Dr. Jim Perkin served us well
Nova Scotia has lost a fine scholar, educator and community leader with the death of former Acadia University President Jim Perkin, at age 89, on Dec. 13.
Dr. Perkin had a varied and distinguished career — in the Royal Air Force, as a Baptist minister and as a professor of Greek and New Testament studies at Edinburgh University and Mcmaster University — before being recruited to the Acadia faculty in 1969 to teach in its new department of religious studies.
But it was at Acadia and in Wolfville that his talent for academic and community leadership blossomed, grew and served a generation of students, faculty and residents of the town, Kings County and the Annapolis Valley region.
At Acadia, he was a valued teacher and scholar – author of 16 books and hundreds of articles on theology, history, biography, language and, in later life, health care.
But he steadily took on increasing responsibilities as an administrator, first as head of his department and subsequently as dean of arts, vice- president academic, member of the board of governors, and ultimately as president and vicechancellor.
Becoming president in 1981, he was the first Acadia president to rise through the academic ranks and ably steered the university through a period of growth for the next dozen years.
He was known for a consensual and consultative style of leadership which focused on fostering a sense of collegiality both within the university and between the university and the town.
He spearheaded a $20-million campaign that funded new build- ings and scholarship funds. He himself created the Kirton Scholarship to help undergraduate students who demonstrate academic excellence and the potential for leadership.
In the community, Dr. Perkin led services at Grand Pre Covenanter Church for three decades and, after retiring from Acadia, served as chairman of the Western Regional Health Board for five years. He was a founder and chairman of Valley Hospice Foundation, working long years to establish the palliative care facility that, in partnership with the province, will finally begin construction next spring.
Aptly described by colleagues as a gentleman and a scholar, he was a builder and a leader, too, who made his community better and kinder in so many ways.