In Memoriam: James Dick

Professor Emeritus James Dick died in late October. Jimmy’s career at Concordia University is really a history of the university and of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Jimmy was one of the early graduates of Sir George Williams College. He came home from World War II, and like many other returning veterans, sought an education. SGW was happy to oblige; Jimmy received his BSc in 1947.

SGW did not have a provincial charter to grant university degrees, but they awarded them anyhow. Jimmy’s class was the last to receive these somewhat irregular degrees. In 1948, SGW College received its provincial charter.

Jimmy worked as a chemist, eventually becoming Director of Research and Development for the Canadian Bronze Company, and taught part-time at SGW in both chemistry and engineering.

In 1963, he became a full-time member of the faculty, still holding appointments in both chemistry and engineering. For a number of years, Jimmy was analytical chemistry at SGW. He wrote the textbook, and taught the next generation of faculty and technicians.

He loved teaching, and inspired more than one undergraduate to become a chemist. At the same time, according to his ex-students, he didn’t take any nonsense.

Years before it was fashionable for universities to house small companies and for faculty members to be entrepreneurs, Jimmy created SIRU - the Science Industrial Research Unit, and founded Technitrol. Jimmy was a convinced believer in “a real education for a real world.” Theory was important but so was its application; he was training students to work as chemists.

He was a joyful man who loved being a Scotsman and kept his colleagues in stitches with his collection of stories; he was a bon vivant, who enjoyed the restaurants of Montreal; he was a sailor.

His boats included a Corvette during the war, Fat Albert, his slightly wallowing sailboat here in Montreal, and a recalcitrant motor boat that once went through a lock backwards because Jimmy hadn’t yet learned how to steer.

Above all, in the words of one of his colleagues, “Jimmy was a fine man.”

Judith Kornblatt, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry