Harney, Robert Forest

Robert Forest Harney was born on March 5, 1939 in Salem, Massachusetts, the oldest of 8 children. He received his early education at St. James Elementary School in Salem, and St. Johns Prep in Danvers, MA. In 1957 he enrolled at Harvard University, graduating in 1960 with an A. B. (cum Laude) in history and literature. In the fall of that year he enrolled in the graduate programme at University of California (Berkeley) after marrying Diana Ohlsson on May 28, 1960. He received his M.A. in History in 1961, and then enrolled in the Ph.D programme.

It was while working on his Ph.D. in history at Berkeley that he was hired by the University of Toronto as Lecturer in the Department of History. He moved with his family to Toronto on September 4, 1964. In 1965 he was appointed Assistant Professor, a position he held until his promotion in 1971 to Associate Professor. During this period he completed his thesis entitled “the Last Crusade: the papal army of the 1860s” and was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of California in 1966.

While Associate Professor in the Department of History, Prof. Harney received a grant of $3,000,000 to establish a multicultural history collection. The result was the formation of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO) in 1976. As “founding and guiding genius” of this institution, Prof. Harney created what has been described as “ a rich and vast collection of oral histories and archival materials” [1]. As President and Academic Director of the MHSO until his death in 1989, Prof. Harney edited Polophony and published essays relating to the use of such collections in the writing of the history of ethnic institutions such as theatres, churches and benefit societies. In 1979 he was promoted to professor of history by the University.

From the late 1970s to his death, Prof. Harney published numerous articles and six books as sole or co-author. While his initial research and teaching interest was Italian history, his exposure to the cultural diversity of Toronto eventually turned his attention to North American immigration and ethnic history. One of his earliest books, Immigrants: Portrait of the Urban experience (Toronto: Van Nostrand, 1975) was co-authored with Harold Troper. This book won the Toronto Book Award in 1975. He developed courses and wrote numerous papers on immigration in general, and Italian immigration to Canada in particular. He served on the editorial boards of more than nine associations including the Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal and the Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Journal of American Ethnic History and American Italian Historical Association, among others. As well he continued to act as General Editor of all publications of the MHSO.

His reputation in the fields of multiculturalism and immigration history made him much in demand for addresses and presentations, as well as a consultant to academic institutions, cultural centres, and governments at home and abroad. His work in this field garnered him several honours, including the already mentioned City of Toronto Book Award in 1975, the Francesco Bressani Award for the Italian language Dalle Frontiera alle Little Italies in 1986 and Certificates of commendation from the Canadian Historical Association and the American Association for State and Local History (both in 1987).

Prof. Harney’s teaching, research and publishing in this field led to the establishment of the Ethnic and Immigration Studies graduate programme at the University of Toronto in 1977. Shortly before his death, he was appointed to the newly endowed Professorship and Program in Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies, a collaborative graduate programme. Prof. Harney died on August 22, 1989 after the failure of a heart transplant. Following his death, the chair was re-named the Robert F. Harney Professorship, with Wsevolod Isajiw, Department of Sociology, as the first appointment in 1990.

NOTES:

[1] “Robert Forest Harney” by Rudolph J. Vecoli. Perspectives. April 1990. American Historical Association.