The Reverend Adolphus Egerton Ryerson 1803-1882
This outstanding educationist, journalist and clergyman, the son of an Anglican Loyalist, was born near Vittoria. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1825 serving as a circuit rider and missionary to the Indians. He was appointed first editor of the Methodist "Christian Guardian" in 1829, and became an advocate of the Reform objective of separating Church and State though he later expressed conservative views in politics. As head of the Department of Public Instruction (1846-76), he established this province's present system of public education in the hope of seeing "every child of my native land in the school going way". A vigorous, prolific controversialist, he wrote on agriculture, politics, religion, the Loyalists and Canadian Methodism.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.