2024

Faculty Emeritus is a title awarded to faculty retirees who have provided outstanding service to the University and their discipline. This year, our recipients are:

Crystal Hurdle, Faculty Emeritus
English, Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Graham Fane, Faculty Emeritus
Faculty of Business & Professional Studies

Nancy McMaster, Faculty Emeritus (Posthumous)
Music Therapy, Faculty of Education, Health & Human Development

Click on any of their names to learn more about their accomplishments. 

Crystal Hurdle

Crystal Hurdle earned her bachelor’s (honours) and master’s degrees in English literature from the University of Victoria and holds a Secondary School Teaching Certificate as well as a Diploma in Applied Linguistics. She taught English at CapU from 1985 until her retirement in 2020.

Crystal engaged hundreds of students, from those in EAP and remedial writing through to those in her creative writing, academic writing and literature classes. She created English 292, Writing for Children (along with KinderText, a reading series); English 209, literary analysis, poetry of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath; and English 290, Creative Writing, poetry, with an emphasis on the same poets.

She served as the English department coordinator and was a member of the Capilano Press Society Board for The Capilano Review. Additionally, Crystal was actively involved as chair and member of the School of Humanities Evaluation and Paid Educational Leave committees. She also taught at the University of Victoria, UBC and worked at SFU as the technical writing director for the School of Engineering. Throughout her career, Crystal facilitated instructional skills workshops at CapU.

She is author of the poetry books, After Ted & Sylvia and Sick Witch, and Teacher’s Pets, a novel in verse. Her poetry and prose were published in several journals, including Canadian Literature, The Literary Review of Canada, Event, Bogg, Vallum, Transverse, Ars Medica and The Dalhousie Review. She was guest poet and only featured speaker from Canada, respectively, at two different international Sylvia Plath symposia, at Oxford and Bloomington.

Since retirement, Crystal has served as a writing mentor to students through the Writers Union of Canada, Canadian Artists Network, League of Canadian Poets, and at Silver Harbour Seniors’ Centre. She’s given poetry readings and continues to write both poetry and novels.

Graham Fane

A 30-year member of the Faculty of Business and Professional Studies, Fane began as an instructor and later served as the dean overseeing the School of Business, paralegal studies and communications departments.

During his years at CapU, he created 400-level curricula and authored two textbooks on strategic planning and contemporary business management.

Through his leadership, CapU developed and introduced new degrees in the paralegal and communications programs, and became the first Canadian university accredited by the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities.

In addition to his work with CapU, Fane consulting practice in strategic management has provided training and guidance to over 10,000 business managers.

Nancy McMaster

Nancy McMaster was a Canadian pioneer in the field of music therapy. She is the co-founder of Canada’s first music therapy training program in 1976 at Capilano University.

Until her retirement in 2022, McMaster was a champion for the program, taking it from a two-year diploma to a bachelor’s degree in 1990, marking CapU’s first degree offering.

As a founding director and board member for the Music Therapy Association of BC, McMaster was instrumental in establishing national undergraduate curriculum standards in the early years of the organization.

Beyond academics, McMaster was a musician who played and recorded music, and was a member of several choral ensembles in her community.