Arthur Gilbert McCalla

Arthur Gilbert McCalla

Arthur Gilbert McCalla, cereal chemist (b at St Catharines, Ont 22 Mar 1906; d at Edmonton 30 Apr 1985). At the University of Alberta, McCalla was one of the elite students of Robert Newton; like the others, after taking a 2-year MSc degree under Newton, he was awarded a PhD (U of Calif, Berkeley, 1933) extraordinarily quickly, in only 2 years. He returned to Edmonton to join the university staff, where he remained throughout his career. He took his family to Sweden for advanced study 1939-40 and was trapped there by the German invasion of Norway. They had to return via the USSR, on the Trans-Siberia Railway.

McCalla was U of A's dean of agriculture 1951-59 and dean of graduate studies 1957-71. He sat on the National Research Council 1950-56 and was a member of its influential Prairie Regional Committee. The U of A now awards 10-15 Arthur G. McCalla research professorships to promote research at that university.