Welcome to the Spring 2001 edition of the G.C.V.I. Gazette. The dates have been set and approved for our 150th reunion. The next "Gathering of the Gaels "will be held from May 28 -30,2004.I would ask that your submit $10 to The Guelph C.V.I. Alumni Association to remain a member in good standing. These dues are more important than ever all alumni association members will get the chance to purchase tickets for reunion events before the general public and will receive a discounted price for these tickets. You can help the Alumni Association by recruiting your family, friends, and neighbors to also submit $10 and fill in a registration form. I would also like to hear your ideas for reunion events, what you liked or disliked from 1994 's reunion, and I would also like to know if you would volunteer for our organizing committee. We would also like to put your G.C.V.I. artifacts on display during the reunion if you have items for display or that you would like to donate to the Alumni Association, please give us a call. Please see the picture of my Aunt and Uncle Jack and Eleanor Hanna who will both turn 90 around the time you are reading this article. Could it be that they are the oldest married couple still with us who graduated from Guelph Collegiate? Please send your comments to me at the school or email me at robert.hohenadel@bell.ca or call me at (519)824-9800 ext.491.
When I graduated from GCVI in 1933, I did not expect to be able to attend university because of the Great Depression. Fortunately I received a scholarship which enabled me to take a course in Classics at the University of Toronto. After graduating from U of T. and taking a teacher training course, I taught for 2 years in Glencoe, a small town west of London. Then I applied for and received a position in GCVI just 7 years after I had left it.
I was a little nervous about teaching alongside many of the teachers who had taught me. I was glad that I had had 2 years experience at Glencoe so that I had ironed out most of a beginning teacher 's mistakes and things worked out well. I taught mostly Latin, French, Ancient History and Greek. I thoroughly enjoyed the work and have many happy memories of the pupils whom I taught. It's a real pleasure to meet some of them on the street 40-60 years later.
In 1942 I joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a navigator, helping to deliver new aeroplanes from North America to Africa, Asia and Europe. One of my classmates at GCVI was Ken Macalister, a brilliant all-round student, who won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship while at the University of Toronto. He joined the British Intelligence Service during the war and was parachuted into France and worked with the French Resistance movement. He was captured by the Germans, cruelly tortured and killed. Another of my GCVI classmates, George Penfold, felt that our GCVI Class of '33 should do something to commemorate Ken Macalister. Under George 's leadership the class contributed enough money to establish the Macalister Scholarships which are awarded every year. We also persuaded the city to name their newest park Macalister Park (off Hands Drive).
When I returned to the classroom after 4 years in the RCAF, "Scotty "Ross had retired and the new Principal was Fred A. Hamilton whom I had known from boyhood. He ran a fine modern school. I had much the same timetable as before.
I also undertook to handle the publication, printing and financing of the Acta Nostra. It was a lot of work but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I had the opportunity to work along with a great many students who contributed many hours and a lot of talent toward its publication. Further I was able to see a different side of the students from what I saw in the classroom.
In 1956 I became Vice-Principal (with about a 2/3 timetable) under the new Principal Gordon Reid. Shortly after this an entire new wing was added to GCVI to help cope with the growing number of students. As the "baby boomers "reached the age of high school attendance, even this addition proved quite inadequate to cope with the numbers and a new high school, Centennial CVI, was planned. I was appointed as it's founding principal in 1966 and received a year to organize staffing and equipment. I enjoyed the challenge of getting a new school started but I did miss the close contact that I had had with students in the classroom and also with my fellow staff members at GCVI. After 5 years at Centennial I joined administration at the Wellington Board of Education. I retired in 1979. It 's been a great life and still is!!
Reflections
Of The Past
Send us a story of your most memorable reflection of your years at G.C.V.I.
We are looking at publishing a booklet for the 2004 reunion.
Please send your response to:
Guelph C.V.I. Alumni Association,
155 Paisley Street,
Guelph, ON N1H 2P3.
G.C.V.I. GAZETTE - SPRING 2001
I grew up on a farm in Eramosa Township and attended a one-room school nearby where all grades were taught by the same teacher so when it came time to attend the GCVI in 1928 I was quite nervous about a school with enrolment of about 1000 pupils and where I would have 6 or 7 different teachers. Since our farm was about 15 miles from GCVI and since there were no school buses in those days, I had to board in town. Fortunately I had some aunts who were able to board me (and my sister and cousins in their turn). We would be driven home on the weekends. Sometimes after a big snowstorm the cars could not get through and some adult would pick about 10 of us up and a team of horses would haul us home on a sleigh. This was a trip of about 3 hours (5 or 6 hours for the driver 's round trip).
Of course "Scotty "Ross was the Principal of GCVI and I have always been amazed at how he seemed to know everyone and at how, as he sat at the back of the auditorium before school, he could call students over and comment on their progress (or lack of it).We also I had many interesting teachers Gene Durrant, Ella Sinclair, Wilma Humphries, Jean Reid, etc. I would like to mention also Olive Freeman who taught French and who also was in charge of the GCVI Drama Club. I had acted in several of the plays, which she produced. One
.GCVI - Two Perspectives
Pupil and Teacher My 31 Years Here
many years later I was walking along Bloor St. in Toronto when a car pulled over to the sidewalk. It was Olive Freeman who had recognized me. She introduced me to her fiancé (later her husband and, of course, later Prime Minister), John Diefenbaker. I have always felt proud of the fact that I had been taught by some one who became Canada 's First Lady.
One of the things which I enjoyed particularly about GCVI was the swimming pool -one of the few schools in the whole province to possess one. We boys always swam 'skinny 'but, of course, the girls wore bathing suits. One after-four session we boys were scheduled first and after we were finished the girls took over. One of the boys was singing in the shower when the teacher shouted "Everybody out ".He didn't hear the call and, when he went from the shower through the pool to the boys 'dressing room, he girls were already in the pool very embarrassing!!
Unfortunately the GCVI pool had to be closed shortly after I left the school, reputedly because of a drainage problem caused by a stream which flowed underneath the school. For many years the area was used simply for storage but ultimately it was beautifully converted into the P.G. Reid Library and Archives after my friend Gordon Reid, Principal of the school for many years.
by George Hindley
G.C.V.I. GAZETTE - SPRING 2001
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The "Gathering of the Gaels "2004 Reunion Planning Team
150th Reunion May 28,29,30,2004
We welcome any help you can give us in being part of our planning team for the 2004 150th G.C.V.I. Reunion.
Name ______________________________________________________________________
