Walter Johns
Dr Walter Hugh Johns, OC1908-1985
Sixth President of the University of Alberta (1959-69)
Vice-President (1957-59)
Dean of Arts and Sciences (1952-57)
Assistant to the President (1947-52)
Dean of Arts and Sciences (1945-47)
Inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence, 1982
Appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, 1978
Walter Hugh Johns was born in 1908 on a farm near Exeter, Ontario. In 1930 he received a BA in honours classics from the University of Western Ontario. At Cornell University, he received a PhD in classics and ancient history in 1934.
From 1930-38, Dr Johns served as teaching fellow at Victoria College in Toronto, graduate instructor at Cornell University, and professor at Waterloo College. Moving to Alberta in 1938, he taught at the University of Alberta in positions from lecturer to professor until 1973.
At the University of Alberta, he also served in capacities as Assistant to the Dean of Arts and Sciences (1945-47), Assistant to the President (1947-52), Dean of Arts and Sciences (1952-57), Vice-President (1957-59), and President (1959-69).
As University president, he gave inspired guidance during a period of unprecedented growth, which saw the student population increase two-and-a-half times, the complement of full-time teachers quadruple, and the physical size of the University more than triple.
With typical energetic dedication, Dr Johns played a major role, over a period of 20 years, in establishing junior colleges at Lethbridge, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, and Grande Prairie, and official association with Camrose College. He assisted in drafting the new Universities Act of 1966, and was involved in the steady development of programs and faculty in Calgary, which culminated in full autonomy for the University of Calgary.
In 1952, he was sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for a study tour of British universities, and, in 1954, he toured universities in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. He attended meetings of Commonwealth universities in Montreal, London, Melbourne, and Sydney, as well as meetings of the International Association of Universities in Mexico City and Tokyo.
In great demand as an accomplished speaker, he gave hundreds of speeches throughout Alberta from Hinton to Wainwright, and from Medicine Hat and Lethbridge in the south, to Peace River and Beaverlodge in the north. For the Canadian Club he embarked on a speaking tour to British Columbia in 1970, and also covered the Prairies for the club in 1971.
Dr Johns' articles, book reviews, and speeches were published in various journals. As his major literary work over a period of eight years, he researched and compiled a comprehensive 544-page illustrated history of the University entitled A History of the University of Alberta 1908-1969, which was published by the University of Alberta Press in 1981.
Dr Johns was the recipient of a number of awards and honours including:
Honorary Degree (LLD) University of Western Ontario, 1959
Doctorat des Lettres, Laval University, 1964
Honorary Degree (LLD) University of Saskatchewan, 1968
Honorary Degree (LLD) Waterloo Lutheran University, 1968
Honorary Degree (LLD) University of Alberta, 1970
Honorary Life Member, University of Alberta Alumni Association
Golden Jubilee Award, University of Alberta Alumni Association
Alberta Achievement Award, 1977
Officer of the Order of Canada, OC, 1978
He was active as a member and executive member of numerous academic, community, and cultural associations such as:
the Classical Association of Canada
the American Philological Association
the Humanities Association of Canada
the Council of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (of which he was president in 1966-67)
the Senate of St Stephen's College
the United Way Campaign
University Hospitals Board
the Governor General's Award Board for Academic Non-Fiction
Alberta Novelist's Award Committee
chairman, Alberta Task Force on Nursing Education
chairman, Proceedings Committee, Seventh National Northern Development Conference
chairman, Alberta Press Council
the board of Allen Gray Auxiliary Hospital
the Fund Raising Advisory Committee of the University of Alberta
Source: Dr. Walter Hugh Johns. The Alberta Order of Excellence.
Reprinted through the generous consideration of the Government of Alberta.