Dr. Roy Crawford
1993
Roy Douglas Crawford was born in Saskatoon in 1933. He was educated there and graduated with distinction with a B.S.A. in Poultry Science. After obtaining an M.Sc. from Cornell University, he was employed as a research officer with Canada Agriculture. He successfully completed a Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts and then came back to the University of Saskatchewan in 1964 to teach Poultry Science. He retired in 1991.
Dr. Crawford has made contributions to poultry by his excellence in teaching and his unselfish devotion to his students. He taught poultry genetics, breeding and husbandry to students in the College of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Graduate Studies and the School of Agriculture. In addition to a heavy teaching load, Dr. Crawford was very active in student counseling. Many of his students have gone on to be leaders in their fields. For the excellence of his teaching, he was awarded the first “Agriculture Professor of the Year” as well as the first “University of Saskatchewan Master Teacher” of the year. He was twice named the Veterinary Medicine Pre-Clinical “Teacher of the Year”. The international “Ralston Purina Teaching Award” was given to him by the Poultry Science Association in 1981. In graduate studies, he supervised 3 Ph.D. candidates and 4 Masters candidates and served on numerous graduate student committees.
Dr. Crawford also made significant contribution to research. He published over 60 major research papers and has been senior or co-author on at least as many papers at scientific meetings. He has addressed international as well as local meetings on poultry genetics and preservation of genetic resources. One of his major finds was a mutation of poultry which causes epileptiform seizures and is still an important animal model in human epilepsy studies. Upon the request of the Poultry Science Association, he edited and wrote five chapters of the first comprehensive review of poultry genetics since 1949. The book is noted for its excellence in detail and writing and will serve the industry for many years. He had previously contributed six chapters to other poultry texts. Dr. Crawford is a world leader in animal genetic germplasm preservation. His 1968 catalogue of “Poultry Stocks at Teaching and Research Institutions in Canada” was published each year until it was eventually included in a broader publication on Animal Care. He served as an active member on the Food and Agriculture United Nations Panel on genetic resources and lectured widely on the subject in Europe and Canada.
Dr. Crawford has also been active in the Kennel Club. He has given many short courses on dog breeding in several provinces. He has been provincial director and national vice-president of the Canadian Kennel Club. He was a driving force behind the formation of the Saskatoon Poultry and Pet Stock Association.
The service to agriculture, made by Dr. Crawford, was recognized in 1986 when he was made a Fellow of the Agriculture Institute of Canada. In 1991 he was also made a Fellow of the Poultry Science Association.
A dedicated and exceptional person, a fitting one to be honored with the Saskatchewan Poultry Award of Merit for 1993.