Educator, plant breeder, administrator.
Born at Aubigny on 5 August 1914, son of Michael Shebeski (1880-1961) and Emelia Czernicki (1887-1975), at the age of three years he moved with his family to a farm near Arborg. In 1941, he received a degree in Agriculture at the University of Manitoba then he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. He returned to Manitoba and received a MSc degree in Plant Science at the University of Manitoba then taught at the University of Saskatchewan. He gained an international reputation arising from his achievements in plant breeding.
In 1953, he returned to Manitoba as Head of the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba, then was Dean of Agriculture from 1965 to 1979. He received a University of Manitoba Distinguished Alumni Award (1966) and honorary doctorates from the University of Saskatchewan, University of Manitoba (1981), Queen’s University (?), and Warsaw Agricultural University (?). He was inducted into the Order of Canada (1977) and Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame (2004), and he received a Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (1977).
He died at Victoria, British Columbia on 3 August 2010.
Birth registration [Leonard Skebeski], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 7 August 2010.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Rick Mutton for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 August 2025
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