Newfoundland
Arthur William May, PhD'66
President, Memorial University
St. John's Newfoundland

Doctoral thesis title: Biology and Fishery of the Atlantic Cod from Labrador and North East Newfoundland. (This is the big cod fishery that is now under moratorium.)

My most memorable McGill experience was life in the attic of the frat house on Peel Street where I lived for two years (But perhaps this is not the place to expand!)

I was most influenced by Professor Max Dunbar, my thesis supervisor. He was an accomplished folk singer and raconteur as well as one of Canada's most eminent Arctic scientists. He influenced a whole generation of marine scientists.

Most influential book: Oceanography by Harald Sverdrup, Johnson and Fleming--it solidified my intentions for the professional career I wanted to pursue.

First job: Junior Scientist with the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. The essential difference between that job and the job of University President is that then I had time to pursue things that I wanted to pursue. Now my time is mostly taken up pursuing things that other people want me to pursue. Perhaps the greatest challenge now is to do those things that I think are important.

Worst of the Seven Deadly Sins: You should have reminded me of the full list so that I could be sure that I've sampled all of them! I think that sloth or laziness must be one of them. If you are lazy enough, you won't even have the energy to try the other six.

More seriously, all of us should aspire to a positive contribution to the various territories we occupy. Procrastination is the deadly enemy of progress.

Quebec
Bernard Shapiro, BA'56, LLD'88
Principal
McGill University

Doctoral thesis title: The Subjective Estimation of Relative Word Frequency

There were two professors that influenced me a great deal. The first was (Dean of Arts and Science) Noel Fieldhouse whose lectures in history gave me my first sense of the value--indeed the thrill--of academic iconoclasts. The second was Ms. Potter, my section leader in English 100C who gave me a lifetime's worth of insights into the nuances of language.

My first job was as a managing partner of Ruby Foo's--at the time Canada's largest Chinese restaurant. There is not a lot in common as between Lobster Cantonese and the structure of knowledge and understanding, but in both cases, there is something to learn about the range of human beings and the human experience as well as the value of trying to understand the world from the customer's or the student's point of view.

The book that influenced me most-- if, indeed, it can be called a book, was Milton's Paradise Lost. Among many other things, it remains for me the standard of what can be accomplished by bringing together knowledge, hard work and the creative imagination.

I cannot decide just what my most memorable McGill experience was--there were many wonderful occasions. The one that I recall most vividly was wiggling through the pressing crowd in the foyer of the Arts Building to see the final examination marks.

To this day, I define an optimist as one who scanned the list from the top (highest mark) to the bottom (lowest passing mark) and a pessimist as one who started from the bottom and went up.

Of the seven deadly sins, I find gluttony the most difficult to avoid. It is generally not deadly, but it certainly remains, nevertheless, tempting.

Quebec
Dr. Frederick Lowy, BA'55, MD'59
Principal, Concordia University
Montreal

Doctoral Dissertation title: My "doctor" degree at McGill was in medicine--with no thesis. My research was in psychosomatic medicine psychotherapy and subsequently, bioethics.

I had many memorable experiences--perhaps the most memorable was my time as co-editor of the McGill Daily in 1954. It was a stimulating experience working with bright, energetic colleagues--Ely Raman, John Fraser, Dale English, Marty Goodman, to mention only a few.

Most influential among my professors was Donald Hebb, who went on to be Chair of Psychiatry and Chancellor of the University. He modeled, through his daily actions, the qualities of curiosity, fairness, scientific vigour and personal integrity. He was also a brilliant and innovative scientist.

Most influential book: Perhaps, it was Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. It illustrated the richness of subjective experience, unconscious as well as conscious, and contributed to my career choice within medicine.

My first full-time job was lecturer in psychiatry at McGill and staff psychiatrist at the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1965. I had responsibility for patients at the Allan Memorial Institute, and for the supervision of residents & interns.

My duties were clear and limited, my academic and clinical superiors were there to guide and support me, and I felt my life to be under good control.

By contrast, a university president in 1997 is a different situation altogether. So little can be said to be under control. Meeting the many and conflicting needs of faculty members, students, support staff, governors and alumni, and the obligation to uphold standards at our universities would be major challenges at any time. They become especially demanding when universities have less and less control of their finances and their destinies.

Are there really only seven deadly sins? Probably excessive pride is the downfall of many talented people. High among the qualities in scarce supply is humility.

Quebec
Janyne M. Hodder, BA'70, MA'83
Principal, Bishop's University
Lennoxville, Que.

Thesis title: MA (Educational Psychology), Discourse Processes in Bilingual Performance: A Study of Listening Comprehension in Young Children Acquiring a Second Language.

As a "born" bilingual, I had the most fun with ideas about the relationship of language to thought. I was particularly fascinated by form and the extent to which, even when one translated the semantic basis of a text exceptionally well, form could play tricks and somehow change meanings intended as identical. Canada could learn from this.

Most memorable McGill experience was certainly "McGill Français," that amazing story of cloak-and-dagger plots and counter-plots. (Editor's note: In March 1969, a protest group demanded that McGill become a French-speaking university. Some 7,000 demonstrated at the Roddick Gates.) Unfortunately, I was an insufferably serious 19-year-old, and rather than have fun on the streets that night, I sat in a Leacock common room, trying to apply Maurice Pinard's ideas on collective behaviour to the general fracas occurring down by Roddick Gates. My loss, I guess.

Two influential professors stood out. Jean Ethier-Blais, because I disagreed with him on everything, and Marcel Goldschmidt, because he introduced me to Piaget and allowed knitting in his seminar.

Most (recent) influential book: John Ralston Saul's Voltaire's Bastards. Throwing out the entire tradition of reason and logic might be going a bit far, but there is some truth to the idea that common sense has become singularly uncommon.

Dare I confess that in my final year at McGill, I spent hours in the stacks of McLennan unearthing everything François Mauriac ever wrote ­and he wrote a lot of bad stuff. Still, an era that had killed sin, it was a relief to read someone who made all his sins grand and somber.

My first jobs were all sales jobs. While at McGill, I worked at Eaton's at the For Men Only and, no, it's not what you think. Young ladies in black crinkled velvet midis, lacy white blouses and tall leather boots had the men's Christmas shopping lists and did the work for them.

It's different now. I wouldn't be caught dead in crinkled velvet.

The Most Deadly of the Seven Deadly Sins: First, it took me 10 minutes to locate a 1944 edition of Le Catéchisme des provinces ecclésiastiques de Québec, Montréal et Ottawa and five more minutes to find the right sins. The deadliest has to be laziness. "La paresse est un amour déréglé du repos, qui fait qu'on néglige ses devoirs d'état et de religion, plutôt que de se faire violence" (that's the answer to question 68, for those who have the same dition). Were I to fall prey to such a deregulated lust for rest, I might doze off in Senate. Then what? Anarchy! Chaos! Bedlam! Worse yet, I might not be missed.

Ontario
Mordechai Rozanski, BA'68
President,
University of Guelph

Doctoral thesis: The Role of American Journalists as Instruments of Chinese Foreign Policy, 1900-1930.

Most memorable McGill experience: Listening to Noel Fieldhouse> recount his personal anecdotes on diplomatic history.

Most Influential Professor: P.T.K. Lin introduced me to Chinese History.

Most Influential Book: Derk Bodde's China's First Unifier: A study of the Ch'in Dynasty as seen in the Life of Li Ssu, 280-208 B.C. (1967) This was the first major work I read in Chinese history. It introduced me both to the field and to Derk Bodde, who I later met and studied Classical Chinese with at the University of Pennsylvania.

First job: assistant professor of Asian History at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, in 1974. The difference between my first job and the job of being president is in some ways more symbolic than real. Both require vast amounts of time, energy, dedication, intelligence, political acumen, begging for money, and performance under constant evaluation by colleagues. Both have been immensely satisfying.

The Most Deadly of the Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony! And I don't want to talk about it!

Ontario
William C. Leggett, PhD'69
Principal, Queen's University
Kingston, Ont.

PhD thesis title: Lateral Variation in the Life History Strategies of American Shad.

This was the first field evaluation of the ecological theory derived from Lamont Cole's 1954 classic paper "Why do Animals Reproduce More Than Once?" It confirmed the predicted link between environmental uncertainty and the evolution of reproductive and live history traits in animals.

Most memorable McGill experience: My term as McGill Vice-Principal (Academic) and in particular the quality of my working relationship with Principal David Johnston and Vice-Principals François Tavenas and John Armour.

Professor who influenced me the most: Geoffrey Power, PhD'59, a professor of biology at the University of Waterloo, who convinced me to pursue science and my PhD at McGill which led to my career there.

Most influential book: Take Charge of your Future or Someone Else Will, by Jack Welsh. The book chronicles the transformation of the General Electric Corporation by CEO Jack Welsh. When he began its makeover, GE was a highly successful, but highly traditional and heavily bureaucratic organization. His courage and tenacity in supporting change even in the face of significant setbacks, set a standard for others. GE was the only major corporation to retain its leadership position during the worldwide shakeout in the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's. The book provides an important lesson in the importance, and challenges, of leadership.

First job: Research Scientist, Essex Marine Laboratory, Connecticut where I worked for five years with the luxury of total focus on a single problem. The research helped to establish my career as a scientist and crystallized my love of research. The difference between that job and the job of Principal is the luxury of time to focus on a single issue until it is resolved. University presidents/principals are required to deal with both issues and politics simultaneously and to rely heavily on others for the essential inputs to problem resolution.

The Worst of the Seven Deadly Sins: I would not care to distinguish between them. In one way or another they all speak to the importance of integrity and constancy in one's dealings with others.

British Columbia
Martha Piper, PhD'79
President, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Title of thesis: The prevention and remediation of Down syndrome.

Most memorable McGill experience: Trying to get up Drummond Street in a snowstorm.

The most influential academic professor was Dr. Barry Pless, Dept. of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Biostatistics... the most influential professor in terms of leadership was Dr. Richard Cruess, then Dean of Medicine.

Most influential book: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. This was Morrison's first novel and it focused on a small black girl who wished for blue eyes--never recognizing her own beauty. This book influenced me by underlining the importance of acknowledging and honouring one's inherent strengths and traits.

First job: physical therapist in an acute care hospital. I believe my current job is more similar than different. In both roles, the importance of people must dominate your orientation and your decision-making.

The Worst of the Seven Deadly Sins: I tend to believe that anger is the most deadly of the sins--anger is unproductive, detrimental, and very self-defeating. It can also be hurtful, misdirected, and dangerous.

New Jersey
Harold Shapiro, BCom'56, LLD'88
President, Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey

Doctoral thesis title: The Canadian Monetary Sector: An Econometric Analysis. The newest idea in the thesis (1964) was the integration of Central Bank behaviour (modelled by a reaction function) into an overall econometric model of the Canadian economy.

My most memorable academic experiences at McGill were: Noel Fieldhouse's history course, Jack Weldon's economics course, W. Stanford Reid's intellectual history, and Louis Dudek's literature course. Professor Weldon had the greatest influence on my intellectual development.

Most influential book: Reinhold Niebuhr's Children of Light and Children of Darkness. It demonstrated that, with careful thought, a lot could be said in very few pages.

My first job after receiving my PhD was as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. The most important difference between that job and the job of a University president is the shift from working on one's own problems and own teaching program to a role whose primary focus is providing for others and focusing on the evolution of an entire institution.