W. Lambert (Scot) Gardiner R.I.P.

WILLIAM LAMBERT (SCOT) GARDINER 1935 – 2011
Lambert Gardiner was born in 1935 in Lochwinnoch, Scotland, a small mill town just outside of Glasgow. After failing in high school and university, Scot could easily have ended up as a chicken farmer in his village However, at twenty, he saw an advertisement for the Hudson’s Bay Company: “Find Fame and Fortune in the Canadian North” and one month later he was in Montreal. The jobs with the Hudson’s Bay Company were filled, but he soon found employment as a clerk for the CPR and sold magazine subscriptions for extra money in the evenings. A customer suggested he could better himself by attending night classes at Sir George Williams University and Scot signed up for public speaking, thinking he could sell more subscriptions. Gradually, he became fascinated by psychology, and soon, with a BA in Psychology and a teaching diploma from McGill, he was launched on his future career. A Phd from Cornell followed, and, as Dr. Gardiner, Scot returned to his alma mater to teach psychology classes – 700 students in the afternoon and 700 more in the evening. From the start, Scot was a gifted and memorable teacher. His public speaking skills stood him in good stead.
He understood that to be in front of that many students for three hours at a stretch, you had to be both prepared AND entertaining. A natural story teller, he realized that information transmitted in the form of stories carried his message better than the recitation of facts and dates. Throughout his life, former students would appear and remind him just how much his courses meant to them. Scot was such an excellent teacher that in the 1970’s he was hired by a California publisher to write three text books : Psychology: A Story of a Search (1970, 1974); An Invitation to Cognitive Psychology (1973); and The Psychology of Teaching (1980). During these years he traveled widely, exploring alternate ways of living and learning in places such as Findhorn, Auroville and the Esalen Institute in California. Back in Montreal in the 1980’s, Scot joined GAMMA, an interdisciplinary think-tank studying various energy, conservation, social and technology issues. During these years he encountered and understood the potential of new technologies, in particular, the internet and the personal computer. The Ubiquitous Chip encapsulated his work and ideas during this period. Eventually, and predictably, Scot returned to his first love of teaching in the Department of Communications Studies at Concordia University. With smaller classes and armed with his Macintosh Computer, Scot was able to continue to teach and write in his generous and lively style.
Three books followed, each one encapsulating a course he had given: A History of Media (2002), Media Past Present and Future (2006), and The Psychology of Communication (2008). In 1988, Scot moved from downtown Montreal to the town of Hudson and became an unmistakable and ubiquitous member of the village scene. Passers-by waved to him as he worked every day from nine to two in his Smart room, after which he headed into town for lunch and some face-to-face conversation. A supporter of all things educational and cultural, he relished the richness of activities available within walking distance of his “wee cottage”. He realized early on that thanks to his new technological tools, he could live and work wherever he wanted. Scot took the train to the university, and didn’t own a car. He created his next book, Main Road Hudson, Then and Now from the seat of his bicycle. And although a career scholar, Scot did do one little bit of moonlighting outside his field. He played a perfect Santa in Hudson’s annual Santa Claus parade. For his second last book, Scot, went back to his own story. In Roots, Episodes, Cohorts: Experiments in Autobiography, he used his own personal history, the story of his sister Gladys and her children, as well as the stories of others born in the same year (1935) to write a kind of “metabiography” of his time. Scot had no plans for retiring and indeed had taught through the spring of 2011. He still loved teaching, respected his students and shared everything he had (books, food, ideas, hugs, expertise) with the enthusiasm of a child. There was even a new project with his former GAMMA colleague, Kimon Valaskakis, The New School of Athens whose aim was resurrecting Plato’s Academy for the new millennium. The day before his death, Scot handed his last book over to the printer. Yet Scot knew he would not live forever. Luckily for us, his friends, colleagues, former students, and neighbours, he created a virtual “Scot”, his “SILICLONE”, a website where he could be found anytime we needed to tune in to his ideas, read his books, or chat. In his own words, after his death, he would rather we visit him at his website, than his gravesite. Scot died on June 15, 2011 at the age of 76, and fulfilling his own prediction, “He has completed his obsolescence as planned” . Scot is survived by his sister Gladys, her husband Derek, three nieces and one nephew. His memorial service will take place at St. James Church, 642 Main Road, in Hudson, Quebec on Sunday, July 17 at 4 p.m. A celebration of his life will take place in the adjacent hall afterwards. In lieu of flowers, donations to NOVA Hudson, 465 Main Road, Suite 202, Hudson QC J0P 1H0 or www.novahudson.com/Donations.htm would be very much appreciated.

Memorial for W.L. (Scot) Gardiner
Life of passionate professor will be celebrated October 13.
The faculty, staff and students of the Department of Communication Studies were deeply saddened at the unexpected death of colleague and friend, William Lambert (Scot) Gardiner.
He passed away on the night of June 15 at his home, his “electronic cottage,” in Hudson. For the past several years he had been struggling with health problems, and it appeared he was winning this battle. Clearly this was not the case.

Death of a Renaissance man
In memory of Scot Gardiner
By Terry O’Shaughnessy

(Your Local Journal) I’m sitting here in front of my screen trying to write a second column for this space. Fifteen minutes ago I was putting the finishing touches on the first column I’d written for today when a phone call came with news that struck the heart.
As impossible as it is to imagine, Scot Gardiner has died—and I’m trying to find the right words that could possibly fit an event that feels so momentous somehow.

W. Lambert (Scotty) Gardiner of Hudson was a true Renaissance man.
Writer, scholar, professor, raconteur, film-goer, music lover, Plato Academy revitalizer and Scrabble player, Scot was to be found at A temps perdu’s coffee counter, or at the end of Hudson’s yearly Santa Claus parade, or simply walking on the street en route to a Scrabble game or Hudson Village Theatre. Just last week he was at a concert watching a great band that was playing in town, standing in his trademark Tilley hat, tapping his foot to the beat.

Of course, his reach went far beyond the village of Hudson.
To quote one obviously tongue-in-cheek biography blurb, “Dr. W. Lambert (Scot) Gardiner has been leading his life in volume-sized episodes for the convenience of biographers.” PhDs, universities like Concordia and Cornell, book launches, think tanks—Scot led a pretty high level life beyond the borders of his town. His intellect and great charm were always in evidence, as was his incisive curiosity about the issues of the day. His self-styled “15 year sabbatical” held lots of adventures—someone in town once told me they thought he lived in Greece on the same tiny island at the same time Leonard Cohen famously did. With Scot, you felt this was a totally possible thing.
What always struck me was the kind way he spoke with people. In my conversations with him, he always chatted in such a comfortable way—a way that made me feel like I was on his level. When he launched his book Roots, Episodes, Cohorts: Experiments in Autobiography in May of last year, I asked him to sign a copy for me and he did, addressing it to “another writer,” which made me feel like my pile of rejection slips had not quite been in vain.
And then there is the part today that makes me so sad—and happy. Scot and I sat on the porch at Greenwood House just this past Sunday and had a great leisurely chat. He asked me if I’d sent of a manuscript I’d talked to him about, and told me about a new book he was working on. He said he was looking forward to when the radiation treatments on his face would end so that he could talk properly again. “I have to able to talk,” he said more than once, clearly worried about it. “Talking is my life.”
Luckily we have his books so that we can always listen to Scot Gardiner talk.
But that’s not what I’m thinking about most today.
It’s the image of him walking down Cameron, hat on his head and satchel of books hanging from his shoulder that is in my mind’s eye right now as I try to write this morning about his death.
It’s the thought that his presence among us will simply no longer be—and how we will miss it so.

Hudson Mourns Passing of W. Lambert “Scot” Gardiner
(Hudson Historical Society) On Thursday June 15 “Scot” Gardiner — former HHS Archivist and major contributor to the Society, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, perennial Santa Claus in Hudson’s Christmas Parade, and a most gentle, curious and optimistic person — passed away. The Hudson Historical Society and the entire town of Hudson mourn his passing. Scot said he lived his life in “volume-sized episodes”. Sadly, the last volume is now closed. But his work for the Historical Society can be sampled by clicking on his multimedia project, “T.B.Macaulay Virtual Museum Exhibit“. His mind, as he put it can be visited by going to www.siliclone.com. The love and respect that he inspired in people can be found around the world.

Meet Scot
Hi, I’m Scot. Note there’s only one “t” – it’s a nickname because I come from Scotland. My posh name is W. Lambert Gardiner. The initial is at the front because W. stands for William and I never used it as a name (every Tom, Dick, and Harry is called William). For 20 years, I used my middle name Lambert (my mother’s name when she was a maiden before I put an end to that) as a Christian name. You can understand then why I was happy to answer to Scot when I got off the boat in Canada.
I’ve been leading my life in neat, multiple-of-five-year, volume-sized instalments for the convenience of biographers. Here then is my mini-autobiography:

VOLUME 1 1935-1955 GROWING UP IN SCOTLAND
Flunked out of elementary school, High School, and Glasgow University.
Career otherwise undistinguished.
VOLUME 2 1955-1960 STUDYING IN CANADA
Work by day and study by night. B. A. Sir George Williams University.
High School Teaching Diploma – McGill University.
VOLUME 3 1960-1965 STUDYING IN UNITED STATES
Ph. D. Cornell University. Nothing else happened.
VOLUME 4 1965-1970 TEACHING IN CANADA
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Sir George Williams University.
700 day students in matinee and 700 evening students in late show.
VOLUME 5 1970-1980 WANDERING AROUND THE PLANET
Exploring alternative ways of living and learning – Esalen Institute, Findhorn, Auroville and other countercultulture communities.
Author-in-residence at Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Monterey, California – Psychology: A Story of a Search (1970, 1974), An Invitation to Cognitive Psychology (1973), The Psychology of Teaching (1980).

VOLUME 6 1980-1985 THINKING IN CANADA
Member of GAMMA Group, an inter-university, inter-disciplinary think tank. Over 100 papers and talks on Conserver Society and Information Society summarized in The Ubiquitous Chip (1987).

VOLUME 7 1985-2005? TEACHING AGAIN IN CANADA
Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Concordia University. One of my courses has evolved into A History of Media (2002).

This book is the first in a series to plan my obsolescence once again. My other courses – The Psychology of Communication, Media Futures, and Media Research Methods – will also evolve into books. Planning one’s obsolescence is an important function of a teacher – and of a parent. The fact that we will become obsolete is one of the few things we know for sure. I’m planning my obsolescence by creating my Siliclone – a silicon clone of myself – which will eventually replace me in Volume 8.