In Memoriam

On behalf of the Werklund School of Education academic and support staff, we extend our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Dr. Mathew Zachariah on his passing.

In 1966 Dr. Zachariah accepted a position as assistant professor with the Faculty of Education at the newly autonomous University of Calgary. He was promoted to associate professor in 1969 and full professor in 1973. Primarily a comparative sociologist of education, he taught, researched and provided consulting and volunteer service in the area of multicultural and international development education both locally and internationally. Dr. Zachariah was an active researcher, receiving numerous research awards and publishing 13 books and over 50 scholarly articles during his career. He also served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education (1982-1983; 1993-1994), and as Head, Department of Educational Foundations (1976-1979).

Dr. Zachariah has received numerous honours and awards including being twice named a Killam Resident Fellow and a Humanities Institute Fellow. He received an Alberta Human Rights Award in 1989 and was the first Canadian to receive the Honorary Fellow designation from the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) based in the United States. This honour recognizes his contribution to the development of comparative and international education, as well as the impact he has had on various academic and professional organizations. Dr Zachariah retired in 2000 as a Professor Emeritus.

In 2013, Dr. Zachariah was interviewed for a Utoday story about a book that he had written about his immigrant experience and his love for his adopted country, Canada.

His funeral will be held on Friday at 3:00 pm at St. James Anglican Church (351 Ranchview Dr NW). The flags at Swann Mall on campus will be half masted on Tuesday, November 1 in honor of his memory.