Born at Marlow-on-Thames, England, on 30 December 1910, Stephen Taylor was a physician who also served as a Labor MP from 1945 to 1954. After 1954 he was appointed a member of the Harlow Development Corporation. In 1958 he was appointed to the House of Lords as Lord Taylor of Harlow. In 1966 Premier Joseph Smallwood chose him to be president of Memorial. Following his retirement in 1973, he was visiting professor of community medicine at Memorial, and in 1986 the university awarded him an honorary degree. He died in Wales on 1 February 1988.

[Source: Melvin Baker, "Presidents of Memorial University College and Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1925-1999," Newfoundland Quarterly, vol. XCIII, no. 1 (Fall 1999), 2-6]