Sexton, Frederic Henry

Person

Sexton, Frederic Henry

1879-1955

Frederic Henry Sexton was born in New Boston, New Hampshire on June 9, 1879. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated in 1901. He became an assistant in Metallurgy at MIT from 1901-1902 and then worked for General Electric Company as a research chemist and metallurgist. He met his wife May Best (Edna May Williston Best) who had also graduated from MIT (1902) and worked at GE. She became extremely well known for her prominence in women’s organizations, and for her work in Halifax during WWI running the Local Council of Women, who were recognized as a leader in the civilian war effort. (May Best is responsible for raising over $1 million for the WWI effort in Nova Scotia from 1914-1918.) In 1904 FH Sexton was hired by Dalhousie to teach mining engineering and metallurgy. In 1907, he became the founding principal and Director of Technical Education at the Nova Scotia Technical College (now TUNS). “Dr. Sexton simultaneously organized the nation's first system of technical education and laid the foundations for the future growth of the Nova Scotia Technical College". He received an honourary degree from Acadia and Dalhousie in 1919 for the NSTC’s help during WWI. In 1925, he became the president of NSTC, until he retired in 1947 after forty years. During the Second World War he organized a training program for technical personnel and carried out a rehabilitation program for discharged personnel, which represented the largest program of vocational education ever undertaken in Nova Scotia. He was made CBE in 1943, and got an honourary degree and a Plymouth car when he retired after 40 years in 1947. FH Sexton died in Wolfville, NS on January 12, 1955.

Dalhousie University. Faculty of Architecture and Planning (1997-)