Animal scientist, administrator.
Born at Toronto, Ontario on 21 August 1938 to Dorothy Gertrude Ingham (1900-1992) and James Adam Elliot (1879-1950), he graduated from Ridley College, St. Catharines, Ontario, where he played football and enjoyed the companionship of the Fresh Air Club. He attended the Ontario Agricultural College, graduating in 1962 with a Bachelor of Sciences and Arts degree, with a major in Animal Sciences from the University of Toronto. He then proceeded to graduate school at the University of Alberta, earning a Master’s degree in Science in 1965 and a PhD in 1969, both in Animal Nutrition, which launched a career in teaching, research, administration and international work.
His first appointment was Assistant Professor of Animal Sciences at Macdonald College of McGill University in Montreal. In the early 1970s he joined the research branch of Agriculture Canada where he enjoyed working as a scientist and later a research manager. In 1989, he was invited to join the University of Manitoba as Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Professor of Animal Science, a job he embraced with enthusiasm and found to be the most satisfying of his career. Prior to his retirement in 2000, he oversaw the physical and academic renewal of the Faculty, attracting some $20 million in external support. During this period he traveled often to Wuhan, China as Canadian Director of an academic exchange program with the Agricultural University.
Active in his professional association and on many volunteer and business boards, he served as President of the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat and the Manitoba Inuit Association, and sat on the Board of the Agri-Food Innovation Council Research Foundation. In the Manitoba community, he served on the board of the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre, the Red River Exhibition Association, the Smart Park Development Corporation (University of Manitoba), the Wildewood Golf and Country Club, and Landmark Agricorp Limited. He was also a member of the Board of the Western Beef Development Corporation and served on the Advisory Board to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
He had two children with his wife Marie Elizabeth Poirier (Larmond). He had an extensive inventory of interests and skills and throughout his life was an active outdoorsman, canoe-tripping with family and friends and hunting and fishing across Canada. He especially enjoyed the annual fly-in fishing trip in northern Manitoba, the time he spent at his cottage on Rutledge Lake, sing-songs around the campfire playing his guitar, and bluegrass sessions at the hunting camp.
He died at his residence in Ottawa, Ontario on 28 August 2010 and was buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery at Toronto.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 30 August 2010.
James Ingham Elliot, FindAGrave.
James Adam Elliot, FindAGrave.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 13 September 2025
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