Michael Troughton

Michael J. Troughton, Professor of Geography at the University of Western Ontario from 1964 to 2005, died on Saturday, March 10, 2007, after a short battle with cancer. Troughton was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He was the second doctoral graduate in Geography from The University of Western Ontario. He published over 80 papers in refereed journals, books and conference proceedings that dealt primarily with Canadian agriculture, the rural landscape, and the sustainability of rural environments.

Troughton was active in the Canadian Association of Geographers and organized many special sessions on Agriculture and Rural Resources. He served as CAG President in 1992-93 and as Vice-Chair of the Canadian National IGU Committee between 1985 and 1988. Although his research was primarily in Ontario and Canada, he was an international leader in the development of Agricultural Geography. Troughton received the AAG CARLU Speciality Group’s J. Fraser Hart Award for research excellence in 1993. The longest serving member of the Geography Department at the University of Western Ontario, Troughton supervised 29 graduate theses with many former students going on to careers in academe, conservation and rural planning.

Michael J. Troughton (Necrology). 2007. AAG Newsletter 42(7): 21