Whether teaching chemistry to university students, returning a squash ball or tracing his family tree, Gerry Poulton is always looking to achieve more than the task immediately at hand.
As a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Victoria, Poulton, 71, said he cared more that students learned the scientific principles and theory than remembered the facts.
“If you memorize everything I tell you in class and then I change something, just a little on the exam, then you are hooped,” he said in an interview this week. “But if you can understand the theory behind it, then you can reason your way through.”
As a top-level squash player who won the 2013 World Championship in his age category, Poulton said he always tries to think two or three moves ahead, strategizing about how to put his opponent at a disadvantage.
“Placement and strategy are so important, placing the right shot at the right time to the right part of the court,” he said.
And when he is engaged in genealogical research, the real secrets he is looking to uncover aren’t names or dates. It’s the stories that describe how these people lived their lives.
“You can pick up names and dates all the time,” he said. “But if you can learn a little about what people did and why they did it, that means so much more to me.”
As an award-winning teacher, champion squash player and genealogical researcher/teacher, Poulton is proof that retirement doesn’t finish personal purpose. It just offers up time to pursue other challenges.
Indeed, of all his accomplishments, Poulton is proudest of his squash trophies: Canadian champion, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014: U.S. champion, 2012, 2013, 2014 and world champion, 2013.
And he didn’t really start taking squash seriously until after his university career was over. He now hits the court five or six times a week, and takes regular spin classes and Pilates sessions.
“In one sense I’m proudest of the squash,” Poulton said. “It’s come late in life and it’s come as a result of a lot of hard work.”
He was born in Moose Jaw, the son of an insurance broker. Poulton studied chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where he earned his PhD. Later, he spent a year in London at Imperial College before looking for work back in Canada.
Poulton’s first jobs in Canada were temporary teaching positions at the University of British Columbia.
While there he heard of the position at UVic, applied, was hired and never left.
“I was lucky,” he said. “The whole university [of Victoria], is pretty collegial but the chemistry department is especially so.”
“One job interview, one career, great people all the time, why would I ever leave?” Poulton said.
Reg Mitchell, a UVic chemistry department colleague of Poulton’s for nearly 40 years and a close friend who still has weekly lunches with him, credits his compatriot with recognizing how best to excel in the job at hand.
Mitchell said UVic, as a small university, presented fewer of the research opportunities to be found at bigger schools. So Poulton concentrated on, and succeeded at becoming, a good teacher.
“Gerry was an excellent teacher,” said Mitchell, who gained fame for his wacky, green-bewigged Dr. Zonk persona he used to explain science.
“He was very good at concepts and he has a lot of patience,” he said.
“Gerry really wanted students to understand why molecules attached the way they did.”
And in 1997, students in his own department voted Poulton science teacher of the year.
But for him one of the accolades he is most proud of was contained in an anonymous criticism from a student completing the professor evaluation. That student complained Poulton “made me think.”
“Yes!” recounts Poulton pumping a triumphant fist at the memory.
When retirement came, he started training diligently for squash. He said in the past he had played in tournaments and lost more than he won. But he always had a sense he might just beat his opponents, with some effort.
Stuart Dixon, squash pro at the Victoria Squash Club, said fitness has become a cornerstone of Poulton’s game.
But Dixon also credited Poulton with a sound strategic game and a mental toughness that allows him to shake off his mistakes.
“At his level, the players are mostly strong, with few technical weaknesses,” he said. “So it’s more mental than anything else.”
“Gerry knows where the ball is going very early,” Dixon said. “He reads the game very well, very analytical.”
But it’s not all squash and physical training. Poulton has also taken to genealogy, tracing his own family roots.
And once a teacher, always a teacher so Poulton has started teaching others how to conduct their own genealogical research, what data to trust and when to be careful.
“I do like knowing about my family,” Poulton said. “But it’s also a history thing and its also partly a logic puzzle.”
“I enjoy that,” he said.