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Robert James Campbell Stead, writer, civil servant (b at Middleville, Ont 4 Sept 1880; d at Ottawa 26 June 1959). Raised in Manitoba, Stead began his writing career as a journalist and poet but he is best known for his novels. In his early poetry, such as The Empire Builders and Other Poems (1908), Stead mixed with styles of Service and Kipling to produce a virulently nationalist concept of Canada and Canadians. This strain was continued when he turned to novels in 1914, and wartime tensions seemed to exacerbate his prejudices. His postwar novels are calmer, more tolerant and less romantic than his first work, as his style shifted from Ralph CONNOR's romanticism towards F.P. GROVE's realism, this being most apparent in his seventh novel, Grain (1926). Although it retained some romantic elements, his fiction exemplified the tendency towards "prairie realism" in Canadian literature.

James Stayer was born in 1935 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA. He taught at Ithaca College, Bridgewater College, and Bucknell University in the USA, before emigrating to Canada in 1968. He has taught at Queen's University since 1968, where he was promoted to professor in 1978, and retired in 2000. He has lived for five or six years in Germany and Switzerland. He married Marcia Sweet in 1958, with whom he had three children; this marriage was dissolved in 1984. Since 1988 he has been married to Sherry Henick Tunnicliffe. He has been a Canadian citizen since 1977. His party affiliation is Liberal and his religious affiliation is Reform Jewish.

Stauffer was a Queen's alumnus and generous benefactor. Born in Galt, Ontario, he enrolled in Applied Science at Queen's in 1914, majoring in Metallurgy.

Stauffer served as a pilot in the First World War before returning to Queen's to complete his degree (BSc'20). After graduation, Stauffer worked as an engineer for several years before enrolling in graduate studies at the Imperial College of Science in London, England. Back in Canada, he noted the growth of the telephone industry, bought a number of small telephone exchanges, amalgamated them, and sold them to Bell for a profit.

Stauffer invested heavily in mining and, during his long business career, was also involved in ventures in such areas as fuel technology, textiles, and finances. He lived at various times in Toronto, Mexico City, Pennsylvania, and London, England.

Stauffer was one of Queen's most generous benefactors. For years he anonymously provided pensions to widows of Queen's professors. He also felt that Canada had treated Aboriginal populations poorly and gave substantial sums to several universities with Native Studies programs.

Other gifts from Stauffer and his estate (administered by his wife, Annabelle, until her death in 1983 and by his friend W. Dennis Jordan, BA ‘38) have included $1 million for a chair in cancer research, $1.2 million for the construction of School of Policy Studies, $250,000 for the Clinical Mechanics Group, $2.3 million for Walter Light Hall, an organ for Jock Harty Arena, and $10 million for the Joseph S. Stauffer Library, named in his honour.