"Dr.St. John was born in Thessalon", Sault Star Clipping, 1972

DAYTON — It's funny how a familiar name — be it of a person or a place, will stand out in a story almost before you read it.

Lately, a friend of mine who works for the ministry of education was reading a copy of the publication produced for the employees of the ministry when she noted a story about Dr. Bascomb St. John. What caught her attention first was "born in Thessalon in Northern Ontario's Algoma District".

"I thought you might like to scan through the article and find it of interest for your column," she stated in her letter. With a little research, by talking to a couple of area people, I discovered that Dr. J. Bascomb St. John, the eminent journalist who recalled his career in the article, was the son of a Methodist minister who preached in Thessalon and Livingstone Creek in the early 1900s.

The Methodist church in Thessalon at that time was situated close to the present Zion United Church and it is now used as the public library. The manse was across the street and is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Sutton.

Mrs. W. B. Sproule of Thessalon, who was then a young girl, recalled both Mr. and Mrs. St. John and that they were very much respected and liked during the years that the former was minister there.

"Mr. St. John was the minister at Livingstone Creek when I first went there to teach school in 1907," Mrs. Sam Gordon remembered. "The Epworth League, which he started, met regularly and attracted a large number of young people in those days. The St. Johns were very fine people," she said.

And what of Dr. Bascomb St. John? The articles states 'Back in 1964, the then Minister of Education William Davis approached and obtained the services of one of Canada's foremost education critics and analysts Dr. J. Bascomb St. John, whose byline appeared daily in the Toronto Globe and Mail under the heading 'The World of Learning'. Since that time, Dr. St. John has served in a quietly efficient manner as chairman of the policy and development council and, since May, 1971, as special assistant to Deputy Minister E. E. Stewart.'

Dr. St. John, described as 'a soft spoken, precise individual who seems to lend an air of dignity to every task he takes on', has won many honors during his years as a journalist and public servant. He has written more than 4 million published words, many of them concerning education.

That was how he first attracted attention, for the state of our school systems had long been a vocation for the former columnist who says that he always had wanted to be the publisher of a small-town newspaper. "You know, I still find working with print to be a fascinating thing," he said, in recalling his three years with a Toronto printing firm. His journalistic career began in 1929 as a member of the editorial staff of the Family Herald and Weekly Star (a well known rural paper, now extinct, to which almost every family in rural Algoma once subscribed).

"I was in charge of choosing fiction for this paper and running a song exchange, Old Favorites. We had a file of 2,000 songs," he remembered.

His column, The Observer, led him to the Globe and Mail in 1945 as an editorial writer. In 1966, he gained his highest recognition when Waterloo University conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for his writings on education.

It is interesting to note especially to secondary students, that Dr. St. John was influential in having the Grade 13 departmental exams dropped in 1967.