(28 Oct. 1858-27 July 1938), clergyman. (Rev. Dr Robert Harkness) Parents: Mr and Mrs David Harkness. He was educated at the University of Toronto, Knox College, and at the University of Central Indiana (Ph.D. degree in 1904). He and his wife were missionaries in Korea and Japan for some seven years. He held pastorates at Admaston, Ont., and Tweed, Ont. For 17 years, 1902 to 1919, he was the well known minister of Knox Church, Cornwall (inducted 8 April 1902; resignation effective 12 May 1919). Short pastorates then followed in North Dakota, Wroxeter, Ont., and Ripley, Ont. From 1925 to 1932, he was pastor at Salem United Church, Summerstown. At this time Salem Church was “Too weak to call a minister on a self-sustaining or augmented basis,” but Harkness provided his services as a “retired minister.” (MacMillan, 64) During the pastorate at Salem he went on superannuation but continued his services to the church. He died at Cornwall General Hospital. He was buried at Salem Cemetery, Summerstown, beside his wife, Isabella Jane Wilson, who had died 18 May 1936. He and his wife were survived by two sons, (1) Harold Wilson Harkness (b. 14 Feb. 1891), a professor of physics at Queen’s University, born at Kanazawa, Japan, and (2) Lt. Col. Robert Dickson Harkness (b. 23 Dec. 1892), an engineer and businessman, born at Osaka, Japan; he received the Military Cross at Buckingham Palace on 26 Sept. 1917.

Standard Freeholder 27 July (portrait) & 1 Aug. 1938 * MacMillan, Kirk, 64, 294 * Mabel MacLean, A History of Salem Church and the Summerstown Area (1975) * sons: Who’s Who in Canada 1964-1965 389-90 (portrait), 634 * Harold Wilson Harkness: traffic accident death of his daughter, SFH 4 & 6 May 1942 * Robert Dickson Harkness: receives Military Cross, 20 Years Ago column, SFH 18 Oct. 1937 ; biog. sketch (portrait) in St. Lawrence Seaway & Power Projects 1959 (1958) 364