Macdonald Distinguished Alumni Award: Bryan Murray, DipEd(PE)'64
Bryan Murray enters his first season as Senators’ senior hockey advisor and his 35th consecutive campaign in the NHL in 2016-17 following his appointment to the role on April 10, 2016. Murray, who will contribute to all facets of the team’s hockey operations department, concluded his 22nd season as an NHL general manager and his ninth with the Senators, in 2015-16.
Murray was hired as the fifth head coach in Senators history on June 8, 2004. In two-plus seasons at the helm, he compiled a 107-55-20 record. In 2007, he led Ottawa to its first appearance in a Stanley Cup Final series, before losing in five games to the Anaheim Ducks. Murray returned to the head-coaching role in Ottawa on Feb. 27, 2008, after relieving John Paddock, and posted a 7-9-2 record over the final 18 games of the 2007-08 regular season.
Bryan Murray was named general manager of the Ottawa Senators on June 18, 2007. The sixth general manager in the Senators’ modern era, Murray spent the next seven seasons as team’s GM and two season general manager and president of hockey operations. In 2016-17 Murray moved into the role of Senior Hockey Advisor, where he serves as an important voice to the Senators hockey operations department.
A native of Shawville, Que., Murray arrived in Ottawa from Anaheim, where he had served as the Ducks’ senior vice-president and general manager. He was promoted to the posts in May 2002 and went on to transform the Ducks into Western Conference Champions in 2002-03. Named the Ducks’ fifth head coach in 2001-02, he spent one season behind the Anaheim bench.
The 2015-16 season will be Murray’s 22nd as a general manager, after serving four years with the Detroit Red Wings, from 1990 to 1994, six-plus seasons with the Florida Panthers, from 1994 to 2000, and two seasons with Anaheim, from 2002 to 2004.
Murray began his NHL coaching career with the Washington Capitals on Nov. 11, 1981. He remained at the helm of the Capitals for the next 8 ½ seasons. Beginning with his first full season behind the Washington bench, the club had winning records and averaged 95 points per season over the next seven years. He won the Jack Adams Award in 1983-84 as the NHL’s coach of the year.
In 18 years of coaching in the NHL, which also included seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers, Murray ranks 13th in the league in all-time games coached (1,239) and is 10th in wins (620). He coached his 1,000th NHL game with Anaheim on Nov. 28, 2001, and earned his 600th victory on Feb. 20, 2007, in a 4-3 Senators win over Edmonton.
A former student of Macdonald College at McGill University, Murray spent four years as the athletic director and coach at the school. He coached five years in the Central Junior Hockey League with Pembroke and Rockland before becoming head coach of the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League. In 1979-80, he led the Pats to the WHL championship. Murray then took over as coach of the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears the following season and was named minor league coach of the year by The Hockey News after leading Hershey to its best record in 40 years.
On July 21, 2012, he was joined by his brother, Terry and his nephew, Tim, as an inaugural inductee on Shawville’s Hockey Wall of Fame. On May 28, 2015, he was recognized with the United Way’s prestigious Community Builder of the Year award and was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame on June 5, 2015. Additionally, Murray was one of 13 honourees to compose the 2015 class of the Washington D.C. Sports Hall of Fame. More recently, Bryan has taken on an important community role in promoting cancer awareness, particularly the message for those to take the time to be properly checked for colon cancer. He has also recently taken on the role of honourary chair for the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre’s (OICC) major fundraising campaign to aid the availability of alternative cancer treatments to more people battling the disease.
Bryan and his wife, Geri, have two daughters, Heide and Brittany.
Macdonald Distinguished Alumni Award: Hubert Zandstra BScAgr’64, MSc’66
Director General Emeritus, International Potato Center (CIP); Independent Advisor on Research for Sustainable Food Systems
Hubert Zandstra was raised in Indonesia and the Netherlands before immigrating to Canada to study at Macdonald College of McGill University. He obtained a BSc degree in Agriculture in 1964 and his MSc degree in 1966. After graduating Hubert worked for Agriculture Canada in Melfort, Saskatchewan, where he conducted crop management research on wheat, canola and potaoes.
After several years, Hubert and his young family left Melfort to continue his studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He was awarded a PhD degree in Agronomy (Soil Chemistry) in 1971. Upon completion of his studies he was asked to join the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian Crown Corporation, to head a program on research approaches suited for poor farmers in developing countries. He relocated to Bogota, Colombia. There, he specialized in Soil Science and Participatory Farming Systems Research, and supervised a dozen MSc and PhD students. A result of that research was later published in book titled “Living Rural Development: the Caqueza Project” used by researchers and educators as a textbook. As a result, he was widely acclaimed as the ‘Father’ of Farming Systems!
In 1975 he was hired by the International Rice Research Institute in los Banos, the Philippines to head up its Cropping Systems Research. After five years in the Philippines he returned to Canada to take up the position of Director, Agriculture Food and Nutrition Sciences (AFNS) at IDRC. In 1989 Hubert and his wife (his two sons remained in Canada to study) returned to the Philippines, to IRRI, where he was Deputy Director General Research, overseeing the work of about one hundred scientists of many nationalities.
In 1991, Hubert was selected to be Director General of the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru. At the time, Peru was a dangerous place due to the Shining Path insurgency as well as being economically isolated from the rest of the world. CIP had serious financial problems. It was quite a challenge and posed daily security risks to life and property. However, living conditions improved and the economy got back on track. During Hubert’s fourteen-year tenure as DG, CIP solidified research on sustainable, healthy root and tuber crop production systems in developing countries. Hubert was instrumental in the building of a new Gene Bank (now named The Hubert Zandstra Biodiversity Center).
He has received numerous honors and awards, most notably the Peruvian Order of the Sun, the highest award given to foreigners. He was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Caldas in Colombia for his work on smallholder production systems. Hubert retired in 2005 and served on numerous Boards. He currently lives in Ottawa.
Macdonald Distinguished Young Alumni Award: Sarah Archibald, BSc(AgEnvSc)’12
Sarah loves exploring how insects, plants and communities can work together. As a student at Macdonald Campus, Sarah was able to gain a diversity of experiences in the field and at decision making tables that gave her the inspiration and confidence to build a career around sustainable food systems. After graduation, she moved to Rome to work with the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, mapping seed biodiversity and developing recommendations for seed saving.
Since her return to Canada, Sarah has been working with a national organization, Meal Exchange, to leverage the energy and power of post-secondary campuses across Canada to develop more just and sustainable food systems. Through her work with Meal Exchange, Sarah has helped to shift over $2 million of campus budgets towards more community based and socially just farms and engage over 100,000 students on 40 campuses across Canada. Sarah is a Director at Food Secure Canada and facilitates the Food Secure Canada’s Youth Caucus. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys gardening and supporting her partner’s micro-brewery in Toronto.