Father Jimmy Life and Times of Jimmy Tompkins

by Jim Lotz, Michael R. Welton

Father Jimmy Tompkins was the spiritual father of the co-op movement in Nova Scotia. When he insisted that the university should serve the average person, his bishop banished him to parish work among Nova Scotia’s poorest fisherman. Once over the shock, Tompkins encouraged cooperation, self-reliance and adult education – testing the roots of what became the Antigonish Movement.

In Father Jimmy, his ideas live again – an inspiration and a tool for those who want to make a difference today.

169 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

After fulfilling his national service in the Royal Air Force, Jim Lotz graduated from Manchester University in 1952 and worked for a British trading company in Nigeria. In Kano, during a riot, he rescued a man from a mob and received an award for bravery. He emigrated to Canada in 1954 and enrolled at McGill University where he received his Master of Science and landed a summer job at Mcill's Subarctic Research Laboratory in Knob Lake, Quebec. He spent five summers as a meteorological and glaciological observer and wrote about it years later in The Best Journey in the World.

In 1959 he met Pat Wicks, they married and had two daughters.

In 1964 Jim enrolled in the PhD program in geography at the University of British Columbia but left after a year and took a position as assistant director of the Canadian Research Centre for Anthropology at St. Paul's University.

In 1973 he and his wife moved to Halifax where they spent the rest of their lives. Hale and irrepressible to the last, he welcomed visitors, seated in his favorite chair below a scene of Dawson in winter and surrounded by books.

Reviews

[Reagan Hogstead]

I read it for a course guys okay

[Scott Miles]

I saw this book at a tourist gift shop while visiting Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where my dad was born and grew up. Something about the cover caught my eye and I gave a brief look at the blurb on the back and thought hmmm, this looks interesting.

Well, it was well worth it - so much so that I just ordered another copy - used via Amazon - so that I can donate one to my son's Catholic grade school and another to my other son's Catholic high school.

I had never heard of Father Jimmy or of the "Antigonish Movement" that he was instrumental in starting until I started reading the book. Without going into too many details and spoiling the book (it's only 160 or so pages) Father James Tompkins was a energetic, cantankerous priest who did a lot more than just preach. He took direct action and motivated and inspired many others to improve their lots in life.

The working people of Nova Scotia during that time were clearly exploited by the economic system in place. Fishermen and Coal Miners mostly, they depended on the Mine Operators and Fish Plant owners to extend credit and supply (substandard) housing, medical care etc.

Father Jimmy showed them that, through educating themselves, they could work together, "cooperatively" an create their own institutions to sell their seafood, buy in bulk, create credit unions and even build their houses.

It transformed lives and communities and I'm sure helped move the region on to the beautiful, healthy and seemingly thriving place I just visited for the first time.

Very inspiring and great to see in these times a positive story of a Catholic priest who made a difference.

[Rebecca MacDonald]

If you want to be inspired by what a group of people can do when they get together and try, well, read this book. I was sitting in a pub in Dominion reading this and the person next to me asked about the book.
She'd never heard of him. We need to bring back this can-do attitude to our little island and I want to help do it by sharing this book.