In memoriam: James Gordon Nelson 1932–2024

Gordon Nelson, 2017, Cyprus Hills. Photo courtesy of Kathryn Nelson The first sentence Gordon Nelson published in a refereed journal is: “The Balsa is perhaps the most mysterious and controversial of primitive watercraft” (Nelson, 1961b, p. 157). This immediately evokes Gordon's desire to inquire about the unknown and to explore the complexities of the many dimensions of geography. Entitled “The geography of the Balsa,” this substantial article was published in the quarterly journal of maritime history, American Neptune (Nelson, 1961b). The journal's Editor provided the postscript “His specific interest in primitive watercraft centers on the extent to which they can serve as both means and evidence for early human migration and cultural development” (Nelson, 1961b, p. 195). This paper was followed by “Pre-European trade between Australia, Indonesia and the Asiatic Mainland” in The Canadian Geographer in 1961 (Nelson, 1961a). With these publications, Gordon had established a well-defined footprint in cultural geography. In 1965, however, he published a paper entitled “Some effects of glaciation on the Susquehanna River Valley” in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (Nelson, 1965). Clearly, this was the start of an eclectic academic life and it did not happen by accident! Three significant influences can be identified. First, Gordon grew up less than two blocks from what Hamiltonians (Hamilton, Ontario) call “the Mountain,” which is actually a segment of the Niagara Escarpment. His curiosity about and love of nature started with many hours investigating the secrets of this environment by himself and with friends. His choice of graduate school at the University of Colorado was influenced by these early experiences and the possibility of seeing the “real” mountains (Shirley Nelson, pers. comm., 2024). Second, Gordon was accompanied in this journey by his wife and life-long companion, Shirley. Shirley provided support and contributed substance and style to much of Gordon's written work and professional activity. She is acknowledged in the first refereed journal article, “The geography of the Balsa” noted above. The book, Amid shifting sands (Nelson & Rghei, 2022) is dedicated to Shirley. During it all, including a number of moves of houses and home, they raised a family of three children who have gone on to professional careers and families of their own. Third, the concept of Landscape, inclusive of nature and humankind and their respective processes intertwined, was central to Gordon's interpretation of geographies, his practice of Geography as a scholarly discipline, and his public interest and activist work. He completed his undergraduate degree in Geography at McMaster University in 1955 and his Master's degree a year later at the University of Colorado. On his arrival for doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1956, he came into contact with two eminent scholar/scientists—George F. Carter and M. Gordon Wolman. The former was an archeologist/cultural geographer; the latter was a fluvial geomorphologist prominent for his leadership in process studies, including those associated with humankind. Gordon completed his PhD on the balsa and drift voyages with George Carter. Gordon Wolman also provided guidance to Gordon and perked a serious interest in geomorphology, leading to a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University that allowed Gordon to conduct research in the Susquehanna and Chemung Valleys. Thus, Gordon set forth into the academic world as what was called in those days “a well-rounded geographer,” with Landscape as an essential conceptual tool. Gordon joined the University of Alberta, Calgary, in the summer of 1960 as Assistant Professor of Geography at its new campus. A physical setting spanning the plains to the Canadian Rocky Mountains which contained a variety of land uses including national and provincial parks presented fertile ground for a field-oriented geographer. He led physical geographic projects in the Banff National Park headwaters of the Red Deer and Bow Rivers, exemplified in “Recession of the Hector and Peyto Glaciers: Further studies in the Drummond Glacier” (Brunger et al., 1967). Meanwhile, he was exploring the socio-historical aspects of fire in the Bow Valley of Banff National Park as seen in “Man as an instrument of landscape change: Fires, floods and national parks in the Bow Valley, Alberta” (Nelson & Byrne, 1966). His vision of landscape and landscape change was expansive and led to his book, The last refuge (Nelson, 1973) in which he chronicled the landscape and land use history of the Cypress Hills of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Within the university, he took an energetic interest in the ongoing institutional development and administration. Gordon served as Head of the Department of Geography from 1964 to 1967, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts from 1967 to 1970, and Assistant to the Vice-President (Academic) in 1970–1971. Under Gordon's leadership, the Department of Geography rapidly developed and in 1968, now with 13 academic staff, hosted the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers. Many of the principles that encouraged group interaction and public participation that became a hallmark of Gordon's career were honed during this period. He engaged the population on issues such as the proposed Winter Olympics, development of additional roads along valley bottoms, a new ski village at Lake Louise in Banff National Park, and development of National Park Initiatives including the Calgary-Banff Chapter (now Southern Alberta) of the National and Provincial Parks Association of Canada (now Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society). He had an “irrepressible enthusiasm” and “… his ability to knit facts and ideas in verbal presentation was magnetic” (Robert Scace, pers. comm., 2024). He shared authorship with his students and colleagues and this leaves a legacy of influential individuals who carry on with his ideas. From 1971 to 1975, Gordon was Professor of Geography at the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) and many issues associated with the environment of the Canadian shore of Lake Erie allowed him to further develop processes for the engagement of the public in resources management and decision making. These were structured on Gordon's “human ecological model” in which resource management problems were studied as an integration of ecology, technology, perceptions and attitudes, and institutional arrangements. One of his graduate students, James Battin, noted “He was a dynamic teacher/professor in the area of land use history and land use change. More importantly to our small group of graduate students he was approachable, intelligent and had a great sense of humour” (pers. comm., 2024). Reid Kreutzwiser, another student, noted “Gordon's commitment to mentoring students was undeniable, and his time in the field with his students was a highlight. We couldn't help but be inspired by his insights into the environment around us and human interaction with that environment. But perhaps most significant and inspiring … was his commitment to policy-relevant research” (pers. comm., 2024). A colleague at Western, Richard Butler, notes that “[Gordon's] appointment stimulated the development of courses in [resources management], attracted post-graduate students and led to the creation of an additional under-graduate degree programme, entitled Geography (Resources Management). He also enabled and supported the involvement of colleagues in a number of research projects, in my own case through his work with the Inuit Tapirisat with respect to tourism and national park development in the Arctic regions” (pers. comm., 2024). In 1975, Gordon was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (now Faculty of Environment) and Professor of Geography at the University of Waterloo. He served as Dean until 1983. With his leadership, significant additions and modifications were made to the physical plant and the staffing arrangements of the constituent Departments. Most notably, the building was expanded to physically accommodate the School of Architecture in the Faculty. In addition, facilities were created for the rapidly emerging areas of geographical information systems and remote sensing, each of which had cross-disciplinary relevance and utility. As was the case at the University of Calgary, Gordon also continued to add to his research and public interest activities at the same time, typically through productive collaboration with colleagues and students. With colleagues John Theberge and Jamie Bastedo, he developed the ABC framework for management of human-environment issues. It involves understanding the abiotic, biotic, and cultural systems in an issue and that their integration is necessary to understand the many dimensions and interactions of a region which can then provide a “sense of place.” Many years of academic and community-based work within the ABC framework is gathered together in a compendium of papers entitled Places: Linking nature, culture, and planning (Nelson & Lawrence, 2009). This work “… ultimately translated into local, regional and provincial land use management approaches by government agencies, local authorities and communities, shaping the conversation, decision-making and policy to address this major issue impacting thousands of shoreline landowners and land use management agencies” (Patrick Lawrence, pers. comm. 2024). In 1983, he was appointed Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning along with his appointment in Geography. In 1987, he founded the University of Waterloo Heritage Resources Centre. The engagement of students together with professional parks managers was the hallmark of the Heritage Resources Centre. The centre “… organized and ran many conferences involving professional parks and protected area managers at local, provincial/territorial and national levels all with the objective of bringing interested parties together and cultivating university-government partnerships” (John Theberge, pers. comm., 2024). In 1988, the Heritage Resources Centre was approached by a steering committee consisting of representatives of the Canadian Parks Service, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Grand River Conservation Authority. The committee was developed to designate the Grand River as a Heritage River. With a group of post-graduate students, the Centre developed a “… compelling case for nominating the Grand River and its major tributaries and undertook a series of public engagement sessions to promote the designation among watershed communities … Gordon's commitment and active involvement in promoting the designation was instrumental in achieving this prestigious nomination for the river system” (Barbara Veale, pers. comm., 2024). Gordon's continuing engagement with the Grand River system resulted in a heritage landscape guide entitled The Grand River Watershed (Nelson et al., 2003). In 2004, he edited a book called Towards a grand sense of place: Writings on changing environments, land-uses, landscapes, lifestyles and planning of a Canadian Heritage River (Nelson et al., 2004) as a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Grand as a Canadian Heritage River and the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System. Gordon retired from his professorial positions in Geography and Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Waterloo in 1997 and, in 1998, he was awarded the designation Distinguished Emeritus Professor. He continued in his role as Chair, Heritage Resources Centre until 2003. Two major projects occupied Gordon in his later retirement years. One of the great achievements of the parks and protected areas movement in Canada came to fruition in 2009 when the effort to expand the Nahanni National Park Reserve, first proposed in the early 1970s, was approved by the Government of Canada. Gordon was involved in the process through decades. In 2017, his book The magnificent Nahanni: The struggle to protect a wild place (Nelson, 2017) was published. In the Foreword, Harvey Locke writes that the book: “… contains reflections on this remarkable national park landscape by one of the keenest students of parks and protected areas this country has ever produced. For fifty years Gordon Nelson has been thinking about and influencing how the rest of us see national parks in Canada” (Nelson, 2017, p. xii). Gordon's long experience in institutional development and administration led to a consultancy at the Canadian University of Dubai in 2006. He reconnected with a former PhD student, Amer Rghei, at the American University in Dubai. Thrust into one of the most rapidly changing landscapes on earth, Gordon and Amer explored land use history and landscape change in the extreme. A result is the collaboration, Amid shifting sands (Nelson & Rghei, 2022). Therein, the landscape is viewed through time via its abiotic, biotic, and cultural components. Over 61 years, Gordon wove together many of the transdisciplinary threads of Geography with a focus on knowledgeable and effective management and conservation of the world around us. Gordon's interest was to “understand past and present relationships and interactions between human beings and their environments; his life's work had a focus on cause and effect in highly prized and inevitably vulnerable landscapes and habitats” (Robert Scace, pers. comm., 2024). He reached far beyond the borders of the academic environment to engage and foster public participation in these issues. In later years, his engagement of a wide network of friends and colleagues in a variety of working groups on a range of public environmental issues led a participant in one such group to refer to him as the “wise old owl” (Bill Caulfeild-Browne, pers. comm., 2024). His legacy has been carried forward by an army of former students, colleagues, collaborators, and friends who have benefitted from Gordon's intelligence, energy, and way of thinking and being in the world. Bill Caulfield-Browne wrote that “It was not just a pleasure working with Gordon but an education that I value to the day.” We are indebted to Shirley Nelson for providing and verifying details as well as identifying former students and colleagues. We thank Kathryn Nelson for providing the photograph. Many former students and colleagues have generously provided vignettes and comments regarding Gordon Nelson's impact on their careers which have added to the authors’ own personal experiences. We are grateful to: James Battin, James Battin Law Office, Tillsonburg, Ontario; Richard Butler, Emeritus Professor, Western University, Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow; Bill Caulfeild-Browne, Former Chair, The Nature Conservancy of Canada; Reid Kreutzwiser, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph; Patrick Lawrence, Chair & Professor, University of Toledo; Brian Luckman, Professor Emeritus, Western University; Robert Scace, President of Scace Environmental Advisors Inc., Calgary; John B. Theberge, Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo; Barbara Veale, Acting Chief Administrative Officer, Conservation Halton; Gary Warrick, Professor Emeritus, Wilfrid Laurier University.