• Timeline

• Digital Archives

Staff at the Start

As former Dean Arthur Gilbert McCalla, whose tenure spanned from 1951 to 1959, observed: "If science was to be applied to agriculture then those concerned with its application must understand both science and agriculture. Only a Faculty of Agriculture could give the basic training in science and an understanding of the relationship of the sciences of botany, chemistry, bacteriology, etc., to agricultural problems."

Kenneth McGregor, the first professor of animal husbandry, was available for the opening in the 1916–1917 term. At the opening of the second half of the 1916–1917 term, Garnet Homer Cutler, the first full-fledged professor of field husbandry, met the agricultural classes.

The Department of Soils was instituted in September 1919 with the appointment of Dr Franklin Archibald Wyatt. In December 1920, the Department of Agricultural Engineering was added with Professor John Macgregor Smith in charge. In May 1921, the Department of Dairying was added to the list with Dr C.P. Marker, then Provincial Dairy Commissioner, as its first professor. The introduction of the Department of Entomology followed in 1922 with Professor Edgar Harold Strickland as its presiding officer.

From 1919 until 1928, lectures in poultry were given by special instructors. In September 1928, Miss Helen Milne was added to the staff as a full-time lecturer in Poultry. During the years 1915 to 1929, Dr P.R. Talbot, Provincial Veterinarian, served as special lecturer in veterinary science and, in September 1929, was appointed as professor.

Dr Robert Newton had been Head of the Field Crops Department, University of Alberta, during the 1920s and served for ten years as Head of the Applied Biology Section of the National Research Council before accepting the invitation to become the Dean of Agriculture following the death of Dean E.A. Howes in 1940. Dr Newton became acting president of the University of Alberta in the fall of 1941, and President of the University in 1942. Today, the lounge across from the Office of the Dean in the Agriculture/Forestry Centre has been named in Newton's honour.

An outstanding animal scientist, Dr Robert David Sinclair was the first graduate in agriculture from the University of Alberta to become Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture. He was appointed acting dean in 1941 and dean in 1942.