Kent, John Harper

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1987
JOHN HARPER KENT
to be Doctor of Laws

“Harper,” as he is known to all and sundry, is a Freeman of the City of Bathurst, a dynamic businessman and entrepreneur of the county of Gloucester, and a distinguished and worthy citizen of the Province of New Brunswick. We have looked outside our province and country in honouring Dr. Enders, and it is appropriate that we also honour a man whose life has been, and is, a testimonial of his profound and enduring commitment to this corner of our province.

Born in Bathurst around the turn of the century, he was educated in the local school system and Upper Canada College. During the Depression, as did so many others, he went West to help with the harvest, and then came back East to help build the Welland Canal before returning home to join his father, the W.J. Kent, in business.

In 1943 he became President and Chairman of the Board of business established by his father, W.J. Kent and Company. Under his energetic guidance the company expanded to include theatres and bowling alleys, hotels and propane companies, laundries and laundromats, iron works and a large dairy farm specializing in Holstein cattle. The list could go on, but the summer hotel called the Kent Lodge, established in 1935, has the most proud and happy memories. Through the Kent Lodge he came to know many prominent business people from Montreal and Quebec, and the then Prime Minister of Canada, Louis St. Laurent, who with his family spent two summers at the Lodge. Despite the branching out of his company into so many fields, his ongoing commitment to Bathurst is perhaps best reflected by his carrying on of the tradition of Kent’s department store, an institution which is a part of the Bathurst way of life.

To his accomplishments in the world of business must be added his generous and far-sighted support of the youth of this city and country. He has written that the person achievement of which he is proudest was the establishment of the J. Harper Kent Charitable Foundation. Through this foundation approximately $40,000 a year is awarded in scholarships to students of the province who hope to attend university. He writes in reference to the establishment of the Foundation some fifteen years ago:

My father and brothers helped to build Bathurst … By establishing the foundation, the Kent name will be associated with Bathurst forever. I have always had a great interest in education and wanted to help good students who without financial help could not attend university. The benefits of the foundation go directly to the youth of this area, and, hopefully their further education will bring great benefits back to this area.

The terms of Mr. Kent’s will ensure that the foundation will be funded in perpetuity.

For over a century, he and his family have served Bathurst, and in 1985 he was made an Honorary Graduate of Bathurst High School. Despite an ongoing and active involvement with hockey, curling and golf, Harper has made remarkable academic progress, and today, two short years later, he is to be made an honorary graduate of the University of New Brunswick.

Insignissime Praeses, amplissima Cancellaria, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Ioannem Harper Kent ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Utroque Jure in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box