Fred C. Manning - First in Canada
to Have a Business School
Named in His Honour
Fred C. Manning was the first person in Canada to receive the honour of having a business school named after him—and for good reason. From humble beginnings, he created one of the largest and farthest-ranging business empires that ever had its genesis in the Maritimes. To accent this accomplishment, his success was achieved in the bleak economic conditions that prevailed during the Depression years. His parent company, United Services Corporation, was comprised of service stations, automobile agencies, bus lines, trucking companies, along with wholesale automotive supplies, gasoline, oil, radio, and electrical components. His portfolio was as diverse as the multifold items found behind the counter in his father’s village store, where Fred began his business career as a clerk. At his death in 1959, he was Vice President and Director of the Bank of Nova Scotia, Chairman of the Board of the Industrial and Development Corporation of Venezuela, and served as a director for a half dozen other corporations.
Known in life for his personal warmth, agreeable outlook, and keen sense of humour, Fred C. Manning is posthumously remembered for his unstinting generosity: his Fred C. Manning Charitable Trust has disbursed millions of dollars to universities and organizations across the Atlantic region. Acadia University became a beneficiary of his liberality in 1957. In that year, Sheldon Fountain, B.A. (Acadia), MBA (Boston), assistant professor of economics and son-in-law of Mr. Manning, taught the inaugural courses in the emergent degree of Bachelor of Business Administration, which he championed and sponsored. In the years since, the pioneering spirit, strong work ethic, and exciting brand of entrepreneurship that typified Fred C. Manning has been faithfully transmitted to the graduates of the School that is his namesake and perpetuates his remarkable legacy.
From the F.C. Manning School of Business
Acadia University was founded by church people in 1838. In 1958 Acadia Students asked for a chapel to be built on this campus. They began to raise money for its construction when the family of Fred C. Manning, long associated with Acadia, offered to build it in his memory. It was opened and dedicated in 1963. The chapel is ecumenical, open to all.
The stained glass windows in the Manning Memorial Chapel present the same pattern to worshippers whether light is behind them or shining upon them. Changing light changes colour and value in the jewel toned glass. This beauty was the result of careful planning by the master craftsman Henry Lee Willet. His artistry and dedication to making the windows beautiful in any circumstance illustrates the desire to enrich the lives of those who enter the chapel that has guided the chapel since it was first built almost forty years ago.
The 20-stop classical organ was built by Casavant Freres of Québec, and was dedicated to the University’s War Dead on August 16, 1963. The 28.5 inch cast swinging bell, was cast by Taylor Company in England, and its stunning sound can be heard two miles away. The church spire, with a six-foot cross covered with gold leaf, towers 198 feet above sea level. The interior millwork of the chapel is native birch with walnut handrails. The Chipman Tapestry brickwork is laid in Flemish Bond and the ornamental plaster was created by Joseph Corbo of Montréal, one of the few remaining plaster craftsmen in Canada.
From Acadia University