James Alexander GIBSON

GIBSON, James Alexander CM, MA, MLitt, DPhil(Oxon), LLD President Emeritus, Brock University
After a long and useful life, clear-headed to the end, died in Ottawa on October 23, 2003. Born in Ottawa in 1912, elder son of John Wesley Gibson and Belle Crawford McGee; school and college in Victoria, Rhodes Scholar from British Columbia in 1931; Foreign Service Officer, Department of External Affairs (1938-47); served with the Prime Minister on missions to Washington, Quebec Conferences, San Francisco, London and Paris.
Original member of Faculty of Carleton College, (1942); from 1952, first Dean of Arts and Science, Carleton University; later Dean of Arts and Deputy to the President; in 1963, named Founding President of Brock University.
A founding member of the Canadian Association of Rhodes Scholars, he held various offices and served as editor of the newsletter for 19 years. For over 60 years, he was a member of the Canadian Historical Association and of the CIIA, as well as national and regional voluntary organizations.
He is survived by his daughters, Julia Matthews and Eleanor S. Joly (Gerald), and his son Peter James; grandchildren Alison Matthews-David (Jean Marc), Colin Matthews (Nathalia), Micheline, Nina (Jean-Marc Bernier) and Gerald Joly, Anna Gibson (Robert) and Hilary Terhune (Peter); two great-grandchildren. His wife Caroline died in 1995; also surviving are his brother William and his sister Isobel Searls in Victoria.
Memorial services will be held in Ottawa (December) and in St. Catharines at Brock University on November 7th, at 3 p.m. If desired, memorial remembrances may be made to the James A. Gibson Library, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1.