TRIBUTE

摘要

Rod was born on July 6th, 1944 in rural Alberta, approximately 250 km east of Edmonton, where his grandparents on both sides of his family homesteaded near the turn of the last century. Rod's father operated a bulk oil and gas agency together with a welding and general farming machinery repair shop in the farming community known as Landonville. When Rod was in grade one, he attended Telegraph, a one-room school, where his aunt Eunice was the teacher. Everyday he walked the 3.5 miles to school. When the winter weather was too miserable for walking, which was frequent in central Alberta, he stayed with his aunt in a small teacher's "shack" adjacent to the school. The school had only nine students, but Rod feels that he profited immensely from having his aunt as one of his first teachers in this unique environment. In 1957, Rod's family moved to Vermilion, a bustling town of approximately 2500 situated on the river of the same name, which serves the surrounding rural communities. Rod spent much of his summer "vacations" working on his grandparents' farm - repairing fences, painting, gardening, picking rocks, harvesting hay, etc. Rod's interest in chemistry was sparked by a grade 10 science teacher, Mr. Matheson, who performed a number of in-class chemistry demonstrations. To acquire a deeper understanding of chemistry, Rod constructed a laboratory in the basement of his home, much to the annoyance of his family, particularly when loud bangs from exploding hydrogen or smells of hydrogen sulfide or other noxious gases emanated from the basement.