Article

John Everett Robbins

Published Online December 17, 2007

Last Edited December 14, 2013

John Everett Robbins, educator, diplomat (b at Hampton, Ont 9 Oct 1903; d at Regina 7 Mar 1995). He taught school in Saskatchewan for 3 years before entering U of Man. He later gained a PhD from U of Ottawa.

Robbins, John Everett

John Everett Robbins, educator, diplomat (b at Hampton, Ont 9 Oct 1903; d at Regina 7 Mar 1995). He taught school in Saskatchewan for 3 years before entering U of Man. He later gained a PhD from U of Ottawa. He served in the Educational Division, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa 1930-52, becoming director in 1936. In 1952 he was appointed editor in chief of the new Encyclopedia Canadiana (1957), a 10-volume work whose publication he supervised. In 1960 he went to Brandon U as its president and in 1969 was appointed Canada's first ambassador to the Vatican. Robbins was active in founding and directing a number of national cultural and educational societies such as the Canadian Assn for Adult Education, the Canadian Library Assn, the Social Science and Humanities Research Councils and the Canadian Writers' Foundation.