Gordon Raymond Elliott:

• Born April 19, 1920 in Vancouver, only son of Raymond and Margaret (nee Mellish) Elliott
• Lived in Pemberton in early childhood
• 1926 moved to Williams Lake where his father operated a butcher's shop.
• 1937 moved to Revelstoke where his parents ran an auto court and Gordon finished high school.
• 1939 came to Vancouver where he held various jobs including one at the Strand Theatre
• 1942 joined the Canadian Army following the attack in Pearl Harbour
• 1943 transferred to the RCAF
• 1944-45 served in the RCAF as a navigator on Lancaster bombers
• 1946-47 spent two years in Shaughnessy Hospital receiving extensive treatment for shoulder injuries received in a wartime plane crash
• 1947-54 attended UBC, receiving both his BA and his MA in history
• For a period in the early 1950s, he returned to Williams Lake where he taught school
• 1955-57 attended Harvard University earning a second Masters in History
• 1957- 65 taught in the English Department at UBC. During this time he encouraged novelist Margaret Laurence to publish her first books.
• In 1965 he became a charter member of faculty in the Department of English at the newly opened Simon Fraser University teaching courses in Canadian Literature there until 1985 when he retired as Professor Emeritus.
• In his retirement he traveled widely in Canada, Europe and Asia. When not traveling, he continued entertaining a host of friends and visitors in his West End apartment.