Stapleford, Ernest W. (1874-1959)

Educator and president of Regina College, Ernest Stapleford was born in St. Catharines, Ontario in 1874. He graduated from Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 1905, and spent two years abroad studying at Oxford and travelling across Europe and the Middle East. Upon his return to Canada he entered the Methodist ministry. After a period of time in Vancouver, Stapleford came to Regina to serve as president of Regina College from 1915 to 1934, and as principal from 1934 to 1937. He guided the college through the financial difficulties caused by World War I, the rapid growth of the 1920s, and the severe economic downturn of the 1930s. In 1934 Regina College was taken over by the University of Saskatchewan. Three years later, Stapleford resigned stating that his work, as far as the college was concerned, had ended when the university took over the college. He later served in an administrative capacity with Victoria College in Toronto. Stapleford was a charter member of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. The annual Stapleford Lecture at the University of Regina is named after him and his wife Maude. He died in Toronto in February 1959.

Mark Vajcner

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Further Reading

Pitsula, J.M. 1988. An Act of Faith: The Early Years of Regina College. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center.