Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Smithies, Oliver, 1925–2017, American geneticist, b. Halifax, England, Ph.D., Oxford, 1951. Smithies was on the faculty at the Univ. of Toronto (1953–60) and Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison (1960–8...

(Encyclopedia) Randi, James (Randall James Hamilton Zwinge), 1928–2020, Canadian-American illusionist and psychic investigator, b. Toronto. Performing as “The Amazing Randi,” he was a conjurer and escape artis...

(Encyclopedia) Hobby, Oveta Culp, 1905–95, American public official and newspaper publisher, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1953–55), b. Killeen, Tex. She served as parliamentarian of the Texas...

(Encyclopedia) Pickford, Mary, 1893–1979, American movie actress, b. Toronto, Ont. In 1909 she began working with D. W. Griffith. Specializing in playing young girls, she was dubbed “America's Sweetheart.” Her...

(Encyclopedia) Jones, Ernest, 1879–1958, British psychoanalyst, b. Wales. He taught (1910–13) at the Univ. of Toronto and was director (1908–13) of the Ontario Clinic for Nervous Diseases. He founded the Inter...

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, J. Tuzo (John Tuzo Wilson), 1908–93, Canadian geologist and geophysicist, b. Ottawa, Ph.D. Princeton (1936), M.A. Cambridge (1940). He worked for the Geological Survey of Canada (1936–39) ...

(Encyclopedia) Gilson, Étienne ātyĕnˈ zhēlsôNˈ [key], 1884–1978, French philosopher and historian, b. Paris. He taught the history of medieval philosophy at the Sorbonne (1921–32) and then took the chair ...

(Encyclopedia) Mills, Charles W., 1951–2021, philosopher and political theorist, b. London, Ph.D. University of Toronto, 1985. Born in the U.K. and raised in Jamaica...

(Encyclopedia) Layton, Irving, 1912–2006, Canadian poet, b. Romania as Israel Lazarovitch. His family emigrated to Montreal when he was an infant. He attended Macdonald College (B.Sc., 1939) and McGill Univ. (M.A....

(Encyclopedia) Arbour, Al (Alger Joseph Arbour), 1932–2015, Canadian ice hockey player and coach. A defenseman, he joined the Detroit Red Wings in 1953, then moved to the Chicago Black Hawks in 1958, Toronto Maple...