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Friends of McMaster was incorporated in New York state on March 4, 1953, and formally organized into an incorporation on November 19, 1955. The object of the organization was: “To solicit and collect funds and contributions and to receive by gift, deed, legacy, bequest or devise, and otherwise to acquire money an property of every kind and description, and to administer the same, both as to principal and income exclusively towards the charitable, scientific, educational, literary and/or religious activities carried on by McMaster University, including, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the specific provision of scholarships to enable students from the United States of America to enter McMaster University, and to enable Canadian students to undertake post-graduate studies in the United States, and to expend, use, or otherwise dispose of such principal and income for the furtherance of the above-mentioned charitable, scientific, educational, literary and/or religious activities of McMaster University in such fashion as that body may prescribe and determine.”
The organization was originally headed by Dr. Wallace P. Cohoe of the Bank of Nova Scotia, New York. Directors were elected by and from among the New York district of McMaster Alumni. Other presidents include W. Alec Jordan and Gordon W. McKinley. Dr. Harry Lyman Hooker was a prominent benefactor to the Friends of McMaster. The organization mainly held their accounts at C.I.B.C. and Chemical Bank, both in New York.

Joseph Robert Janes was born in Toronto in 1935, middle son of Henry Franklin Janes, a pioneer in public relations, and his wife Phyllis Hipwell, an artist. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1958 with a B.A.Sc. in Mining Engineering, his undergraduate thesis winning the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Award in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Division. After work as a petroleum engineer for Mobil Oil (1958-1959) and a research engineer for the Ontario Research Foundation (1959-1964), Janes return to the University of Toronto to study geology under J. Tuzo Wilson and to attend teacher’s college. He also taught high school mathematics, geology and geography for the North York Board of Education (1964-1966). Janes graduated with a M.Eng. in Geology in 1967. After further graduate studies in geology at McMaster University, he then lectured in geology at Brock University (1968-1970), conducting an innovative field course across Canada.

Thereafter, he completed the first year of a Ph.D. program at Queen’s University in association with Brock University but, in 1970, decided instead to become a full-time writer. His early work consisted of books and other media presentations on the topic of geology for grade-school children, senior high schools, universities and the general trade market. He also wrote travel and other articles and supplied photographs for newspapers and periodicals, often with a geological focus, and sold geological specimens to schools under the name Rocks and Minerals of Canada. He later turned to writing children's novels and, ultimately, mystery novels for the adult market. He is now world-renowned as the author of the St. Cyr-Kohler mystery series. He has received grants from the J.P. Bickell Foundation, the Canada Council, and the Ontario Arts Council. Janes has long been concerned with the environment and politics, especially in the area of his home in the Niagara Peninsula. He also has an interest in Stephen Leacock, a cousin of his paternal grandfather. J. Robert Janes and his wife Gracia (Lind) Janes have four children. Janes died on February 28, 2022.

Leendert ("Alex" or "Lex") Aronson was born in Amsterdam on 20 December 1934. In 1943, Aronson was deported together with his mother, Sara van Straten-Cohen, to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Although over two thirds of the Dutch Jews deported to Bergen-Belsen did not remain alive at the end of the war, Aronson and his mother survived.

Upon his return to Amsterdam, Aronson attended the Jewish Secondary School from 1948 to 1951. In 1952 he received a certificate in chiropody and also studied nursing at the Jewish Hospital in London. He emigrated to Israel in 1955 and spent most of the next six years traveling in India, The Middle East, Europe and Africa before returning to Amsterdam in 1962. In 1964 Aronson married Elisabeth van Dieigen, and their son Alwin was born the same year. He worked for The Red Cross during the latter part of the 1960s in Africa, returning to Holland in 1970, but returned to India at the end of the year. In August 1974, he traveled to Kurdistan where he was arrested in March 1975 by the Iraqis on charges of spying for Israel. On 15 March 1976, the Iraqi Embassy admitted that Aronson had been executed in Baghdad although the exact date of his death was never revealed. In April 1976 his mother was able to obtain his remains, and Aronson was buried on 26 May 1976 in the Jewish Cemetery in Muiderberg, Holland.

Alan Mendelson, co-editor of From Bergen-Belsen to Baghdad : The Letters of Alex Aronson, was a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem when he met Aronson in 1962. They traveled together, and Aronson later visited Mendelson, who is Alwin's godfather, in 1970 when the editor was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. Their last meeting took place in the spring of 1974 when Mendelson visited Aronson in Holland. Alan Mendelson was a professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University.

Tools for Perace was formed to provide humanitarian aid to Nicaragua. It grew out a visit of a group of fishermen from British Columbia to Nicaragua in 1981. On their return to Canada they began to gather supplies to help a Nicaraguan fishing village. By 1983 Tools for Peace had been formally organized with a head office in Vancouver and branches across Canada. In the spring of 1984 members of the El Salvadorean Committee in Hamilton, Ont. decided to became active in collecting goods for Nicaragua and joined Tools for Peace. The Hamilton group concentrated on collecting school supplies as well as donating cash. They also sponsored speakers from Nicaragua. Although the Hamilton group was still active as late as 1995, the Vancouver head office had been closed sometime before that. A longer history of the organization, written by Jessie Kaye, is available in hard copy.

Denis Martin Shaw, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University School of Geography and Geology, was born on 20 August 1923, in Lancashire, England to Norman Wade and Sylvia (Shackleton) Shaw. He attended the King Edward VII school in St. Anne’s and continued his education at Emmanuel College in Cambridge. There, he received his BA in 1943 and later in 1948 his MA, after having served as a Signals Officer for three years. In 1946 Shaw married Doris Pauline (Paula) Mitchell. They had 3 children: Geoffrey, Gillian, and Peter Shaw. Soon thereafter he enrolled at the University of Chicago for a doctorate. By 1951 he had joined the Department of Geology at McMaster University. Shaw divorced Paula Shaw in 1975, and married Susan Evans in 1976. He died in Hamilton on 6 October 2003.

Boris Brott, conductor, violinist, and producer, was born in Montreal on 14 Mar 1944, the son of renowned conductor and composer Alexander Brott and cellist Lotte (Goetzel) Brott. He studied violin with his father and performed at the age of five with the orchestra of the Les Concerts symphoniques de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra). He studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal and the McGill Conservatory. In 1959 he founded the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra of Montreal and led it in his conducting debut in that city. His first international success came in June 1962, when he won third prize at the Liverpool Competition.

Brott has held the following positions:
1963-1965 Assistant conductor to Walter Susskind with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
1964-1968 First conductor of the Northern Sinfonia at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
1964-1967 Principal conductor for the touring company of the Royal Ballet Covent Garden.
1968-1969 Assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
1967-1972 Directed >Lakehead Symphony Orchestra
1971-1973 Directed Regina Symphony Orchestra
1969-1990 Artistic director and conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra; under his leadership the orchestra grew from an amateur ensemble to a professional one with a 42-week season and 16,000 subscribers.
1972 Appointed conductor of the BBC Welsh Orchestra
1975 Assumed directorship of the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra
1982 to 1985 Artistic director and conductor of Symphony Nova Scotia
1983-1991 Led the Ontario Place Pops Orchestra
1987-1989 National president of the Youth and Music Canada (Jeunesses musicales du Canada)
1988 Founded (with his wife, author and attorney Ardyth Webster Brott) the Boris Brott Summer Music Festival in Hamilton
1989 Appointed associate director of Alexander Brott’s McGill Chamber Orchestra
1989 Founded the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, a mentor-apprentice program.
1995 Appointed music director of the New West Symphony, California
2002 Assumed leadership of McGill Chamber Orchestra
2004 Appointed principal conductor of youth and education concerts for the National Arts Centre

In addition, Brott has been guest conductor of symphonies and opera companies throughout Canada, Europe, the U.S., Israel, central and South America, Japan and Korea. Brott has produced, conducted, or hosted a large number of television and radio programs for the CBC, and the BBC and ITV in the UK, and recorded with various orchestras for CBC, Mercury, Pro-Arte and Sony Classical. In 1986 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received an American Music Award. In 1988 he received an honorary doctorate from McMaster University. He was named Knight of Malta (1990), International Man of the Year (Cambridge, England, 1992), and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of Great Britain (1996). In 2000, he conducted the Vatican premiere of Leonard Bernstein's controversial Mass before Pope John Paul II.

Anna Porter (née Szigethy), publisher and author, was born in Budapest during World War II. In 1956, at the age of 12, she and her mother immigrated to New Zealand to escape the Soviet presence in Hungary. She has B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Canterbury. In the late 1960s, she worked as a proofreader with Cassell’s in England and in sales and as an editor with Collier Macmillan. In 1969 she was hired as an editorial coordinator with McClelland & Stewart and then became Vice-President, Editor-in-Chief, until 1978. From 1978 until 1992, she was the President of McClelland-Bantam Inc. (Seal Books). From 1986 until 1991, she was the Executive Chairman of Doubleday Canada Ltd. In 1979, with Michael de Pencier, she established Key Porter Books. She was the CEO and publisher of Key Porter Books from 1981 until July 2004 when she sold a majority interest in Key Porter Books to H.B. Fenn Limited.

Porter is the author of three novels: Hidden Agenda (1985), Mortal Sins (1987), and The Bookfair Murders (1997). She has also written three works of non-fiction: The Storyteller: Memory, Secrets, Magic and Lies (2006), Kasztner’s Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust (2007; awarded the Canadian Jewish Book Award for History and the Nereus Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize), and The Ghosts of Europe: Journeys Through Central Europe's Troubled Past and Uncertain Future (2010; awarded the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize). She has also written numerous pieces for magazines and newspapers. Porter serves on the boards of many companies and organizations. In recognition of her varied achievements, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991. In 2003, she was awarded the Order of Ontario. She has been awarded honorary degrees from Ryerson University, St. Mary’s University, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. She is married to Julian Porter, Q.C. and has two daughters, Catherine and Julia, and three grandchildren. She currently lives in Toronto.

Key Porter Books of Toronto, Ontario, was established by Anna Porter and Richard de Pencier in 1979. In addition to being one of the largest independent trade publishers in Canada, the company maintained an international reputation as a producer of quality books in an extensive range of categories. Key Porter published between 75 and 100 new titles annually in the areas of photography, art, business, finance, Canadian history and biography, memoirs, natural science, politics and current issues. Under the Key Porter Kids (KPK) imprint, the list included non-fiction, young adult fiction and picture books by authors such as Margaret Atwood, Tom King, László Gál, Carol Matas, Henry Kim and Tim Wynne Jones. Key Porter also published fiction using three imprints: Key Porter fiction, Patrick Crean Editions, and Lester and Orpen Dennys Limited. The list included Canadian and international writers such as Joan Barfoot, George Bowering, Sylvia Fraser, Thomas Keneally, Susan Swan, William Trevor and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Among Key Porter’s non-fiction authors were Jack Batten, Stevie Cameron, Jean Chrétien, Robert Fulford, Basil Johnston, Farley Mowat and Eric Wright. Anna Porter sold Key Porter Books in July 2004 to H.F. Fenn. In September 2009 the company relocated to Bolton, Ontario and incurred a reduction in staff. Key Porter Books went out of business in early January 2011.

Raymond Knister, poet and novelist, was born in Windsor, Ontario on 27 May 1899. He was educated at Victoria College for one year until poor health forced him to leave. In 1929 his first novel, White Narcissus appeared, and he began work on a biographical novel about John Keats, eventually entitled My Star Predominant. While on holiday at a cottage on Lake St. Clair, Knister accidentally drowned on 29 August, 1932. My Star Predominant was published posthumously in 1934 and his Collected Poems appeared in 1949.

Nelson Ball, poet, publisher and book seller, was born in Clinton, Ontario in 1942. He established Weed/Flower Press in 1965 in order to publish Canadian and American poets. He is also the author of several collections of poetry, including Waterpipes and Moonlight (Weed/flower Press, 1969), Force Movements (Ganglia Press, 1969) and The Pre-Linguistic Heights (Coach House Press, 1970). Ball died in Brantford on 16 August 2019.

Writing magazine was begun by the poets David McFadden (1940-) and Fred Wah (1939-), at the David Thompson University Centre in Nelson, British Columbia, in 1980. Though it began as part of the creative writing programme there, it is not a student magazine. It has published the work of Canadian writers such as Margaret Atwood, Susan Musgrave, and George Bowering, among others.

The National Committee for Independent Canadian Unions, based in Toronto, was formed in 1973 and operated until 1976. One of the donors of the fonds, Terence W. Barker, wrote of the organization: "it operated ... as a fellow traveller of the Canadian Liberation Movement (Marxist/Leninist/Maoist). Not surprisingly, perhaps, it was dissention-ridden from start to finish." Barker believes he was the last official spokesperson for the National Committee at the founding congress in Ottawa in October 1976 of the Canadian Voice for Independence, one of the successor organizations to the National Committee for Independent Canadian Unions. Barker also included some records of other associations either affiliated with the National Committee or of which Barker was a member, including the North York High School Teachers' Association, 1976-1982 and the Metropolitan Association of Supply Teachers, 1971-1975.

Andrew Gordon Chisholm, K.C., was a London, Ont. lawyer. While still studying law, he joined the 7th Fusiliers and served as a lieutentant in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. He ran for Parliament after that as a Conservative but was defeated.

He was called to the bar in 1888 and made a K.C. in 1921. He acted as solicitor for the Six Nations of the Grand River for about forty years. During that time he recovered for them lands valued at $300,000 and some $35,000 in cash according to a letter of 14 April 1942 to the Deputy Minister of Justice. Chisholm died suddenly on 11 January 1943 at the age of 79 while a Petition of Right was still before the courts.

The Canadian poet John W. Curry (jw curry) created the Curvd H&z Press in Toronto in 1979. Curvd H&z Press continues the tradition of such 1960s Canadian poetry presses as Gronk, Ganglia and Blewointment. It is particularly interested in offbeat, experimental, concrete and sound poetry. The writers include such well-known poets as bp nichol and Steve McCaffery, and lesser known ones like Peggy Lefler, William Maki and John Curry himself.

The Canadian poet John W. Curry (jw curry) created the Curvd H&z Press in Toronto in 1979. Curvd H&z Press continues the tradition of such 1960s Canadian poetry presses as Gronk, Ganglia and Blewointment, and is particularly interested in offbeat, experimental, concrete and sound poetry. The writers include such well-known poets as bp Nichol and Steve McCaffery, and lesser known ones like Peggy Lefler, William Maki and John Curry himself. In addition to the finding aid, see also David Uu, Curvd H&z: A Catalogue ([1993?]), Mills Research Collections Ref Z232.C977U8 1993.

The Copp Clark Company is best known as a Canadian educational publisher, with forays into board games and greeting cards. The history of Copp Clark Company can be traced back to 1841, when Hugh Scobie, a Scotsman opened a book and stationery store on King Street East in Toronto. In 1847 he produced the first edition of the Canadian Almanac and Directory, published annually thereafter. After Scobie’s death, the firm changed hands and names several times until 1869 when two employees, William Copp and Henry Clark, gained control, eventually giving the company the name of The Copp Clark Company Limited.

By the early 1900s, Copp Clark had evolved into a major educational publisher of textbooks, primarily in language arts and mathematics. As well as producing books and stationery items, the company established its own typesetting, printing and binding operations, branching out into games and greeting card manufacturing. In 1900 the company moved to a new office and warehouse on Front Street in Toronto, but the building was destroyed by fire in 1904. Copp Clark acted as agents for many American and British publishers and published works by such notable authors as Sir Winston Churchill, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling and Edith Wharton.

In 1965 the business was bought by Pitman Publishing, and the name was changed to Copp Clark Pitman. Copp Clark Pitman was affiliated with Longman (owned by Pearson P.L.C.), which purchased the press in 1985. Copp Clark Pitman celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1991. In June 1998, Copp Clark Professional, the only remaining division of Copp Clark, closed its office on Front St. in Toronto. Copp Clark Professional is currently located in Mississauga, Ont., and is a leading publisher of financial calendars.

Christopher Levenson - poet, translator, editor, and professor of English and creative writing - was born in London, England in 1934. He lived in the Netherlands, Germany and the United States before moving to Canada in 1968. His first book of poetry, In Transit was included in New Poets (1959). In 1960 he was the first recipient of the Eric Gregory Award. He was co-founder and editor of Arc magazine, and from 1981 to 1991 founded and organized the Arc reading series in Ottawa. Since living in Canada, he has published many articles and books of poetry. He has published two volumes of translations from seventeenth-century Dutch poetry and individual verse translations in European journals. He taught English and creative writing at Carleton University and was Series Editor of Harbinger Poets, an imprint of Carleton University Press, devoted exclusively to first books of Canadian poetry. He was for a year Poetry Editor of the Literary Review of Canada. He lives in Vancouver.

Murray Thomson was born in Honan, China in 1922. His father was a United Church missionary. Thomson came to Canada at an early age. He was a student at the University of Toronto when the Second World War began. He enlisted in the air force and became a pilot although he never flew in a combat mission. Murray received a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Toronto.

As an undergraduate, he co-founded the Humanist Group, a citizen’s group for social change. His first job after graduating was a position in the adult education division of Saskatchewan’s socialist CCF government. Thomson received an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. In 1955 Thomson went to Thailand on a UNICEF research fellowship. He then spent four and a half years in India working in adult education for the American Friends Service Committee. Upon his return to Canada in 1962 he became peace education secretary for the Canadian Friends Service Committee in Toronto. In 1970 he became director of the CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas) programme in Thailand. In 1972 he became the Regional Field Director of the South East Asia CUSO Programme. He also worked with the Canadian Friends Service Committee in South-East Asia sponsored by the Canadian Friends Service Committee, the peace and development wing of Canadian Quakers.

Thomson was the co-founder of the inter-church peace group, Project Ploughshares, a founder of Peace Brigades International in 1981 and of Peace Fund Canada. He helped establish the United Nations World Disarmament Campaign. In 1990, Thomson was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal. In 2001 Thomson received the Order of Canada. Thomson has been an active pacifist and lives in Ottawa. He died on 2 May 2019, in Ottawa, Ontario, at the age of 96.

Henry George Thode was born in Dundurn, Saskatchewan in 1910. He completed his BSc. and MSc. at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1934, he took his Ph.D in physical chemistry at the University of Chicago. For his post-doctoral work, he was given the opportunity to conduct research at Columbia University under the tutelage of Dr. Harold C. Urey, a pioneer in atomic research. Thode's time with Urey influenced much of his later work.

In 1939, Thode came to McMaster University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. In 1942 he was promoted to Associate Professor. During World War II he was relieved of duties to participate in the wartime work and research of the Canadian Atomic Energy Project. Thode was a consultant for Atomic Energy Canada Limited from 1945 to 1951, and from 1966 to 1981 he was the director and member of AECL Executive Committee. He was also a member of the Defense Research Board from 1945 to 1961. Thode made numerous contributions to the research efforts of his colleagues at the AECL. Perhaps the most notable was his construction of the first mass spectrometer in Canada. The mass spectrometer, housed at McMaster, played a vital role in wartime research and kept Thode traveling back and forth between Hamilton and Montreal to take advantage of McMaster's technological advancements.

Once the war was over, Thode returned to his teaching duties. From 1944 to 1979, he was a Professor of Chemistry; between 1948 and 1952 he was Head of the Department of Chemistry. Thode was Director of Research from 1947 to 1961 and Principal of Hamilton College, McMaster University's early scientific school from 1949 to 1963. In 1957 he became even more involved with the University's development by directing the first nuclear reactor at a university in the British Commonwealth and becoming Vice President of the University, a position he held until 1961 when he became President and Vice Chancellor. Thode occupied this latter position from 1961 to 1972. In 1979, he was given the title of Professor Emeritus, a title held until his death in 1997. Thode was also responsible for organizing and hosting the first post-war international conference on nuclear chemistry, held at McMaster in 1947. He actively participated in and encouraged visits and scientific exchanges between Canada and the Soviet Union, beginning in 1957. Thode received numerous honours during his long scientific career. Thode died on 22 March 1997.

Arthur N. Bourns was born on 8 December 1919 at Petitcodiac, New Brunswick, and educated at Acadia University and then McGill University, graduating in 1944 with a doctorate in chemistry. He joined the Department of Chemistry at McMaster University as an Assistant Professor in 1947, after teaching at Acadia University and the University of Saskatchewan. He had begun his career as a research chemist in 1944 at the Dominion Rubber Company. Dr. Bourns became a full Professor in 1953, and served as both a chairman and a dean before becoming Vice-President, Science and Engineering, in 1967. In 1972 he was appointed president of the university, a post he held until 1980. He had a distinguished academic career, becoming a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1964 and serving as a member of the National Research Council, 1969-1975. Dr. Bourns was awarded four honorary degrees. He married Marion Blakney in 1943 and the couple had four children.