JURI DANIEL

Former director of the School of Physical Health and Education was first to envision an integrated Faculty

The Faculty was saddened to learn of the passing of Juri Daniel, professor emeritus and former director of the School of Physical Health and Education (SPHE), the precursor to KPE. Daniel died on October 6, 2022, approximately seven months before his 100th birthday.

He was born in Estonia in 1923 and came to Canada in 1948. He graduated from U of T with a bachelor’s degree in physical health and education in 1954, followed by a degree in psychology in 1957. Daniel joined SPHE in 1962 and served as director of the school from 1972 to 1979, earning his PhD in leadership theory and education psychology in the meantime from the University of Illinois in 1971.

“I first met Juri when I was a young boy,” says Professor Emeritus Bruce Kidd. “He taught me to swim, first at the Broadview Y[MCA] and then the following summer at the YMCA leadership camp in Geneva Park, where my parents had a cottage and Juri was physical activity director.

“He was like a Greek god, a fit and confident instructor and an inspirational role model for a boy who loved sports.”

Some years later, in the spring of 1973, the two would cross paths again when Kidd applied for a teaching job with SPHE. With the 1976 Summer Olympic Games set to take place in Montreal, governments across Canada were establishing sports departments and gradually changing the nature of sport and physical activity in Canada, recalls Kidd.

“As director, Daniel was gradually changing the focus of SPHE from teacher preparation to a more disciplinary approach to the study of sport and physical activity,” he says. “He wanted someone to conduct research into public policy and sport, and teach students about the changing world into which they would graduate. The school advertised for a social scientist, and I persuaded him and the search committee to hire me to research and teach the political economy of Canadian sports.”

Kidd remembers Daniel as a consultative leader who was always trying to forge a consensus among faculty and students. Daniel was also a driving force behind the integration of what were once separate men’s and women’s athletic departments and men’s and women’s physical education departments that taught compulsory physical education to undergraduates at U of T. That integration became the Department of Athletics and Recreation.

“At the time, Juri wanted to go further and integrate that new entity with the academic programs in SPHE, but the university hesitated and it never happened,” says Kidd, who would eventually become dean of the integrated Faculty of Physical Health and Education. “I was always persuaded by Juri’s vision and so, when I had the opportunity, I worked to integrate the school and the Department of Athletics and Recreation to create the Faculty. It was his snowball. I just threw it.”

Daniel leaves two powerful legacies, according to Kidd. One is a commitment to a multidisciplinary academic program, with strengths and applications across the full range of academic disciplines, from the humanities and social sciences to the physical and biophysical sciences, and the practice of physical activity.

“The other is a commitment to an integrated Faculty/health centre, with research informing teaching informing programs and practice informing research and so on,” says Kidd. “Juri clearly articulated those ideas – it just took us longer to realize them.”

Professor Gretchen Kerr, dean of KPE, met Daniel as an undergraduate student in SPHE, while taking two of his courses, one on organizational behaviour and the second on the psychophysiology of stress.

“I enjoyed Juri’s teaching style and the content so much, I asked if he would supervise me on an independent research course in my senior year, a course we still offer today,” says Kerr. “To my benefit, Juri agreed to supervise me, and throughout the research course experience, I had the privilege of meeting regularly with him to discuss the research and our field more broadly.

“Juri was a big believer in education of the physical and, perhaps more importantly, education through the physical. He advocated for the use of physical activity, exercise, sport, recreation and dance as vehicles through which health and development are enhanced and communities are built.”

Kerr and Kidd both recall that for many years, even as head of SPHE, Juri and his wife Mia taught swimming to children and adults.

“His commitment to the practice of physical activity was also exemplified by his routine of swimming or rowing for an hour at a time, several times per week, well into his 90s,” says Kerr, who continued to meet with Daniel long after he retired in 1989.

“Our most recent meeting was this past August,” she says. “He was always keenly interested in the goings-on in the Faculty and the university and was a reliable source of sage advice.

“I consider myself to be so fortunate to have benefitted from Juri’s mentorship over the past four decades. He provided wisdom, perspective and clarity on the path forward, helped to troubleshoot challenges, and was always a source of strong support.”

“Daniel’s commitment to a multidisciplinary approach in kinesiology is still evident in the Faculty today and, in many ways, distinguishes it from other kinesiology programs across the country,” says Kerr.

“In addition to the range of academic disciplines in our academic program, Juri was instrumental in ensuring the inclusion of physical activity and placement experiences,” she says. “He was a promoter of experiential education and the integration of theory and practice long before experiential education became a familiar term.”

An avid athlete, Daniel’s many accomplishments include winning gold, silver and bronze medals at the Estonian National Swimming Championships between 1942 and 1944, and earning a gold medal in javelin as a U of T student at the 1953 Canadian University Track and Field Championships.

He was the YMCA sports director from 1950 to 1959 and U of T swimming coach from 1962 to 1971, winning four Ontario and three Canadian university sports championships. In 1967, Daniels was named Canadian university swimming coach of the year, and in 1992, he was inducted into the U of T Sports Hall of Fame. — JD

Professor Emeritus Roy J. Shephard, former director of the School of Physical Health and Education (SPHE), passed away in February 2023. He was 93 years old. Shephard was a groundbreaking scientist, prolific author and respected advisor to national and international governments and NGOs on a broad range of issues relating to physical activity and health.

A medical doctor and physiologist from the UK, he was invited to Canada in 1964 under the auspices of the Fitness and Amateur Sport Act of 1961 to spearhead the development of fitnessrelated research.

Initially appointed professor of applied physiology in the School of Physical and Health Education and Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics (Faculty of Medicine), Shephard’s work eventually led to the creation of Canada’s first doctoral program in exercise sciences.

In 1979, he began his 12-year term as director of SPHE, where the graduate program for exercise sciences was eventually housed. Shephard served as director of the program until 1985 and during that time mentored and inspired many generations of exercise scientists who now practice and teach across Canada and around the world.

“Roy was the cornerstone of exercise physiology in Canada,” says Jack Goodman, a professor emeritus of KPE and one of the first students to graduate from the doctoral program. “He put Canada on the map, and through his influence, Canadians continue to punch well above our collective weight in this field.

“The Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire [PAR-Q], used by millions around the world, is a small example of Roy’s influence. He was also at the forefront of cardiac rehabilitation, adding his research prowess and exercise physiology expertise to Terry Kavanagh’s Toronto Rehab Centre, which became the pre-eminent cardiac rehab program in the world.”

Shephard’s studies of the physiological parameters of fitness provided the scientific basis for the Canadian government’s broad promotion of physical fitness, best known through ParticipACTION Canada. He also conducted influential longitudinal studies of physical activity in Canadian Indigenous populations and children in school-based physical education programs.

When Goodman was a graduate student, Shephard invited him to help out with a study looking into the potential impact of the increased use of snowmobiles on the stature of Indigenous populations.

“He handed me a stack of radiographs of human spines, and I was left with the task of quantifying the thickness of the vertebrae,” says Goodman. “Did their thickness reduce with prolonged sitting and bouncing on a snowmobile?

“I knew absolutely nothing about how to quantify this, but I researched it, tried to use a reliable method and promptly handed over the monotonous task to a friend who was bed-ridden after he badly broke his leg while we were on a ski trip.

“I did a second, blinded analysis, submitted the data to Roy and months later, in my mailbox was a reprint of the published paper with me listed as a co-author. That was my first publication as a grad student and it was a harbinger of what I came to appreciate most about Roy – his ability to write, edit and publish at an incredible rate and across a wide range of topics.”

Shephard wrote and edited more than 1,600 scientific papers and 100 books on sports, fitness, exercise, environmental physiology, biochemistry and immunology. Such was his output that Goodman recalls the former president of U of T, Professor Emeritus Robert

Pritchard, saying on one occasion that Shephard had been the most prolific publisher in U of T history.

“In one or two years, he would publish a career’s worth,” says Goodman. “Knowing how much time it takes, I’ve never understood the math behind his productivity.”

Professor Ira Jacobs remembers having folders full of papers with R.J. Shephard as senior author when he was an undergraduate student in physical education.

“Roy’s first book, Endurance Fitness, was a classic, one of the only comprehensive textbooks about exercise physiology available at the time,” says Jacobs. “I pretty much memorized the contents when I prepared for my end-of-course exercise physiology final exam, and it helped me ace the exam, cementing my decision to pursue graduate studies in the field.

“You can imagine what a thrill it was later in life when I had the chance to meet him at the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) conferences, and then interact more closely with him when I became affiliated with U of T.”

Jacobs’ academic career was kicked off with a graduate course he co-taught with a colleague from Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in the rapidly growing graduate program of exercise sciences.

“Dr. R.J. Shephard was a quiet and introverted giant in a field of research whose explosive growth has been stimulated in no small way by his research,” says Jacobs. “Humble almost to a fault, the combination of his scientific breadth of knowledge and wry sense of humour always made for an enjoyable and stimulating meeting.”

Professor Gretchen Kerr, dean of KPE, was just a few years behind Goodman in the doctoral program Shephard founded, focusing on behavioural sciences and sport psychology.

“One of the many benefits of Roy’s mentorship was the emphasis on interdisciplinary work in the pursuit of a healthier, more active society,” says Kerr. “Through his mentorship, I learned that the big questions of the day can only be addressed by integrating various disciplinary areas and the crosspollination of ideas.

“Today, this understanding and appreciation for the contributions made by all disciplinary areas in our field and the necessity of working across disciplinary lines has been foundational to my role as dean and to the development of the Faculty’s new Academic Plan.”

Shephard started numerous collaborations with institutions such as as the DRDC, Toronto Rehabilitation Centre (TRI), the Gage Research Institute and many more, which continue to provide KPE graduate students with outstanding research opportunities.

“Establishing the field of kinesiology as a valuable field of scholarship and research in its own right was one of Roy’s most significant contributions,” says Kerr. “In doing so, he brought to the fore the emphasis on the population health benefits of physical activity.

“While including exercise for treatment of illness and injury, he helped to broaden the field to include exercise for prevention and for optimal health and development.”

“He contributed so much,” says Professor Emeritus Scott Thomas. “Promoting the inclusion of physical activity and exercise into health care by generating clinical scientific evidence was key.

“Professionally, the most valuable lesson he imparted to me was the importance of writing. It is critical to evaluate what the research shows and then to get the message out.”

In fact, Kerr and Goodman both remember getting back papers from Shephard when they were his graduate students covered in red ink from the comments he provided.

“He taught me about precision, how to answer question directly and accurately,” says Goodman. “He was persnickety about units and grammar and would ask you to get rid of jargon.”

“I learned that how we communicate is as important as what we communicate,” says Kerr.

In 2014, Shephard was appointed to the Order of Canada for his pioneering work in the field of exercise science and for promoting the health benefits of physical activity to Canadians, adding to his many honours and awards. On the occasion, Jacobs, then dean of KPE, called Shephard’s impact on the exercise sciences “one of the most prodigious in the world” over the last half century.

“Roy’s enthusiasm for academics, our program and research in physical activity and health was infectious,” says Goodman. “It was impossible not to feel you were in the presence of something very special. He was a rare and generational talent.” — JD