40
T
heir memories are a time
capsule unearthed—a
tribute and gift of experience to
the University of Windsor on its
50th anniversary.
For retired faculty, librarians
and senior administrators, their
newly released book,
Back in the
Day—1963-2013: The University
of Windsor As We Knew It
, is a
step back to both their earliest
days of teaching and the school’s
fledgling days as a publicly
funded institution during a time
of tremendous social change.
The volume, edited by
Drs. Kate McCrone, Sheila Cameron,
Ralph Johnson, Kenneth Pryke,
and
Lois Smedick,
shares 72
stories of teaching exceptional students. It features, for example,
wild tales of engineering student hijinks; a faculty member’s first
amazing encounter with a personal computer; and the Faculty of
Nursing’s efforts to provide balanced education in such sensitive
areas as abortion and birth control, to name a few.
It provides extraordinary insight into how the University was
structured in its early years and gives the reader perspective on
where the traditions and culture of today’s UWindsor have their
roots, through dozens of stories—many of them personal.
Margery Holman, a recently retired member of the Faculty of
Human Kinetics, spent her entire academic career on campus, from
her first year as an undergraduate student living in Electa Hall to
years of teaching, coaching and serving as director of Women’s
Sport. Dr. Holman’s personal story runs parallel to the development
of Lancer women’s athletics, and her recollections of departmental
restructuring under the direction of former athletics director Dick
Moriarty provides a timeline for the inevitable, major changes which
have taken place in women’s athletics over the past half-century.
Eugene McNamara’s chapter on the establishment of
The
University of Windsor Review
, later the
Windsor Review
, notes the
contributions of such literary talents as Joyce Carol Oates, John
Ditsky, Dorothy Farmiloe and Alistair MacLeod. MacLeod’s own
personal recollections grace the inside front and back covers of the
book in his own handwriting—as is his style practice. A typewritten
transcription is included inside.
Bill Baylis and Bill McConkey’s collaborative chapter on
the establishment of the Physics department in the early 1960s
and it growth over the following decades gives a true feel for the
excitement created by the University’s hiring of some of the field’s
brightest minds of the time.
Diana Mady Kelly’s tribute to the dedication and genius of
her late husband Daniel Kelly provides satisfying insight into the
development of UWindsor’s drama program—from its roots at
Assumption University through the development of the Bachelor
of Fine Arts Program and the establishment of the School of
Dramatic Art. It is a special treat for devotees of today’s University
Players productions to learn that Essex Hall Theatre once doubled
as a chemistry laboratory, complete with huge sliding blackboards,
and a platform at the front of the stage concealing a recessed sink,
taps and Bunsen burner.
Back in the Day’s
editors explain in their introduction that the
volume is not intended as a comprehensive history of UWindsor,
but rather as a means to preserve aspects of its collective memory:
“…thus to assure that the history and those who made it are known
and respected. If we do not tell the stories of our University, then,
when we pass on, vital memories of the University of Windsor and
of its people will go with us…and be lost forever.”
Back in the Day
is available at the University of Windsor Bookstore
and online at
UWINDSOR AUTHORS
BY LORI LEWIS
Back in the Day—1963-2013:
The Un i v e r s i t y o f Wi ndso r As We Knew I t
