Robert Alexander Fyfe
1816–1878

A native of Lower Canada (Quebec), this Baptist educational pioneer received his theological instruction in the United States and filled major pulpits there after being ordained a Baptist pastor in 1842. After the collapse in 1849 of the Canadian Baptist College in Montreal where he had once served as interim principal, Fyfe successfully campaigned for the formation of the Canadian Literary Institute which was organized in 1857 and opened in Woodstock in 1860. Its theological offerings were supplemented with “practical” and literary instruction including chemistry, political economy and scientific agriculture. The school’s name also reflected a desire to reinforce institutionally the Canadian nationalism that Fyfe passionately cultivated. Ultimately the CLI became Woodstock College and was incorporated into McMaster University when the latter was chartered in 1887. Like Fyfe’s ground–breaking venture, the University also combined the “practical” and the theological.