He was awarded the O.C. (Officer of the Order of Canada) on June 22,
1981 for his services to Canadian Literature.
Port Hope, Ontario, Canada (June 2007)
He wrote a regular column about birding for the Saskatoon newspaper from 1930 to 1933, when he was a preteen.
At 18, he joined army to fight in WWII. He spent three years overseas, serving in Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. He returned to Canada in 1945, spending summers in the Arctic and winters studying at the University of Toronto.