James Gripton Doctoral Scholarship in Social Work
Jim Gripton was born in 1921 in Toronto. He excelled as a student and athlete throughout his school days and graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA in Honours Psychology in 1945. During his undergraduate years, he and a couple of friends initiated the University’s first social action club, only permitted by the University as the first Humanist Club on campus. With Jim as President, they worked with other groups in Canada to protest the internment of Japanese Canadians, ultimately taking the issue to the Privy Council of Great Britain. In 1946, he and his friends started Toronto’s first urban day camp, which still functions today. He received his BSW in 1948, his MSW in 1958 and his PhD in 1967, all from the University of Toronto, with his doctoral research on staff morale and job satisfaction conducted at the University of Chicago. In the late 1940s, Jim organized social workers in Toronto into their first union, and became the President of the Toronto local, Social Services Employees Union of America.
During his 60 year social work career in Ottawa, Denver and Calgary, he enjoyed many roles, both in practice and administration, primarily in child welfare in his earlier years, later as a Certified Sex Educator and Sex Therapist in private practice; as a university professor teaching social administration, social policy, research and human sexuality; as a researcher and research consultant with a special fondness for survey research although his competence embraced diverse forms of social research, including evaluation of practice effectiveness; and as an advocate for groups such as lower income individuals, LGBTQ persons, and women. At Children’s Aid in Toronto, he recruited women social workers from Great Britain and instituted flexible job arrangements so that women could pursue their careers. He completed the first national study on day care in Canada in the early 1970s and initiated the first national conference on provincial social welfare policy (1982). He promoted the development of key social work organizations such as the Canadian Association of Social Workers, often lobbied politicians and made many media presentations. He loved offering workshops on social work practice in sexual problems, assertiveness in the workplace and decision-making in dual and multiple relationships in practice. Always, he was the wise and dedicated teacher and mentor of countless students in research, clinical practice and sexuality.
Jim contributed to social work knowledge through his 37 refereed articles, 10 book chapters, 2 co-edited and 2 co-authored books. His innovations included introducing computers to his MSW thesis groups in 1964; consulting as Canada’s first Welfare Grants Advisor on social work research across the country; and initiating with his partner, Mary Valentich, the first Human Sexuality course at Carleton University, School of Social Welfare in 1973. His 1974 article on sexism in social work, based on the first national survey of male and female social workers’ progress in their careers, was ground-breaking. His initial proposal for a PhD program at the University of Calgary received approval in principle in the early 1980s. He followed up with gender-based research on progress of social work doctorates. Sexual abuse by clergy became a focal point of his advocacy in the 1980s, followed by education of practitioners on boundary violations in professional practice. In the 1990s, in addition to his work on ACSW’s Disciplinary Committee and the Private Practice Committee, he and Audrey Ferber in 2000 taught the first course on Private Practice in Canada. With colleagues in 1995, he completed a major project entitled A Study of the State of the Art of Social Work Research in Canada.
Innovative ideas, the pursuit of social justice for all persons, and compassion characterized his endeavours in all areas of social work until his death in 2005.
This scholarship is established in memory of Dr. James MacPherson Gripton to support students in the Faculty of Social work.