James Earle Hawley

Professor James “Jim” Earle Hawley II (Grampy) passed away peacefully at the age of 86 on June 30, 2022 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was born in Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to James Earle Hawley I and Anna Jane Livingstone Hawley (née Smith).

In his youth, Jim attended Mabou Public School and later Saint Joseph Convent in Mabou where he was proudly known as the “teachers’ pet”. It was at Saint Joseph’s that Jim would be introduced to chemistry, a subject where he would excel and ultimately pursue as his career.

In 1956, Jim attended McGill University for a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, where his favourite subject was Physical Chemistry. After college, he would spend several years working for the Nova Scotia Department of agriculture as a soil surveyor and laboratory supervisor. In June of 1963, Jim would meet the love of his life, Mary Hawley, on a blind date. He would marry her 6 months later to begin a beautiful life and family together. Shortly after his wedding, Jim was appointed as an Associate Professor of Chemistry in 1964 at the NS Agricultural College where he proudly walked to work each day for exercise until his retirement in 1995.

Jim was an avid spectator of local horse racing and as such, was deemed a “well-known” authority on the topic as he wrote numerous publications for the Atlantic Post Calls, a weekly newspaper printed in Amherst. Many of Jim’s articles on individual Maritime horse racing performers resulted in their induction into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. As a result, Jim was named the “Man of the Year” in Maritime harness racing by the Atlantic Post Calls for his contribution to the sport. Jim enjoyed bird watching, gardening, writing, and was an avid stamp and coin collector. His love for his family and friends was unconditional and will indefinitely live on. He will be dearly missed.

Jim is survived by his wife Mary Geraldine Hawley (née Rayner) of Truro, children Anna Margaret Hawley (of Halifax), James Earle Hawley III (of Halifax) (Karen Smith) and Robert Gordon Hawley (of Edmonton), as well as his sister Nancy Joy Crabbe (née Hawley) (of Coldstream, B.C.) (Don Crabbe), his grandchildren Marin Beth Hawley and James (Jay) Earle Hawley IV, both of Halifax. He is predeceased by his parents James Earle Hawley I (of Port Hood, N.S.) and Anna Jane Livingstone (Smith) Hawley (of Hillsboro, N.S.), and his siblings James Eugene Hawley (of Mabou, N.S.), Claude Sinclair Hawley (of Windsor, ON), Catherine Noreen Martel (née Hawley) (of Windsor, ON), Anna Jayne Capstick (née Hawley) (of Hope, B.C.), and Winston Lee Hawley (of Sarnia, ON). There are also numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and other extended family members as well as his students, colleagues and countless friends and neighbours whose lives he touched and with whom he generously shared his friendly spirit.