| Biography
--
John
W.
Warnock John W. Warnock was born and raised in a small rural community close to Cleveland, Ohio. He worked as a spot welder for Viking Air Conditioning, a division of National Cash Register, where he was an in-plant organizer for the United Auto Workers. He also worked as a labourer and cinder snapper in the blast furnace division of Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., where he was an active member of the United Steelworkers of America. In 1956 he received an A.B. from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, where he majored in interdisciplinary social science. He moved to Washington, D.C. and spent a year at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where he took international finance and trade. He then transferred to the School of International Service at The American University where he received an M.A. in 1958 and his doctorate in 1970. While living in Washington, he was active in the civil rights and peace movement. From 1957 to 1961 Warnock worked as a reference assistant and then an archivist in the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1961 and was assigned to the Department of State where he worked in the Latin America Economic Division. In 1963 Warnock, his wife Betty, and their daughter moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where he taught in the Department of Economics and Political Science, University of Saskatchewan. They quickly became Canadian citizens. Warnock was active in the New Democratic Party, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and worked with the National Farmers Union’s winter education program. A major change occurred in 1973 when Warnock and his family moved to Naramata, British Columbia to become commercial orchardists. Warnock was active in the B.C. Fruit Growers Association, the Naramata Growers Co-operative, the National Farmers Union, the South Okanagan Civil Liberties Association, and was a founding member of the South Okanagan Environmental Coalition. During this time he continued to research and write, focusing on the food and agriculture industry. He was one of two B.C. commissioners on the national Peoples’ Food Commission. The family moved to Victoria, B.C. in 1981 where Warnock worked as an independent researcher and writer, while teaching one year in the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria. He was a representative for the Society for the Promotion of Environmental Conservation (SPEC) on the steering committee of the Solidarity Coalition. In 1986 Warnock moved to Regina, Saskatchewan to take a position teaching at the University of Regina. His wife Betty moved to Alvena and then Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to pursue her art career full time. At the University of Regina, Warnock taught in the Political Science Department, the School of Human Justice, and the School of Social Work. His base was in the Department of Sociology and Social Science. In Regina he served on the steering committee of the Saskatchewan Coalition for Social Justice, on the board of the Council on Social Development Regina, was an active member of the Poverty Action Group, and was a special adviser to the Aboriginal Council of Regina. He was one of the founding members of the New Green Alliance (NGA), the precursor to the Green Party of Saskatchewan. He was a candidate for the NGA in the 1999 and 2003 provincial elections for Regina Elphinstone, an inner city riding. He also played an active role in the formation of a new Regina municipal party, Committee for a Citizen Friendly Regina (CCFR), which is now inactive. Warnock has been a long time supporter of the independent media in Canada. He was a regular contributor and board member of Canadian Dimension Magazine for many years. He served on the Editorial Board of This Magazine. In Saskatoon he was a regular contributor and board member of Next Year Country. In Regina he was a regular contributor to Briarpatch Magazine and then assistant editor between 1990 and 1995. |