Memorable Manitobans: Wilfred Cornet “Wilf” Lockhart (1906-1991)

Cleric, educator, administrator.

Born at Dundalk, Ontario on 17 October 1906, he was educated at the University of Toronto and the University of Edinburgh (PhD, 1936). Returning to Canada, he worked at many jobs and served as minister at a number of United Churches. He wrote In Such an Age: Younger Voices in the Canadian Church (1951). In 1955, he was appointed Principal of United College, serving until 1967 when it became the University of Winnipeg. In 1958, he touched off the “Crowe Case,” the best-known academic freedom case in Canada, when he fired professor Harry Crowe for writing a “disrespectful and irreligious” private letter which was sent to Lockhart by mistake; the fallout continued for years. He served as Moderator of the United Church (1966-1968) and first President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg (1967-1971). He was inducted into the Manitoba Order of the Buffalo Hunt (1971) and awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Manitoba (1967) and the University of Winnipeg (1977). He retired to Toronto, Ontario and died there on 16 September 1991. He is commemorated by Lockhart Hall at the University of Winnipeg.

Sources:

Ontario birth registration, Ancestry.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 17 September 1991, page 32.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 26 June 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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