The end of an era
– Brown retires after 50 years –

May 4, 2007

By Colleen MacPherson

In 1957, a 17-year-old member of the Canadian Air Force from Strasbourg began his studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan with his sights firmly set on one day flying the Avro Arrow. Today, four academic degrees and five University presidents later, that man is reluctantly preparing to retire from the institution that has been the centre of his life for 50 years.

In June, Barry Brown will leave his position as head of the Department of Curriculum Studies in the College of Education, but he can look back with pride on a career that has left an indelible mark on the University in many areas – audio visual services, distance education, communications technology, teaching and administration. Many of his accomplishments can be traced to being, as he readily admits, opinionated and a non-conformist, but Brown has no regrets – everything he did over the past 50 years was to “support the academic life of students.”

Brown’s own academic career got off to a shaky start. After two years in Engineering, the Arrow project was cancelled, “and I spent the next two years trying to get out of the Air Force.” He did that by intentionally failing two classes, the number he believed was required for a discharge. Unfortunately, the military decided to give him a second chance so he simply stayed home during his fourth year.

An honourable discharge eventually came, but his poor academic record meant Brown had to take a year off school. In addition to working as chief photographer for The Sheaf and Greystone, he began studying at Saskatoon Teachers’ College. “It was a reasonable thing to do for someone who wanted to stay academically active,” he said.

Still relying on professional photography (“It put me through University – photography’s been very good for me”), Brown earned his teaching certificate in 1963 and taught for a short time in Clavet where, among other things, he and a group of Grade 10 girls “learned math together.”

TV Times

After his stint in the classroom, Brown returned to the U of S to complete a BA in Physics in 1965. A BEd came one year later. It was about this time that he took a job that would alter his career path – chief television engineer in the new College of Education television studio.

That position evolved as the University’s Division of Audio Visual Services took shape, with Brown playing a significant role. Soon, he was audio visual and instructional television manager with AV Services, then assistant director of the division, all while working toward his master’s degree in Education.

The advent of AV teaching aids caused some consternation on campus, Brown recalled. The University Council of the day even passed a motion stating no professor could be forced to use television in their teaching.

“This was a time when faculty thought TV would take over their jobs. Even today there are pockets of Luddites on campus who believe online learning isn’t reasonable … (but) in fact it’s an advantage, never a disadvantage.”

Brown’s responsibilities at the time also included setting up and running the AV department at the Regina campus and his love of flying made that job much easier. He got his pilot’s licence in about 1961 and flew weekly to Regina either in a Cessna 150 owned by the University or in his own Cherokee 180.

In 1968, Brown formally moved into academia as an assistant professor in the College of Education. Put in charge of establishing an Educational Communications program, he later helped guide it through various permutations before it was eventually incorporated into Curriculum Studies.

Flying Faculty

As his career progressed and he earned more degrees – a M.Ed. in 1970 and an Ed.D. from Indiana University in 1979 – Brown’s interest in distance education and his love of flying combined to make him one of the most-travelled teachers in the province. In the mid-70s for example, he and four colleagues would fly in the Cherokee to Swift Current every second Saturday to teach a number of classes through the Cypress Hills Community College.

Looking back, Brown delights in the breadth of his experiences at the U of S and said that, having grown up with the institution, “I really didn’t notice it’s gotten bigger although it’s certainly gotten more complex and bureaucratic.” That said, the most positive change he has noticed “would be the degree to which technology has enhanced the collaboration and networking between all members of the University community.

“When I began, the colleges were extremely insular, extremely territorial. As a service provider, you had to be extremely careful with all aspects of what you did on campus.”

Some might argue that is still the case – “the bricks don’t fall far from the building” – but Brown is guardedly optimistic there is still room for technology to play an even greater role “as a support for teachers on our campus. The digital revolution has not overtaken us yet.”

On the negative side, “I’ve been an administrator and a teacher all my academic life, but not a researcher. I’ve not been rewarded at all for my administrative work, and very little for teaching. We need to re-evaluate the teacher-scholar model with respect to equity in the classroom.”

As for “being forced out into the cold world” (he missed the cut-off for mandatory retirement by six months), Brown admitted he will miss the people – “most of them” – and that he won’t have trouble filling his time. In addition to being an academic, Brown is a farmer, a fisherman, a beekeeper and a traveller, a pursuit he enjoys with his wife Yvonne Brown, a professor in the College of Nursing, his high school sweetheart and another life-long University employee.