Charles Cross Bigelow, CAUT’s president in 1972–1973 and Dean Emeritus of the University of Manitoba, died Nov. 25. He was 80.
Dr. Bigelow’s contributions to CAUT and CAUT’s collective bargaining initiatives spanned more than 40 years and involved academic staff associations throughout Canada. He was professor of biochemistry, and, later, environmental science, at the University of Alberta, the University of Western Ontario, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Saint Mary’s University and the University of Manitoba. He spent 18 years at Manitoba, serving as dean of science for nine of those years.
Dr. Bigelow was politically involved both within and outside the university community. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he served as a member of the executive of several local academic staff associations, as well as serving as chair of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations and president of CAUT. He was secretary of the Newfoundland New Democratic Party from 1974 to 1976, president of the Nova Scotia NDP in 1978–1979 and president of the Manitoba NDP from 1982 to 1984.
In 1998, CAUT honored Dr. Bigelow with the first Donald C. Savage Award for outstanding achievements in promoting collective bargaining and economic benefits in Canadian universities.
“Dr. Bigelow provided decades of service to the principles of fairness, openness and collegiality in Canadian academe and to collective bargaining as the means to protect and to promote those values,” said James Turk, executive director of CAUT. “He remains an inspiration to us all.”
CAUT Council held a moment of silence Nov. 28 to pay tribute to Dr. Bigelow.