Fire didn't deter dedicated professor
Mac humanities pioneer Alexander McKay remembered as a spellbinding lecturer

September 05, 2007

PAUL LEGALL
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

Professor Alexander McKay didn't seem to notice the fire creeping up the side of the mountain as he lectured among the ancient ruins on top of Cuma near Naples, Italy.

He was explaining the marvels of antiquity to a group of Canadian students on a summer course exploring archeological sites along Naples' bay.

McKay was so involved in his lecture he didn't seem to hear when the students tried to warn him the fire could trap them on the mountain if they didn't start going down soon.

His 10-year-old granddaughter Talia Brott was among the group. "He was so stubborn. He wanted to finish his lecture," remembered Brott, now 27.

By the time he was done, the main road was impassable and firefighters had to show them another way down the opposite side of the mountain.

"That was one of my fondest memories of Gramps," Brott recalled.

Dr. Alexander Gordon (Sandy) McKay, who died at Shalom Village Friday, was one of the world's most distinguished classicists. He wrote 15 scholarly books and founded the Vergilian Society more than 50 years ago. The group studies the works of the first- century Roman poet Vergil, whom McKay could quote at length in Latin.

At the time of his death, the 82-year-old scholar was professor emeritus at McMaster University where he had been founding dean of the humanities department and had taught classics since the 1960s.

A native of Toronto, he did graduate work at Yale before receiving his PhD from Princeton University in 1950.

At Princeton in 1946, he met his future wife, Jean, who was in music college. In 1964, after she divorced her first husband, they were married.

She joined the staff at Westdale Secondary School where she taught music and English. They were dedicated patrons of the arts and supported numerous cultural groups in the city, including the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

Boris Brott, who would become conductor of the orchestra, became close friends after he came to Hamilton in 1969 and lived in the McKays' home for three years. His brother, Denis Brott, also a distinguished musician, married their daughter Julie and is the father of Talia and her three siblings.

Boris Brott remembers McKay as an excellent pianist who could liven up dinner conversation.

Michelle George, chair of Mac's classics department, remembers McKay as a spellbinding lecturer who seldom used notes and could transport an audience with his depiction of the ancient world.

Jean Zulauf McKay, who lives in Shalom Village, would like her husband to be remembered for his humanity as well as his academic achievements.

"He was a kind man, too," she said yesterday. The funeral is noon today at Christ's Church Cathedral, 252 James St. N.

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