Duncan MacGibbon
Duncan Alexander MacGibbon was born March 12, 1882 in Lochaber Bay, Quebec to parents Elizabeth (MacCallum) and Archibald MacGibbon. He earned a BA (1908) and an MA (1911) from McMaster University, and a PhD (1915) from the University of Chicago. He was a Hart, Schaffner and Marx Essay winner in 1916.A newspaper reporter in Ottawa in 1908, MacGibbon was also a professor of economics at Brandon College in Manitoba from 1907-15. He worked as a lecturer of political economy at McMaster University (1917-18) before serving as a second lieutenant (1918-19) with the First Canadian Tank Battalion and as an instructor at Khaki University in Ripon, Yorkshire, England in 1919.
From 1920-29, MacGibbon was a professor of economics with the Department of Political Economy at the University of Alberta. After leaving the University, he worked as a commissioner with the Canadian Board of Grain Commissioners (1929-49) and a professor of political economy with the University of New Brunswick (1949-55).
Chairman (1922) of the Royal Commission on Banking and Credit, MacGibbon was also economic advisor to the Canadian delegation at the Imperial Conference on several occasions: at the 1930 Conference in London, England and to the Imperial Conferences in Ottawa in 1932-33. He was also a member (1923-24) of the Royal Grain Inquiry Commission and commissioner (1944-45) of the Royal Commission on the Taxation of Annuities and Family Corporations.
Named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1937, MacGibbon served as president of its Section II in 1955.
The recipient of two previous honorary Doctor of Laws degrees (LLD honoris causa) from McMaster University (1940) and the University of Saskatchewan (1955), respectively, MacGibbon received his third honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Alberta in 1956. The University of Alberta also established the Duncan Alexander MacGibbon Gold Medal in Honours Economics and the Duncan Alexander MacGibbon Gold Medal in Honours Political Science in his honour.
MacGibbon married Dorothy Delamare Currey in 1923; they had two sons, Peter and Geoffrey.
MacGibbon passed away October 10, 1969 in Hamilton, Ontario.