Obituary / Notice necrologique

MICHAEL J. TROUGHTON (1939–2007)

Michael J. Troughton, B.A. (Hons), B.Litt., M.A.,Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Geography at The Uni-versity of Western Ontario (UWO) from 1964to 2005, died quietly in hospital on Saturday10 March 2007, after a short battle with can-cer. Mike was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, edu-cated at Huddersfield College and won a StateScholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford takenup following National Service in the RAF. Aftergraduation he spent a year at the GeografiskeInstitute at Copenhagen University gathering ma-terial for his B. Litt. (Oxon) thesis on Danish Agri-culture. Following completion of his thesis anda meeting with Allen Philbrick in London, Eng-land, he accepted an appointment at UWO andarrived in London with his wife Ulla in 1964. In1970 he became the second doctoral graduate ofthe department with a thesis entitled ‘Farm-LevelInvestigations in Agricultural Geography’ basedprimarily on his work in Elgin County.

Mike worked with passion on the geography ofhis adopted country for over 40 years. He wasa tireless advocate for the study of Ontario rurallandscapes with a strong focus on agriculture andrural resources. He published more than 80 pa-pers in refereed journals, books and conferenceproceedings that dealt primarily with Ontario andthe Canadian Rural Landscape, exploring most

aspects of Canadian agriculture. More recently hefocused on broader studies of the rural land-scape, its built heritage and the sustainabilityof rural environments, work best captured byhis Past President’s Address to the CanadianAssociation of Geographers on ‘Rural Canadaand Canadian Rural Geography’ in 1994. He wasa sustaining member of the GIRMS DiscussionGroup (Geographers Interested in Resource Man-agement, based at the University of Waterloo) ofwhich he was chair in 1983–85. His reputationas the leader in Canadian Agricultural Geographywas established by his Atlas of Canadian Agri-culture (1979) and book on Canadian Agriculture(1982). He also was co-editor of two well-usedconference proceeding volumes on ‘The Country-side in Ontario’ published in 1975 and 1998.Latterly, he was a prominent and successful ad-vocate for naming the Thames as a Heritage Riverand for the inventory and preservation of the ar-chitectural heritage of rural Ontario.

Although his research was primarily in Ontarioand Canada, he was an international leader inthe development of Agricultural Geography. Hewas Secretary of the International GeographicalUnion Commission on Rural Development from1974 to 1984, President of the Commission onChanging Rural Systems from 1984 to 1992 and

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remained actively involved in successor organi-zations and meetings. Several diverse presenta-tions at these meetings focused a global spot-light on multiple facets of the agricultural geog-raphy and rural landscapes in Canada. Mike wasvery active in CAG attending over 27 nationalmeetings where he organized many special ses-sions on Agriculture and Rural Resources. Twiceserving on the CAG executive (1978–1981 and1991–1994), he was President in 1992–1993 andVice-Chair of the Canadian National IGU Commit-tee between 1985 and 1988. He was the mainorganizer of the largest CAG meeting in history(800 participants, 653 papers), held at UWO inJune 2005, where he was surprised by a specialsession honouring his imminent retirement. Mikewas also a prominent participant in and propo-nent of agricultural geography sessions at morethan 15 AAG meetings.

Mike was the longest serving member of the de-partment at UWO and his record of 41 years ofservice is unlikely to be equalled. Always carryingone of the heaviest undergraduate teaching loads,his courses were fundamental to resource man-agement, agriculture, rural landscapes, the ge-ography of food and food production. He wasinstrumental in founding the Environment andResource Management degree programme. The 52undergraduate theses he supervised covered ahuge diversity of topics and nine of his studentswon the CAG (best thesis) prize between 1967and 1982 when the thesis was compulsory. Hesupervised 29 graduate theses with many formerstudents going on to careers in academe, con-servation and rural planning. An inveterate sup-porter of field camp, he constantly challengedstudents to experience, understand and value theOntario landscape, whether it was the relics ofabandoned farmsteads, industrial archaeology onthe Canadian Shield or during the annual visitsto local pig farms in his agriculture course. Heremained focused on the diverse Ontario land-

scape and the rural resource themes of forestry,land use, heritage values and conservation. Neveran armchair geographer, he practiced what hepreached, venturing into municipal politics andplanning issues at City Hall. In London he was ac-tive in local community organizations, stood forpublic office and was involved in several archi-tectural heritage committees.

Mike Troughton was a genuine all rounder,who served Geography, his University and Canadawell as researcher, teacher, administrator andcolleague throughout a long and distinguishedcareer. He was the personification of integrity,a feisty proponent for the causes he believedin and consistently championed the need andvalue of studies in Ontario. He was honouredby the AAG’s J. Fraser Hart Award for re-search excellence and by a Doctor of Laws de-gree from Dalhousie University. In 2003 he waspresented with the CAGONT Award for Serviceto Geography in Ontario in recognition of hisachievements.

Mike’s sudden death was a great loss to the dis-cipline, his department, family, friends and col-leagues. Although ‘retired’ in 2005 he led depart-mental field camps in the fall of 2005 and 2006and worked most days in the department untilthe beginning of this year. When his illness wasdiagnosed, his primary academic concern was tocomplete the book he was preparing on the ar-chitectural heritage of the Thames River basinand ensure its publication. With Mike’s death col-leagues will sorely miss his sage advice, insight,trivia questions, infectious laugh and sense of hu-mour. The ‘Michael Troughton Graduate BursaryFund’ has been established in his memory anddonations can be made through Foundation West-ern. A celebration of Mike’s life took place at Mu-seum London on Saturday March 17 and was at-tended by almost 400 people.

brian luckman

The Canadian Geographer / Le Geographe canadien 51, no 4 (2007)