| James Tompkins |
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| 1870 births | |
| 1953 deaths | |
| people from nova scotia | |
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Father Tompkins believed in the emancipating power of education and sought to improve economic conditions through study groups and co-operative action. "It is not enough to have ideas, we have to put legs on them," he often said. He started the first regional library in Nova Scotia along with the first credit union and a cooperative housing association in Reserve Mines that was dubbed "Tompkinsville". Jimmy Tompkins was born in Margaree Forks, Nova Scotia, a small farming community on Cape Breton Island . From 1888-1895, he attended St. Francis Xavier University in alternate semesters while teaching there to support himself and went on to Greek and math at the University. He attended the Urban College (now the Pontifical Urban University) of the Congregatio De Propaganda Fide (Papal Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith) in Rome from 1897 to 1902. On his return, he continued teaching at St FX university and became the vice-rector in 1907. Working closely with the Carnegie Corporation , he implemented various reform and modernization programs, culminating in an unsuccessful attempt to amalgamate various sectarian and non-sectarian colleges in the Maritime Provinces into one nondenominational university centered around Dalhousie University in Halifax . The Roman Catholic Bishop of Antigonish, James Morrison, opposed amalgamation and eventually exiled Tompkins to the tiny fishing village of Canso , Nova Scotia as parish priest for Canso, Little Dover and Queensport. As parish priest Tompkins observed first-hand the plight of the poor fishing community there and helped organize what would become the Antigonish Movement of cooperative fisheries, stores, housing projects, and adult study groups. The Antigonish Movement was eventually institutionalized in the form of the Extension Department at St. FX, which was headed by Tompkins' double-cousin Father Moses Coady . CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
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