Retired entomologist to receive Chancellor’s award
For Thelma Finlayson, receiving Simon Fraser University’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Service award will be another feather in an already well-feathered cap.
The 95-year-old retired biology professor received word about the award while attending President Michael Stevenson’s recent seasonal reception. She’ll be formally honoured at the university’s annual award ceremony in March.
The award recognizes individuals who have made a distinguished contribution to the province in areas in which SFU has a major interest or direct association.
Finlayson is a renowned entomologist and founder of SFU’s pest management program, which she recently revitalized by funding a new chair. She has spent the past three decades since retirement (in 1979) counseling students at SFU.
Attending the president’s reception was a welcome outing for Finlayson, who this past summer contracted Clostridium (C) difficile from an antibiotic taken for a foot injury.
The normally active Finlayson spent eight weeks in hospital recovering. “I still haven’t got my legs back,” she says. “Once I do, and if they’d have me, I’d like to be back up at the university. That’s what I’m hoping for, but it’ll be harder to get around now with a cane.”
Learning that C difficile is often deadly came as a surprise, she says. “It just never occurred to me that I wouldn’t recover. So I simply got better. And now I feel fine.”
As for the Chancellor’s award, Finlayson says she is “stunned.”
“This is just so totally unexpected,” says Finlayson, whose "award wall” in the bedroom of her Burnaby apartment includes the Order of Canada, a YWCA Woman of Distinction award, and a treasured departmental diploma of recognition, featuring drawings of the insects she focused on during her career.
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