Background
Robert Dawson was born on March 1, 1895 in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg County, Canada.
Robert Dawson was born on March 1, 1895 in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg County, Canada.
In 1915 Robert received a Bachelor of Arts at Dalhousie University, and then a Master of Arts there in 1916. Then he studied at Harvard University, where he got a Master of Arts in 1917. Finally, Robert received a Master of Economics and a Doctor of Economics at the London School of Economics in 1921 and 1922 retrospectively.
In 1921, Robert started teaching at Dalhousie University before leaving to teach at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and Rutgers University. In 1928, he returned to Canada as head of the Political Science department at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1937, he started teaching at the University of Toronto. He left in 1951 to write a biography of Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Robert demanded high standards of scholarship and literary style, but with colleagues and students his arguments were leavened by a vital enthusiasm and a sense of humour.
Robert was married to Sarah Ada Foster. They had two sons: Robert MacGregor Dawson and William Foster Dawson.