John Edwin Hodgetts

Hodgetts, John Edwin

John Edwin Hodgetts, "Ted", political scientist, educator (b at Omemee, Ont 28 May 1917, d at Kingston, Ont 8 May 2009). Educated at the Universities of Toronto and Chicago, he is the recipient of many academic honours, awards and fellowships (gold medallist, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO; Rhodes scholar; FRSC). He taught at QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY (1945-65) and Toronto (1943-45,1965-82), and was head of the department of political studies at Queen's, principal of Victoria College (1967-70) and president of Victoria University, at U of T (1970-72). His first major research study, Pioneer Public Service: An Administrative History of the United Canadas (1956), set the tone for other case studies on administrative histories, culminating in a sequel, From Arm's Length to Hands On: The Formative Years of the Ontario Public Service (1996).

Other books include Canadian Public Service: A Book of Readings (co-edited, 1960) and his magnum opus, The Canadian Public Service (1973). He brought rare insights to the administrative process through his experience first as editorial director of the Royal Commission on Government Organization (1960-62), and then as a commissioner on the Royal Commission on Financial Management and Accountability (1976-79).

In 1981 the Institute of Public Administration of Canada awarded him the Vanier Gold Medal for a lasting and significant contribution to Canadian public administration. A generation of students of public administration, particularly those in the 1960s and 1970s, was shaped at least in part by their exposure to Hodgetts.

His lifelong concern about the accountability of the public service, his interest in those administrative values and assumptions which infuse and inspire the Canadian administrative culture, and his role as the foremost interpreter of the administrative history of Canada stand as his seminal contributions to the field of public administration in Canada. His insights, ideas and probing questions have been reference points for countless professionals, students and scholars interested in public administration as a field of inquiry and practice.

Though retired, Hodgetts continues to edit, research and write, guide students and colleagues and enrich the community of public policy and administration in Canada. A volume of essays in honour of J.E. Hodgetts, The Administrative State in Canada, was published in 1982. In 1989 Hodgetts was appointed an Officer in the ORDER OF CANADA. He was also awarded honorary doctorates from Carleton University, Queen's University, Mount Allison University, and in his 90s, the University of Toronto. In 2005, Justice John H. Gomery appointed the 88-year-old Hodgetts to the Advisory Committee of the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities (Gomery Inquiry), a commission established to investigate the potential misuse of sponsorship money by the LIBERAL PARTY during the late 1990s and early 2000s.