J. Alistair McVey is a consummate geographer. He has loved and nurtured our discipline all his adult life and taught 1st and 2nd year University Transfer Geography courses, full-time, for 22 years. Currently the Dean of Science and Technology at the College of New Caledonia - at which institution he has also served, from time to time, as Acting Dean of every other Division - he still finds time to teach one Geography course each year. That course is in the Cultural Geography, the subfield which continues to command his greatest affection.
Alistair has lived in northern British Columbia since the late 1960s. For much of his early years there, Alistair was the only professional geographer in the area. He has worked, and continues to work, tirelessly to promote the value of a geographic education and the unique skills possessed by our students. Over the years Alistair has taught in excess of 4,000 students and now finds, in his classes, the children of many of his former students.
During all his time in northern B.C., Alistair has selflessly contributed his many skills as a geographer to a great many government, industry and community projects and causes. He is currently the President of the B.C. Deans of Technology Committee, Secretary to the Academic/Technician Articulation Committee, a member of the Board of the Northern B.C. Technological Centre and a member of the Editorial Board of Western Geography, the peer-reviewed journal of the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers.
His past involvements have included: Chair of the Tenure and Promotion Tribunal of the University of Northern British Columbia; Board member and Founding member of the Northern Interior Science, Technology and Innovation Council; Board Member of the McGregor Model forest Association; President of the Western division of the Canadian Association of Geographers; Chair (on two occasions) of the B.C. Geography Articulation Committee; Chair of the Prince George Downtown Revitalization Committee; Commissioner on the British Columbia Utilities commission Review of the Kemano Completion Project; Member of the Central Interior Science Exhibition Committee; Member of several committees established by the City of Prince George including the Civic Facilities Committee, the Downtown Advisory Committee and the Mayor’s Flood Relief Committee. Alistair is also Past President of the Prince George Theatre Workshop (the local amateur theatre company), Past President of the Prince George Cantata Singers (an amateur choral music group) and a past member of the Board of the B.C. Festival of the Arts.
Despite all these commitments, Alistair continues to conduct research and to maintain a publishing record. He published two articles in 1998, is co-author of a paper presented at the Canadian Association of Geographers’ 1999 Annual Meeting in Lethbridge and is currently completing work on a co-edited text on the Geography of Northern British Columbia.
