James Owen Dineen

Who is James Owen Dineen?

James Owen Dineen was a Canadian engineer, university administrator and the twelfth President of the University of New Brunswick.

Born in Hampton, New Brunswick, he graduated from the Hampton Consolidated School in 1936. At the age of 16 he entered the University of New Brunswick, having been awarded a Beaverbrook Scholarship.Dineen graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1940. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford but was unable to take it up because of the Second World War. Instead of going to Oxford he went to the University of Toronto with a Leonard Fellowship subsequently taking a position as a radio instructor in Hamilton, Ontario. He returned to the University of New Brunswick to instruct airmen and sailors at the UNB Radio School.

Dineen was appointed Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1942, Associate Professor in 1946 and Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1951.In 1957 he became Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. Research and graduate programs were strongly encouraged by Dineen in the Electrical Engineering Department and in the Faculty of Engineering as a whole.