cheaper and more effective alternative to an injectable

vaccine, Presponse, which was developed by Shewen about

a decade ago. Having shown that the bacterial proteins are

indeed expressed by the first generation of plants raised in

Strommer's lab, they say the next step is to develop stable

been genetically modified through selective

breeding, says Prof. Gord Surgeoner, Envi­

ronmental Biology, president of Ontario Agri­

Food Technologies, a non-profit organization

based in Guelph. "Fruits, vegetables, chickens,

cattle, etc., bear little resemblance to their wild

ancestors!' ln fact, crop scientists contend that

selective breeding is one reason we don't have

major food shortages today.

cation of plants and animals is that scien­

tists now have the abi lity to speed up the

process of genetic transformation and even

move genes between species.

What is new about the genetic modifi- DNA was discovered in 1953, and in

happen in the laboratory?

lines of the transgenic plants for commercial production.

When the legume is fed to cattle, the bacterial gene would

enter the cow's tonsils and travel to the lungs, where it

would trigger an immune response to the disease.

In both of these cases, the transgenic plants are digested

in the gut, leaving no residues in meat or milk. That's differ­

ent from the result of the process used to make transgenic

pigs or "Enviropigs;' which are genetically engineered to digest

dietary phosphorus more efficiently in hopes of solving the

biggest environmental problem facing hog producers.

Besides saving producers the cost of readily digested

phosphorus supplements, animals able to digest the ele­

ment in their regular diet will excrete up to 50 per cent less

phosphorus. Farmers use high-phosphorus pig manure for

fertilizer, but the substance washes into lakes and streams,

where it promotes the growth of algae.

Profs. Cecil Forsberg, Microbiology, and john Phillips,

Molecular Biology and Genetics, along with graduate stu­

dent Serguei Golovan, constructed a fusion transgene for use

in making transgenic pigs by splicing the promoter-enhancer

region from a mouse salivary gland protein gene together

with the protein-coding region from a bacterial gene speci­

fying the enzyme phytase. This composite gene, which was

designed to direct the secretion of phytase into the saliva of

pigs, was first tested in a mouse model: the transgene was

inserted into one-celled mouse embryos and the embryos

then transferred into surrogate mothers. Offspring were then

tested for the presence of phytase in their saliva.

With succcessful expression of the transgene in trans­

genic mice, they then repeated the process with one-celled

pig embryos, which were then transferred into surrogate

sows. Piglets born last summer are producing phytase in

their saliva. This allows them to digest phosphorus in their

normal feed, thereby avoiding the need for costly phos­

phorus feed supplements, and the level of environmental­

ly hazardous phosphorus in their manure is greatly reduced.

Phillips and Eorsberg emhasize that the real test will

come this spring when the first offspring from the Envi­

ropigs will be born. If these offspring carry the transgene

from their parents, then the research team will put their

novel herd of Enviropigs through a series of exhaustive

tests to determine just how successful the pigs are at recov­

ering phosphorus from their feed , and any possible side

effects to the genetic modification.

Producing Enviropigs Researchers borrow a gene from E.co/i bacterium that produces a

phytase enzyme, inject it into a fertilized egg, and rely on the animal's

normal reproductive system to deliver transgenic pigs.

The desired gene is injected into the male pronuclei.

Scientists recover a fertilized egg containing male and female pronuclei.

Pronuclei join to form the nucleus of an embryo, which is transferred to the oviduct of a foster mother.

Transgenic embryos develop to term as piglets that will express the gene by producing phytase in their salivary glands.

Spring 2000 15

only 30 years, scientists developed the tech­

nology to transfer pieces of DNA between

organ isms. The first transgenic p lant- a

tobacco plant resistant to an antibiotic­

was produced in 1983. Field testing of genet­

ically engineered plants resistant to insects,

viruses and bacteria began in 1985, and in

1994, the Flav'r Sav'r tomato, designed to

resist rotting, became the first whole genet­

ically engin eered food to be approved for

sale in the Un ited States. It was followed in

less th an two years by Monsanto's herbi­

cide-resistant soybeans and Bt corn that is

protected from the corn borer.

At U of G, these advanced technologies

have led to the recent development of trans­

genic crops containing bits of weakened

viral DNA that will serve as edible vaccines

for livestock and a pig genetically engineered

to produce "environmenta lly friendly"

manure (see story o n page 16).

The agricultural industry seems to have

embraced GE technology. The U.S. Depart­

ment of Agriculture estin1ates that half of the

country's last soybean crop and one-third of

its corn crop used genetically engineered seed.

In Ontario, farmers used transgenic seed on

35 per cent of corn, 20 per cent of soybeans

and 60 per cent of canola grown last year.

Across Canada, growers now have access

to more than 30 varieties of transgen ic

crops, including corn, canola, soybeans,

potatoes, cotton, flax, wheat and tomatoes.

Biotech opposition FoR THE PAST SIX MONTHS, the media have

been bringing us a transgenic revolution of

a different kind, being waged on the field of

public opinion. Think of that towering,

menacing ear of corn erected by Green peace

protestors in downtown Montreal during

January's meeting of negotiators on the

biosafety protocol on trade in genetically

engineered products.

The monster image may be larger than

life, but the depth of consumer concern over

GE foods should not be underestimated.

Speaking at a recent conference to mark the

official opening of the FSBC, Guelph food

science professor Mansel Griffiths, director

of the Canadian Research Institute for Food

Safety, said that eight out of I 0 people polled

by Angus Reid had heard of genetically engi­

neered foods, and about 65 per cent said they

would be less likely to buy a particular food

16 GuELPH ALUMNUS

if they knew it had been genetica lly altered .

Other polls suggest consumers have only

a marginal understanding of the concept o f

biotechnology, and Pro f. Larry Milli ga n ,

vice-president (research ), says much o f the

current media coverage adds to that mis­

understanding. GMO (genetically modified

organism ) has become th e accepted

Follow the debate Further information on genetically mod·

ified foods is available on the Internet,

including the following sites:

www.plant.uoguelph.ca/riskcomm/ plant-ag/se-response.htm

The evaluation and approval

system for GM foods.

www.canadians.org Council of Canadians posts reports

from lndependant scientists.

www.nrc.ca/ibc/home.html lnfoBiotech Canada, with

information on biotechnology

in Canada and abroad.

www.strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ bho023oe.html

The Canadian Biotechnology

Advisory Committee on the

Canadian Biotechnology Strategy.

www.cfia-acia.agr.ca Agri cu lture and Agri·Food

Canada and the Canadian

Food Inspection Agency.

www.hc-sc.gc.ca/food-aliment/ Hea lth Canada's Guidelines for the

Safety Assessment of Novel Foods.

acronym for genetic engineering, when the

literal meaning is quite different, he says.

Opposing GM foods would include vir­

tually everything on the dinner table, as Sur­

geoner pointed out, but Milligan says most

consumer concerns are more likely focused

on the transfer of genetic materia l in th e

laboratory, specifical ly between different

species. "We all agree that people must trust

what they eat," says Surgeoner. "Clearl y, the

process of modifying genetic material to

improve foods must be subject to strict reg­

ulatory oversight."

He believes that's already being done in

Canada and says the country's food supply

"has an enviable reputation for sa fety a nd

reliability based on a regulatory system fo r

th e assess m ent and ap prova l of a ll foods

marketed in Ca nada, includ ing th ose pro­

duced thro ugh bio techno logy."

Skeptics have capitalized o n widespread

public ignorance about the science and reg­

ul ati o n of so-ca ll ed GMOs, ca llin g th em

" Fra nken foo ds" and co njuring up images

o f m ad scientists running amo k in labo ra­

to ri es. T hi s co ul d n' t be furth e r fro m the

truth , says Wi ldem a n. " It 's impo rtant to

un ders tand th at resea rchers do no t ran­

domly tra nsfer genes abo ut whi ch th ey

kn ow no thin g. There is a grea t a m o unt of

bas ic resea rch conducted o n a specific gene

befo re it ca n be selec ted fo r transference."

O the r aca dem ics li ke Prof. Ann Cla rk,

Pl ant Agri culture, say essentiall y no effo rt

is being devoted to assess in g th e po tential

ri sks a nd s ide e ffects of co nsumin g a nd

introducing transgenic orga nisms into the

environment. "Bio technology is exciting sci­

ence, and there's a lot of potential for under­

standin g ge ne-to-gene inte rac ti o ns," she

says, "but thi s is also a very cos tly technol­

ogy. While we spend vas t am o unts of soci­

ety's reso urces- and resea rchers' time­

to service th e bio tech industry, we a re not

develop ing the capability to ask o r answer

other, potentially mo re fruit ful , ques tions."

A specia list in pasture m anagement and

an advocate of organic far ming, Clark rais­

es issues like genetic po llutio n, food-sa fety

tes tin g and possib le envi ro nm ental side

effects of introducin g GE plants. She ques­

tions the rea l benefits of GE to th e fa rming

community, and fl ags the issues of li ability

and acco untabilit y sho uld hea lth o r envi­

ronmental ri sks actually materiali ze.

Acco rding to a recent story in th e West­

em Produ cer, a fa rmer in no rth ern Alberta

who has pla n ted th ree herbicide- res ista nt

types of ca nola since 1997 fo und volunteer

canola in his field last year that was resistant

to three separate herbicide fam ilies. Cross­

pollination from crops genetically engineered

to resist herbicides is b lamed fo r producing

th e tripl y res istant weeds. Beca use ca nola

pollen ca n m ove great dista nces, this threat

exists even on fa rms that have not grown GE

ca nola, says Clark, raisin g real issues about 5iii:=------~ the commercial viability of this technology.

She notes this is just o ne exa mpl e of how a

technology"brought prematurely to market

is externalizing the true costs of production,

involuntaril y, o n to neighbour ing fa rmers."

Other people oppose biotechnology for

political reasons, including antipathy toward

the multinationals that make genetically engi­

neered seed. Prof. Karl Meilke, Agricu ltural

Economics and Business, says there are a num­

ber of organizations opposing GMOs "that

have an agenda where health and safety are,

in fact, not at the top of the list. They are 'anti ­

Big Business' first and foremost and use the

GMO issue to drive their agenda against com­

panies like Monsanto and Novartis."

From a business point of view, it makes

sense to patent and protect technologies in

which you've made substantial investments,

although some scientists have warned that

stringent guarding of intellectual property

will signal the end of public plant-breeding

programs- the kind of research that Zavitz

began at Guelph .

Global concerns GRIFFITHS SAYS several common concerns

have surfaced during cit izens' consensus

conferences on genetic engineering held

recently in Canada, Australia and Europe.

These concerns involve regulatory measures,

control of multinationals, harmonizing of

standards and legislation, and labelling of

GE products. T hose issues were also dis­

cussed in Montreal, where representatives

of about 135 countries adopted a protocol

that says an importing country must be

notified in advance if a company brings in

GE seeds, because they will be introduced

into the environment, but not if the com­

modities- corn, soybeans- are intend­

ed for livestock or human consumption.

The earlier Uruguay Round of trade talks

basically sa id that "you can do whatever you

want as regards food safety on a domestic

basis, but if you want to exclude imports on

the basis of health concerns, you have to have

some scientific evidence to do so;' says Meilke,

adding that although the evidence has been

lacking, the rhetoric has not. "IfGMOs aren't

safe, we shou ldn't be growing them. If they

are safe, we should be trading them."

In practice, some food manufacturers

and retailers, fearing cons umer backlash,

have stopped using some transgenic food

ingredients. And a recent report from the

University of Saskatchewan also suggested

that in addition to the 15 countries of the

European Union, another 26 countries are

considering whether or not to develop a sys-

tem for labelling GE foods.

North American farmers are worried

about GE opposition in Europe and Japan

and the resulting announcements by major

co rn and grain mill s on this continent, as

well as reports from high-profi le companies

such as McCa in's and Seagrams that they

will no longer accept genetically engineered

The next generation

of GE foods will have

additional benefits

for hul)1an nutrition

and health.

65 per cent of

consumers say they

would be less likely

to buy a particular

food if they knew it

had been genetically

modified.

products. Faced with the loss of important

international markets, farmers are left won­

dering if there is an economic advantage to

growi ng transgenic crops.

During the recent FSBC gathering in

Guelph, Surgeoner spoke about his mem­

bership on a committee- an initiative of

the Canad ian Council of Grocery Distrib­

utors, Canadian General Standards Board

and the Consumers' Association of Canada

-that is developing a national standard for

voluntary labelling of foods produced

through biotechnology. He says voluntary

labels would give consumers the choice to

buy or avo id foods with GE ingredients,

unlike the concept of mandatory labelling,

which he says would be cos tly and compli­

cated to administer.

Food-safety guarantees AccoRDING TO Guelph faculty, two ques­

tions are central to the debate over geneti­

caLly engineered foods: Is there a risk in eat­

ing them and, perhaps as important, do

people think there's a risk in eating them?

"No one's saying this food is absolutely risk­

free," says Surgeoner. "You can't guarantee

zero risk with anything."

He notes that today's number-one health

risk from food is posed not by genetic engi­

neering but by overeating. Number two is

food-borne illnesses resulting from natur­

al pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella and

listeria. Says Prof. Doug Powell, Plant Agri­

culture: "Several million Canadians are sick­

ened and a couple of hundred are killed

each year from food- and water-borne ill­

ness. Not one has ever been linked with

genetic engineering. While vigilance is war­

ranted with any new technology, the exces­

sive concern about genetically engineered

foods trivializes efforts of farmers, proces­

sors, distributors and consumers to enhance

the safety of the food supply."

Adds Prof. Karen Finlay, Consumer Stud­

ies: " People use herbal remedies without

questioning them, despite the fact they

undergo no testing. Peo ple assume that

because they're health-oriented, they've been

tested. They haven't. They're assumed to be

somehow safe because they're 'natural."'

In fact, says Griffiths, biotechnology may

be used to improve food safety, including

detecting pathogens, improving epidemiol­

ogy and surveillance, and learning more

about the development of pathogens causing

food-borne illnesses. His centre is an inter­

disciplinary group of more than 50 universi­

ty and government scientists established with

an $8-million grant from the Canada Foun­

dation for Innovation, the Ontario Innova­

tion Trust and industry partners to study food

safety and provide information to a food-pol­

icy centre also being developed at Guelph.

Powell points to the need to inform con­

sumers about the regulations and practices

that govern biotechnology and food safety.

"There is one country in the world that has

a mandatory safety assessment of new and

novel foods- whether derived through

genetic engineering, mutagenesis breeding,

new enzymes, whatever- rightly focusing

on the sa fety of the end product rather than

Spring 2000 17

how that end product was derived. It is

Canada. Others should follow suit."

He recently joined a new federal advi­

sory committee intended to brief federal

cabinet ministers on ethical, social, regula­

tory, scientific, environmental and health

aspects of biotechnology, and says testing

of transgenic plants includes field trials to

understand putative environmental risks

and whether the crop performs as expect­

ed. For some crops, animal feeding trials are

required, as well as nutritional, toxicologi­

cal and molecular studies. Since 1993, genet­

ically engineered foods have been regulat­

ed in Canada in the same way as any new

food produced by conventional m ethods.

Health Canada and the Canadian Food

Inspection Agency (CFIA) are both involved

in assessing the safety of new food products,

guided by the premise that genetically engi­

neered foods are fundamentally similar to tra­

ditionally bred organisms and lend themselves

to well-defined risk-assessment methods and

principles. As the CFIA points out, regulators

frequently have more knowledge about GE

foods than about naturally grown foods.

That assurance isn't good enough for

retired botany professor Ann Oaks, who

chuckles at the Health Canada assumption

that GE foods are "substantially equivalent"

to non-GE foods, "but th ey are different

enough to qualify for a patent." She says

Health Canada assessment panels rely on tests

conducted in industry laboratories, and to her

that is not as reliable as conducting the tests

in independent labs. She also advocates food­

safety testing that is as stringent as the proce­

dures used to assess new pharmaceutical prod­

ucts, which check for allergens, immune

system responses and growth responses.

"Genetic engineering is a cutting-edge sci­

ence that we don't fully understand. We need

to do much more basic research and move

more slowly in the commercialization of GE

products. It's easier to solve problems that arise

during testing than to correct health problems

that may occur in the general population after

products have been in the marketplace for sev­

eral years."

Ethics and education RESEARCH INTO Canadian consumer atti­

tudes and perceptions about genetic engi­

neering is so rely lacking. Finlay hopes to

address that gap through a proposal she's

18 GUELPH ALUMNUS

preparing for a new cross-disciplinary com­

munications research facility in Guelph's

new Food Institute. Along with colleagues

at U of G, other Canadian universities and

the Food Policy Institute in the United King­

dom, she pl ans to study biotechnology as

the first order of business.

"When it comes to GMOs, we know nei-

There is one country

in the world that has

a mandatory safety

assessment of new

and novel foods. It is

Canada.

North American

farmers are worried

about GE opposition

in Europe and Japan.

ther levels of consumer awareness nor con­

sumer attitudes;' she says. "We also don't know

how it may vary by different demographics

-urban versus rural, age groups, parents ver­

sus children. The mandate of the unit will be

to determine what consumers need to know

to feel safe. We can discover that through

research."

Elsewhere at Guelph, the FSBC plans to

hire a bioethicist - to be based in the

Depar tment of Philosophy- to address

this critical issue where U of G resea rchers

figure prominently. "Some critics have cho­

sen to simply label all biotechnology bad,

amazingly enough not in spite of our igno­

rance, but beca use of it," says Wildeman.

"The a ttitude seems to be that we don' t

know enough about it, so let's ban it. O ur

view is that we need to proceed carefully.

It's important to examine the science and

ethics of specific biotechnology proj ects.

GMOs are no more 'all bad' than all phar-

maceutical research is all bad. We believe

that in hiring a bioethicist, we wi ll enlist a

clear analytica l thinker who can present

both the positive side of what we'd like to

do and any potential negative aspects."

Adds Prof. David Sparling, Agricultural

Economics and Business: "To inform the pub­

lic about GMOs, we need to communicate

the pros and cons. Then, if the public per­

ceives there are enough benefits, they will be

willing to assume the risks and continue to

consume food that is genetically engineered!'

Some might argue that, here in Canada,

we don 't need biotechnology. Sparling

acknowledges that although GE products

"aren't necessary from an economic point

of view, they are attractive from an eco­

nomic point of view." But he points to the

next generation of genetica lly engineered

foods that will provide add iti o nal health

benefits. Canadian consumers may want to

take advantage of these benefits themselves

and also see their country reap the eco­

nomic benefits of maintaining a pre-emi­

nence in the development of new genetic

technologies for world consumption.

In the developed world, where life

expectancies have nearly doubled in a cen­

tury, advances in health and safety have

eliminated or reduced many major human

health risks. Not so in other parts of the

world. "Those of us in rich countries are a

little jaded, I think," says Meilke. "Some

might say: 'So what if my Wheaties cost two

cents less per box thanks to GMOs?' It isn't

going to be you or I starving. But in poor­

er countries, those costs are enormously

important. Over the long term, in the devel­

oping world, not developing GMOs cou ld

have li fe-and-death implications."

Adds Wildeman: "Not all GMOs are cre­

ated for corporate wea lth, as the cri ti cs

would maintain. Many projects, including

those under way at Guelph, are designed to

improve our hea lth, the environment and

the economic well-being of farmers."

All these issues are under discussion at

U of G, where ongoing research programs

and new initiatives concerned with food

safety and regulation, consumer confidence, &i;i;;iiiiiiiiii;;;;;;;;;Oiili;;;;;;;;;=:a!

and the economic and ethical implications

of genetic engineering will help ensure that

the Canadian public and policy-makers

receive the information they need to assess

this new technology. ga

by Lori Bona Hunt and Mary Dickieson

taking care Three talented U ofG graduates turned business decision-makers

Helen Murphy's

climb up the corpo­rate ladder has land­

ed her a new job as

top money manager for Martha Stewart

Living.

of business 9

Marty Beecroft is knocking on doors to earn "the big break"

that will propel him to the top of the pop

music industry.

Mike Garrett has made it to the

top of public admin­

istration, where he balances Toronto's

$6-billion mega-city

budget.

Spring 2000 19

Helen Murphy

A memorable Guelph student now keeps Martha Stewart on her toes

IT S BEEN NEARLY TWO DECADES since

retired OAC professor Bill Braithwaite

taught a class attended by Helen Mur­

phy, BA '82, the 36-year-old chief financial

officer for Martha Stewart Living Omni­media LLC.

But Braithwaite, who retired in 1997

from the Department of Agricultural Eco­

nomics and Business, remembers Murphy

as if it were yesterday. "She was one of the

best pupils I ever had- very bright, very aggressive, very focused;' he says. "There are

certain students you never fo rget, and she

was one of them.

"I never went into that classroom unpre­

pared. She was always ready to challenge

you on every issue; you had to make sure

you were on your toes. As a teacher, you love that."

But it's Murphy who's on her toes these days. In September, she moved into the top financial position in the New York office of

Martha Stewart Living, a job she accepted

while on maternity leave after the birth of

her second child.

''I'm very excited - it's obviously a unique opportunity;' says Murphy from her

New York office.

Martha Stewart Living is an international multimedia company with annual revenues

approaching $225 million. The company's

20 GuELPH ALUMNUS

realm includes monthly and quarterly mag­

azines, syndicated telev ision and radio shows, a newspaper column, books, mail­

order catalogs, online merchandising busi­

nesses and strategic partnerships with com­

panies such as Kmart, Zellers and Sears. "It's a wonderful company with great

growth possibilities, a clean balance sheet

and great management ," says Murphy."!

expect to have a long, fruitfu l and chal­

lenging career here."

Like many young professionals, Murphy

is juggling a career with fam ily responsibil­ities. She and her husband, Michael Luksha,

whom she met in Guelph in 1984, have a

seven-month-old daughter, a three-year-old

son and a new home in the suburbs.

But Murphy, a native of Stoney Creek,

Ont., seems unfazed by all th e recent

changes in her life. ''I've always risen to the occasion with respect to challenges."

Indeed, her record speaks for itself.

Murphy skipped a couple of grades in

elementary school, so she was only 16 when

she grad uated from high school and

enrolled at McMaster University. By the time

she was 21, she had a bachelor's degree from

U of G and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. At 19, she started her own

business, a dance studio in Guelph, with her two sisters."! wasn't a dancer, but my sis-

ters were great gymnasts, and I was always

the little entrepreneur," she says. "This was

during the years when Flashdance was real­ly big, so I called my sisters and said: 'Come

turn your activity into a summer job."'

But it was basketball, not dancing, that brought Murphy to Guelph. "I didn't make

the basketball team at Mac my first year and

I was crushed;' she says. A friend suggested

she take some summer courses at U of G to

take her mind off it, so she enrolled and fell

in love with the campus. "I trained really hard that summer and

tried out for the Guelph team and made it,"

says Murphy, who played basketball

throughout her years at U of G and later for

the University of Western Ontario. "We went

back and kicked McMaster's behind," she

adds with a laugh.

After graduating from Guelph, Murphy went to work for Confederation Life Insur­ance Company and also taught financial man­

agement courses with Braithwaite.

She went on to work as a senior analyst

for Prudential-Bache Securities, then became

vice-president of research for Richardson

Greenshields before moving to New York in

1990 to join PolyGram Holding Inc. At PolyGram, she rose from vice-president of

investor relations to become CPO of the

record company in 1997. In 1999, she left to

I

become the chief financial officer for West­

vaco Corp., a paper and packaging company,

before joining Martha Stewart this fall.

Murphy has been with Martha Stewart

long enough that she's ready for the

inevitable question: what's it like to work for

the queen of do-it-yo urself projects? "Well,

she's brilliant;' says Murphy. "She has craft­

ed a wonderful creative company and devel-

oped a great brand. She has great intuitive

skills, so it's really challenging to work with

her. She is very multifaceted, very smart and

very demanding. Those are key characteris­

tics for a successful growth company."

Although Murphy is planning on a long

career with Martha Stewart, she says she can

see herself following in Braithwaite's foot­

steps one day. "!love teaching because stu-

., I

~ 0 OJ -< n I

"' -< til --< -< z )>

r.:::: ~

"' 0 . ::;;:

dents ask the most insightful questions and

are unencumbered by the day-to-day pace

of life. l find it very intellectually rewarding:'

Braithwaite has kept in touch with Mur­

phy over the years. He attended her wedding,

and the two exchange Christmas cards and

e-mail messages. How does he think Mur­

phy will do at her new job? "She'll handle

Martha Stewart," he says with confidence.

Spring 2000 21

til

"' .-< @ )> til til 0 n

~ .,., 0 ., "' .,., til til

-

Marty Beecroft

A VIP in the pop . music scene is headed for the top with the boys from Barrie

MOST UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WOrk

hard to earn a degree in a field that interests them and dream about

landing the perfect job when they graduate.

Marty Beecroft, B.Sc.(H.K.) '98, wasn't much different, except that while he was

studying human kinetics at the University

of Guelph, he was dreaming about fame and

fortune in the music business.

He's been dreaming about a music career

since high school in Barrie, Ont., where he

started singing in the school choir and

teamed up with Glenn Coulson and Joe Hes­

lip to form an a cap pella trio. Their first paid

gig was a birthday party, where they earned

extra money by serving the hors d'oeuvres.

Today they're rising stars in the pop

music scene- "VIP is Canada's answer to

the Backstreet Boys;' say some critics- win­

ners of the Best New Group Award at the

March 1999 Canadian Radio Music Awards and a Genie Award in January 2000 for best original song. If you've seen the movie jacob

Two Two Meets t~e Hooded Fang, then you've

heard the song One Thing to Say as written

and recorded by VIP for the movie score. Beecroft says the most difficult- but ulti­

mately the best- decision that he and his Barrie buddies made was to complete uni­

versity degrees before taking the plunge into

the music industry. "The growth and matu-

22 GuELPH ALUMNUS

rity that you acquire as a result of the uni­versity experience is absolutely invaluable,"

he says. There were many soul-searching dis­

cussions during those four years at Guelph,

he says, "but it would have been a nightmare

if we'd left university early to do the music thing. We would have fallen on our faces."

Beecroft, a recipient of Guelph's presti­

gious President's Scholarship, chose to study

science because it's a subject he's always

enjoyed, but admits he may have been influ­

enced by the fact that both his parents and

two brothers are professionals in the med­

ical field. "I think the variety of courses in human kinetics appealed to me," he says,

"and because there's nothing definite about

the music business, I wanted a career cush­ion I can fall back on ."

The other members of the Barrie trio

attended Wilfrid Laurier University, Heslip

studying opera and Coulson earning a degree in communications and theatre.

During their university years, the trio

became a quartet when they added Peter

Luciano of Brampton, a music student at

Berklee Coll ege in Boston. They named their vocal ensemble VIP- short for Voic­

es in Public - because it's catchy and easy to remember, and spent their weekends

learning about the music industry and

improving their songwriting skills.

The VIP strategy seems to be paying off.

They wrote and recorded their first album,

Do You Think You're Ready?, during their last year at university and released it under their

own family- and friend-supported record

label right after graduation. The song just My

Luck was an immediate hit single. VIP crisscrossed Canada twice on a 1999

summer tour, made dozens of television

appearances and shot a music video in Bar­

bados. A promotional tour of Germany last fall ended in a licensing agreement that

released just My Luck in Germany, Austria

and Switzerland in January.

They've just released a new video called It's My Nature and are ready to release their

second Canadian album. This time they're

looking for a major record label that will

demand more attention in the United States.

Beecroft says they're now ready for fame and fortune ... and for the throngs of scream­

ing teenage girls who have made American "boys-next-door" groups among the hottest

commodities in the music industry. He

doesn't mind the Backstreet comparison

and says the boys-next-door image is pret­ty accurate. "When you see us on stage, that's us as we really are."

Although YIP's most vocal fans are part of the lucrative teenage market, some of the

group's most loyal ones are people who just

like good vocal harmonies. Beecroft likes to

remind people that YIP's musical roots are

based in a cappella singing. "A cappella

music is challenging and fun to do;' he says,

"but it won't get played on the radio because

the sound is too hollow." But the synthe­

sized music on their first album sti ll gives

way to a few a cappell a songs in live con­

certs, and YIP 's second album will use

acoustic guitar instrumentals in an effort to

keep the sound more raw and natural.

Ranging in age from 23 to 25, Beecroft,

Coulson, Heslip and Luciano are looking at

the U.S. pop music charts r ight now, but

true to form, they have long-term plans to

explore other areas of the music industry

- songwriting, production, management,

film, stage and television.

Beecroft admits he's hooked on per­

forming . He loved it in high school. He

loved singing with U of G choirs and per­

forming in Curtain Call productions, and

he loves what he's doing right now. " It's

great to be on stage with the guys and per­

forming for an audience that's having a great

time, and having a great time because of

what we're doing."

Spring 2000 23

Mike Garrett

Mega -city boss • • Is growing an international reputation for Toronto

fit THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE officer

(CAO) of a city of some 2.5 million

people, Mike Garrett manages

Toronto's civil-service workforce of 45,000.

But in his early years, he always imagined

growing up to be a farmer. Garrett was bitten by the husbandry bug

while spending summers during high school

working on a dairy farm. Convinced that

his calling involved tractors, fields and phys­

ical labour, he enrolled at U of G.

"When I got to university, I found out

that if I wasn't a farmer's son, I wasn't going

to inherit a farm, and being in the business

of farming was more than I imagined." So he opted to become an "Aggie engineer"

instead. He studied water resources engi­

neering and received a B.Sc.(Eng.) in 1969.

Today, Garrett oversees the management

of 632 square kilometres of Ontario's best farmland, but it's all paved with concrete.

As CAO of Canada's largest city, he's con­

cerned with everything from the sewer and

water lines under that concrete to main­

taining Toronto's 5,100 km of roadways and

the essential services that travel over them to provide police protection and fire and

ambulance help. "We look after everything

from beds in homes for the aged to flower

beds," says Garrett, whose portfolio also includes social services like welfare, subsi-

24 GuELPH ALUMNUS

dized child care, social housing and emer­

gency winter housing for the homeless.

He directly oversees 25,000 em ployees

and another 20,000 indirectly. They all became part of Toronto's mega-city when

Garrett took over in 1997 and began the

process of incorporating seven municipal­

ities into the unified Toronto.

"I almost can't believe how much we've

accomplished in just over two years. We

were working with seven different organi­

zations, with seven different organization­

al structures, and looking at how to stream­line them. It's been a huge task. But all of

the changes allow us to manage a corpora­

tion that has an operating budget of about

$6 billion a year and almost another $1 bil­lion a year in capital spending."

Garrett changed more than his career at

U of G when he met his future wife, Mar­

garet (Smyth ), a 1968 BA graduate who is

now an elementary teacher in Scarborough.

They have two grown children. Originally

from Ottawa, he earned a graduate degree

from Queen's University in 1970 before

landing a job as a resources engineer with

the Metro Toronto and Region Conserva­

tion Authority. He spent the next 10 years looking after river valley flood control and

waterfront development.

From there, Garrett went to work in the

South National River Basin area of eastern

Ontario, and later worked as assistant

deputy minister of Ontario's Ministry of

Natural Resources before becoming CAO of Peel region.

"About halfway through my career, I

made the switch from water resource man­

agement to administration and general

management," says Garrett, adding with a

laugh: "There are some days when I won­der why I did it."

Toronto's amalgamation posed a challenge. "We had a w1ique opportw1ity to create a new

administrative structure for the city;' says Gar­

rett. "Designing a new management and deliv­

ery structure for a city of this size has been a

challenge, but I think we've done a pretty good

job. We've got our major businesses broken

up into a whole variety of cost centres so we

can track and monitor performance in terms

of efficiency and customer service. Not many cities of our size can do that."

But big cities don't grow without prob­

lems, says Garrett, citing such high-profile

issues as complaints of intimidation by the

police union, squeegee kids who scare

motorists and lack of accommodation for the

homeless. Despite the amount of media cov­

erage given to these issues, Garrett says most

of the day-to-day calls handled by his staff involve hard services like garbage collection,

building applications and snow removal.

In his fir·st winter on the job, he took

more than a few quips from other parts of

Canada when Toronto mayor Mel Lastman

called in the army reserves to help dig out

from a four-day series of storms that left the

city buried under more snow than it would

expect to see in an entire winter. "The prob­

ability of a storm like that hitting Toronto is

once every ll 0 to 115 years," says Garrett,

but if it happens again while he's in the boss's

chair, "I think we'll be much better prepared:'

Garrett laughingly admits that working

with Toronto's colourful mayor has made the

job more exciting. "Mel is a very interesting

guy, very tuned in with what the public wants,

and an astute politician. We work well togeth­

er because he leaves the administration up to

me, and I leave the politics up to him:'

They may take a different approach, but

the mayor and the CAO are working toward

the same goal: enhancing Toronto·s posi­

tion as a major player on the global stage.

Regardless of who does the survey, Toron­

to usually ranks in the top 10 per cent of

best places to live and work, says Garrett,

"but we don't want to sit on our laurels."

Spring 2000 25

UN IVERSITY OF GUELPH

ALUMNI PROFILE

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO BUILD A COMMUNITY

THE DESIRE TO HELP his community and

give something back to his alma mater

provided the motivation for Scott vanEn­

gen, B.Sc.(Agr.) '88, to volunteer to join the

executive of the University of Guelph

Alumni Association (UGAA) in 1997.

He assumed the president's chair last

June. A chartered accountant at Robinson

& Company, vanEngen works with anum­

ber of other Guelph graduates and has many

clients who have an affiliation with the Uni­

versity through the agri-food industry. These

relationships- and that fact that he plays

pick-up hockey at the U of G arena once a

week- give him a broad picture of how

important U of G is to his community.

VanEngen was born in Paris, Ont., and

grew up on a farm in Brant County. His

interest in farming and animal science

brought him to U of G, where he complet­

ed a degree in animal science with a minor

in agricultural business. He found his niche

in the agribusiness and marketing courses

he took. After graduation, he joined Robin­

son & Company and pursued his chartered

accou ntant designation.

His commLmity involvement also includes

serving on the Transit Advisory Committee

in Guelph and the Waterloo/Wellington

Chartered Accountants Association.

In recent years, vanEngen has built up a

specialty in succession planning for family­

owned businesses, and he says the experi ­

ence of helping people evaluate their busi­

ness and define their goals has been an asset

~ in working with UGAA.

~ He admits he knew little about UGAA

~when he first decided to get involved in

~ alumni activities, but says he was "blown

:i away" by the potential it has as an umbrel­

ii:i Ia for all Guelph alumni groups and as a

i3 contact point for all 70,000 alumni, regard­

ii: less of their college affiliation.

26 GuELPH ALUMNUS

VanEngen had the desire to contribute

to his alma mater, and easy access because

he lives in Guelph, but what about other

alumni? It's harder to sustain a relationship

with more distant graduates, says vanEn­

gen, but he thinks the alumni association is

taking positive steps to increase opportuni­

ties for communication. Next on their exec­

utive agenda is a marketing study to zero in

on the opinions of association members.

UGAA has also made significant changes

in the consolidation of financial assets and

restructuring of its accounting system, says

vanEngen. UGAA and alumni programs

staff negotiated an agreement that allows

constituent groups to invest their financial

assets in the U of G Endowment Fund.

The new arrangement means alumni

groups can take advantage of the endow­

ment fund's professional management team

and use their volunteer time more produc-

tively to strengthen relationships with alum­

ni and develop initiatives that benefit stu­

dents, says vanEngen.

UGAA and University staff are trying to

open new Internet windows for alumni

communications by exploring the way

alumni associations at other universities are

using the Internet to inform and involve

alumni. "We are rebuilding our Web site

because we think there is a great opportu­

nity to link electronically with more alum­

ni," says vanEngen. "Eventually, we'd like to

work with the University to ensure our cur­

rent students don't lose their e-mail con­

nection when they graduate."

"Friend-raising" is one of the alumni

association's primary objectives, says van En- L== ===== gen, and that may be as easy as helping

graduates continue the friendships they

began as students.

atters HIGIILIGIITS ·GRAD NEWS· OBITUARIES • CALENDAR

A•"' it•ersarot Mom & 11 ~tllll''i ''rl ,, I /!! H ot/li'/tl/1•1 \/ tll/1111 \IJI!il•',','li'd',', ";11"/~r,/H/'

'

On their soth wedding anniversary, Walter and Marian MacDougald of Fullerton, Ont., received an unusual gift that celebrated not only

their life together, but also their belief in lifelong learning. Their

children surprised them by endowing a U of G scholarship in their name. Members of the MacDougald family are, from left: Bill,

B.Sc.(H.K.) '74; Doug, OVC '77; Walter; Marian; Jan, B.A.Sc, '77;

Pat; and Ormond, B.Sc.(Agr.) '86.

DON'T FORGET YOUR SHADOW In the last year, severa l U of G

alumni each invited a student to

"shadow" their careers for a day.

It was a chance for students to

experience first-hand a job in

their field of interest, and gain

valuable advice from a profes­

sional who has already experi­enced the anxiety of deciding

which career to follow.

The job Shadow Program is

a student-run initiative looking

for employers who will spend a day at work with an interested Guelph student. To find out

more about job shadowing, contact U of G Career Services

in the Counselling and Student Resource Centre, 519-824-4120,

Ext. 4797, or e-mail shadow@

uoguelph.ca.

LOOKING FOR AN INTERNATIONAL POSITION? U of G's Centre for Internation­

al Programs regularly receives

information about positions

overseas or with international

organizations in Canada. If you

would like to be informed of

these opportunities, e-mail jan

Walker at jwalker@uoguelph.ca

and ask her to add your name to the centre's new international job listing service.

Alumni Directory in Progress

I<EEP IN TOUCH with Guelph friends and classmates. A

new U of G alumni directory is

in production and is scheduled

to be available as a book or CD­

ROM in August 2000.

Development and Public

Affairs has contracted with Vir­

ginia-based Harris Publishing

to produce the University's new alumni directory, says Michael

Somerville, director of alumni

affairs. "Harris produced the

1990 U of G directory, and was

recommended by the other Canadian universities we called to find an experienced publish­er for Guelph's new directory,"

he says. More than 20,000 U of G

alumni have already called the

Harris toll-free number, 1-800-

550-4762, to verify their listing:

name and address, degree and

job title. Other alumni will receive a call to verify their per­

sona l information in the next

few weeks. All U of G graduates

will be listed in the directory

unless they request anonymity.

The directory is offered to U

of G alumni only through advance sa les and will not be

sold or distributed for commer­

cial purposes.

If you have questions about

the directory project, call

Somerville at 519-824-4120, Ext.

6544. To verify your address information or to place your

order for a 2000 U of G Alum­

ni Directory, call 1-800-550-4762. The cost is $79.99 for the

softcover version, $89.99 for

hardcover or CD-ROM, plus

GST and shippi ng.

Books are on the minds of Grant Robinson, BA '73, left, and Michael

Ridley, BA '75, U of G's chief librarian. They're checking out some

of the books purchased through a library endowment fund estab­

lished by the Class of 1973 as a 25th-anniversary project. Class members can continue to make contributions to the endowment through the U of G Annual Fund. For more information, call Devel·

opment and Public Affairs at 519·824·4120, Ext. 6183.

Spring 2000 27

1999 Coming Events

March 18 & 19 - College

Royal. To volunteer or send a

donation, call Ext. 8366.

March 31 & Apri11 - OAC

Alumni Association annual

bonspiel at the Guelph Curl­

ing Club. Call Carla Brad­shaw at Ext. 6657 to register. April 28 - All-Canadian

Universities Dinner, Wash­

ington, D.C., Press Club, 6

p.m., hosted by the Universi­

ty of British Columbia. Call Ext. 6657 for details. May 6 - If you lived in

Mil ls Hall in or around 1980,

mark this date for a reunion.

Meet old friends, play golf,

enjoy a barbecue dinner and

stay over for a Saturday­

night party; contact Ross McKenzie at mckenzieross @hotmail.com or 519-846-8461. June 16 to 18 - Alumni

Weekend.

July 7 to 9 - B.Sc.(H.K.)'75

25th reunion. Events include

Friday night wine and cheese

and Saturday campus tour,

pancake brunch and eveni ng

barbecue. For more informa­tion, contact Lynn McFerran at PLM@thehospital.net or Alan Fairweather at 519-824-4120, Ext. 2220, or afair­wea@ath. uoguelph.ca. Summer 2ooo - FACS '85

is planning a reunion gather­

ing. For more information, contact Eleanor Copping at 905-827-6970; e-mail eleanor. copping@sheridanc. on. ca.

For more infor~ation about any alumni event, call the U of G extension listed at 519-824-4120 or send e-mail to alumni@uoguelph.ca. Visit the UGAA Web site at www. ugalumni. uoguelph.ca.

28 GUELPH ALUMNUS

GRAD NEWS

From the artist's brush and heart • Jane (Leach) Eccles, BA '70,

painted Willow in 1994 in

response to the deaths of her

mother and aunt from cancer. It

was the same year a Toronto­

based resource centre called Wil­

low opened to provide support

for women with breast cancer.

When Eccles read about the peer

support group, she saw a natur­

al connection and started a pro­

ject to produce poster prints of

her painting as a fund-raiser for

the centre.

Production costs for the

posters were supported, in part,

by another Guelph alumnus,

Don Ziraldo, B.Sc. (Agr.) '7 1, of

lnniskillin Wines, and all pro­

ceeds are used to support Wil­

low's cross-Canada programs,

which allow women and their

families to draw support from

breast cancer survivors. The

poster can be purchased for $15

19405 • George McLaughlin, BSA '46,

was inducted into the Canadian

Agricultural Hall of Fame during

U of G Degrees ADA= Associate diploma

in agriculture BA = Bachelor of arts B.A.Sc. = Bachelor of applied

science B.Comm. = Bachelor of

commerce B.H.Sc. = Bachelor of house­

hold science BLA = Bachelor of

landscape architecture BSA = Bachelor of science in

agriculture (pre-1965) B.Sc.(Agr.) = Bachelor of

science in agriculture B.Sc. = Bachelor of science B.Sc.(Eng.) = Bachelor of

science in engineering

from Willow at 785 Queen St. E.

in Toronto or ordered from

Eccles in Bowmanville. She is

married to artist Ron Eccles, BA

the Royal Agricultural Winter

Fair last November. A successful

dairy and sheep farmer near

Oshawa, he devoted a lifetime to

B.Sc.(Env.) = Bachelor of science in environmental sciences

B.Sc.(H.K.) = Bachelor of science in human kinetics

B.Sc.(P.E.) = Bachelor of science in physical education

DHE = Diploma in home economics

D.V.Sc. = Doctor of veterinary science

DVM = Doctor of veterinary medicine

GO = Graduate diploma MA = Master of arts M.Agr. = Master of agriculture

'70. To view their work and the

painting Willow, visit the Web site

http:/ /web home. idi rect.com/ - rec

cles/jane/index.html.

developing Canadian agriculture.

Founding chair of the Ontario

Milk Marketing Board, he devel­

oped a blueprint for supply man-

MBA = Master of business admininstration

M.Eng. = Master of engineering MFA = Master of fine art MLA = Master of landscape

architecture MMS = Master of management studies

0

M.Sc. = Master of science M.Sc.(Aqua) = Master of

science in aquaculture ODA = Ontario diploma in

agriculture ODH = Ontario diploma in

horticulture ODR = Ontario diploma in

recreation PhD = Doctor of philosophy

agement and the milk marketing

system. He also served as presi­

dent of the Dairy Farmers of

Canada, the Holstein Association

of Canada and the Ontario Insti­

tute of Agrologists, and was

founding chair of the Ontario

She~p Marketing Agency.

He was awarded the H.R.

McMillan Laureate in Agriculture

in 1974 and the Order of Cana­

da in 1977 in recognition of his

leadership. From 1986 to 1995,

he served as chair of the Ontario

Farm Debt Review Board.

• Walter Packman, BSA '49, has

published a book about his

experiences as an international

consultant in agriculture and

rural development. He was

enjoying a progressive career

with the Department of Agri­

culture in Ottawa when, in 1956,

he accepted a two-year position

with the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United

Nations. After returning to

Canada, he served with the

Department of Indian and

Northern Affairs, the National

Energy Board and the Agricul­

tural Rehabilitation and Devel­

opment Administration before

turning to private consulting,

which took him overseas again

to more than 30 underdeveloped

countries. His memoirs, 1 Tried

to Help, was publi'shed in 1999

by Algonquin College and is

priced at $35. The book chron­

icles Packman's international

experiences and reveals many of

the problems faced by rural

development professionals as

they deal with a variety of eco-

nomic, climatic, cultural and

religious conditions around the

world.

• Lawrence Massey, BSA '67,

and his daughter, Angie,

B.Sc.(H.K.) '99, think of U of G's

Massey Hall as a family heir­

loom. They are descendants of

Hart Massey, founder of the

Massey-Harris Machinery Com­

pany, who paid for the con­

struction of Massey Hall as a

campus library in 1903.

Lawrence operates the century­

old Massey family farm near

Castleton, Ont. His wife, joanne,

took this photo at Angie's 1999

convocation. A member of the

varsity women's ice hockey team

during her student days, Angie

is now enrolled in an education

program at the University of

Toronto.

19705

• Sylvia Ahermae, B.Sc. '78,

went on from Guelph to earn an

education degree at the Univer­

sity of Toronto and an M.A.Ed.

from the University of Phoenix.

She taught biology and mathe­

matics in Fort Collins, Colo., for

10 years and is now teaching sci­

ence methods at Colorado State

University. She and her husband,

Andres Teene, have three chil­

dren, Eero, )aanu and Maiki.

• John Ghetti, ADFA '79, con­

tinued his education at the

Southern Alberta Institute of

Technology and earned a degree

in petroleum engineering at the

University of Southwestern

Let your spirit soar

A T A LUMNI WEEKEND 2000

JUNE 16 TO 18

Check the next issue of

the Guelph Alumnus

for program details

or contact Alumni Affairs

at 519-824-4120, Ext. 6544,

or vikkit@alumni.uoguelph .ca.

Spring 2000 29

Louisiana in 1988. He was

employed by Tru-Tee Services, a

Koch Industries Company, as

southeast regional manager and

is now president of Magna-Tee, a division of Tru-Tee Inc. He has

one son, Scott, and lives in Baton

Rouge, La. Contact him by e­

mail at GhettiJ@kochind.com.

• Robert Michaud, M.Sc. '79, is a veterinarian with Agriculture

and Agri-Food Canada tn

Ottawa. He was recently elected

to the Grace Hospital board in Ottawa. He is also serving a third

term on the board of the

Queensway-Carleton Hospital.

• Gary Whitfield, B.Sc.(Agr.) '75 and M.Sc. '77, earned a PhD in

entomology at Michigan State University and has worked since

1982 as a research scientist for

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, Alta., and

in Harrow and Delhi, Ont. He is

currently director of the Green­

house and Processing Crops

Research Centre in Harrow and

can be reached by e-mail at

whitfieldg@em.agr.ca.

• Graham Worthy, B.Sc. '79, M.Sc. '82 and PhD '85, has been

on faculty in the Department of

Marine Biology at Texas A&M

University since 1990. He is

director of the Physiological

Ecology and Bioenergetics Lab­

oratory as well as the Texas

Marine Mammal Stranding Net­work. He and his wife, Tamara,

live in League City.

t98os • Laurie (Stowe) Alba,

B.Sc.(H.K.) '80, met her hus­

band, Cesar, in Guelph and

moved to his native Peru after

they were married. They have two daughters, Kelsea and Cody,

and Laurie teaches physical and

health education at Colegio F.D.

Roosevelt, the American school

in Lima.

• Tim Allen, B.Sc.(Agr.) '87, and

his wife, Karen, live in Missis­

sauga, Ont., with their infant

daughter, Paige Elaine, and two­

year-old, Claire Nicole. They can

be reached by e-mail at tdallen@netcom.ca.

• Scott Barden, DVM '83 and MBA '99, is currently working

for the Canadian Food Inspec­

tion Agency in Paris, Ont. • Carolyn (Peach), M.Sc. '85,

and Doug Brown, B.Sc.(Agr.)

'83, left the Democratic Repub­

lic of the Congo last summer because of war conditions there.

They have been working in agri­

cultural development for the

past 10 years, but are now living

with their sons, Nathan and Matthew, in Ithaca, N.Y., where

Doug is beginning a graduate program at Cornell University.

• Derin (Aylin) Denham, B.Sc.

'87, is director of public relations

at Bridge Integrated Communi­

cations in Cincinnati, Ohio. She

worked previously as a freelance

consultant for health-care, phar­

maceutical and scientific clients.

She can be reached by e-mail at

d.denham@bridgeagency.com.

• Gordon Harvey, BA '80, mar­ried Alma Urrutia in August

1998. They live in Vancouver,

where he is an instructional/mul­

timedia designer running his

own business called guided Design. He can be reached bye­

mail at geharvey@excite.com.

• Michael Ho, BA '88 and MA '89, and his wife, Patricia Tse, BA

'89, live in Hong Kong, where

Ho is program director of real

estate studies in the School of

Professional and Con tinuing

Education at the University of

Hong Kong. He expanded his economics degrees with a PhD

from the University of Toronto

and taught there for a year

before returning to Hong Kong.

He can be reached by e-mail at drmikeho@hkuspace.hku.hk.

• Michael, BA '89, and Diane

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30 GuELPH ALUMNUS

Display a first-series U of G crested licence

plate on your car.

Order numbers 01 to 99 to show off your

year of graduation.

U of G plates are $52. Pick up at Alumni House

or call 519-824-4120, Ext. 6544.

Crested U of G plates are also available from all Ontario Ministry of Transportation offices.

(Page) Jaeger, B.A.Sc. '87, live in

Brantford, Ont., with their chil­

dren, Jennifer and Sean. Michael

practises law with the Hamilton

firm Graydon Sheppard, and

Diane is a nutritionist at the

Brantford General Hospital.

Their e-mail address is mjaeger

@attcanada.net.

• Allan Johnston, PhD '83, is the

managing general partner of

Synergy Partners, a medical

technology-focused venture cap­

ital firm he founded in 1996 in

Menlo Park, Calif.

• J.J. Kavelaars, B.Sc. '89, is a

post -doctoral fellow in theoret­

ical physics at McMaster Uni­

versity in Hamilton, Ont., and

one of two Canadian scientists

who have discovered four new

moons circling Uranus. Two

planetary objects were spotted

in 1997 while the scientists were

looking for comets; the last two

were discovered July 18, 1999,

from photographs.

• Chunzhu Liu, M.Sc. '86, is

working in the Economic

Research Centre and Informa­

tion Centre of Qinddao Hi-Tech

Park in China as director and

professor of economics. He wel­

comes contact from U of G

classmates by e-mail at czl@hi­

tech.chinaqingdao.net.

• William Mann, MLA '80, has

a new book published by Laugh­

ing Owl Publishing Inc. The

Labyrinth of the Grail looks at

the pre-Columbian exploration

and settlement of North Amer­

ica by the medieval Knights

Templar and their Celtic/Norse

forefathers and links these early

explorers to modern-day

Freemasonry. Mann lives in

Oakville, Ont., and works as a

planning and development con­

sultant.

• John Milligan, BA '86, was

recently married to Arlene Hills,

and they are the proud parents

of a son, Matthew, born in Sep­

tember 1999. Milligan is key

account manager at National

Importers in Brampton, Ont.

• Kong Hwee Kevin Ooi, BA

'89, is an IT consultant with the

Singapore National Computer

Board. Previously, he was a busi­

ness analyst with ABN AMRO

Bank. He and his wife, Lisa

(Choi), B.A.Sc. '91, have two

children, Jasmine and Andrew.

Lisa is a nutritionist with the

Ministry of Health. They would

love to hear from Guelph friends

by e-mail at kevinooi@pacif­

ic.net.sg.

• Greg Schneider, B.Sc.(Agr.)

'81, and his wife, Myrna, live in

London, Ont., with their daugh­

ter, Molly. He works at Middle­

sex Mutual Insurance Co. in

Ilderton.

• Sue Sibley, B.Sc. '84, lives in

Georgetown, Ont., with her hus­

band and three children, Jarrod,

Moira and Caleb. She has been

employed by Bayer Inc. as a reg­

ulatory affairs project manager

since 1991 and welcomes e-mail

from friends at ijzerman@path­

com.com.

• John Span, B.Sc.(Agr.) '80, and

his wife, Anne, have three sons,

Joel, Caleb and David, and live

in Waterdown, Ont.

• Karen (Mcilroy) Stenhouse,

B.Sc. '87, worked in agricultur­

al chemical research and mar­

keting for 10 years, but is now

running a home-school for her

children, Alison, Claire and lain.

The family lives in the Prince­

ton-Trenton area of New Jersey

and can be reached via e-mail at

kstenhouse@earthlink.net.

• Kyle Urech, BA '87, and his

OTAGO WELCOMES GUELPH KNOW-HOW • The University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, has a

number of Guelph alumni and former staff working in its

departments of microbiology, human nutrition, mathematics

and statistics, food science, chemistry, design studies and sur­

veying, and its Bioethics Research Centre. Front row, from left:

Mira (Mihajlovic) Amer, M.Sc. '90; Winsome (Harding) Par­

nell, M.Sc. '80; former family studies professor Rosalind Gib­

son; Elaine Ferguson, B.Sc. '84 and PhD '92; and Caryn Thomp­

son, B.Sc.(Agr.) '83 and M.Sc. '87. Back row: Alex Lautensach,

former staff member in the Department of Molecular Biology

and Genetics; Mary Johnson, M.Sc. '89; Sheila (Dunthorne)

Skeaff, B.Sc. '84 and M.Sc. '88; Murray Skeaff, PhD '88; Diane

Bourn, M.Sc. '84; and Metta and Henrik Kjaergaard, former

post -doctoral student and sessional lecturer. U of G alumni not

pictured are Peter, BA '87, and Valerie Knight, B.Sc. '89, and

Mark McGuire, BA '80.

wife, Kim, live in Singapore,

where he is a senior account

executive for Policy Manage­

ment Systems Corporation. He

says he would like to hear from

some of the old four north guys

from Johnston Hall. His e-mail

address is kyleurech@pmsc.com.

19905

• Ingrid Ambus, BA '96, worked

in psychosocial oncology

research in Toronto for three

years before beginning a master's

program in genetic counselling

last September at the University

of Manchester in England.

• Elaine Anderson, B.Sc. '96, has

worked in the food industry

since graduation and is now a

production manager with Lip­

ton Monarch in Belleville, Ont.

She would like to hear from U

of G friends and can be reached

by e-mail at eanderso@kos.net.

• Don Bradford, BA '92, and his

wife, Michelle, were married in

1999 and bought a new house in

Woodstock, Ont. He is commu­

nication manager for the Perth

District Health Unit and invites

old friends to contact him

through e-mail at bradford!

@sympatico.ca.

• Kenneth Carson, B.Sc.(Agr.)

'93, and his wife, Laura, run a

dairy farm near Cameron, Ont.

He also works at Sunderland

Co-op.

• Karen (Kapusniak), B.Comm.

'92, and Robert Chin announce

the birth of their daughter,

Olivia Jasmine, born Aug. 18,

1999. They are living in Van­

couver.

• Erin Day, BA '95, is a teacher

Spring 2000 31

in Taiwan and ca n be reached

through e-mail at dayerin@hot­

mail.com.

• Mary (Osika), B.Sc. '93, and

Stephen Duda, B.Sc. '92, were

married in September 1998 and

live in Fort Nelson, B.C. She is a

biologist running the forest

renewal program for Slocan For­

est Products, and he is a forestry

land information officer with the

B.C. Ministry of Forests.

• Christina Epifani, B.Comm.

'97, began her career at the

jasper Park Lodge in Alberta,

where she used her spare time to

coach jasper's first girls' hockey

team. She spent time visiting

friends Lorin Gaertner, B.Sc '96,

in Houston, Texas, and Gwen

Thirlwall, B.Sc. '97, in Nunavut

before moving back to Ontario.

She now works in reservation

sales for Choice Hotels Interna­

tional in Mississauga.

• Laura Green, B.Sc.(Agr.) '99,

was the 1999 recipient of a grad-

uating award given in memory

of the late Dawn Morris, who

launched the Canadian Interna­

tional Farm Equipment Show.

An agricultural economics grad­

uate, Green grew up on a dairy

farm near Wain fleet, Ont., was

active in OAC student activities

and is now an associate agricul­

tural account manager at the TD

Bank in Wallaceburg, Ont.

• Paul Henderson, B.Comm.

'95, lives in Waterdown, Ont.,

with his wife and two children.

He works for Spagnol's, a wine­

and beer-making supply com­

pany that provides sales support

to on-premises wineries in west­

ern Ontario. His e-mail address

is paul@spectranet.ca.

• Tina Hildenbrand, B.A.Sc. '94,

teaches Grade 6 at Downie Cen­

tral Public School in St. Paul's,

Ont., and would like to hear

from FACS '94 grads at

tinahildenbrand@hotmail.com.

Craig jackson, B.Sc. '94, and

Camille Touee, B.Sc. '95, cele­

brated the birth of their daugh­

ter, Alexis jackson, last May.

They live in Kapuskasing, Ont.,

where he is a high school teacher

and she runs Sky by Night Web

design.

• John Johnston, B.Sc. '95, works

for the Indiana Geological Sur­

vey Institute at Indiana Univer­

sity in Bloomington. He is work­

ing on a global climate change

study in the Great Lakes, trying

to reconstruct detailed lake-lev­

els curves that can be used to

predict future lake levels.

• David Kasserra, B.Sc. '98, and

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2 courses each term

Classes I day a week

his wife, Christine, were married

in September 1999 and live in

Kingston , Ont. He works for

Parks Canada, using both his

Guelph degree and a history

degree from Queen's University

to write a book about historical

markers in Kingston. He is also

developing a Web site about

national historic sites at

www.HeritageKingston.on.ca

and www.parkscanada.pch.gc.ca

/parks/ ontario/ multi2_ e. h tm .

• Kim Markowski, B.Sc. '97,

works for Effem Inc. in Pet Care

Research and Development/Tech­

nical Services in California. She

recently completed an assign­

ment at a Kal Kan site in Los

Angeles, where she focused on

improving the esthetics, palata­

bility and cost savings of canned

pet foods (Pedigree and Whiskas

varieties).

• Ginette Mazerolle, BA '93, is

a lawyer with the federal Depart­

ment of justice in Halifax. She

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32 GuELPH ALUMNUS

met her husband, juan Rocha,

while working in his native Peru,

and they have been married

almost three years. She invites

Guelph friends from Lambton

Hall, French House and inter­

national development to e-mail

her at gmazerol@justice.gc.ca.

• Paul McEwan, BA '94, earned

a master's degree from Wilfrid

Laurier and an education degree

from the University of Western

Ontario. He is now working on a

PhD in TV /radio/film at North­

western University in Evanston,

Ill., and is married to )enn God­

du. Send e-mail to p-mcewan

@nwu.ed.

• Kari (Heinrichs), B.Comm.

'93, and Peter Norman, MA '93,

never knew each other as U of G

students, but met while both

were working as economists in

Toronto. They were married last

summer.

• Gerry Prentice, B.Sc. '96, is a

lab technician in U of G's

Department of Chemistry and

Biochemistry. He was married

last summer to Lea Saigle, B.Sc.

'97, and can be reached through

e-mail at gprentice@uoguelph.ca.

• Andre Raine, B.Sc. '96, recent­

ly earned an M.Sc. in conserva­

tion from the University of Lon­

don. He has worked on

biodiversity projects in national

parks in North Vietnam and

Zambia, and has conducted

research into the physical char­

acteristics and populations of

the critically endangered Bermu­

da rock lizard.

• Veeraraghavaiah Ravuri, PhD

'92, is an associate professor of

agronomy at Andhra Pradesh

Agricultural University in India

and won the university's 1999

Meritorious Teacher Award.

Ravuri has also enjoyed an FAO

visiting fellowship at the Uni­

versity of California, Davis, and

invites Guelph alumni to visit in

India. His e-mail address is

vravuri@hotmail.com.

• Tracy (Irving), B.Sc.(Agr.) '95,

and Reade Rintoul, BA '95, live

in Napier, New Zealand, with

their two-year-old daughter,

Amelia Edith. A former

zookeeper in Toronto, Tracy vol­

unteers at Marineland New

Zealand, and Reade works in

software development with Eric­

sson Communications.

• Tricia (Pella), BA '95, and Gae­

tano "Guy" Rosa, B.Comm. '96,

were married in October 1998,

with many U of G friends

attending. They live in Missis­

sauga, Ont., where Guy is an

account manager for BCI Bank

and Tricia is an environmental

planner with the Toronto and

Region Conservation Authority.

• Patricia Story, B.Sc.(Agr.) '92,

was project co-ordinator of the

Eastern Ontario Model Forest, a

forestry research project within

Natural Resources Canada's

model forest program, for six

years before returning to school

to complete a graduate diploma

in communications at Concor­

dia University in Montreal. She

invites OAC resources manage­

ment grads to write by e-mail to

pas@horslimites.qc.ca.

• Michelle Tovell, BA '94, lives

in Kitchener, Ont., and works for

Correctional Services Canada as

a correctional officer in a feder­

al women's prison. She began

master's studies at Wilfrid Lau­

rier University last September

and can be reached by e-mail at

michelle.tov@sympatico.ca.

• Simon, B.Sc. '97, and Tanya

(McMillan) Wright, B.Sc. '96,

were married last August in the

company of family, friends and

many Guelph alumni varsity

soccer players. They now live in

Oakville, Ont., and would like to

keep in touch with friends and

fellow grads through e-mail. The

address is tanya_wright @cp

can.ca.

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34 GuELPH ALUMNus

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GRAD NEWS UPDATES Send your career and family

news to: Alumni Records,

University of Guelph,

Guelph ON N1G 2W1

Fax: 519-822-2670,

E-mail: jeanw@alumni.

uoguelph.ca

Be sure to include your name,

degree & year, occupation,

addresses, telephone, fax

and e-mail numbers.

International Credential

Assessment Service

of Canada

Service canadien d'evaluation

de documents scolaires

internationaux

http:// www.icascanada.ca

George Dickson, BSA '38, died Oct. 9,

1999, in Guelph. Retired from Canada

Packers with over 40 years of service, he

was also a past president of the OAC

Alumni Association and a founding mem­

ber of the OAC Alumni Foundation. He is

survived by his wife, Margaret, and chil­

dren, Kent and Beverly Reed.

Herbert Pettipiere,

BSA '49, died Jan.

12,1999, in Guelph.

One of the founders

of the University of

Guelph and its first

registrar, he began

his career as the

youngest OAC dean

of men in 1950, and was registrar for the

federated colleges of OAC, OVC and Mac­

donald Institute before the 1964 founding

of U of G. In 1972, he left the University

to establish the Ontario Applications Cen­

tre, where he remained until his retirement

in 1990. He was also one of the founders

of the Canadian Registrars' Association.

He is survived by his wife, June, three chil­

dren, Steven, Linda and Keith, and 11

grandchildren.

Olive Thompson, DHE '33, died Dec. 24,

1999. A dedicated member of the class of

Mac '35 and a former president of the

University of Guelph Alumni Association,

she was featured in the Fall/Winter 1999

issue of the Guelph Alum1111S after she cel­

ebrated her 85th birthday with a parachute

jump. She is survived by four children and

three grandchildren.

Alumni Ralph Ainslie, BSA '33, Dec. 4, 1999

William Alford, BA '88, date unknown

Gabriel Ankeli, DVM '70, date unknown

Margaret Armstrong, DHE '32,

Sept. 10, 1-999

Keith Augustine, BSA '46, june 29, 1999

Mary Begley, B.A.Sc. '76, Oct. 3, 1996

William Bovaird, DVM '36, Oct. 25, 1999

George Burton, DVM '37, Aprill998

Evelyn Charles, DHE '37, june 13, 1999

James Cook, BA '75, Sept. 6, 1999

OBITUARIES

Bruce Coulter, BA '77, jan. 17, 2000

Francis Creech, DVM '49, july 7, 1999

Edithemma Dighton, DHE '33,

Dec. 14, 1999

Charles Doane, BSA '49, Nov. 23, 1999

Agnes Dobbin, DHE '30, date unknown

Douglas Donaldson, B.Sc. '81, in 1996

Glenn Downing, DVM '45,Aug. 19, \999

Wilson Eberle, BSA '40, April 8, 1998

Perle-Anne Fair, BA '80, Aug. 18, 1998

Angelo Ferraro, BSA '39, jan. \8, 2000

Donald Fletcher, BSA '39, Dec. 18, 1999

Robert Foster, B.Sc. '87, April18, \998

Russell Furness, DVM '52, Dec. 18, 1999

Lisa Gehrs, BA '92, Dec. 21, 1999

james Gillies, DVM '26, Dec. 28, 1999

Jean Gorell, DHE '27, July 6, 1999

Richard Green, B.Sc.(Agr.) '95,

Nov.17, 1999

Montgomery Hart, BSA '43,

March 31, 1999

Stella Howe, DHE '28, Aug. 10, 1999

Geok Hum, BA '85, Oct. 29, 1998

Carol Jagiello, B.A.Sc. '89, Nov. 10, 1999

Yuzhou Jin, PhD '91, Dec. 7, \999

Cecil Johnson, ADA '36, july 26, 1999

Johann Johnson, DVM '52,

Dec. 16, 1999

Albert Kristjanson, BSA 'SO,

Dec. 7, 1998

Donald Laughland, BSA '39,

Sept. 28, 1999

Gwendoline Lawrie, DHE '37,

date unknown

Bernice Lee, DHE '26, Oct. 25, 1999

Maureen Leeder, B.Comm. '83,

july 27, 1999

James Lennox, DVM '51, Nov. I, 1999

Hector Leroux, BSA '44, Sept. 21, 1999

Craig Leuty, BSA '48, April 21, 1999

Edward Lucking, BSA '61, Nov. 13, 1999

Richard Ludzik, DVM '75, Nov. 6, 1999

Christopher MacGee, BA '74,

Dec. 8, \997

Austin Manning, BSA '51, jan. 28,2000

Harry Marshall, BSA '39, Nov. 15, 1999

James Martin, B.Sc. '76, in 1994

Peggy McGonegal, BA '77, Nov. 26, 1994

James Moore, BSA '44, jan. 2, 2000

Ralph Morrison, ADA '79, Dec. 31, 1999

Carrie Mulligan, B.Sc. '97, Dec. 16, \999

Boris Myhal, BSA '55, Sept. 8, 1999

Jeanne Nakagawa, B.H.Sc.'S4,

December 1998

James Neil, BSA '47, Oct. 30, 1999

Gerry Peck, DVM 'SO, jan. 27, 2000

Lloyd Pegg, BSA '21, May 12, 1994

Charles Phillips, BSA '42, Nov. 30, 1999

Tom Pollok, BSA '58, May 22, 1999

Awni Raad, PhD '70, May I 0, 1996

Douglas Rawlins, BSA '38, Nov. 1, 1999

John Riehm, BSA '56, Nov. 28, 1999

Mary Rodgers, DHE '31, Apr. 27, 1999

Harriet Rooke, DHE '40, june 14, 1999

Ram Shakya, M.Sc. '86, date unknown

Melanie Singer, B.Sc. '78, jan. 3, 2000

Frederick Skelton, BSA '37,

Aug. 13, 1999

Robert Smiley, DVM '47, jan. 3, 2000

Elgin Smith, ADA '51, june 18, 1998

Kate Smith, B.Sc.(Agr.) '88,

Sept. 13, 1999

Andrew Stewart, B.Sc.(Agr.) '84,

Aug. 23, \999

Bruce Teasdale, BSA '34, Dec. 4, 1999

Janice Thachuk, B.Sc. '88, Feb. 6, 1999

Leonard Tovell, DVM '38, Dec. 9, 1999

Norman Vickers, BA '75, Aug. 28, 1998

John Wasylenko, BSA '48, Nov. 18, 1999

Agnes Wharry, DHE '26, in 1997

Eleanor Wiegand, DHE '38, july 1, 1997

Archibald Wilson, BSA '49, july 1999

Harry Zalasky, BSA '52, Nov. 13, 1999

Yuyuan Zhao, PhD '94, june 14, 1999

Friends Thomas Buchanan, Nov. 25, 1999

Eric Colwill, Nov. 29, 1999

Catherine Gunn, May 29, 1999

Merle Gardhouse, Sept. 26, 1999

Aleda Henry, Sept. 28, 1999

Dorothy MacGregor, Oct. 25, 1999

Ella "Billie" McQuinn, Sept. 28, 1999

Bruce Ross, Nov. 22, 1999

Mabel Stevens, Nov. 26, 1999

Effie Wilson, Sept. 27, 1999

Faculty David Piggins, Psychology, jan. 21, 2000

Gerald Rubio, English, jan. 25, 2000

Spring 2000 35

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

the 'Way 'We 'Were

WHEN SHE ENROLLED at Macdonald Institute in 1911,

Bess Philip began a photo album of her college expe­

rience. She took this picture of five classmates in a Mac­

donald Hall residence room, where they were obviously

preparing for the mandatory "lights out" at 10:30 p.m.

The schedule for female students in the early days

of the college was tightly controlled. The residence itself

was built on the edge of the campus and was largely

self-contained, with a dining room, gymnasium, med­

ical office and library right in the building.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Women were allowed out only one night a week and

had to be in by 7 p.m. unless they were accompanied

by a suitable chaperone, who was required to see them to the door by 10:15 p.m.

In Bess Philip's day, a promenade was a favourite

social event. A gentleman from OAC would offer his

arm to a Mac Institute lady, and they would keep time

to the music of an orchestra as they marched through

the halls of one of the administration buildings. Danc­ing wasn't allowed until 1913.

PHoTo couRTESY OAC DEAN's OFFICE ARCHIVES

36 GUELPH ALUMNUS

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