Three U of S alumni to receive Saskatchewan’s Highest Honour

Lieutenant Governor Dr. Gordon L. Barnhart (BA'67, PhD'98) announced the names of nine recipients to be invested into the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, and three of them are University of Saskatchewan alumni.

By Derrick Kunz

They are:

Dr. Edward Busse (Ted), BA'57
Busse, a native of Shaunavon, SK, earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan. He went on to earn a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Science from McGill in the early 1960s before returning to Saskatchewan to practice medicine.

He has been called the pre-eminent cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon in Saskatchewan with 40 years of scholarly publications to his credit. Busse, now retired and living in British Columbia, is a fellow of a number of professional bodies, including the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology, he has enhanced cardiovascular and thoracic surgical techniques and he has improved cardiac pacing technology.

David Courtney Milne (Courtney), BA'64 (posthumous)
Milne, an award winning nature photographer from Grandora, SK, was named one of the College of Arts and Science 100 Alumni of Influence in 2009. He published 12 photography books, including his best-selling Sacred Earth that included a forward from the Dalai Lama. His photography took him all over the world, but Milne is best known for his prairie landscape images.

Shortly after Milne died of cancer in August 2010, his wife, Sherrill Miller, said "He felt his role as a photographer was to portray the mystery of our planet—to show the awe and wonder of nature, and the possibility of experiencing the world at much deeper levels than we ever thought possible."

Professor Emeritus Karim Nasser (Kay), PhD'65
Originally from Lebanon, Nasser earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering at the American University of Beirut and master's from the University of Kansas before immigrating to Canada and earning his PhD from the University of Saskatchewan.

An agreement to teach at the U of S for one year turned into a 33-year career at the U of S as a professor of civil engineering. Nasser became an inventor—his most notable invention is the K-Slump tester that rapidly indicates the water content, workability and standard slump of fresh concrete—and commercial developer, forming Victory Majors Investment Corporation.

In 2010, Nasser, his wife, Dora, and their five children gave the largest gift in U of S history—a $12 million donation focusing on student aid and improving the student experience at the U of S. At the gift announcement, Nasser said, "A good university education is the key for anything you want in life—it's the master key. That's where I want to help."

The Saskatchewan Order of Merit is the province's highest honour, recognizing individuals who have contributed significantly to the well-being of the province and its residents.