By John Moore, Columnist
Nestled along the tree lined street of Coburg Road stands Canada’s oldest chartered University founded in 1789 in Windsor, Nova Scotia. I ‘m referring to our beloved University of King’s College. It has a storied history among which is the fact it was destroyed by fire in 1920. The University administration, undaunted, decided to relocate to Halifax where it would become affiliated with Dalhousie University. This is a miraculous story of survival.
My father, Clifford, was an educator mainly as a School Principal in Quebec. We had many books in our home, some of which were classics. In going through them I would notice a number of them were stamped “University of King’s College Library” One day I asked my father about this and that’s when he told me all about our families’ affiliation with Kings. In 1924 my great uncle, Dr. Arthur Moore, was named President of King’s College. He would remain President until 1937. During this time the University would be entirely rebuilt. It should be noted that the time frame of his presidency covered much of the great depression. His great faith in God would certainly have been well exercised and likely put to the test at times. I ‘m sure on many occasions he would have prayed for divine intervention. By all accounts it looks like his prayers were answered, in fact I would say many times over given the final results. One such challenge, among many, was finding the funds to rebuild King’s. The Carnegie Foundation of New York generously offered $1 million to help with the rebuilding but there was a catch. The University would have to match it. My Uncle, who fortunately was possessed with great powers of persuasion, proceeded to knock on the doors of the who’s who of Halifax and beyond and managed to almost single-handedly raise the $1 million that was needed. That was quite a feat given the Great Depression was right around the corner. In terms of today’s dollars that would likely be equivalent to $10 million.
Uncle Arthur was quite an Orator, in fact one of the best in Canada at the time. He was therefore in great demand and gave many great speeches which were often reported by the press. Editorial cartoonists would often draw caricatures of him. It soon became evident Uncle Arthur was just as much a journalist as he was a man of God. In fact, he was elected as President of the Canadian Press Club which speaks volumes about not only his ability as a journalist but also of his love of journalism. It was only fitting, years later in 1978 the School of Journalism was founded at King’s and is among the best in the country today. By the way, those books from the King’s Library were in part pay when my father, who was a student at King’s during that time, had to remove the books from the old King’s library in Windsor to Halifax. That was one of his summer jobs …at least that’s the story I was told.
On a more serious note, I mainly choose to write this story not so much about the accomplishments of an individual but more about surviving what may be an impossible circumstance and drawing attention to the importance of journalism in our lives. There is no question journalism is currently going through a difficult time as many of you well know. We are witnessing locally the struggles our beloved Chronicle Herald is having. We as citizens have a responsibility to stand up and support all our newspapers large and small. They are the glue that keeps our community together as being well informed keeps all of us in the know. To lose this would create a huge void for which providing well sourced information to help us cope and go about our daily lives would be lost. The University of King’s and its amazing story of survival shows the same thing can happen to our newspaper industry. As a columnist at Parkview News, I thank you for your support and appreciate all the great feedback you have given me over the years. I hope our journalistic journey continues together for many years to come. God Bless. Happy May!
Photos credit to:
By http://www.ukings.ca/kings_3445.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20680076
https://www.facebook.com/universityofkingscollege
