Fonds MS-2-511 - Henry Davies Hicks fonds

Henry Davies Hicks was Premier of Nova Scotia and President of Dalhousie University. He was born 5 March 1915 in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, the son of Henry Brandon Hicks and Annie May (Kinney) Hicks. After graduating from Bridgetown High School he obtained a BA from Mount Allison University (1936) and a BSc from Dalhousie (1937). As a Rhodes Scholar he received an MA (1939) and BCL (1940) from Oxford University. In 1941 he was admitted to the Bar of Nova Scotia before joining the Royal Canadian Artillery and training as a radar specialist. He served in Canada, England and Belgium and had reached the rank of captain when he was discharged in 1945.

Hicks was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1945 as a Liberal for Annapolis County and served as Nova Scotia's first Minister of Education from 1949-1954. He became premier in 1954, but was unable to unite the party, and his government was defeated in the 1956 election. From 1956-1960 he served as Leader of the opposition. In 1960 he left politics to accept the post of Dean of Arts and Science at Dalhousie University. From 1963-1980 he served as University President, and is recognized as transforming Dalhousie from the "College By the Sea" into a leading national research university. During Hicks' tenure, the campus underwent a transformation as new facilities were built, expanded or acquired, including academic and research buildings, theatres and galleries, athletic facilities and student housing. In September 2002 the Arts and Administration Building was renamed the Henry Hicks Academic Administration Building. In 1970 Hicks was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. On 27 April 1972, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada, in which he served until his retirement in 1990.

Hicks was married to Pauline Banks in 1949 (d. 1963). In 1965 he married Gene Morrison (d. January 1988). In 1988 he married Rosalie Comeau. On the afternoon of 9 December 1990, Hicks and his wife Rosalie were returning to Halifax from the Annapolis Valley when their vehicle crossed the centre line and struck an oncoming car. Hicks and his wife were killed, along with two of the four passengers in the other vehicle.