Professor John Everitt will retire from Brandon University in
2008. It is both timely and most appropriate that he receive
the CAG Award for Service to the Profession of Geography in
recognition of the dedicated and numerous contributions to the
discipline he has made over his more than 35 years in Canada.
Through John Everitt's stalwart efforts the discipline has been
admirably served. Professor Everitt has promoted and advanced
geography both within and outside academe, and both within and
outside Canada. In particular he has made important
contributions in terms of teaching, research, administration,
as well as consulting and community service.
Professor Everitt has contributed to teaching at both graduate
and undergraduate levels. He has been both an innovative and a
successful teacher. Since 1973 at the undergraduate level he
has regularly taught a "full load" of 18 credit hours from
first-year introductory level to 4thlevels (in some twenty
different courses), as well as assuming other duties and
responsibilities. In total Professor Everitt has taught over
8,000 students at a University that has averaged less than
3,000 students total enrollment a year. Although there is no
graduate program at Brandon University, Professor Everitt has
served on many Undergraduate Honours Thesis committees, as well
as geography graduate committees in BC, Ontario, and Manitoba.
Professor Everitt has worked with graduate students in
Geography (now Environment and Geography), Community Health
Sciences, and the Centre on Aging at the University of
Manitoba, where he is an adjunct faculty member. More recently
he has been on several M.A. Degree supervisory and examination
committees in the relatively new Department of Rural
Development at BU in which he is a "Contributing Faculty
Member". In total Professor Everitt has served on ten M A and
nine Ph.D. committees.
Professor Everitt has given over 150 conference presentations
and has more than 150 publications. He has rarely missed a
meeting of the CAG or its Prairie Division. Although his
research is not directly related to this CAG award, a
considerable amount of Professor Everitt's research has been
applied, or directed to the Manitoba community (and elsewhere)
and consequently has had an impact on raising the profile of
the discipline of geography outside the walls of academe. As
recognition of his status in the discipline John has been
involved on several Canada-wide grants of national
status.
Professor Everitt is never reticent about calling himself a
geographer when in public, and as a consultant-geography has
been used by a variety or organizations in the Prairies. In
this context Professor Everitt's research on aging, urban
renewal, and heritage has been used in Brandon, and his
co-edited book on the Geography of Manitoba has brought
widespread acclaim to the Geography Department at Brandon
University. This book, was instrumental in stimulating at least
two other volumes on provincial regional geography in Canada.
His work on Belize brought him international acclaim. Similarly
his work on the grain trade in Canada has made him an 'on-call'
person across the prairies on this topic for other authors,
newspapers, and radio and TV broadcasts -at the same time
boosting his profession and his department. Professor Everitt's
recent research work on the quality of life, tourism and
sustainability of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico along with
his research seminars to faculty at the campus of the
University of Guadalajara in Puerto Vallarta have built and
strengthened ties among geographers in Canada and
Mexico.
He has contributed to the profession in a number of
administrative roles. For example, he served as Chair of the
Department for nearly thirteen years. Apart from the usual
selection of university committees, he was selected as a
geographer on several other committees related to the
internationalization of the university and the promotion of
rural studies. He is currently serving as the member
responsible for 'geography' on the Editorial Board of the
forthcoming Encyclopedia of Manitoba. Professor Everitt has
always reviewed research papers for journals willingly and on
time, and has refereed some two-dozen grant applications for
groups such as the NSF and the SSHRC. In recent years, as a
mark of John Everitt's status within geography he has been
asked, by faculty and administrators in many institutions, to
act as an external referee for tenure and promotion
applications, and for decanal positions. He has served as an
external examiner for a number of departmental reviews.
Professor Everitt has worked hard to increase the public
profile of geography within BU as well as in his local region
of Westman, Manitoba. He has been on a number of local Brandon
committees as a geographer, and has served as a founding Board
Member and Vice President on the Neighbourhood Renewal
Committee (NRC) of Brandon, and President (for five years) and
founding Board Member of Riverbank Inc., a local environmental
group. He was also instrumental in promoting the need for an
urban geographer on the board of the NRC, written into its
constitution. Professor Everitt was also a founding member and
Executive Member on Marquis, a Third World Dev-Ed group in
Brandon, also serving as its Vice President. He also used his
professional skills in the Assiniboine Historical Society as a
member and Board Member, and in various ethnic, aging, and
women's groups in Brandon. He has been closely involved with
the BU Local Committee of World University Service of Canada
for over thirty years, being instrumental in bringing
twenty-five refugee students to Canada. He has served on both
the municipal and provincial heritage committees. Once again as
a geographer, Professor Everitt has given guest lectures at a
variety of local and provincial organizations, and many
presentations to Brandon City Council and the Brandon and Area
Planning District. In total, he has been exceedingly successful
at enhancing the reputation of geography as an important and
relevant discipline within the university and elsewhere.
Within the profession, Professor Everitt has served on the
Royal Canadian Geographical Society (he is a Fellow of the
RCGS) and NCGE committees, he has served on the executive of,
as well as President of, the CAG, and has represented the CAG
at both AAG and IBG meetings. He is active in a number of AAG
and CAG speciality groups. Locally he is best known as a
co-founder of (in 1976), and a driving force behind, the
Prairie Division of the CAG. John served as both
SecretaryITreasurer and President of this organization, edited
its Newsletter, and received both research and service awards
from the Division. He has also been active as a geographer in
other academic groups, indicating his recognized value outside
of the discipline. He was a Vice President of the Canadian
Society for the Study of Names. He has been active in the
Centre on Aging at the University of Manitoba, served for many
years on its Advisory Board, is a Research Affiliate in the
Centre, and is a part of national grant applications (Community
University Research Alliance -CURA, SSHRC) with other members
of the Centre. He has presented guest lectures and/or seminars
at some twenty universities in Canada, the USA, the UK, Mexico,
Austria, and Germany.
Professor Everitt has clearly served the discipline of
geography in Canada in a wide variety of ways, and has
continually demonstrated the importance of geographic issues
within the contemporary world. He has been very effective in
all aspects of our profession -teaching and research as well as
service. John has been a true ambassador for Geography in
Canada. He has been recognised by his university, his CAG
Division and by the RCGS. I call upon the CAG to give him its
own recognition. Honoring Professor Everitt with the CAG Award
for service to the profession of geography will give him due
recognition and invigorate his continuing contributions to
knowledge to the discipline of
geography.
