A Down-to-Earth Geographer

The biography of one of the founding members of U of T’s geography department has turned into a financial windfall for graduate students. Down to Earth: A Biography of Geographer Donald Fulton Putnam chronicles the late professor’s life and his 40-year association with the geography department. The book was written by Robert G. Putnam (BA 1959), the son of the late professor, and Marie Sanderson (BA 1944), one of Putnam’s first students, who together donated the biography to the department and the University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni. It is being distributed free of charge to interested alumni and friends, who are asked to make a gift to the newly established Donald F. Putnam Graduate Scholarship fund. To date more than $25,000 in donations has been received and matched by U of T. The scholarship will be awarded annually to an outstanding student concentrating in physical and environmental geography.