READ, WILLIAM KEIVER (1882-1956)

READ, WILLIAM KEIVER, United Church minister, Blackville, 1928-32; b. Athol, N.S., 11 Nov 1882, s/o Robert William Read and Eunice Lawrence; m. 1913, Margaret Ellen O'Brien, of Westchester, N.S.; d. Elmdale, N.S., 27 Jan 1956.

William K. Read was educated at Pictou Academy and Dalhousie University (BA 1908) and trained for the ministry at the Presbyterian College in Halifax. Ordained in 1911, he ministered in three Presbyterian churches in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick prior to church union in 1925. In the last of these, at Middle Musquodoboit, N.S., he also spent three years as a United Church minister.

Read came from Middle Musquodoboit to Blackville in 1928, as successor to the Rev. William Gartshore. He took a keen interest in his charge and did "zealous work" over a term of more than three years. When he resigned it was to accept a call to Bridgewater, N.S. It was stated that he had "a good mind, high ideals," and "good powers of expression," but his health failed, and he had to retire from the ministry in 1939. He and his wife, Margaret E. O'Brien, had five sons and a daughter.