William Pollack Fraser was a pioneer in the study of plant rust in Canada and an authority on the natural floral of Saskatchewan. As head (from 1919-1925) of the Dominion Laboratory of Plant Pathology (the first in Western Canada), he was responsible for the initiation of many research projects on cereal diseases. Other topics of research throughout his career included heteroecious rusts, physiologic races of stem rust, root rots of cereals, a compilation of the Uredinales of the prairies, varietal resistance of wheat stem rust, and control of cereal smuts. Dr. Fraser was born in French River, Pictou County, Nova Scotia in 1867. He received degrees from Dalhousie and Cornell, and joined the University of Saskatchewan in 1925. Upon his retirement from the U of S in 1937 he was made Professor Emeritus, and awarded an LL.D (h.c.). Professor Fraser died at his home in Saskatoon on 23 November 1943.

William Giles French, originally from Calgary, Alberta, attended the University of Saskatchewan earning a Bachelor's degree in Accounting in 1941. The yearbook from 1941 indicates he was an active participant in student life: "member of College Executive, Sheaf and Greystone Staffs and Economics Club. Hopes to be a C.A. in transportation work. Sports: Swimming and track."