The father of Victor Odlum, publisher of the short-lived Vancouver Times in 1964, Edward Faraday Odlum was born in Tullamore, Ontario on November 27, 1850. He came to Vancouver in 1889 where he built the first electric arc light and the first public telephone. Elected as a Vancouver alderman in 1892, he toured Britain from 1903-1904 to lecture on behalf of immigration to Canada. Re-elected as an alderman, he urged that public lands be allocated for schools. He continued his scientific studies in ethnology, botany and geography, supported the British Israelite movement, served as president of the Arts and Science Association of Vancouver and published A History of British Columbia in 1906.

[BCBW 2004]