Dr. J. Harry Ebbs was born in 1906, Worksop, England and moved to Peterborough, Ontario with his family in 1912. He became interested in camping through the Y.M.C.A., and, later, at the age of 17, became more involved in camping as a counsellor, in 1924, at Camp Ahmek in Algonquin Park. Throughout his university career, he continued to work as a camp counsellor at Camp Ahmek, and later at Camp Wapameo, both Taylor Statten Camps. He graduated from the faculty of medicine, University of Toronto in 1931 and his medical career led him to remote settlements in northern Canada and to hospitals in India and Malaysia. He was later the senior staff physician at the Hospital for Sick Children, a professor of pediatrics and a director of the school of physical and health education at the University of Toronto. From 1938 to 1975 he was the medical director of the Taylor Statten Camps. It was while working as a counsellor at the Taylor Statten Camps that he met his future wife Adele Statten, daughter of Taylor Statten. They were married in 1935 and together had three children: Barbara Adele, Alice Susan, and John William. Throughout their lives, the Ebbs have been involved in organized camping in Canada and the United States, as well as in India. Both were honorary life members of the Canadian Camping Association and Dr. Ebbs was a governor of Trent University, where the Ebbs Camping Archives were established in 1979 to honor the Ebbs' contributions to the children's camping movement in Canada. Dr. John Henry Ebbs died June 1, 1990 after suffering a stroke the previous year.