John Whitney Pickersgill, civil servant, Cabinet minister, historian and author, was born at Wyecombe, Ontario in 1905. Educated at the University of Manitoba and at Oxford, he entered the Department of External Affairs as a civil servant in 1937 but was seconded to the office of the prime minister, where he worked closely with Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent. In 1953 he entered federal politics and was appointed Secretary of State. He held several portfolios in subsequent Liberal administrations. “Clear it with Jack,” was an Ottawa watchword throughout the King and St. Laurent periods, testimony to Jack Pickersgill’s extraordinary influence. He left federal politics in 1967, becoming president of the Canadian Transport Commission. He retired in 1972. As Mackenzie King’s literary executor, Pickersgill edited four volumes of King’s diaries for publication under the title The Mackenzie King Record (1960-70). He is also author of My Years with Louis St. Laurent (1975) and Seeing Canada Whole (1994).