Remembering former SMU president Dr. Kenneth Ozmon

Kenneth (Ken) Ozmon, a former longtime president of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, has died. He was 90.

Ozmon died on Feb. 23, according to a notice posted on the university’s website. He had the top administrative job at Saint Mary’s for 21 years.

After retiring from the university in 2000, Ozmon tried his hand at municipal politics. He ran in a four-candidate mayoral race in Halifax Regional Municipality which was won by Peter Kelly.

Ozmon was president of Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., from 2004 to 2006.

He died in Halifax and had been living in a seniors’ home.

An expatriate American, Ozmon was born in Portsmouth, Va., and earned degrees from post-secondary schools in Alabama, Washington, D.C., and Maine.

He was an Order of Canada honouree (1998) recognized for his contribution to education in this country, and for being “a champion for the rights of students with disabilities.”

Saint Mary’s president, Robert Summerby-Murray, said in the notice about Ozmon’s death that the man was a university leader who remained connected to the school and had continued to express “great pride” in SMU during his later years.

“His firm stamp is evident in the Saint Mary’s we know today,” Summerby-Murray said.

Ozmon was appointed president of the university in 1979. In an interview in 1993, he said he assumed his post during a period of poor labour relations between the administration and faculty members.

“Saint Mary’s was a very fractious institution at that time,” Ozmon recalled in the interview, a transcription of which has been posted online.

He said the school “was one of the first universities in the country to unionize. That usually gives you a clue as to what the relationship is between the administration and the faculty.”

Ozmon said in 1993 that post-secondary institutions are places with fascinating people.

“Universities are full of interesting characters – not just professors,” he said.

One of the people Ozmon presented an honorary degree to during his tenure at Saint Mary’s was legendary country music artist Clarence Eugene (Hank) Snow, a native of Queens County, who received it in 1994.

Two years later, Ozmon was himself the recipient of a work-related honour: the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

At Mount Allison, Ozmon “helped to reverse a shortfall in admissions,” the university’s website says. It says he also “helped launch an ambitious $86-million capital campaign.” 

Included among his teaching positions, prior to becoming the president of Saint Mary’s, were jobs on Prince Edward Island and in Montreal and California.

Coun. David Hendsbee (Preston-Chezzetcook-Eastern Shore) said he worked on Ozmon’s campaign for the mayor’s office and knew him from his student days at Saint Mary’s when he was involved in SMU’s student government.

Back in 2000, “we did some mainstreet campaigning together where I would introduce him to the local businesses and people in Sheet Harbour,” Hendsbee told CityNews Halifax Saturday via email.

He said Ozmon was “a quiet figure with a slight sense of humour. But when he spoke, he said it with passion and conviction.”

At a public forum during the mayoral campaign, Ozmon said people in the Halifax region feel alienated, CBC News reported. “We have to ensure the citizens of HRM from one to the other have a stake in the community,” he said at the time.

He was in his late 60s when he ran for mayor.

Ozmon was predeceased by his wife, Elizabeth, in 2006 and daughter, Angela, in 2004. His brother, Raymond, died in 2020 and another brother, Howard, passed away in 2014.

Ken Ozmon is survived by his daughter, Kendi, his sister, Catherine, grandchildren and other relatives.

The death announcement posted last week on Saint Mary’s website said the university was flying flags at half-mast “in recognition of his legacy and in sympathy” with Ozmon’s family.

A celebration of life will be planned at a later date, the family’s obituary says.

Michael Lightstone is a freelance reporter living in Dartmouth