Glebe Report - Volume 32 Number 6- June 14 2002

3 Glebe Report June 14, 2002
Photo: Susan fermyn
Rally for light rail June 4
promotes healthy communities
At the rally for light rail at City Hall, Elaine Marlin, right, joins an
operator of the 0-train to admire a 1950s-era city bus. Dr. Rob
Cushman, chief medical officer, spoke to the crowd, endorsing public
transit as a way of reducing air pollution.
Bring
any sample
for a fast, free
computer
color match!
Jack Macphail
BY DAPHNE STRANGE
Jack Macphail has lived on
Powell Avenue for almost 50
years. In 1953, he moved to the
Glebe to be close to Glebe-St.
James church, where his wife
Frances was minister of music,
and to be near Carleton University
(then situated at First and
Lyon), where he taught mathematics.
Jack sang in the church
choir and played flute at the
church for over 30 years.
Jack Macphail's 90th birthday
was celebrated April 25 by Carleton
University as it named the
mathematics colloquium room the
Macphail Room. University officials
noted the many significant
contributions he made to Carleton
during his academic career, 1948
to 1985 (he retired in 1977).
M.S. (Jack) Macphail, emeritus
professor of mathematics, was
chairman of the math department
(1958-63), associate dean of science
(1956-1960), director of
graduate studies (1960-1963)
and was the first dean of the faculty
of graduate studies (1963-
1967).
Dr. Macphail received his PhD
from Oxford University. His first
mathematics research paper was
published in 1934, his most recent
in 1989.
Jack has a great sense of humour,
with an endless assortment
A duck in the chimney
BY JOHN LEANING
Our chimney, that goes in a
straight line from basement to
roof (four floors), needed to be
cleaned, but maybe that was only
obvious to the birds. For reasons
known only to itself, a young male
wood duck, rare in Ottawa, decided
to investigate our chinmey
pot and fell down three storeys to
our ground floor stove-pipe connection.
I could not figure out what was
making such a noise in our living
room until I went down into the
basement, opened the flue cleanout
door, removed a pile of soot
and was suddenly confronted by a
very dirty duck. It flew out,
scattering soot all over the place,
finally taking refuge under some
discarded furniture. He was a
fine fellow with an emerald green
crest streaked with white, and a
brown front. The rest of him was
black, soot black.
Having never had a duck in the
house before, I was perplexed to
know what to do. It was a public
NEWS
90 and counting
Jack Macphail Photo: Brad Munro
of jokes and anecdotes. He is an
avid reader and keeps abreast of
world affairs. His ironic observations
add spice to the conversation.
He is easy-going and tolerant
of others. Fun to be with,
independent, Jack is always interested
in going out to dinner or
to concerts.
He just recently decided to
move out of his large home on
Powell and move to a retirement
residence in the Glebe.
Happy 90th Jack!
holiday, so when I got hold of the
Humane Society, it was closed.
However, they have an emergency
line which I called. Lo and behold,
a short while later a van
appeared with a lady with a net
and box to catch our poor bird
which was desperately flying all
over the basement I asked a Chinese
student who was with us at
the time what would have happened
in China, but he had never
heard of such an extraordinary
event. Neither, so it happens, had
the Humane Society lady. Our
student said it could have ended
up in a cookpot in some hungry
parts of China. If we had had our
fire on, it might have been accidentally
barbecued.
Since we got our chimney
cleaned for free, I sent a donation
to the Humane Society with
thanks to the lady who gave up
her holiday time to catch the poor
duck and clean it up before returning
it to find its wife. She
said wood ducks are monogamous,
so she would miss him.
13e pari of the ultimate Dog Outing Club
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