Bio 06 Arthur Custance

ARTHUR C CUSTANCE 1910-1985
Born into comfortable circumstances in Norfolk, England, Arthur Custance spent his adult life in Canada. Unable to get into Oxford or Cambridge, he took up a government offer to move to Ontario in Canada, where he was promised 800 acres on which to build laboratories to bring improvements to farming. The promised land never materialised due to the financial crash of 1929. For three tough years he worked on farms and in the bush, acquiring basic skills that served him well throughout his life.

In 1931, the way opened to go to Toronto University. He was the first student to be awarded a scholarship established that year in Canada by the British Medical Society. At 22, with his life before him, however, it all seemed pointless, disconnected, purposeless. An indifferent student, he was always near the bottom of the class. Then, during his second year, he was converted. The experience so changed his thinking and his capacity for study that he began to take courses in all manner of subjects. He felt as though God had placed him in the hub of the wheel and now all the spokes connected.

In Spring, 1933, he was sent out by the Anglican Church as summer supply preacher to small communities in northern Saskatchewan, places where the effects of depression were severe. His ministry, and that of Lillian Misner (with the Canadian Sunday School Mission) was fruitful with several conversions. The two married and remained to teach the new converts.

That Winter he read the Bible through eight times and worked out his theology. Unable to find work, they returned to Ontario where he resumed studying. He became involved in the formation of the IVCF, spending summers in Muskoka, north of Toronto, building InterVarsity's famous Pioneer camp sites. Even in Toronto there was little work and at one particularly low point he had to join the bread lines.

However, he was able to continue his studies. He had switched courses, receiving an MA in Middle East Languages (Hebrew, Greek and Cuneiform) in 1941. His studies were then interrupted by the war. His application to the Royal Navy was denied but because of his metallurgic knowledge, he was appointed materials control at Otis Fensom (Hamilton, Ontario), a crown corporation manufacturing firing control instruments for the Bofors anti-aircraft gun.

At the end of the war he joined a group of consulting engineers, and later was design engineer for a Toronto lighting company. He designed the first fluorescent lighting for banks.

However, his continuing study of the Bible led to a deep interest in archaeology and anthropology, especially as related to human origins. Believing God's Word could sustain the keenest scrutiny, he returned to Toronto in 1951 to do a PhD in anthropology, the department's first applicant for such a degree. Three years later, having completed most of the work, he was asked whether he believed Adam and Eve were real people. He answered in the affirmative, with the consequence that he was not permitted to complete.
Now at a dead end he was for some time at a loss for direction. That Autumn he became a University Missioner, speaking at campuses in week-long campaigns. Then in Spring, 1955, on the Anthropology Department of Toronto University's recommendation from two years before, he became head of the human engineering laboratories in Ottawa run by the Defence Research Board of Canada. As his work became increasingly oriented towards physiology, he took some courses as a guest of the physiology department at the Medical School of Ottawa University. Subsequently, at the urging and approval of his department to complete his PhD, Ottawa University accepted work already done and with his thesis, 'Does Science Transcend Culture?', he was granted a PhD in education in 1959.

During the 15 years with the DRB, he worked briefly on the respirator mask programme, developed a mask-sizing meter and an anthropometric facial contour measuring device. He then pursued, until retirement, an active research programme into physiological stress under combat operations, using voluntary military personnel as subjects. He held several patents in the area of applied physiological instrumentation, including the Custance Sudorimeter, which permits exceedingly accurate measurement of levels of sweating (caused not only by heat stress but by emotional and mental as well). He presented numerous classified papers before scientific and military audiences, and his significant research in physiological heat stress resulted in a score of government reports as well as publishing in scientific journals. He was recognised as the authority on human thermoregulation.

Custance was a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a member emeritus of the Canadian Physiological Society, a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and, in 1971, was listed in American Men of Science.

At the same time, his biblical interests developed. From 1957-1972 he wrote and published The Doorway Papers. This was a collection of 62 monographs covering a broad spectrum of knowledge, dealing particularly with the interface between faith and science, as well as Christian experience and theology.

His interests and accomplishments were varied. A portrait artist, he designed and personally built several houses, including The Terraces on the St Lawrence River, Brockville, Ontario, where he enjoyed sailing and canoeing. In retirement (in 1970 at Brockville), he gave public lecture series on Explorations of the Christian Faith in the light of Science as well as holding a number of seminars on theological matters in his home. He taught a course in anthropology at the local Community College. At the same time he wrote six major books.

In addition to his research and writing and omnivorous reading, he carried on an active correspondence and his home saw a constant stream of visitors. Though he enjoyed music, art and literature, perhaps his greatest joy was spending evenings before the fire sharing his faith with others.

Having lived a full and active life, on October 22, 1985, Arthur Custance made the journey out of time into eternity and is now in the presence of his Lord and Saviour with whom he walked by faith over 50 years.

(Based on a fuller article by Evelyn White, the Curator of his writings)