This paper tells the story of Canada’s first criminology program. It was an innovative program that began at the University of British Columbia in 1951 and based on the view that criminology was an academic discipline. The program included a B.A. in criminology with an honors option, an M.A. in criminology, and a postgraduate diploma. The details of its development and demise tells much about the politics of criminology in its early days, of the role of government and/or administrators outside the university and of differing views of the relationship between and relative importance of theory and practice within university disciplines. Elmer Kim Nelson, a criminologist from California was in large part responsible for the shape and direction of both the university program and the Haney Correctional Institution, which was developed in concert with the university program. Although the program was short-lived, it exerted considerable influence on both the regional and the national scene for three decades. Drawing on archival research, correspondence with many of those involved and a reading of the few things written about the program, this article tells the tale of the founding of Canada’s first criminology program and provides an explanation for some of the factors that led to its establishment and to its subsequent demise in the spring of 1959. References