May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Christine Anna May MacKinnon was born on 22 July 1892 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of John L. MacKinnon (1849-1926) and Margaret “Maggie” (Stewart) MacKinnon (1867-1943). She graduated with the gold medal from Sydney Academy and went on to teach school for several years before commencing post-secondary studies at Dalhousie University. She graduated with a number of awards, earning her Bachelor of Arts in 1918.
After teaching for one year at the Halifax Ladies’ College she was married to Rev. John Knox MacInnes (1885-1945) in the Presbyterian Church in Louisburg, Nova Scotia, on 23 October 1919. Thereafter, the couple served pastorates in Stewiacke, Maitland, Saint John and Truro. They had the following children: Elizabeth (Class of 1944), Margaret Stewart (1922-1998), John Donald (1928-1957) and Fred (Class of 1952). Fred MacKinnon (Class of 1932) was a nephew.
After her husband’s sudden death in 1945, Christine MacInnes came to Mount Allison University where she served initially as the head of Allison Hall. In 1947, she was appointed the first female registrar of the University, serving until 1959. MacInnes was especially interested in international students. During her time as registrar, the entire student population grew from just over 600 to nearly 1,200, while the number of international students went from a low of six per cent of the student population to a high of nearly 12 per cent. She was known as a kind soul, and helped all of her students personally as well as professionally. [1] In the year she retired, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree “in recognition of her faithful service."
The Class of 1959 dedicated their Allisonian yearbook to her. In her letter to them, MacInnes expressed deep pride for her students, and left them with words of wisdom that still resonate true to this day.
"It is indeed true that a university is a place which provides opportunity for acquiring knowledge, but that is not all. People with imaginative and creative casts of mind are needed in the world of today and tomorrow, just as much as trained specialists. I hope the university has discovered this spark in some of you, and that it has been fanned into encouragement during your stay here." [2]
MacInnes was a member of the Dominion Board of the Women's Missionary Society of the United Church of Canada. For twenty-four years, she was editor of the “women’s page” of the United Churchman. In 1966, she published Window on the past, a history of the Halifax Wesleyan Female Benevolent Society founded in 1816. She died on 25 April 1985 in the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was buried in the Robie Street Cemetery in Truro, Nova Scotia.
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture collection, 2007.07/1926. May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture collection, 2007.07/2381. May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture collection, 2007.07/2265. May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.