Coral Wesley Topping was born in Fitzroy Harbour, Ontario in 1889. He was educated at the Perth Collegiate Institute, Perth, Ontario, and then at Queen's University, Kingston (B.A., 1912), Columbia University (M.A., 1921, Ph.D., 1929), the University of Washington, the University of Southern California, and the Union Seminary and Wesleyan Theological College (S.T.D., 1925). He served as Governor of Kingston Jail (1917-1919) and taught sociology and history at the College of Puget Sound (1923-1925) before coming to UBC in 1929. From 1929 to 1954, Topping taught sociology in University of British Columbia's Department of Economics, Political Science and Sociology and also directed the Social Work program from 1929 to 1943. After retiring from UBC in 1954, he accepted an appointment at Union College (later part of Vancouver School of Theology). Topping was also a prolific writer of scholarly articles, fiction, and poetry.
published
Title based on the contents of the fonds
BCAUL control number: UBCARCH-28
The fonds consists of manuscripts of Topping's articles and reports in the fields of sociology and criminology; drafts of his stories and poetry; examples of questionnaires and other material from his research projects; and scrapbooks and other autobiographical materials. The records include manuscripts, correspondence, forms, and clippings and other published materials.
The materials were received by the University Archives in several accessions between 1971 and 1985.
Books received at the same time were either transferred to Special Collections or sent to the Main Stacks.
[Online Finding Aid](http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/u_arch/topping.pdf)