P. B. Waite

rdf:langString P. B. Waite

rdf:langString Peter Busby Waite OC FRSC (July 12, 1922 – August 24, 2020) was a Canadian historian and Dalhousie University professor. Waite was born in Toronto, Ontario in July 1922 and attended high school in Saint John, New Brunswick. He obtained B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD degree from the University of Toronto. He served with the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II, attaining the rank of Lieutenant. Waite began his association in 1951 with Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He taught at Dalhousie first as a lecturer in history (1951–55), then assistant professor (1955 - 1960) and finally Thomas McCulloch Professor of History from 1960 until his retirement. Latterly, he was a professor emeritus and lived in Halifax. Waite was an elegant writer, known especially for his analysis of the events leading to Confederation and the subsequent 30 years from 1867 to 1896. His Arduous Destiny, a history of Canada from 1874 to 1896, was part of The Canadian Centenary Series, a multi-volume project which was commissioned for the centenary of Canadian Confederation in 1967. He published biographies of three Conservative Canadian Prime Ministers (Macdonald, Thompson, Bennett). His 1985 biography of Sir John Sparrow David Thompson, some ten years in the making, remains a thorough and fundamental resource on Thompson. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on October 27, 1993. Waite died in August 2020 at the age of 98.