The Years of His Administration

IN MEMORIAM SIR ROBERT ALEXANDER FALCONER, K.C.M.G. I. THE YEARS OF HIS ADMINISTRATION ·H. J. CooY EVEN though the Charter of King's College was granted in 1827, and teaching begari in 1843, the life of the University of Toronto is comparatively short. As I sit at my desk in the President 's office, I lift my eyes to see the portraits of my predecessors. Bishop Strachan was the first President of King's, but his functions were more administrative than academic. Dr McCaul was the first ·active head of University College. I attended his funeral in my first year at the University- and saw .him in his coffin. His son-in-law, Maurice Hutton, was my revered classical instructor, whose funeral servjce I conducted but a short time ago. Sir Daniel Wilson was President during my college days, and Dr James Loudon, his successor, held the chair of Physics. Next to these hangs the photograph of my immediate predecessor, Sir Robert Falconer, whose recent passing we mourn, but for whose short final illness we are thankful. Our Chancellor's m~mory goes back · to the time when the name of the institution was changed from King's College to the University of Toronto. His one life spans its whole story. One chapter in the history of this University, I am asked to write-some of the outward events of Sir Robert Falconer's presidency . I can scarcely do this from a purely objective point of view, for I have been closely involved in many of them. I was a member of the University Commission of 1905-6, a member of the Senate, Minister of Education in 1918-19, a member of the Board of Governors in 1917 and its Chairman during the last nine years of Sir Robert's incumbency. It is as a friend and a most sympathetic observer that I must set down the events as I see and remember them. When a great and good man dies, he still speaks to those who remain or who come after. He takes with him into the life invisible his character and his capacity, the only coins that ring true on the counters of both worlds. But h~ leaves much behind him. He leaves a family to be worthy of his name. He leaves the 135 . 136 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY - influence of his character and his ideals. He leaves the abiding achievements of his life. Sir Robert Falconer has left the spirit of his work and many substantial accomplishments in the development of this University with which his name wiil be always associated . A university's jewels are the men who make it-its teachers and leaders, and the men whom it makes-its graduates. Sir Robert is one of these who helped to make the University what it is today. His works do follow him. After university federation, the new organization did riot alway~·function smoothly. The lubrication of larger financial support was sorely needed~ When Sir James Whitney became Prime Minister of the Province he determined to set up a Commission to give a new con"s6tution to the University as a whole (but the fe.deration agreement was not to be touched) and to deal with the subject of its adequate support. The Commissioners were seven in number: Mr (afterwards Sir) Joseph Flavelle (Chairman); Mr A. H. U. Colquhoun (Secretary); Dr Goldwin Smith, ·who had had much experience as Secretary of an Oxford University Commission; -Sir W. R. Meredith, Chancellor of the University; Sir Edmund Walker, a leading member of its Board of Trustees; and Mr D. Bruce Macdonald (Headmaster of St. Andrew's College) and myself, as representing the younger graduates. The Report of this Commission was accompanied by a draft Bill which was adopted ·by the Legislature. In many ways this Report was epoch-making in the life of the University of Toronto. A Board of Governors was set up, which was virtually a standing Commission of the Government , free from political pressure-; the office of President of the whole University was created, in whom the unity.of the somewhat heterogeneous organism was embodied; the various constituent parts were...