The University is poorer following the death of Dr. Alexander Gordon McKay on Friday, Aug. 31.

Sandy McKay was born in Toronto on Christmas Eve, 1924. He attended Upper Canada College and was admitted to Trinity College, University of Toronto, as Duke of Wellington Scholar in Classics in 1942. He received his MA in Classics from Yale University, and his PhD from Princeton, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

He joined the McMaster faculty in 1957, served as chair of Classics
from 1962-68 and from 1976-79, and served the newly established Faculty of Humanities as its founding dean from 1968-73.

McKay enjoyed an international reputation as a scholar, especially
in Vergilian studies, and in 1989, he was elected Honorary President
for Life of the Vergilian Society of America.

He served as president of the Classical Association of Canada between 1978 and 1980. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1965 and between 1984 and 1987 served as the Society's 100th president.

McKay received honorary degrees from four Canadian universities, including McMaster in 1992. In 1989, he was invested as Officer of the Order of Canada.

A funeral service will be held at Christ's Church Cathedral in
Hamilton at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 5.