As Robert Fulford said in the Toronto Star: "He did more than anyone else to give Canada a sense of its fine-art tradition".
During World War II he served, alongside his future wife Mary Elizabeth Goodchild, as a radar mechanic for the Royal Canadian Air Force in Canada and England.
After archaeological fieldwork for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, he reported in 1959 on the potential for restoration of the fortress at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.
In 1959, an exhibition was held of his paintings at the University of New Brunswick Art Centre.
From 1965 until his retirement in 1979 he lectured as a professor of art history at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.