Accession UAA-2019-001 - UAA-2019-001

Robert Blackwood (Bob) Layton, Jr. was born in 1917 in Kentville, Nova Scotia, to Rev. Robert Blackwood Layton, Sr. (1879-1973) and Louise Macleod (1879-1969). In 1924 Rev. Layton and his family moved to Lacombe, Alberta, where he was minister at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (which became a United Church in 1925).

In 1935 Bob was in first year Arts and Science at the U of A, living in residence at St. Stephen's College. He was 17 years old, having skipped one or two years through school in Lacombe. He continued in second year in 1936-1937. Since his marks were such that he did not attend the next year, he spent that winter as a United Church student minister at St. Paul and Ashmont, both about 180 km NE of Edmonton.

In 1938 he enrolled in Theology and was back at St. Stephen's for that year, and the next two. In 1939-1940 Bob's father was a member of St. Stephen's Senate. In the summer of 1941 Bob decided to abandon Theology and switch to Education. His parents, then in Medicine Hat, were very much disappointed since Bob would have been sixth in a line of Presbyterian/United Church ministers.

In May 1942 he obtained his B.A. and started teaching that fall at Irvine (35 km east of Medicine Hat). However in November he enlisted with the Canadian Army and was sent to Gordon Head in B.C. for training.

In August 1943 he was shipped overseas to England, returning to Alberta in 1946. After summer sessions in 1946, 1948 and 1950, he obtained his B.Ed. at the 1951 fall convocation.

Bob taught school in Wetaskiwin from 1947 to 1951, then in Edmonton to 1964. Since school libraries interested him he took several summer sessions in Seattle, and obtained his M. Lib. in 1961 becoming a high school librarian in Edmonton. In 1964-1965 he was an exchange teacher in London, England. After one year back in Edmonton, the family moved in 1966 to St. Catharines, Ontario, where he was a high school librarian. He retired in 1978 as a school library consultant and died there in 2012.