Wiles, Don R.

Donald Roy Wiles (1924-2022), amateur linguist and chemistry professor, was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada in August 1924 to Neil Douglas Wiles (1899-1983) and Hilda M. (Vaughan) Wiles (1896-1986). Educated in Amherst, then Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick he earned a Bachelor of Science degree 1946, and Bachelor of Education degree 1947. Before his career in chemistry took him to Norway, the United States, and Western Canada, he spent the summer of 1946 visiting his mother’s family in Martin’s Point, Lunenburg County. Both sides of the family could trace their roots back to the “Foreign Protestants” who first settled Lunenburg. While there he recorded the German language spoken by the elders of that community and wrote down some of the German customs persisting there. After earning his Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States in 1953, he worked at the University of British Columbia 1955-1959, then joined the Chemistry Department faculty at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario from 1959 until his retirement in September 1990. He continued teaching occasional courses in chemistry until just before his death on July 13, 2022 in Almonte, Ontario.

Created 2022-09-16 Karen White
Revised 2023-05-12 Karen White (added parents heritage, corrected birth year)

Contents of the fonds.
“Donald R. Wiles: Chemist-at-large” profile page at Carleton University’s website carleton.ca/donwiles/ accessed April 21 and 22, 2020.
“Wiles, Donald Roy” obituary in Ottawa Citizen website accessed on September 6, 2022 ottawacitizen.remembering.ca/obituary/donald-wiles-1085700769