ARTHUR OTTO STINNER

Condolences & Memories (5 entries)

• I first met Arthur in 1854, when we were both Engineering students and boarded at a North American Baptist Bible School. Art roomed with a friend, Gordon Tomm. I had a rubber mask that looked like Frankensteins monster. I went into their room in the middle of the night, shone a flashlight in my face and kicked Arthur awake. H took one look, retreated as far in the bed and started kicking..I whipped off the mask and Art recognized me. He said that he thought the Devil had come for him, then realized that devils don't illuminatre their faces with flashlights. We maintained our friendship through the years, but lost track of one another when I moved to the USA to practice. Arthur was about four months my elder. I was saddened to hear of his passing from a mutual friend fro the early U of A days. - Posted by: A. Reginald Watts MD FRCS(C) (Friend) on: Jul 22, 2016

• It was with great surprise, sadness, and shock that I learned belatedly of the passing of my old friend Art Stinner, whom I had known since our student days at the University of Alberta in the early 1960s when I was working on my Ph.D. and Art on his third bachelor degree. Although I hadn’t seen him for several years, we did maintain a sporadic correspondence by phone and e-mail. One of my great regrets is that I never got to meet his family, nor he mine, though we did keep each other updated about families and careers. It was when trying to contact him to tell him about the marriage of my daughter that I learned that he had died. I am still having difficulty accepting that he is no longer with us, since he was a man of such tremendous vitality and presence. Once we got to know each other I was astonished when he told me that he had been trying for some time to establish a friendship, but found me aloof. But it wasn’t aloofness; he was four years older than I and I was in awe of him, since he seemed to me to be everything I wasn’t but wanted to be handsome, popular, extraverted, and self-assured. That awe was increased when I first visited Art at his apartment and I learned that he shared it with the most popular DJ in Edmonton, someone who seemed to me in my youth to be of almost legendary proportions (and who also died in 2014). Prior to that I didn’t realize that Art even knew who I was. But once our friendship was established, we found that, despite the difference in our personalities, we had a great deal in common, and could talk for hours about philosophy, movies, physics, women, books, cosmology, and everything in between. Although his public persona was an extrovert, in private he could be contemplative and thoughtful, and surprisingly introspective and trustingly candid about what he perceived as his failings and insecurities. After the University of Alberta, we went our separate ways, but kept in touch until we met again in Vancouver, where I was teaching at what eventually became Langara College (in fact, it was Art’s suggestion that I apply there), and Art was studying at Simon Fraser University. We shared an apartment and had a lot of mutual friends and an active social life. We were two young guys having fun doing all the things that young men did. Some of the lighter moments from our life as roommates derived from my doing all the cooking, which I enjoyed and was good at, whereas Art, by his own admission, couldn’t boil water without burning it. He had a terrible habit of eating his dinner while sitting on the floor reading, leaving his plate there, forgetting about it, and later stepping into his leftovers and getting them all over his socks. At one point he asked me to teach him to cook, so I directed him as he gathered everything he needed, then got him to start some preparation. However, he lost interest after about two minutes, wandered away, and never asked again. I suspect that, despite his appreciation of good food and his respect for those who knew how to prepare it, he regarded cooking as a simple mechanical skill that wasn’t sufficiently challenging to engage his intellect. Art eventually moved away, and taught in Edson, Alberta, for a while, then in Toronto, which he called a “poor man’s New York,” and had an endless fund of stories about his adventures in both those places. At one point he vanished, and when he returned and looked me up, he told me that he had been living and working in Jamaica, about which he had another set of stories. On another occasion, he went on a cruise on the Indian Ocean to observe a total solar eclipse, and there met Isaac Asimov, who had been one of his heroes, but found that he didn’t like him. When he moved to Winnipeg, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Manitoba at the age of 50, then worked up to full professor in six years, a record for U. of M. He remained there for the rest of his distinguished career, but being a professor wasn’t enough for him, and he started writing plays. I felt greatly honoured when he asked me to critique and proofread early drafts of two plays, each of which was produced both in Germany and Canada, and were about imagined interactions among great thinkers from different historical eras. I didn’t change a thing except to correct typos. During his time at U. of M., the only times we met were when he visited family in Vancouver. Although Art’s primary area of expertise was physics, he was immensely erudite in a large range of disciplines, and could converse just as easily and knowledgeably about literature, psychology, music, and art as he could about science. He was a true polymath with an intellect that was enormous and profound. Lest I have given the impression that Art was all about serious intellectual matters, I should point out that he saw the humorous side of everything, and that his eyes were always crinkled with laughter lines. He liked to joke that what he had in common with various famous people made him just like them. According to Art, he looked like Picasso, he and Einstein both played the violin badly, and was born at the same time that Elvis Presley was conceived. One of his anecdotes was about the time that a youngish (though older than we were), handsome, suave, and charming professor at U. of A. who liked to hang out with the graduate students and older undergrads on the patio of the university swimming pool, where most of the interesting people tended to congregate, and whom everybody (apparently except Art) knew was gay, invited Art to dinner. Art, in his innocence, accepted, and later told me, once he had realized what had been going on, that the professor had been “a perfect gentleman.” I remember Art telling me that Beethoven had said that he had hidden a musical joke in each of his symphonies, then insisting on playing them all for me until we got to the joke. The only one I remember is from the Ninth (The Choral). I still find it hilarious, and laugh out loud every time I hear it. The joke has several levels of subtlety and complexity, and, like all the best jokes, even a serious purpose and a touch of sadness, but trying to explain it would kill it. You have to hear it. Listen for it during the Ode to Joy. The more than half-century duration of my friendship with Art was longer than with any other friend, and he will be sorely missed. I still keep thinking of what we will talk about when next we meet, but sadly, that is not to be. - Posted by: Don Graham (Friend) on: Jan 03, 2015

• .....Arthur was a stunningly influential individual on so many fronts and to such a diversity of individuals. I was his final read as a graduate student as Arthur became very ill while reading the PhD thesis which I had submitted in early May this year. Not having him there as the main branch of a tree giving life to an exceptional cadre of graduate students is difficult to imagine. He will live on in his doctoral students - Don Metz, Jana Jilek, Barbara McMillan, and Stephen Klassen among them - all who have become distinguished contributors to science education in Canada and internationally. We all hold such vivid memories of an individual who brimmed over with enthusiasm and self-confidence. I recall the very first day I met Arthur at the University of Manitoba.....it was the first science education class for the B.Ed. freshmen of 1993. I had raised, audibly, a mild reproof of something that Art had said that seemed disparaging to geology....and so Art turns to his colleague, Harvey Williams, and says...."It's only the first day.....I think this guy's gonna be trouble!" And so....as the lone geoscientist among the physicists, Dr. Stinner humoured me along for many years as his student, always politely excusing my ignorance of physics for which he had such passion. His singular contribution to so many of us was the manner in which he made history so vivid and so important to the understanding of modern science....for Arthur, these connections were inevitable and crucially important. He understood that science occurs as a social and cultural phenomenon and must be appreciated through the eyes and experiences of people and the times in which they lived. There could not have been a more wonderful confluence of conditions at the University of Manitoba - a tennis nut, a scholar, an outrageous dramatic teacher, and one who was a loving father to all of us. You "served" well Arthur.....the set is yours! With affection, John. - Posted by: John Murray (Friend/Protege/Graduate Student) on: Jun 13, 2014

• From the moment I met my friend Lisa's dad I knew he was unforgettable. Arthur knew how to bring out the best in his daughter and that wonderful contagious quality lives in Lisa's soul.. And that has inspired me to be better. Deb - Posted by: deborah (friend of Lisa, daughter of Arthur) on: Jun 08, 2014

• I'm deeply saddened to learn of Dr. Stinner's passing. Arthur was an incredible teacher/mentor and friend. He is the most influential person in my education career - I am eternally grateful to have known him and learned from him. His passion for physics education in Manitoba will forever be part of teachers and their students. I will miss his warm heart and generous spirit - my condolences to Ann and his children. - Posted by: Jason Braun (friend/student ) on: Jun 07, 2014