Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Innis, Harold Adams
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952) was one of the most influential academics Canada has ever produced. He was a young man from Otterville, Ontario, who was studying at the University of Toronto, where he undertook two years of basic military training as a member of the Canadian Officer Training Corps. He enlisted with the 69th Overseas Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, on May 17, 1916. He arrived in France on November 16, 1916, and served there until he was wounded by shrapnel in the right thigh at Vimy Ridge on July 7, 1917. As a result of this wound, he was sent back to Canada on March 16, 1918. Innis returned to his studies, eventually earning a doctorate from the University of Chicago. He met his wife Mary Emma Quayle there, and they married in 1921. He then began teaching at the University of Toronto where he developed the “Staples Theory” (or Staple Thesis) and influenced younger colleagues such as Marshall McLuhan. Innis College at the University of Toronto is named in his honour. He died of cancer in 1952 at the age of 58.