Educator.
Born on a farm in the RM of Rossburn on 25 September 1922, son of William Johnston Crowe and Georgina Gertrude Gammon, he was educated at United College (1942) and served as a Captain in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. He finished a fifth year at the University of Manitoba (1947), and received an MA degree from the University of Toronto (1948) and Columbia University (1951).
In 1950, he was hired as Assistant Professor of History at United College (now the University of Winnipeg). He was dismissed summarily by College President Wilfred Cornet Lockhart in 1958, thus demonstrating the fragility of tenure at Canadian universities. The result was an invigoration of the Canadian Association of University Teachers to fight his case.
From 1959 to 1966, Crowe served as director of research for the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers, as research associate for the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and as press agent and political advisor to NDP leader Tommy Douglas. From 1966 he was Professor and Chairman of History at Atkinson College, Toronto, stepping down in 1969 to serve to periods as Dean (1969-1974, 1979-1981).
He died at his home in Toronto, Ontario on 25 July 1981.
See also:
“Report on the Crowe Case,” Canadian Association of University Teachers, CAUT Bulletin, 7:3 (1959).
Marriage registration [William Johnston Crowe, Georgina Gertrude Gammon], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registration [Henry Sherman Crowe], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 28 July 1981, page 45.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, December 1999, 288 pages.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 28 June 2025
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