Like Stephen Leacock and some other medalists, Huston considered humour writing to be a sideline. For most of his life, he regarded himself as a scientific researcher, academic, and educator in an unrelated
field.
For over four decades, he worked in pharmaceutical sciences spending the last 32 years as Dean of the Faculty of
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta. Just before his retirement in 1978, his
UofA Faculty became the first in Canada to acquire a SLOWPOKE Nuclear Reactor
for its research designed and built by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
(AECL). The reactor provided a source
of neutrons for chemistry and other research.
Huston was born in Ashcroft, British Columbia, in 1912 and
went to school in Kamloops before heading off to Edmonton where he would spend
the most of his academic days. His Bachelors and M.Sc. came at UofA. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology during the
war (awarded in 1944) at the University of Washington.
In case you might think he was merely showing up for his
scientist job, punching the clock, and collecting his pay in order to have the
means to do his humour writing, here are some of his credentials from the
pharmaceutical sciences realm: President of the Canadian Pharmaceutical
Association; President of the Canadian Foundation for the Advancement of
Pharmacy; Canadian delegate to the Council of the Federation International
Pharmaceutique; Editor of the Canadian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences:
winner of the Dr. E.R. Squibb Award in Pharmacy, Biochemistry and Public Health,
and author of four textbooks and over a hundred scientific and professional
papers.
Still it is hard to deny his other side. He was a professional saxophone player who
toured with dance bands during his university student days and later played the
bassoon in the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and even performed in a rodeo.
But his favored extracurricular activity was humour writing.
He produced many books of this nature: the
bestselling The Great Canadian Lover, (Hurtig 1969), Toasts to the Bride,
(Hurtig 1969), Canada Eh to Zed, (Hurtig 1973) Great Golf Humour (Hurtig 1977),
and Golf and Murphy’s Law, (Hurtig 1981).
His personal favorite book was Gophers Don’t Pay Taxes,
(Tree Frog Press 1981) – the Leacock Medal winner, which he finished off after
retiring from his day job.
But he did, however, retain the title of Professor Emeritus in
retirement - this allowed him to maintain his association with the university and that
nuclear reactor.
Click Here for Review of
Gophers don't pay Taxes
Huston’s message to graduating students:
BY THE WAY ...
The book was only $6.95 --- and signed by Huston !
This kind of book-finding luck visited me a number of times. I suspect now that books have been signed by an author tend to be the ones that are preserved from the dumpster and recycling and thus end up on old bookstore shelves for text-based treasure hunters like me)
This kind of book-finding luck visited me a number of times. I suspect now that books have been signed by an author tend to be the ones that are preserved from the dumpster and recycling and thus end up on old bookstore shelves for text-based treasure hunters like me)