MEADER, FREDERICK DANIEL (1880-1924)

MEADER, FREDERICK DANIEL, Catholic priest of the Basilian order and superior of St Thomas College, 1920-23; b. South Bend, Ind., 2 Aug 1880, s/o Theodore Meader and Mary Murphy; ordained 1911; d. Toronto, 6 Oct 1924.

F. Daniel Meader was raised in Orillia, Ont., and was trained as a teacher at the Normal School in Collingwood. He taught for several years in Ontario before finishing his academic studies at the University of Toronto (BA 1905). He entered St Basil's Novitiate in 1906 and studied for the priesthood at the congregation's seminary in Toronto. Following his ordination he taught and performed the duties of registrar at St Michael's College, until being named superior of St Thomas College, Chatham, in 1920.

After St Thomas College burned in 1919 the Basilian fathers withdrew for a time from Chatham. When they returned in September 1920 to conduct the college in the new brick and freestone building which had been erected, Father Meader was the superior. His staff consisted of three other Basilians, including Father Michael J. Pickett and Father John C. Spratt, and four lay teachers. The college had seventy boarders and fifty day students, most of whom were studying at the secondary school level.

Meader was described as "a man of remarkable industry" who did "a tremendous amount of reading" and "got along on four hours sleep a night." While he was head of St Thomas the Carnegie Foundation expressed an interest in funding an amalgamation of all universities and colleges in the Maritimes to create a single large institution of higher learning. Because the "condition of education affairs in the Maritime Provinces, to his mind, was chaotic," he favored the acceptance of the Foundation's proposal. There was widespread interest in New Brunswick in acquiring Carnegie Foundation funding for higher education, but Meader's endorsement of the further proposition that Halifax be the site of the new Maritime university did not endear him to other New Brunswick educators.

Meader continued as superior of St Thomas until 1923, when a decision was made to replace the Basilians with diocesan clergy. He returned to Toronto, where he died the next year.