Dr. John Ernest Alexander Crake biography

Portrait of Dr JEA Crake
Dr. John Ernest Alexander Crake. Photo: The Allisonian, 1972.

Dr. John Ernest Alexander Crake was Professor of Classics at Mount Allison University from 1946 to 1976. Seven years before his death in 1983 he founded the Crake Institute which began a program of support for projects which reflected his concern for the Humanities (particularly Classics), scholarship, Mount Allison and the Anglican Church. The J.E.A. Crake Foundation continues and builds upon the work undertaken by the Institute.

Dr. Crake was born in Toronto in 1911, and attended university there, at Oxford and at Johns Hopkins. He taught at Dartmouth College and at Trinity College School where he served as a cadet training officer until taking up a commission as a lieutenant with the Lorne Scots Regiment. He spent some months training recruits and then went overseas to London, where he was with the historical section, from 1942 until 1946. Following the war he joined the faculty of Mount Allison as Josiah Wood Professor of Classics and Head of the Classics Department, serving in this capacity for the next thirty years.

Dr. Crake taught Latin, Greek, Greek History, and Roman History, served as a faculty member on the Board of Regents, and as Secretary of Senate. He was a valued member and president of the Classical Association of Canada, and a member of the editorial committee of its journal, Phoenix. He was a faithful member of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Sackville, where he served for many years as Warden, Treasurer and Lay Reader.

Dr. Crake was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Literature, by Mount Allison in 1981. He died on June 11, 1983.

For further information on Dr. Crake and his career please see the virtual exhibition on the Mount Allison Archives website.