Porcellino is a bronze sculpture of a wild boar, located in front of the Modern Languages building at the University of Waterloo. The piece weighs approximately 700 pounds.

Porcellino is a cast of a bronze fountain originally made by the Baroque master Pietro Tacca in 1620. This cast along with four others, was produced by Marinelli of Florence in 1962. The other copies are in Florence, Italy; Sydney, Australia; Victoria, British Columbia; and California. Additional casts of the fountain created over the years can be found around the world. For many years, the original fountain by Pietro Tacca sat on the south side of the Straw Market in Florence, Italy. Today, the piece is held by the Museo Stefano Bardini in Palazzo Mozzi and a modern cast is installed by the market.

The fountain cast by Pietro Tacca was based on a Hellenistic marble statue known as Cinghiale, which was discovered in Rome and relocated to Florence in the mid-sixteenth century by the Medici family. Today, the original marble statue is in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy.

Cinghiale and Porcellino have been associated with the Calydonian boar hunt from Greek mythology. Some researchers have suggested that the boar was likely part of a larger hunting scene. The unique position of the boar is noteworthy, as it is neither in repose or attack and appears as if suddenly awakened by the sound of the hunt.[1]

The Porcellino sculpture on the University of Waterloo campus was donated to the Faculty of Mathematics’ Descartes Foundation in 1978 by Dr. Henry Crapo. Dr. Crapo served as a professor in the Faculty of Mathematics from 1965 to 1977 and was known as a patron of the arts.

Upon its donation, the Works of Art Committee on campus considered installing the sculpture near Laurel Creek across from the Student Life Centre.[2] However, the committee ultimately decided to place the sculpture inside the Modern Languages foyer in January 1979.[3]

In the 1980s students used the boar as a meeting place and rubbed its nose for good luck before exams. Due to its location, the sculpture was informally adopted as the mascot for the Faculty of Arts.[4] The piece was also the subject of pranks on campus and was kidnapped by Engineering students in 1991 and dressed as a dog.[5]

In the early 1990s, Dr. Brian Hendley, the Dean of Arts, asked Ann Roberts, staff member in the Department of Fine Arts, to identify a suitable permanent location for the sculpture, where it could be securely installed using bolts and concrete. Initial ideas for potential sites included the Davis Centre Quadrangle, the Arts Quad, and East Campus Hall.[6] The decision was made to place the sculpture in front of the Modern Languages building in 1994. On June 4, 1994, the campus hosted a celebration for the unveiling of the boar as part of the annual Waterloo Weekend for alumni.[7]

Arthur B. Pollock was born in Linwood, Ontario on May 24, 1877. His parents, David and Barbara (nee Livingston) were both born in Scotland. He married Rachel "Racie" L. Boehmer on September 2, 1902 in Kitchener and together they had a son, Carl Arthur. Pollock founded the Pollock Manufacturing Co. in 1907, which later became Dominion Electrohome Industries, Ltd. Pollock died at home on December 16, 1951.

Guy Poirier is a professor emeritus in French Studies at the University of Waterloo known for scholarship on the French Renaissance and Henri III of France, including discourse and homosexuality in Renaissance France. Poirier graduated with a B.A. from Université Laval in 1983 and completed an M.A. (1986) and PhD. (1991) at McGill University. He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021.

The Poets Club was a group establish in London, England in 1908 by Henry Simpson and T.E. Hulme with the purpose of meeting to discuss poetry. The club also published four anthologies of poetry between 1908 and 1913.

The Playwrights Union of Canada started at the Playwrights Circle in 1971 with the central mandate of preserving Canadian plays. Later it became the Playwrights Co-op in 1972 and also focused on publishing works by Canadian playwrights as well as handling rights of intellectual property for playwrights and organizing tours for promotion. By 1977, member established the Guild of Canadian Playwrights to promote the power of playwrights to lobby, negotiate and improve the status of Canadian playwrights' status domestically in Canada as well as internationally. The Playwright Union came about in 1984 with the merger of the Guild and the CO-op. BY 2002 the organization was transformed into the Playwrights Guild of Canada which mediates with the Professional Association of Canadian Theaters as well as printing and publishing plays.

Jerzy-Tadeusz Pindera was born December 4, 1914 in the village of Czchow, in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire (now Poland) and raised in Chelm. Pindera was born into a middle class Catholic family living with his mother who was a teacher and his step- father who was a civil servant. Pindera attended elementary and high school in Chelm. Pindera later joined the local scouting branch and did some paramilitary courses while in high school. In 1933 he graduated and passed his entrance exams for the Technical University of Warsaw. While at the University of Warsaw Pindera studied Mechanical Engineering, with an emphasis on Aeronautics. He was also a member of the Academic Scouting Organization and the Academic Detachment of the Rifleman Association.

After graduating in 1936 Pindera enlisted in the army for his mandatory one year of military service, with an eye on attending graduate school for aeronautical engineering the following year. After completing his military service Pindera went back to University of Warsaw and enrolled in the M.Sc. program in Aeronautical Engineering. Here he gained what would become invaluable experience working on the floor in an airplane manufacturing plant, and in learning to fly.

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and Pindera’s military unit was mobilized. He was sent to Wlodawa to join the Ninth Regiment of Heavy Artillery. After the
Soviet invasion of Poland, Pindera attempted to reach Warsaw in a reconnaissance plane with Polish markings liberated from a local airfield taken over by the Soviet Army. Following a river he encountered an “interesting situation”: he was fired upon by both the Soviets and Germans each occupying either side of the river. He was finally was shot down by a unit of regular German Army anti-aircraft battery, captured, and taken to a field hospital outside of Warsaw.

In subsequent conversation with his captors he was apparently lucky: a Waffen SturmStaffel (SS) unit was located several kilometers from his point of capture. This unit executed on the spot all Polish officers. He escaped the hospital in October of that year, fled to Chelm, and eventually decided to try to escape to Hungary. Pindera’s war time experience, education, and political affiliations while at University made it likely that he would be part of the group of Polish political activists and intelligentsia that were being captured by the Germans. In February of 1940 Pindera attempted to escape to Hungary with the intent of ultimately joining the Polish military units being formed in the UK, only to be arrested by Ukrainian police working for the Gestapo and taken to a cell with other Polish political prisoners. In July of 1940 Pindera received his sentence from Berlin - he was to be sent to a concentration camp, with the notation “Return Undesired.” In August of 1940 Pindera arrived at Konzentrationslager (KZ) Sachsenhausen.

While at Sachsenhausen, Pindera helped to organize resistance amongst Polish political prisoners aimed at slowing down the rate of killings by the Nazi guards and their
inmate collaborators, and at carrying out acts of sabotage to slow down the Nazi war machine. He was doing this while slowly being worked to death on various concentration camp work details. His activities attracted the attention of the established resistance group within the camp, comprised most notably of German communists and socialists. The latter formed the original prison population of the camp during the Nazi takeover of the German government and the subsequent drive to eliminate all traces of opposition to the Nazi rule. A member of this group saved him from impending death as his weight had fallen below 30 kilograms by 1942. Pindera’s contact and collaboration with this leading resistance group, and friendship with one member who was also working in the camp’s construction office, or Bauburo of the concentration camp, as well as his engineering background, made it possible to start working as an engineer for the Bauburo when an opening became available.

After spending five years in various “blocks” at Sachsenhausen, Pindera and the other 95,000 prisoners were marched from the camp in April of 1945 as Soviet and American troops
advanced in an attempt by the Nazis to eliminate the evidence of the concentration camp’s existence. The Nazis’ intent was to put the prisoners on barges and then sink the barges in the North Sea. After slightly over a week of marching Pindera and few others escaped the line and fled into the forest away from their SS guards. Two days after this the Soviets liberated the area and Pindera returned to Chelm and his family.

When Pindera returned home he was responsible for looking after his mother and sister, as his step-father had been murdered in a Soviet concentration camp as a political
dissident. He returned to school at Warsaw Technical University and in 1947 he graduated with his masters of Aeronautical Engineering. During the period 1947-1963 Pindera held leadership positions at several research institutes in Warsaw, including Aeronautical Research Institute, Institute of Precision Mechanics, and Institute for Building Research, while working towards his Ph.D. in Mechanics at the Polish Academy of Sciences. He received his PhD in 1959, and subsequently the D.Sc. degree (Dr. Habil.) in Applied Mechanics from the Technical University of Cracow. His research and several books that he had published during this period attracted the attention of researchers on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and made it difficult for the communist authorities to jail him outright for his increasing dissatisfaction with the system and the willingness to speak out publicly. Instrumental in his survival during the Stalinist terror of the 1949-1954 period were his resistance activities in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as many of his fellow inmates involved in the resistance were now high-ranking party officials, and some were willing to help at their own personal risk.

While attending an international mechanics conference in Paris in the early 1960’s, Pindera met Dr. Felix Zandman, a well-known scientist and entrepreneur from the United
States working in the same area. Dr. Zandman, a Polish Jew whose survival during the war was in large part due to the effort of a Polish family in hiding him and several of his family members in their farm house, took an interest in Pindera’s plight in Poland and decided to help him. Shortly thereafter, Pindera was invited to Michigan State University as a Visiting Professor, and assumed this position in April of 1963, with his family following in November of the same year. In 1965 Pindera accepted a permanent faculty position as Professor of Experimental Mechanics in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He, his wife Aleksandra-Anna and his sons Marek-Jerzy and Maciej-Zenon moved to Canada.

Pindera was a professor at the University of Waterloo until 1983 when he retired from full time teaching. After 1983 he continued to research, guest lecture at other institutions, and
in 1987 he was appointed as Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Besides his teaching work, he wrote numerous refereed journal articles, edited scientific journals, sat on boards and
committees, and held eight patents for laboratory instruments he designed. As well, Pindera was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Cross of Auschwitz and the Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk medal.

One of Pindera’s most lasting contributions to the University of Waterloo was the establishment, in 1979, of the Academic Exchange Program between the Faculty of Engineering
at the University of Waterloo and the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, for which he received the Das Grosse Verdienstkreuz Medal from the German government. Since the establishment of the program over 200 students from Waterloo and Germany have gone on yearlong study and cultural exchange programs. This exchange program has served as a model for others established by the University of Waterloo.

Jenny O'Hara Pincock was born in Madoc, Hastings County, Ontario on April 13, 1891. Her great-grandfather had been a settler in the area. Pincock studied music at the Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby, Ontario (ca. 1908) and at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto (ca. 1912). On June 15, 1915 she married osteopath Robert Newton Pincock (1883-1928) and moved with him to St. Catharines where he maintained a practice.

In 1927, along with her sister Minnie and brother-in-law Rev. Fred J.T. Maines, who was minister of the Church of Divine Revelation in St. Catharine's, Pincock began to organize seances with Mr. William Cartheuser, an American medium. She was often responsible for taking notes. In 1935 Jenny Pincock ceased connection with Cartheuser and with the Church of Divine Revelation. Two years later she moved from St. Catharines to Kitchener, Ontario. In 1942 she purchased and moved to property formerly owned by her grandfather near Madoc. Pincock died on July 13, 1948 in Kitchener.

A book of verse by Jenny Pincock titled Hidden Springs was published posthumously (Privately printed, 1950) with an introduction by E.J. Pratt.

Dr. Kon Piekarski was a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo from 1957 until approximately 1987.

Piekarski was born in Kiev, Ukraine. He worked as a jeweler in Poland until he enlisted as an officer in the Polish Army. When Hitler's forces invaded Poland in 1939, Piekarski joined the resistance. He was captured by the Germans a year later and was held as a prisoner of war in Auschwitz and later Buchenwald. Piekarski escaped in 1945 while he was being transferred to the Bergen-Bergen concentration camp.

Piekarski immigrated to Canada in 1951 with his first wife, Halina. He initially worked as a instructor in metallurgy at the Ryerson Institute of Technology until joining the University of Waterloo as a faculty member in mechanical engineering in 1957.

In 1989, Piekarski published a book titled, Escaping Hell - The Story of Polish Underground Officer in Auschwitz and Buchenwald describing his experiences during the war.

Mabel Ahrens was born October 11, 1888, in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario to parents Henry J., Ahrens and Caroline Seiler. She married William Pickard on April 7, 1921. Mabel died November 29, 1943 in Toronto, Ontario and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

William A. Philip, banker and conservationist, was born on February 11, 1873 in Fergus, Ontario. He resided in Galt (now Cambridge), Ontario. He was a founder of the Grand River Conservation Commission and its president for 18 years; he later served as chair of the Grand Valley Conservation Authority. He died April 7, 1964.

Prince Philip (born June 10, 1921) was the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice. Philip was married to Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Together they had four children together: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. He died April 9, 2021.

Swaran Phatak was an Indian-born librarian. Phatak was born December 8, 1927 in New Delhi, India, the only child of Pritam Das and Krishna Devi. After graduating from Punjab University with a bachelor of arts, she obtained an MLIS from London Polytechnic in 1956. She held a variety of roles in libraries in India, England, the West Indies, Canada and the United States including as librarian at the New Delhi Public Library, the British Council Library, the U.S. Library of Congress Book Procurement Centre and the London Public Library. Phatak moved to Kitchener-Waterloo from Rochester, New York in 1964 where she served as children's librarian at Kitchener Public Library (1964-65); chief librarian at the Preston Public Library; and as deputy chief librarian at Waterloo Public Library.

Phatak moved to Georgia in 1975 with her husband, Sharad C. Phatak, and their two children where Sharad worked as an associate professor at the University of Georgia. Phatak died November 21, 2009 in Tifton, Georgia.

Madame Pestel was the trade name of the photographer Ann Pestel (Chetham) who operated a studio in Eastbourne, U.K. from 1900 until 1930. Pestel took over her husband’s (Henry Pestel, 1869-1900) photographic portrait studio at 49 Terminus Road, Eastbourne when he died in 1900 at the age of 32.

Robert T.G. Nicol, professional photographer and owner of Personal Studio, was born Aug. 16, 1922 in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. In 1927 the family moved to Stratford, Ont., where he attended local public and high schools. In 1940 his family moved again, this time to Kitchener, Ont; he finished high school at Kitchener Collegiate that year. His photographic career had started earlier, in 1939, when as a 16-year he took pictures of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth when they stopped in Stratford on June 6, 1939 as part of their Royal Tour of Canada. The drugstore where he took the negatives to be developed marketed the photographs which subsequently appeared in many publications.
After completing high school Robert Nicol worked in a variety of jobs in Kitchener-Waterloo, including at Zapfe's Machine Shop, Waterloo Manufacturing and the Ontario Die Co. In 1945 he and an old school friend began to plan a photographic studio that opened for business on March 21, 1946, and of which Nicol was the sole owner by the fall of 1946. For the next fifty years Robert Nicol documented the Waterloo Region through personal and commercial photography. He pioneered the concept of wedding albums in the local area. He had started flying in 1961 and from that time on took aerial photographs as well as studio and candid photography. In the course of his career he maintained memberships in professional photographers' organizations as well as completing continuing photographic educational courses offered by those organizations. He retired as a professional photographer in 1996.
Robert Nicol married Marjorie Gray on Aug. 8, 1941 and had two children, a son and a daughter. Marjorie died in 1987. Robert Nicol married again in 1996 to Renie Andersen, a long-time companion.