CARR, HENRY

Educator, superior general of the Basilian Fathers (1930–42), and founder of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada; b. Oshawa, Canada, Jan. 8, 1880; d. Vancouver, Nov. 28, 1963. Carr graduated from the University of Toronto in honor classics in 1903, after interrupting his studies to enter the Basilian novitiate at Toronto in 1900. From the first year of his priesthood, 1905, Carr planned to make St. Michael's the Catholic college in the University of Toronto, and he fashioned a working partnership between a Catholic college and a state university that has since been widely copied in English-speaking Canada. From 1915 to 1925 he was superior of St. Michael's College. In 1929 Carr founded the Institute of Mediaeval Studies and served as its president until 1936. He later established St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, where he was principal from 1942 to 1948. At the age of 71 he organized St. Mark's College at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; he remained as its head until his retirement in 1961. During these and other activities, his qualities of heart made him the center of an immense circle of friends. Carr held honorary degrees from every institution at which he had taught: the University of Toronto, 1912; the University of Saskatchewan, 1952; Assumption University of Windsor, 1955; and the University of British Columbia, 1956.

Bibliography: "Father Henry Carr: A Symposium," Basilian Teacher 8 (1963–64) 287–334. Basilian Annals 3 (Nov. 1964) 295–297.

[r. j. scollard]