FORBES, ERNEST ROBERT "ERNIE"
December 23, 1940 – November 10, 2015
The family regrets to announce his death at the Duffie Unit, Oromocto Public Hospital. Born in Bayfield, New Brunswick, he was the youngest son of Rev. James E. Forbes and Minnie Dunn (Anthony) Forbes.
Ernie was deeply committed to the Maritimes. His entire career was spent recovering the story of this region, particularly its experience within the twentieth century Canadian federation. By the time of his retirement from the University of New Brunswick History Department in 2000, he was the Dean of Maritime Regional Scholars. His narrative has come to dominate the historiography of the region. Ernie was particularly concerned with the lack of a reasonable coherent narrative of the Maritime experience in the twentieth century, and with the all too common negative stereotypes that characterized the region and its people as backward, unprogressive and corrupt. His life’s work was to remedy these defects. Following studies at Mount Allison, Dalhousie and Queens Universities, he taught six years at the University of Victoria before returning to the Maritimes when he joined the UNB faculty in 1974. Here, with his usual quiet determination, he restructured the field of the twentieth Maritime studies, beginning with the publication of his doctoral thesis, The Maritime Rights Movement, 1919-1927: a Study in Canadian Regionalism, in 1979. This was followed in 1989 with, Challenging the Regional Stereotype: Essays on the 20th Century Maritimes. Finally in 1993, he co-edited the first comprehensive examination of the modern Maritime experience, The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation. These books provide an insight into Ernie’s major interests. In addition, in a dozen masterful articles published between 1971 and 2000, he explored Maritime subjects as diverse as Maritime-Prairie Relations, prohibition and the Social Gospel, the destruction of a regional transportation policy for the Maritime provinces, the Maritimes and the Industrialization of Canada during the Second World War, Depression and Retrenchment in the 1930s Maritimes, matching grants and relief in the Maritime Provinces during the 1930s, reflections on the Maritime experience in an evolving Canadian constitution, and searching for a Post-Confederation Maritime historiography, 1900 – 1967. His influence went beyond his own work. He supervised a multitude of masters and doctoral theses, all related to the Maritimes, and played a significant role in the regional journal, Acadiensis, and the Acadiensis Press, serving as a member of the editorial board for more than thirty years. He was a much loved scholar who cast a large shadow in his discipline and on those with whom he worked.
A member of Wilmot United Church, he served as a member of Session and on the Ministry and Personnel Committee. His summers were spent at the cottage on Moosehorn Lake, NS. Visits from friends, relatives and graduate students filled his days but all understood the last two hours before dark would be spent on the lake. Having mastered the art of fly tying and fly casting with help from neighbour Bob Brake, he provided delicious trout for meals while enjoying the beauty and quiet of his lake at sunset. From his home in Fredericton he canoed, fished salmon, hunted and drove his 4 Wheeler. His partners in these adventures shared in the bounty of the hunt in late fall as he hosted the Wild Beast Feast. In winter it was time for a cross country ski, boil the kettle over an outdoor fire or take part in a target contest at his NB Camp. With retirement, a winter visit to Hilton Head, South Carolina was possible. When mobility became an issue, friends and family gathered to support fishing trips to salmon camps, hunting and country drives. He continued to write with an autobiography "The Education of an Innocent" published 2012 and edited with his cousin, Adrienne Moore, a collection of family stories "Family Times Remembered", 2014.
Ernie was predeceased by his parents; half-sister, Ellen (Carl Russell); half-brothers, John (Muriel Gunn) and Donald; brothers, Tennyson (Julia Todd) and Paul; brother-in-law, Joseph McConnell and nephew, Wayne Forbes.
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Irene; son, James (Scott Nickerson); daughter, Sarah (Stacey Colarossi); granddaughter, Rylan; nieces and nephews, Ronald, Mary, Joan and Guy Russell, Trudy, John, Robert and Susan Forbes, Alison and Christopher Forbes, April and Patrick McConnell, Darin and Vernon McConnell, Cecilia and William McConnell, Maxine and Andrew McConnell; brothers-in-law, Henry (Roberta Devereaux), George (Jean Tully), Edward (Cathy Buckley) McConnell; sisters-in-law, Shirley [nee Ross] (late Joseph McConnell), Hemerald [nee Arkelian] (late Donald Forbes); many grandnieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at Wilmot United Church, Fredericton, NB on Saturday, December 12th, 2015 at 1:30 pm with a reception to follow. Cremation has taken place. Interment of ashes is planned at Kennetcook, NS, summer of 2016.
Donations may be made in Ernie’s memory to the Parkinson Society, Wilmot United Church or Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region (published at the University of New Brunswick).
Online condolences can be made www.mcadamsfh.com 506-458-9170