17th Premier of Ontario. A member of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, he served in this position from November 1961 until March 1971. Born in Banff, Alberta, Canada, he moved with his family to London, Ontario, Canada where he attended Central Collegiate (now London Central Secondary School) and the University of Western Ontario where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. When World War II broke out in September 1939, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy and served aboard the light cruiser HMS Uganda. Following the end of the war, he resumed his education at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and graduated with a law degree in 1948. He began practicing law in London and soon entered politics when he was elected to the town council. In 1951 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and became Minister of Education in 1959. Two years later he became Ontario's Premier and during his tenure he was a popular and well-respected leader. He advocated individual freedoms, the provincial rights against centralized initiatives of the federal government, and national unity against Quebec separatism. He was also a proponent of using both English and French as Ontario's official languages and paved the way for French language education in the public schools. After retiring as Premier, he was given a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1972. He served as Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario from 1971 to 1976 and as Chancellor of York University in Toronto from 1977 until 1982. Additionally, he co-chaired the Task Force on Canadian Unity with Jean-Luc Pepin and became a member of boards of directors of several major corporations. In his later years, he suffered a series of debilitating strokes and committed suicide in Toronto at the age of 65. In 1982 the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University in Toronto was founded in his honor as well as the John P. Robarts Research Institute (renamed The Robarts Research Institute in 2005) at the University of Western Ontario in 1986. The Robarts School for the Deaf in London and the 14-story John P. Robarts Research Library at the University of Toronto are also named in his honor.