OBITUARY XXVll 



Obituary Notice of Ex-President 

 Professor Ebenezer Mackay, 

 B.A. (Dal.), Ph.D. (J.H.U.) 

 1864-1920. 



On the 6th of January, 1920, a great science teacher died in Halifax after 

 about a week of illness from pneumonia, struck down in spite of the best 

 medical skill after one of the most busy sessions of the Chemistry Depart- 

 ment of the University of Dalhousie, of which he was the very efficient head. 



Ebenezer Mackay was born January 24th. 1864, at Plainfield, at the foot 

 of Mount Dalhousie, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. He was the son of Angus 

 and Elizabeth Mackay, the father coming out from Rogart, Sutherlandshire, 

 Scotland, as the youngest member of a large family, whose descendants have 

 already figured well in the history of Canada. 



Ebenezer had a good grounding in the rural school. He carried off honors 

 in the Pictou Academy, and graduated from the University of Dalhousie in 

 1886 with first-class honors in expserimental physics and chemistry, and the 

 Mackenzie Gold Medal. 



He was Principal of the High School and the Public Schools of New Glas- 

 gow, Pictou County, from 1886 to 1892, where he had great success. He 

 then took a post-graduate course in the Johns Hopkins University, became a 

 Fellow in 1895, and graduated Ph. D. in 1896. He was engaged in a special 

 research course of study at Harvard when appointed to the McLeod 

 Professorship of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Dalhousie, 1896, after which 

 he became a resident of the City of Halifax, and one of the active members 

 of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science. 



He was elected a member 27 November, 1889, and became President, 

 II November, 1907, and was continued in this office until 12 December, 

 1910. He was elected President of the "Greater Halifax Conference" in 

 1911; and later filled many high positions in scientific, educational, social 

 and civic departments. 



His urbanity of manner, his unassuming demeanor, his accuracy of lan- 

 guage with minimum expenditure of words, as well as his encyclopedic know- 

 ledge, his self-reliance, coupled with a most genial and sympathetic dispo- 

 sition, endeared him to all, from the rural school to the great scientific 

 fellowships, and also to the general public which had often commandeered 

 his services. He was the soul of honor and friendship. 



The tragedy of his unexpected removal in the prime of his powers, and at 

 the beginning of the fruition of his career, app>ealed profoundly to the general 

 public as well as to the members of the Institute, as was shewn in the 

 public obsequies on the^joccasion. His students were becoming important 

 contributors to original research for which the Institute was organized as 

 a stimulus. The torch had been suddenly flung down; but, Vitai 

 Lampada! it is being caught up by those who learned to play the game. 



A. H. McK. 



