Showing 4086 results

Archibald McKellar MacMechan was a Munro Professor of English at Dalhousie University and a prolific writer of essays, article and books, including an official history of the Halifax Explosion. He was born in 1862 in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, son of the Reverend John and Mary Jean MacMechan. He earned a BA at the University of Toronto in 1884, then taught school in Brockville and Galt for two years before entering Johns Hopkins University as a doctoral candidate in modern languages, receiving his PhD in 1889. That same year he married Edith May Cowan, with whom he had had three daughters, Jean, Grace and Edith.

MacMechan was appointed professor of English at Dalhousie University in 1889, where he remained until 1931, helping to establish the Dalhousie University Marine Museum and briefly serving as University Librarian. He also served as president of the Nova Scotia Historical Society (1907-1910) and was awarded a fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada (1926). He was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Toronto (1920) and Dalhousie University (1933). He died on 7 August 1933.

Electa MacLennan was the first director of Dalhousie School of Nursing, serving from 1949-1972. She was born in Brookfield, Nova Scotia, on March 31, 1907. Despite being kept home from school in the tenth grade to learn the art of homemaking, she skipped a grade on her return. She earned a BA from Dalhousie, where she was active in the choral, biology and dramatics clubs. After training at the Royal Victoria Hospital School of Nursing in Montreal, she earned a diploma in Teaching in Schools of Nursing from the School for Graduate Nurses at McGill University, followed by an MA in Public Health Supervision at Columbia University.

MacLennan became a staff nurse with the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) in Montreal, taught in the School of Nursing at the Vancouver General Hospital, and then returned to the VON in Montreal as a supervisor and later as National Office Supervisor for the Maritimes. She was the assistant secretary of the Canadian Nurses’ Association in 1942, and assistant director of the Faculty of the McGill School for Graduate Nurses in 1944. Hired at Dalhousie in 1949, she was responsible for launching the university's first nursing program. During her tenure, she created annual Nursing Institutes sponsored by Dalhousie and organized in-service education programs in Nova Scotia hospitals. She was appointed an associate professor in 1950 and full professor at Dalhousie in 1970.

A founding member of the Canadian Nurses Foundation, MacLennan was instrumental in ensuring that more nurses could finance their education and pursue research. She fought to increase the numbers of nursing teachers and qualified nurses in hospitals across Canada. MacLennan was president of the Canadian Conference of University Schools of Nursing from 1954 -1956; a board member of the International Congress of Nurses from 1962-1969; a Fellow of the American Public Health Association; and a member of the Royal Society of Health. In 1976 she was recognized with the Canadian Public Health Association’s Honorary Life Membership. MacLennan was also named as an Elder of the Church in Brookfield.

Electa MacLennan retired from Dalhousie in 1972 and died in 1987. The Electa MacLennan Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to students in Dalhousie graduate nusring programs.

David Kirkpatrick Stewart Maclellan was born in 1918, the son of Edward K. and Helen Maclellan. After working as a journalist in Halifax, he served in Italy as a public relations officer for the Canadian Army during World War Two. He was editor of Canadian Printer and Publisher and later joined the Canadian Geographical Journal, shortening its name to Canadian Geographic and doubling its circulation. He was married to Margaret Fales Gilmore in 1942.

In 1978, Maclellan shortened the magazine’s name to Canadian Geographic and designed a direct-mail campaign to tell the Canadians about the newly invigorated magazine.

Jessie I. MacKnight was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia and would become a notable pharmacist in Nova Scotia and a lecturer at the Maritime College of Pharmacy. She began her career as a teacher, but would go on to graduate from the Maritime College of Pharmacy. She initially worked at the Victoria General Hospital and later joined the Maritime College of Pharmacy as director of dispensing practice. She retired in 1961, after 40 years of service.

One of the first women teaching pharmacy in Canada, MacKnight was known to have little patience for mediocrity, poor effort, or carelessness and was often heard stating "think, listen, repeat" to her admiring students. As a professor at the Maritime College of Pharmacy for 38 years, Dr. MacKnight's influence on generations of students is honoured by a teaching excellence award bearing her name. In addition, the dispensing laboratory was named after her in tribute in 1986.

Jessie MacKnight was also an active member of the Halifax community, having been a member of the Halifax Club of Business and Professional Women. She was instrumental in compiling the forty-year history of the organization in 1976 and was honoured with an honorary lifetime membership certificate.

MacKnight passed away on 18 June 1985.

William Roy Mackenzie (1883-1957) was a Canadian folklorist, literary critic, and author who collected songs and ballads in Nova Scotia in the early twentieth century. He was born in River John, Pictou County, Nova Scotia on February 14, 1883. He studied at Dalhousie University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1902 and a Master of Arts in 1903. He went on to study with George Lyman Kittredge at Harvard University, where he earned a Master of Arts in 1905 and a PhD in English in 1910.

In 1918, Mackenzie joined the faculty of the Department of English at Washington University. He wrote two books on Nova Scotia ballads and was considered by many to be one of the greatest authorities on Shakespeare. He died in 1957.

Norman MacKenzie, better known as Larry, was born in 1894 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. He was educated at Pictou Academy before moving to Saskatchewan at the age of fifteen to farm with his brothers. In 1913 he entered Dalhousie, where he studied for one year before enlisting in the army. From 1914-1918 he served overseas, returning to Dalhousie to graduate with his BA in 1921 and his LLB in 1923. He received his LLM from Harvard University, where he also won a Carnegie fellowship to study international law at Cambridge.

Following two years as legal advisor to the International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927 MacKenzie took up a professorial appointment at University of Toronto, where he taught for thirteen years. In 1940 he became president of the University of New Brunswick, and from 1944-1960 he served as president of the University of British Columbia. He was appointed to the Senate from 1966-1969. MacKenzie and his wife, Margaret Thomas (1903–1987), had three children: Bridget, Susan, and Patrick Thomas. He died in 1986.