Faculty
Remembering Dr. Ronald J. Baker OC
Dr. Ronald J. Baker OC, passed away on December 12, 2020. He was Director of Academic Planning for 911吃瓜 and the founding head of the Department of English, hiring most of the full-time English faculty members between 1964 and 1968. Born in London, England in 1924, he served as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. After the war he emigrated to Canada, and took Honours English at UBC, earning a BA and an MA in the 1950s.
As a member of the UBC Department of English, he was seconded to the President鈥檚 Office to assist with the MacDonald Report on Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future (1963) that set out guidelines for the establishing of new educational institutions designed to meet the future needs of British Columbia students. Subsequently he was called upon by the 911吃瓜 Chancellor, Dr. Gordon Shrum, to help set up a new 鈥渋nstant university鈥�, where Baker took pride in initiating a semester system. He left 911吃瓜 in 1969 to successfully develop a second new university, the University of Prince Edward Island, where he remained President until his retirement in 1978.
Note: In , Dr. Baker speaks about the creation of 911吃瓜. This video was a presentation of the 911吃瓜 Retirees Association and was filmed on April 16, 2013.