Volume III - ElectricCanadian.com

390 OKy( VXT EORGE JACKSON LAIRD,A^., Ph.D., Professor of NaturalScience, Wesley College, Winnipeg,Man., was born in 1859, in Thorold,Welland County, Ont. His father isthe Rev. John G. Laird, superannuatedMethodist minister, of London, Ont.,formerly president of Toronto Conference.His mother, whose maiden namewas Jackson, was a daughter of oneof Canada's earliest pioneers. Prof.Laird was educated at Victoria University,from which he graduated in1 88 1, and after teaching two years, wascalled, in 1883, to the chair of Physicsand Chemistry in Mount Allison University,N.B., which he occupied withgreat acceptance and where he remainedtwo years. He then took a wise step,and went toGermany to complete hisstudies in Natural Science, obtainingin 1888, after a three years' course atBreslau University, the degree of Doctorof Philosophy, with honors. Onhis return to Canada, he was offeredand accepted his present chair in WesleyCollege, Winnipeg, where his successas a teacher has been very gratifying,and has proved that he was a strongacquisition to that college staff. Infour years, the attendance at WesleyCollege has increased ten fold, and thestudents have fully heldtheir own in the ManitobaUniversity examinations,all of which is a well-meritedtribute to the efficiency andunflagging zeal of PrincipalSparling and his three colleagues,whose portraits appearon these pages. Dr.Laird, in religion, is a Methodist,and an active memberof Grace Church. Heis a member of the UniversityBoard of Studies, amember of the UniversityCouncil, and has been foryears an ardent workingmember of the ManitobaHistorical Society, and ischairman of the ArchaeologicalCommittee of thatbody. Dr. Laird's thoroughpreparation is now bearingits legitimate fruit. He isalways " master of the situation,"and loves his work.As a teacher, he is clear,alert, painstaking, and hehas that necessary facultyof engendering in his studentsa love for their sub-He is unmarried.ject.