LIFELONG ACADEMIC
Woodsworth left his mark
Patrick Woodsworth, who served as the director general of Dawson College for 13 years and helped transform it from a CEGEP of last resort into one of the largest and most successful colleges in Quebec, died Friday. He was 72.
A lifelong academic with a PhD in German literature from McGill, Woodsworth maintained his passion for education in retirement, even while battling lung cancer for his last 12 years. He took history courses at Concordia along with his wife, Lana Seabrooke, in part so he could speak knowledgeably with his son, a history teacher in New York City. He also doted on his two grandchildren Will, 9, and Eleanor, 6.
“I remember a lot of talk as a teenager about pursuing excellence, about turning Dawson into a first-choice destination for students,” said his son, Michael Woodsworth. “He believed strongly in the model of the CEGEP system, and in Quebec’s model of public education in general.
“In many ways what he was doing was a political act. It was kind of an act of devotion to the social fabric that was set up in Quebec in the 1960s during the Quiet Revolution, carrying that through into a new era.”
Born in Ottawa in 1946, Woodsworth moved frequently as a child, following the career and higher-education path of his father, David Woodsworth, who would become the director of McGill’s school of social work. Patrick Woodsworth enrolled at McGill in 1963, teaching German at all four of Montreal’s universities while conducting his postgraduate studies over roughly a decade. He lived in Germany on several occasions to work and study.
He became director of Continuing Education at Dawson College in 1981, then academic dean, before being named director general in 1991. It was a time of upheaval for the college, which was finally consolidating its 13 separate campuses into one, at the site of the old Mother House of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Enrolment had dropped by more than 1,000 students, the CEGEP was running a $1.5-million deficit and the government was enforcing cutbacks.
“His job was figuring out a way to reduce operating costs without affecting the teaching of academic programs,” said Bill Smith, who served as an administrator at the college for 39 years.
“He promoted the message that we offer first-choice programs, we have a first-choice building. And we went from being an also-ran college to first choice.”
Today, Dawson has 8,000 fulltime students and has to refuse candidates for lack of space.
At senate meetings, where the relationship between teachers and administrators is often confrontational, Woodsworth created a collegial environment, in part by organizing post-meeting beer sessions, so that, “by the time it came to vote, even if we still didn’t agree, we could at least understand the argument on the other side of the table,” said former English teacher and senate member Elaine Bander.
“It was very clear Patrick saw himself primarily as an educator, and not a manager. We all wanted the same thing. I never doubted Patrick’s interest in trying to make Dawson the best educational institution possible.”
Woodsworth created a mentorship program for students, and the Director General’s Teaching Award of Excellence. The school developed a 318-page “success plan” to ensure students made it through the crucial first semester to counter its high dropout rate.
Woodsworth retired after 25 years at Dawson in 2004, but continued to work for the CEGEP system, leading the conglomeration of 12 on-island CEGEPs known as the Regroupement des collèges du Montréal métropolitain (RCMM) for five years. An ardent francophile, he pushed for compulsory French classes at CEGEPs, and was adamant about the importance of French and making Dawson a place that would attract francophones.
Slowed by cancer in his later years, he insisted on living on, travelling to Germany and Ireland, staying at his cottage in western Quebec, and “ruling like the unofficial Mayor of Monkland Village,” strolling the lively avenue daily, chatting with friends and store owners, his son said. When he became too weak, he sat on a bench on the avenue near his house, and the people came to him.
Bill Smith recalls seeing him for one of the last times at a memorial service for Anastasia De Sousa, shot to death at the college in 2006. Impeccably dressed but too weak to stand, Woodsworth sat off to the side so as not to draw attention.
“He didn’t want to be taking away from what was going on, and he knew when not to but in. But he didn’t want to miss it, either,” Smith said. “Dawson was still a part of him.”