John Donald MacAskill (25 November 1907 – July 25, 1994) was an educator, politician and municipal official in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, Canada. He served as mayor of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

from 1954 to 1958.

Early life and education

He was born in Marble Mountain,

Municipality of the County of Inverness The Municipality of the County of Inverness is a county municipality on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. It provides local government to about 17,000 residents of the historical county of the same name, except for the incorporated town ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

as one of nine children to John Norman MacAskill and Mary Catherine MacLeod. He came to Saskatchewan as a farm worker at the age of 17. He studied at the

Saskatoon Normal School The Saskatoon Teachers' College, originally called the Saskatoon Normal School, was a facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada for training teachers. The school occupied temporary premises at first, then moved to a handsome brick and stone buil ...

and taught school in Borden and

Hanley Hanley is one of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent, six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke- ...

Career and later life

In 1929, he moved to Saskatoon to become vice-principal at Princess Alexandra School. While he was teaching, he earned a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in Economics from the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

. He later worked as an insurance salesman and then opened a men's wear store in the late 1940s. He was elected to the Public School Board in 1946 and served on Saskatoon city council in 1953 before being elected mayor. He resigned as mayor in March 1958 to become city commissioner. He resigned from that position in June 1966 for health reasons. He later served as principal of Dundurn School from 1969 to 1973. He died at the age of 86 and is buried in

Woodlawn Cemetery Woodlawn Cemetery is the name of several cemeteries, including: Canada * Woodlawn Cemetery (Saskatoon) * Woodlawn Cemetery (Nova Scotia) United States ''(by state then city or town)'' * Woodlawn Cemetery (Ocala, Florida), where Isaac Rice and fa ...

Legacy

McAskill Crescent in the

Avalon Avalon () is an island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' as a place of magic where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was made and later where Arthur was taken to recove ...

neighbourhood in Saskatoon was named in his honour.

References

External links

* 1907 births 1994 deaths 20th-century Canadian educators 20th-century mayors of places in Saskatchewan Mayors of Saskatoon People from Inverness County, Nova Scotia {{Saskatchewan-mayor-stub