Douglas Malcolm

Ancestors

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Biography

I was born in Brantford, Ontario. My parents moved to Toronto in 1950 or 1951. My sister Victoria was also born in Brantford but my brother Keith was born in Toronto. My parents purchased a house at the bottom of Ingleside Drive near the intersection of Keele and Wilson in Toronto. The intention was the greater privacy this location would provide, but little did they know that the 401 highway was going to be built 75 yards from our house. It initially was four lanes but by the time I left home it was sixteen and quite noisy.

I attended Ridge Road PS, which was essentially composed of portables, and then Downsview PS to grade six. From grade seven to grade nine, I walked the 3 miles each day to Beverly Heights Junior High School. At this point in my life, I was not a great student and ended up having to repeat Grade nine. Aside from sports, my favourite activity was reading, which I occasionally did in class and suffered the consequences when a teacher spotted what I was doing. Except for the first year of Grade Nine, my school average was generally in the 65 - 69% range. This was enough though to get me into Trent University in 1968.

I enjoyed the freedom from home and realized for perhaps the first time that success was largely up to me. My marks improved significantly and, as no surprise, I majored in English. I was able then to go to Carleton University for my MA. I then applied to Western University for a PhD. After I had finished my course work in 1976, my wife and I - we were married in 1970 - moved to Toronto. She had got a Masters of Library Science at Western and soon found work as a law librarian. I wasn't so fortunate and ended up working at CFTO in the news department as a film librarian. It also enabled me to finished by Ph.D. My dissertation was on the British writer, Arnold Bennett.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Douglas Malcolm at registration.