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PROFILE

New England biologists have come to call Saskatchewan home

Taylor and Peggy Steeves at their home. "Something freeing about attitudes here," and 'not a dud' among the Biology faculty.

Even though Taylor and Peggy Steeves have "retired" from the Biology Department, he as professor and she as laboratory instructor, they're still on campus almost daily - teaching, sitting on committees, and continuing to serve the University.

They're both New Englanders and graduates of Harvard - Peggy in paleobotany, Taylor in developmental biology - who first arrived in Saskatoon on a hot, dusty day in July of 1959.

Although they say they still miss the sea, they aren't sure that a love for the prairies, forged over these 40 years, hasn't become a permanent attachment.

"People are always asking us whether we intend to move," Taylor says. "But in reply I cite an old New England saying: 'Why should we move? We're here now.'"

So next term, as they've done for years, they'll again jointly teach a class, with lab, which stresses the cultural and economic impact of plants. It attracts interdisciplinary, upper-level students and features an end-of-term potluck, which offers some of the foods studied.

Two years ago, for example, a classics professor auditing the class found a Roman cookbook and prepared dishes one of the Caesars might have delighted in. And on one occasion, someone smelling durian in the hall thought there was a gas leak and called security.

"Durian is a fruit that looks like a large pine cone and tastes like a cross between custard and turpentine," says Peggy. "But British colonists living in southeast Asia would delay their holidays if they heard it was coming in. So it's an interesting plant both from a biological and cultural perspective."

But retirement for the Steeves does not consist only of a spousal comparing of class notes on the historical implications of crops like sugar cane or cotton or of debating whether strawberries can be classified as fruit. (They can't.)

Taylor, who did two stints as head of Biology and has been given emeritus status, is still involved with the Prairie Ecosystem Study (PECOS), is on a science liaison committee for the Prince Albert National Park, and still reviews manuscripts for botanical journals he's edited in the past, such as the International Journal of Plant Sciences and the Canadian Journal of Botany.

Internationally recognized

Last year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Guelph for his "distinguished work in developmental biology...[his] internationally recognized textbooks in this field...[and his] considerable service to the botanical community...."

Reflecting on her years as a lab instructor, Peggy says she's seen labs become ever larger and is increasingly concerned that students aren't receiving enough hands-on experience.

"For example, although instructors take pains to test for observation skills during lab exams, it's difficult to hone these skills without regularly taking in student lab reports - a procedure instructors rarely have time for in the large, first-year labs."

Meanwhile, Taylor is urging her to write a history of the Saskatoon French School, which both played a part in establishing with U of S chemistry professor Lenore McEwen and several others.

Taylor was on the board for the first five years after the School's inception in 1966, and she for 15 years after that. Peggy, in addition, worked in its library, researched other French School models, and helped other school districts establish similar Type A immersion programs.

As Americans with Canadian connections - Taylor's father came from New Brunswick; Peggy has Ontario ancestors - both feel that making a bilingual education available to Saskatchewan students is vital for unity.

"Not only that," says Taylor, "but learning a second language is important for the intellectual development of children. If the government had spent money on language training for children instead of middle-age bureaucrats, we could have a fully bilingual country by now."

All three of the Steeves children graduated from the SFS and are fully bilingual. Elizabeth is now a resident in Veterinary Medicine at the U of S; Tom is a first-year student in Medicine here; and Timothy, is a Memorial University professor of music, whose performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was featured at a recent Saskatoon Symphony concert.

Although the children remain a factor that keeps the Steeves here, they aren't the only one.

Don't turn your back

"I love this place," Taylor says. "The Biology Department has always been an extremely collegial place. I've been offered positions in both Canada and the U.S. and at times have been tempted to go elsewhere. But it seems I'd only looked around for a short time when someone would say to me, 'If you come here, don't turn your back to such and such.' There's been none of that here."

That's been their impression of the U of S from the start. After casting about for a position in 1959, Taylor received five job offers, one from the U of S.

It came by telegram, complete with the offer of tenure.

"A colleague of mine who knew W.P. Thompson, also a Harvard graduate, said I should definitely take a look at Saskatchewan. When I got here I liked both the University and the city immediately. The seven Biology faculty members had not a dud among them."

Peggy, who was initially reluctant to move to a place she feared was in "the north woods," soon shared Taylor's favorable impressions.

"No sooner had we arrived at the Big-T Motel on our first night here than the owner, noticing our Massachusetts plates, came to bid us welcome. And when members of the Geology Department heard of my interest in paleobotany, they invited me on a weekend rock hunt in the south of the province. In New England, women were not ordinarily asked to participate in overnight field trips. Here I was asked, even though I was pregnant. There was something so freeing about attitudes here."

Taylor was as impressed with his students as with the calibre of his colleagues.

"The students here were every bit as good as at Harvard. Perhaps some of the expensive lab paraphernalia available there was absent here. But students here were more aware of the sacrifices their parents were making for them and thus more involved in their studies. I don't know if students now have that old commitment, but we still have a top range of students who do."

As to how many years now before real retirement, Taylor and Peggy can't exactly say. A life's work committed to the University and the community doesn't have an abrupt end. And both feel they have a lot to give for some time still.

- Sigrid Klaus

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