Concordia's founding father of biology department passes away
Father Stanley P. Drummond, S.J., who founded the Department of Biology at Loyola College in 1946, and who served as a professor for the next 50 years, died recently at the age of 99.
When Father Drummond first came to Loyola College, which would later merge with Sir George Williams University to become Concordia, he set to work building a biology department without money, professors, or equipment. Through hard work and stubborn determination, Father Drummond persevered, and his lab soon became known as one of the best in Montreal.
Father Drummond played an important role in training scores of students who would go on to study medicine at McGill University. The pre-med students admired Father Drummond’s preciseness, patience and knowledge, and knew that he would provide them with an excellent foundation for their medical studies.
“There was a point when Father Drummond had taught practically every doctor who’d gone through the system,” recalled former Loyola student Jim Pearson, L BA 54, in an article that appeared in Concordia University Magazine.
Father Drummond was born in Guelph, Ont., in May 1913. He entered the Society of Jesus at age 18, and followed the order’s standard seven-year foundation program. After this, however, Father Drummond strayed from the normal Jesuit path and went to the University of Toronto where he took an MA and began a PhD in biology. He pronounced his final vows in 1951 in the Chapel at Loyola College, and completed his PhD in Toronto in 1956.
Once he had completed his studies, Father Drummond returned to Loyola College. He taught biology on the west-end campus until macular degeneration forced him to retire in the mid-90s at age 81.
At the time of his death, Father Drummond was the senior Jesuit in the Jesuits in English Canada Province.
Terry Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa, noted the passing of Father Drummond in his blog. “Throughout the years when I visited the Montreal Jesuit community in its several locales, he was always encouraging and affirming of me,” he wrote, before remarking on Father Drummond’s remarkable 55-year career as a science educator at Loyola and later Concordia. “His was the hidden life of the Jesuit scientist-priest.”
Concordia recently lost two other members of the community: Morrel Bachynski and Father Marc Gervais.
Related links:
• “Long Live the Jesuit Legacy” — Concordia University Magazine, Summer 2008