The Humble Giant: Moses Coady, Canada's Rural Revolutionary

by Jim Lotz

Moses Michael Coady was a Roman Catholic parish priest who became one of the most influential figures in the development of the cooperative movement not only in Canada, but also all around the world. The Antigonish Movement grew out of Coady's early community-based work in Nova Scotia. Moses Coady's approach has had lasting significance through the work at the University of Cape Breton and the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University. This book tells his story and explains his legacy today as a unique example of Catholic social teaching applied in support of community development.

160 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2005

About the author

After fulfilling his national service in the Royal Air Force, Jim Lotz graduated from Manchester University in 1952 and worked for a British trading company in Nigeria. In Kano, during a riot, he rescued a man from a mob and received an award for bravery. He emigrated to Canada in 1954 and enrolled at McGill University where he received his Master of Science and landed a summer job at Mcill's Subarctic Research Laboratory in Knob Lake, Quebec. He spent five summers as a meteorological and glaciological observer and wrote about it years later in The Best Journey in the World.

In 1959 he met Pat Wicks, they married and had two daughters.

In 1964 Jim enrolled in the PhD program in geography at the University of British Columbia but left after a year and took a position as assistant director of the Canadian Research Centre for Anthropology at St. Paul's University.

In 1973 he and his wife moved to Halifax where they spent the rest of their lives. Hale and irrepressible to the last, he welcomed visitors, seated in his favorite chair below a scene of Dawson in winter and surrounded by books.