' Pioneer .................continued from page 4

Her focus at FVC and now UCFV
has always been Chilliwack. She admits
to having a Chilliwack bias.

“There has always been great support
for the college from the communities in
the east, particularly Chilliwack. I think
that’s because people here are so far
removed from the Vancouver
universities. That makes them feel a
strong need for a post-secondary
institution,” she notes. “I also feel that
there has always been a special warmth
-and cooperative feeling at the
Chilliwack campus that remains to this
day.”

“There has always been a
special warmth and cooperative
feeling at the Chilliwack campus
that remains to this day.”

Urquhart has plenty of anecdotes
about her times at FVC, but two are
particularly worth sharing because of
what they symbolize about how the
college has evolved over the years.

“T remember one of our first
graduation ceremonies was for farrier
(horse shoe) training at the Evergreen
Hall. The farriers had been sneaking
drinks in the kitchen while preparing for
the ceremony and were feeling pretty

happy by the time we got started. I
introduced our young new Dean of
Instruction, Dick Bate, and as he
nervously got up to address the crowd,
one of the students yelled, ‘Sock it to us,
Dick baby!’ Dick had just arrived from
an urban college and he didn’t quite
know what to make of us, but he
managed to speak anyway.”

Around a decade later, in the early
80s, Urquhart, known for her
professional demeanour, came in to
work one non-teaching day in her jeans.
In the hallway, she met former hippie
and, at that time, NDP political
candidate Scott Fast, who was wearing a
three-piece suit. Both did a double-take,
and Fast summed up the end of an era by
noting: “I never thought I’d see the day
when you came to work in jeans and met
me in a three-piece suit.”

All four of Urquhart’s children have
taken courses at the college. Two went
on to earn degrees at university, and her
elder daughter, Janet, taught for FVC for
a few years before moving to Montreal.

In addition to teaching, Urquhart has,
for the last few years, hosted the UCFV
News show on Chilliwack cable, and
worked and volunteered at the Writing
Centre. She has also been quick to
discreetly point out any grammar
mistakes in Headlines and other

Headlines/June 3, 1992

publications, along with fellow
grammarian Betty Harris.

At Christmas, with the help of Sheila
Elliot and Bertha Solvey, she hosts a
lunch at her house at Christmas for the
60 UCFV folks lucky enough to get
tickets. She cooks everything herself,
and donates the proceeds to the
Salvation Army.

At the recent Faculty and Staff
Association general meeting, Urquhart
praised association members for sticking
together as one union for 18 years, since
faculty and staff are split at most
colleges. She said she hopes people
continue to cooperate.

She also hopes that UCFV will
continue to look to its origins as a
community college, and keep serving all
areas of need, from general interest to
ABE, and career/technical and trades to
university studies.

Urquhart’s retirement party is on June
4 at the Chilliwack campus, but that
doesn’t mean we’ ve seen the last of her.
She’s slated to teach Grammar for the
Future: Back to the Basics for
Continuing Education this fall.

You’re never too old... Edward
Webster is quite likely UCFV’s
oldest student.

The 81-year-old enrolled in the
Chilliwack ABE program because
he wanted to catch up on things
he didn’t have a chance to learn
in his youth.

_ ABE instructor Vicki Grieve (back
to camera) congratulates Webster
at the Chilliwack ABE Celebration
of Achievement.

Library summer hours

Chilliwack campus

From now until June 4:

Monday to Friday

8:30-4:30

Abbotsford campus

May 1-June 10: 8:30-4:30

June 11-August 14: 8:30-12:30
August 17-September 4: 8:30-4:30

Groundwater study

A copy of the recently released B.C.
Ministry of Health Fraser Valley
Groundwater/Drinking Water study is
available in the Abbotsford campus

library.