History of the Memorial Room Collection Page 2 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
Expanded remarks by Professor Emeritus, Wm. C. Gibson, D.Phil.(Oxon) M.D., F.R.C.P., September 7, 1988 at the dedication of the Historical Collection of the Woodward Library, University of British Columbia. The Life Sciences Libraries thanks Dr. William Gibson for his kind permission to reproduce his historical comments on the Historical Collection of the Woodward Library. |
|||||||||||||||||
One afternoon about 1960 I had a telephone call from Dr. Turvey who said, with some urgency in his voice that Mr. P.A. Woodward was in the office which was shared with Dr. Robert E. McKechnie, nephew of a former Chancellor of the Unversity of British Columbia. Turvey whispered into the phone, "You need a medical library, don't you?" I said that we needed one very badly, as we had been relegated to a dark hole in the windowless central core of U.B.C.'s Library building. He agreed and hung up.
So with daily support from Dr. McKechnie and the skillful stage management of Dr. Turvey, abetted by yours truly and President Norman Mackenzie, one of the trustees of Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Woodward's Foundation, plans were drawn quickly. A sod turning ceremony brought together sympathetic university faculty and deans, presided over by Dr. Phyllis Ross, the Chancellor. The long-time Chairman of the University's Senate Library Committee, Dr. Ian McTaggart Cowan, warmly supported the idea of combining the Life Sciences holdings with those of the Health Sciences which were being built up by the Professor of Anatomy, Dr. Sydney Friedman, a dedicated bibliophile and author from McGill. Mr. Woodward told the University Architects that he wanted a modular building, with a steel and concrete pillar every 20 feet in either direction, so that any part could be moved to any new location
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||