HAWKES, RAYMOND T. (1877-1927)

HAWKES, RAYMOND T., Catholic parish priest, Bartibog, 1908-23, and rector, St Thomas College, 1923-27; b. Chatham, 28 May 1877, s/o John Hawkes and Ellen Woods; ordained 1902; d. Chatham, 3 Nov 1927.

The son of New Brunswick-born parents of Irish origin, Raymond T. Hawkes was educated at St Francis Xavier University (BA 1898) and trained for the priesthood at the Grand Seminary in Montreal. After his ordination he was assigned to missionary duties at Lamèque, N.B. He was later the priest of the Escuminac mission. While stationed there he helped found the Hardwicke Agricultural Society and served as its first president.

In 1908 Hawkes was appointed to succeed Father William Morriscy as parish priest at Bartibog. A short time later, All Saints' Church, which Morriscy had built in 1906 for the use of the Millbank mission, was consecrated. Hawkes served this mission as well as the Micmac Indian mission at Church Point, where another new chapel was consecrated in 1913, replacing one that burned in 1909.

From the time of its founding in 1910, St Thomas College in Chatham attracted Hawkes's personal interest and support, and he played an important role in the fund-raising campaign for the new college building which was opened in 1920. The school was first conducted by the Basilian fathers of Toronto, but Bishop Patrice A. Chiasson decided in 1923 to sever ties with them and place it under the management of the clergy of the Chatham diocese. For services rendered, and because he was one of the only priests in the diocese who held a BA degree, Hawkes was chosen to succeed Father F. Daniel Meader, CSB, as rector. In the position, which entailed both teaching and administration, he enjoyed the respect of all, but his health was poor, and he died suddenly in 1927, at age fifty, only four years after being appointed. A successor was not officially named until 1929, when the rectorship was conferred on Father James M. Hill.