In Memoriam: Robert Wilberg

The Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation is saddened by the passing of former Faculty professor Robert (Bob) Wilberg. Bob passed away at his home in Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island on January 8, 2021.

Bob was a professor of the Faculty from 1966 to 1994 where his scholarly research focusing on motor learning and control. After completing his PhD in 1966 at the University of Oregon he joined the University of Alberta where he set up one of Canada’s first Human Performance Laboratories devoted to research into motor learning and control. This lab attracted many outstanding graduate students who themselves went on to develop their own research labs and mentor their own graduate students.

In 1969 Bob organized the first Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS) conference in Edmonton, Alberta as a meeting of scholars, both faculty and graduate students, interested in research in psychomotor learning and sport psychology and was later founded as a society in 1977. For the past 51 years Bob was always passionate about the importance of SCAPPS as an outlet for Canadian research and a place where the nurturing of graduate students was a key goal of the organization.

Sample of Bob’s research contributions:

• Adaptive neural networks in movement control: Some persistent concerns Reaction to Bullock and Grossberg, 1991

• The retention and free recall of multiple movements

• Long-Term Memory for a Single Movement
• The Memory of Multiple Movements: Some Preliminary Work

Bob’s service to the Faculty and Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS) will not be forgotten.