WELLINGTON COLLEGE DEAN REMEMBERS THE EARLY YEARS

By Murdo MacKinnon

Editor's note: Forty years ago, the creation of the University of Guelph also marked the beginnings of a new college of arts and science. Here, retired College of Arts dean Murdo MacKinnon talks about his arrival at Guelph as the founding dean of Wellington College.

I came to Guelph largely by accident. My earliest contact with the campus was through the RCAF Reserve Squadron at the University of Western Ontario, which I commanded from 1949 to 1958. We had a detachment at the Ontario Agricultural College, headed by Flight Lieut. Doug Riggs of the English department, so I visited Guelph now and then.

I had been at Western in the English department since 1946 and was reasonably happy. In June of 1964, my wife and I came to Guelph for a wedding. At the reception, J.D. MacLachlan, president of the newly formed University of Guelph, took me aside and asked if I would like to be the first dean of the recently created Wellington College of Arts and Science. This was part of the grand plan to change the Federated Colleges of the Department of Agriculture (OAC, OVC and Macdonald Institute) into the University of Guelph.

I don't know if the position was advertised and I certainly didn't apply. This conversation was almost the only interview I had. I learned later that my close friend and Victoria College classmate Herb Armstrong, then at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, had been invited to take the Guelph position, but had chosen to stay in Alberta as the first president of the University of Calgary.

In any case, no formal offer came through, so I went with my wife and four children to the French-language summer school at Trois-Pistoles in Gaspé, operated by the University of Western Ontario. In early August, MacLachlan called and asked me to come to Guelph at once for a meeting with him and the chairman of Board of Governors, Tom McEwen. I came. There were negotiations. I decided to accept the offer provided that Western would release me (I was about to be promoted). Western was co-operative but stipulated that I not take more than four faculty members with me because there was an acute shortage of senior professors across the country. The four who came (in 1965) were John Bruce (philosophy), Elizabeth Waterston (English), Jack Madden (economics) and Archie McIntyre (sociology). Others from Western would come on board as the new departments started to recruit faculty.

Beginning Aug. 9, 1964, I worked seven days a week to meet the timetable set by the president. Wellington College was to open with 500 BA and B.Sc. students and a faculty of reasonable size in September 1965. (I learned later that the master plan actually referred to 1966, but Brock University was slated to be in business by 1965, and Guelph must not be far behind.)

In my first year, I wrote budgets, made academic projections, served on three building committees, helped prepare calendar material for 10 new departments and invented ceremonials. Others worked just as hard, including the president. At the risk of forgetting someone, let me also mention registrar Herb Pettipiere, comptroller Neil Sullivan, Physical Resources director David Scott, chief librarian Florence Partridge, and Ralph and Edith Kidd, who promoted music on campus as part of the chaplain's staff.

As a new dean, I received great support from the founding colleges. OVC dean Trevor Lloyd Jones publicly welcomed the expanded cultural activities that an arts college would provide. OAC dean Rick Richards graciously allowed his college's English department to become the cornerstone of the new art faculty. He also moved the Department of Crop Science, headed by Bill Tossell, to another location, so the arts and social science faculty could take over Zavitz Hall. (We were also given a rented building in the centre of Guelph.)

Macdonald Institute, then headed by Margaret McCready, allowed Gordon Couling and another colleague to move to Wellington College to start a Department of Fine Art. It was Couling who brought Judith Nasby from McMaster University as a lecturer in art history. When I introduced her to our chief librarian, who was also the chief promoter of Canadian art on this campus, the fuse was lit that led to the U of G art collection and eventually the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre.

The science side of Wellington College was looked after first by chemistry professor Dick Waghorne and then by physics professor Earl MacNaughton, who became associate dean of Wellington College and later the first dean of the College of Physical Science.

Other parts of the University helped the new college. In October 1964, Senate recognized the Wellington College of Arts and Science, although I counted 22 negative votes and felt rather insecure. The alumni office and people like OAC professor Gordon McNally helped us find students by getting in touch with high school teachers who were aggies or "Mac girls."

It was an exciting and exhausting year, but somehow we opened in September 1965 as requested.

Time was scarce, but money was not. I recall going to Toronto to see a deputy minister, who handed me a very large cheque and said: "Here you are, young man, for your new college in Guelph." I replied: "Thank you very much, sir, but what is this supposed to cover?" His reply: "Don't worry about that. Just let me know when you need more."

(Author's note: This was written from memory, and I ask the historians to forgive me if some of the details are wrong.)