In memoriam: Vincent Seymour Wilson, CPA Editor (1987-1992)

Abstract

Vincent Seymour Wilson, part of a remarkable cohort of doctoral students from Queen's University, a long-time professor of public administration at Carleton University, and a former Editor of Canadian Public Administration, passed away on January 18, 2023 in Ottawa, just before his 86^th birthday. His career and research interests, in many ways, reflect the evolution of the field of public administration in Canada and many of the issues he flagged in his research and CPSA address remain salient to this day. He also performed great service to the discipline of political science and the field of public administration. What follows focuses more on his many contributions to Canadian public administration, but his other contributions are noteworthy.

Born in Trinidad in 1937, Vince Wilson immigrated to Winnipeg at the age of 19 to study at United College for two years, eventually moving to Vancouver and obtaining his BSc in Forestry at the University of British Columbia. There he met his wife, Marilyn, and once Vince graduated, they moved to Victoria so he could work for the BC Forest Service and Marilyn could complete her Education degree. They soon moved to Ottawa to pursue more opportunity; Vince entered Carleton University's new MPA program, and his interests shifted from forestry practice per se towards larger policy, planning, and research issues associated with it. This led to his MA thesis on “The Growth of Scientific Research in Canada: Its Implications for a National Forest Policy and the Planning of Federal Forestry Research” (Wilson, 1966). Vince pursued PhD studies at Queen's University, leading to a dissertation on “Staffing in the Canadian federal bureaucracy: with specific reference to its historical determinants and the socio-cultural variables affecting recruitment and job mobility in the senior echelons” (Wilson, 1970). He was part of a remarkable cohort of PhD students—including Peter Aucoin, Bruce Doern, O.P. Dwivedi, Rick Van Loon, and Richard Phidd—and went on to publish with them and other luminaries of his generation, such as Iain Gow and Paul Pross. Vince returned to Carleton as faculty member in 1969, first in Political Science, then the School of Public Administration, eventually returning to Political Science, for a career that spanned four decades (1969-1997). He was one of the two first Black political scientists hired into a tenure-track position in Canada (Everitt, 2021).

Professor Wilson's early teaching and research reflected the trajectory of the rapidly growing field of public policy and public administration during the 1960s and 1970s in Canada. One strand of his early research was part of a significant effort by him and others to develop a foundational Canadian literature on public policy, policy-making, and key institutions (Doern et al., 1975; Wilson & Doern, 1974; Wilson, 1971; Wilson, 1979). Early on, he and Paul Pross chronicled the state of public administration graduate education across Canada (Pross & Wilson, 1976). Vince's other strand of work focused on personnel and human resource management in the public sector. Vince co-authored the seminal The Biography of an Institution: The Civil Service Commission of Canada, 1908-1967, which chronicled the arrival of the merit system to the Canadian public service (Hodgetts et al., 1972), and contributed early writing on scientific management and personnel policy (Wilson, 1973) and representative bureaucracy (Wilson & Mullins, 1978). His interest in the implications of organization and bureaucratic theory for public administration practice came to full fruition in his book Canadian Public Policy and Administration: Theory and Environment (Wilson, 1981; see also Wilson, 1982). Vince also undertook a still relevant assessment of the 1984-1986 Task Force on Program Review (Wilson, 1988).

Vince's contributions went well beyond teaching and research. He served as Editor of Canadian Public Administration from 1987-1992, and before that, as Associate Editor from 1979-1987. In those capacities, he sat on the board of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and was involved with its “national seminars” which brought scholars and practitioners together to delve into issues and sponsor applied research. Later, he became President of the Canadian Political Science Association from 1992-1993, delivering a remarkable presidential address on “the tapestry vision of multiculturalism,” which bears re-reading in light of his trail-blazing experience as a Black Canadian and Canada's recent commitment to reconciliation and decolonization (Wilson, 1993). Those insights were informed by research he had undertaken for Multiculturalism and Citizenship Canada (Wilson, 1992), among other reports he was commissioned to produce for government on equity and employment policies. He was a member of the National Advisory Committee to the President of the Treasury Board of Canada on the Employment of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service. Vince served as Chair of the Department of Political Science from 1994-1997, along with his colleague, Sharon Sutherland, as graduate director, and retired not long after.

Even in retirement, Vince found time to write, including reflections on the significant influence of his mentor, J.E. Hodgetts, on public administration practice and research (Gow et al., 2011), on public-service training and development (Wilson, Stanford & Dwivedi, 2004), and on the productive dance between public administration scholars and practitioners, especially the critical role of the lynchpin set of practitioners who maintained connections with scholars and published research and insights (Gow & Wilson, 2014). This last contribution involved a role-reversal: Vince, as Editor, had advised me on manuscripts when I first sought to publish in Canadian Public Administration; later, as Editor, I watched how Vince and Iain magnanimously worked reviewers’ comments on their manuscript into what became the final version of their article.

More generally, and like many others of his generation, Vince warmly welcomed newcomers to the relatively small community of public policy and administration scholars through IPAC's Ottawa regional group, IPAC national seminars, and the then fledgling Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration. Dr. Michael Prince (Victoria), who first encountered Vince as an instructor and then as a colleague at Carleton University, recalls that he was “an invaluable and generous mentor” and a “true gentleman scholar.” This observation could undoubtedly be multiplied hundreds and hundreds of times for former students and colleagues.

A remembrance like this is partial, focusing on a colleague's contribution to our field of public administration. Most importantly, Vince was a devoted husband and father, a gregarious and expressive person who loved to tell stories and debate, an aficionado of diverse forms of music, and a well-known member of Ottawa's black community. Thank you, Vince, for being on the leading edge and for your many contributions to Carleton University, to our field, and to your family and community. We hope this remembrance, in a small way, conveys to your family our respect for you as a scholar and colleague. Evert A. Lindquist