"Sometimes you just fall in love," Rosemary Hale says of when she visited Niagara as a Concordia professor.

Rosemary Hale vividly recalls the three days she spent interviewing in Niagara in 2000, hoping to become Brock’s next Dean of Humanities.

Then a Concordia professor, Hale met with representatives from various departments in the Faculty of Humanities. She was struck by how much talent there was, but many of them were working in a basement.

“I said, ‘You guys ought to look into getting some new space,'” she said. “They laughed and said, ‘That’ll never happen.'”

Now, as Hale ends a 10-year stretch at the faculty’s helm, it’s happening. Provincial and federal funding is in place for the new Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts campus in downtown St. Catharines. The state-of-the-art project will be located in the former Canada Hair Cloth building, a stately structure full of natural light and artistic possibility. The school is part of a joint project with the City of St. Catharines, which is building a new Niagara Centre for the Arts.

Seeing this come to fruition is a highlight of Hale’s decade as Dean. There will be a roast and dinner on June 22 in celebration of her two terms in the position.

An enthusiastic champion of the Niagara Region, Hale was born in the U.S. She was raised in Cleveland, Ohio where her father was a baker. “I grew up with the wonderful smell of baked goods every morning,” she said.

Hale earned a BA from Kent State University in English Language and Literature, an MA in Social Foundations from Eastern Michigan University and a Doctor of Theological Studies from Harvard University Divinity School. When she finished her Harvard degree, she had two job offers — Sarah Lawrence College in New York and Concordia in Montreal. Hale, having watched the excitement and drama of the Trudeau years, chose Canada.

Jack Miller, then professor of Chemistry and current Special Advisor on Buildings and Space, encouraged her to apply for the Dean of Humanities position. Miller, Hale said, told her there had never been a female dean at Brock, and that she should be the first. She came to Niagara for her interview in April 2000.

“Sometimes you just fall in love,” she said. “From the time the Niagara air bus brought me down here, I saw the people on campus and realized there’s something about this place. There was something so genuine and warm and welcoming. The human and the built landscape here is so similar to where I grew up that I immediately felt at home.”

Hale jumped into that landscape with both feet. She is president of the Bicentennial Legacy Council, a bi-national group organizing War of 1812 commemorative celebrations. She has co-chaired the Regional Cultural Committee and is involved in numerous local arts organizations. Her tireless work is often credited as a driving force behind the downtown fine and performing arts project.

But a big highlight of the last 10 years, she said, has been the careful growth of the faculty. In 2000, there were 928 Humanities majors. Now there are more than 3,000. In 2000, there was one graduate program. Now there are nine.

Hale has been “visionary, inspiring and effective,” Associate Dean John Lye said.

“Her support of the students and faculty has been exemplary,” he said. “When there has been a function, a student event, a visiting artist, she has been there. I have relied on and been confident in her judgment, and feel we are all in her debt.”

Hale brought “vision, passion and commitment” to the job, Associate Dean Jane Koustas said.

“At the end of her mandate, she can take credit for enhancing the reputation, status and recognition of the Faculty of the Humanities and the university locally, nationally and internationally.”

Hale begins a two-year administrative leave on July 1, but will remain on the joint executive committee for the downtown fine and performing arts project until at least December. She will work on a couple of projects during her leave, including a book called Body and Soul. It is based on a course Hale taught at Concordia from 1994 to 1997. The book will contain a dozen of her lectures, plus composite stories of students and how their lives intersected with the course.

When she returns on July 1, 2012, it will be as a professor in the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She loves teaching, especially in “big undergraduate classes where you can just turn people on to something.”

New Humanities Dean Douglas Kneale, who is coming to Brock from the University of Western Ontario, will take over her spots on the nGen board, the Regional Culture Committee and — Hale hopes — the Bicentennial Legacy Council. She wants to leave plenty of space for him to make his own mark.

“I don’t want to cast a long shadow,” she said.

One of Hale’s last duties will be on Wellness Day on June 16, when she will give the closing talk on “The Fine Art of Happiness.”

“I really think that happiness involves participation and engagement,” she said. “I believe the arts are extremely important in this world ridden with crisis, and important in how we make our way through it.”

Rosemary’s Roast: Farewell Roast/Dinner
When: June 22, 6:30 p.m.
Where: St. Catharines Golf and Country Club, 70 Westchester Cres.
Cost: $60
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