1949: Science and Higher Education
On Saturday, October 8, Walter Palmer Thompson was installed as the
University’s third President. Educated
at the University of Toronto and Harvard, Thompson had come to the University
of Saskatchewan as professor and head of the Biology Department in 1913. He had served in a variety of administrative
positions: Dean of Junior Colleges (1934); Dean of Arts and Sciences (1938);
Acting President (1942); and Director of Summer School (1948). 1
With Thompson's appointment as President, all three prairie universities
and a growing number of other universities now had presidents who were
scientists and who had replaced humanists in those positions. For his
installation address, Thompson decided to discuss "the chief cause of the
trend": "the growing prestige of science and its increasing importance in
higher
occasion." He concluded: "There was never greater need for co-operation
between humanists and scientists and for sympathetic understanding of each
other's problems and difficulties, limitations and advantages,
achievements and failures. Some fields of science cannot be left to those
who are ignorant of human relations or disdainful of the efforts of their
colleagues in humanities and social studies. Nor can human affairs be left
entirely to those who are ignorant or disdainful of science."2
Upon his retirement as
President, Thompson was appointed Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Medical
Care. The recommendations of this committee were an important foundation for
the provincial medicare system. Thompson was awarded the Order of Canada and
received honourary degrees from several universities. He died in Toronto in
1970.
| Related Collections |  |
W.P. Thompson fonds, MG 17.
| Images | |
| Sources | |
1. Guide to Holdings.
2. "Science and Higher Education," Convocation Address, 1949.
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