Stephen Butler Leacock (1869 - 1944) Inducted 1970

Stephen Leacock, Professor Emeritus of McGill University, born in England, was a respected teacher and a widely published academic author in the fields of economics and literature. His range of interests and activities at which he succeeded could be termed extraordinary.

At McGill, he was Head of the Department of Economics and Political Science from 1908 until his retirement in 1936.

His publications included over sixty volumes of essays, biography, history, economics, political satire, humour and nonsense. His two masterpieces are Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and Arcadian Adventures of the Idle Rich. The former, written at his summer home at Brewery Bay, Orillia, has been called the most Canadian book ever written, and immortalized Orillia as Mariposa. Leacock was the English-speaking world's best known humourist from 1915 - 1925.

He was an ardent fisherman, gardener and entertaining host.

His home at Brewery Bay is now the Stephen Leacock Memorial Home, maintained by the Leacock Memorial Home Board in Orillia.

A bronze bust of Leacock by Elizabeth Wyn Wood graces the Orillia Public Library.