Brink-Whitelaw Collection (University of Guelph)

Royal Alexander Brink, OAC '19 (son of Royal Wilson Brink and Elizabeth Ann Cuthbert), married Edith Margaret Whitelaw, Mac '21 (daughter of Andrew Whitelaw and Jean Gunn). She was the great-niece of William Whitelaw, Sr., who settled in the "Paisley Block" in Guelph in 1840 and later became Deputy Reeve and Reeve of Guelph Township, then Warden of Wellington County. R.A. Brink later became Emeritus Professor, Dept. of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, and was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in chemistry. R.A. Brink's elder brother, Frank Brink, was a wheat farm manager. The Cuthbert, Norsworthy and Brink families were early settlers of West Oxford Township, near Ingersoll, Ont. West Oxford Township was the earliest settled township in Oxford County.