, J. , Celebrate Memorial! ~ Q ~ ~ "% Jl-~ a pictorial history of Memorial University of Newfoundland Celebrate Memorial is a project of Memorial University's Anniversaries Committee to commemorate the Festival of Anniversaries, which over two years marks several important dates in our history. • 75th anniversary of the founding of Memorial University College in 1925 • 50th anniversary of Memorial University as a degree-granting school in 1949 Table of Contents • 35th anniversary of the Marine Institute's beginnings in 1964 • 25th anniversary of Grenfell College's start in 1975 Chapter 1 1925 to 1949 ........ 1 Since its founding, the university has played a significant role in all aspects of the Chapter 2 1950 to 1959 ...... 17 development of our province. Our 50,000 alumni are leaders in business, Chapter 3 1960 to 1969 ...... 33 industry, education, government and many endeavours at home, in the rest of Chapter 4 1970 to 1979 ...... 49 Canada, and around the world. This book is a pictorial overview of Memorial's history, its accomplishments and its contributions to tl1e provincial community. Chapter 5 1980 to 1989 ...... 65 The first chapter covers the period from 1925 to 1949; in the other five, the story Chapter 6 1990 to 1999 ...... 81 of Memorial's 50 years as a university is told decade by decade, highlighting the development in the life of our academic community. We hope you will enjoy this look back at the people and the events that have shaped our anniversary as Memorial celebrates the past and, with great optimism, looks forward to being by Dr. Melvin Baker and Jean Graham part of the continuing development of Newfoundland and Labrador. Research: Dr. Melvin Baker Kevin Keough Design: Helen Houston Chair, Anniversaries Commillee All photos are courtesy of Memorial University except where noted Memorial university is the consciousness of a community reaching out to a realization of the higher powers of the mind .... Universities enrich the world .... The mandate given the college was not only high, but wide, and not until shared and made serviceable for the wants of all, will it be fulfilled. '' - President John Lewis Paton at the official opening of Memorial University College on Sept. 15, 1925 CHAPTER 1 • • 1921 Normal School opens • 1924 Parade Street campus for Normal School opens • 1925 I ,I Memorial University College opens • Appointment of John Lewis Paton as president • 1931 Old Memorials Association formed • First issue of the Cap and Gown yearbook published • 1932 Opening of the new wing • 1933 Appointment of Albert G. Hatcher as president • 1934 Teaching Training Department established • 1935 Memorial University College (Governors) Act • 1936 First issue of the Memorial Times published • 1949 University status for the college The founding trustees of Memorial University College: Arthur Barnes, Wil liam Blackall, Vincent Burke, Levi Cu rtis and Ronald Kennedy. Memorial's foundations When Memorial University College opened in 1925, it repre ented appointed deputy minister. Ronald Kennedy replaced Burke a the several years of effort by educators to provide a non-denominational Roman Catholic superintendent. The Normal School rented premises system of post-secondaty education. The superintendents of the from September 1921 until September 1924, when a new two-acre major denominations had been trying to raise teacher training campus opened at Merrymeeting Road and Parade Street in St. standard since at least 1913. John's. William Blackall (Church of England), Levi CUttis (Methodist) and With no government funding to operate any academic program Vincent Burke (Roman Catholic), with funding from local aside from education, Burke, Curtis and Blackall turned to the businesses, established a joint summer school for teachers in 1917; Carnegie Corporation of New York. In 1924 the corporation agreed the experiment continued the following summer. In Januaty 1919 to an annual grant of $15,000 for five years, provided that the Curtis and Burke sponsored a resolution of the Patriotic Association, government wou ld provide $5,000 a year. Prime Minister Walter calling on the government to construct a training school as a Monroe accepted this offer in 1925 and appointed a board of memorial to ewfoundlanders who had died in the First World War. trustees to administer rl1e Carnegie grant. In 1920 the government of Richard quire created a Department of On Sept. 15, 1925, the college under President John Lewis Paton Education and established a ormal School to train teachers. Arthur was officially opened by Governor Sir William Allardyce. Barnes became the minister of education and Vincent Burke was 2 Celebrate Memorial l925 The college staff In 1925 • John Lewis Paton, classics and German • Albert G. Hatcher, mathematics • Alfred Hunter, English and French • George O'Sullivan, chemistry and physics • Solomon Whiteway, history; principal of the Normal School • El izabeth McGrath, registrar The college has been erected as a Memorial to those who fought and fell in the hope that by their sacrifice their country might be made a better and happier place for their fellow men. Can we doubt that those who strove to establish the college and succeeded in spite of all difficulties were inspired with that spirit of service, and is it not possible that the building itself ... is not already endowed with the same spirit? -St. John's Evening Telegram, Sept. 16, 1925 The first students and staff of Memorial University College, 1925-26 Insert: Helena McGrath , the first graduate in 1926. Celebrate Memorial . President John Lewis Paton In 1967 President (pro tern) M.O. Morgan wrote of Paton that "his memorial is the achievement of his students. In a real sense Memorial University is Community itself a memorial to him, for he laid the foundation of sound scholarship and quality, of attention to our social and physical environment, of Outreach concern for students and of outreach to the community." To make the college of service to the As a motto for the college, Paton adopted Provehito in altum - "launch forth into the deep." And launch forth he did- with a vision general public implies more than the of a college that would erve evety citizen of Britain's oldest colony. indirect benefits desirable through the Paton was concerned that many otherwise qualified young people would students, and these are many. It is not be able to attend the college for financial reasons. In 1926 he set up a direct service which will popularize the scholarship and loan fund. A. C. Hunter later recalled, "No one knows how institution. This the college proposes to many students had their college fees, and later their univer ity fees, paid by introduce not in the sweet bye and bye, [Paton]." Paton also collected donations from business people and encouraged students to raise funds from concerts and other functions. Within two years the scholarship and but in the living present .... The college loan fund stood at over ~6,000. The interest from this fund made it possible for students, after is opening its doors to all. All may graduating from the college, to finance at least part of their univer ity education abroad. When he become students, if they will. Lost died in 1946 Paton left the college a bequest of $3,000 for student assistance. opportunities may be regained, whilst Paton wa determined to see the college reach out to the public through popular subjects such as new ones are knocking at the doors of art and navigation. Extension courses became a regular feature of college activities. The college all who desire to avail of them. quickly became a social and intellectual centre for St. John's, while graduates carried its influence across the country. -St. John's Daily News, Sept. 17, 1925 Enrolment increased annually, resulting in ~1emorial ' s first overcrowding problem. In 1930 the college was forced to restrict the enrolment of first-year students. Converting the Assembly Hall into a lecture room provided a temporary solution, while the government added a three-storey wing that opened in 1932. Much larger than the original building, the new wing contained a large lecture theatre and a gymnasium, the largest in Newfoundland at that time, which was also used for city sports activities. 4 Celebrate Memorial 1925 • Facilities: assembly hall, library, three laboratories, lecture rooms and offices. • Number of full·time students: 57 • Tuition fee (per academic year): $40 • Number of faculty members: 5 Postage stamp showing Memorial ~n.iversity . 1933 with the 1932 addition on the College m left. Students writing exams in 1933. Students in chemistry lab, 1933. Men's soccer team, 1928. Celebrate Memorial 5 1935 • Facilities: Gymnasium, four labs, lecture hall, library, lecture rooms, offices • Number of students: 220 • Tuition fee (per academic year) : $50 • Number of faculty members: 12 • Books in library: 8,000 I President Albert George Hatcher Albert Hatcher was born in 1886 in Moreton's Harbour and attended Methodist College, St. John's; McGill University, Montreal; University of Chicago; and Columbia University, New York. During the First World War, Hatcher served as By the end of the college's first aprofessor in the Royal Canadian Navy at Royal Roads in British Columbia decade its graduates were eagerly and at the Naval College, Halifax. He was later a professor of natural sought by the government for science at Bishop's College, Lennoxville, Quebec, and in 1925 he joined the positions in a reorgamzed civil staff of the newly created Memorial University College to teach mathematics. service. In the late 1930s, the He retired as president in 1952 for health reasons and accepted the title of thriving college set up two-year president emeritus. He died at St. John's on Oct. 30, 1954. pre-agriculture, -medical, -dertal, and -engineering programs, with In 1933 Paton retired and Albert Hatcher was too, when in humour, and some of the most agreements allowing students to appointed president.