Betty Urquhart

End of an era as FVC pioneer retires

She’s been here longer than anyone
else currently working for UCFV, but no
reign lasts forever. Betty Urquhart,
otherwise known as the grammar guru,
champion of Chilliwack causes, and
most gracious Christmas luncheon
hostess, is retiring in June.

Urquhart has had a number of
interesting jobs, both inside and outside
the college, and credits her success to
luck and a willingness to take on
challenges.

She says her career path has taken on
the shape of a bell curve. She started as
an English teacher, rose in the adult
education field until she was a
coordinator of community programming
at FVC, and is ending her career in the
classroom once again, this time as a
communication instructor.

“Tt’s been nice to be back in the
classroom,” she notes. “That’s where
you get the most satisfaction.”

Urquhart earned her BA and
professional teacher’s certification at
UBC, and fell into her first job when a
teacher died suddenly at the school
where she was completing her practicum
in Lumby, B.C.

She lived in Vernon while teaching in
Lumby, and met her husband, John,
when both were staying at the same
boarding house.

“There was a need for people
who could set up programs and
hire people fast.”

Urquhart was hired by the college in
April 1974, on a secondment from the

Chilliwack school district. Fraser Valley ~

College had just been legislated into
existence, and had a mandate to start
offering courses that September. “There
was a need for people who could set up
programs and hire people fast,” Urquhart
recalls.

Urquhart had been working as an
adult education coordinator, and so she
fit the bill. Since Larry Blake, the first
principal, was unable to come until the
fall, she was responsible for hiring all of
the first university transfer faculty

members on a conditional basis. Some of
them remain today, including Astrid
Stec, Jocelyn Cass, Rory Wallace and
Graham Dowden. She particularly
remembers a keen young Dave Wyatt,
who phoned her looking for work in
February of ’74, before the college even
officially existed.

“The people we hired for that
first year were very interested in
and excited about the idea of
starting a new institution.”

“The people we hired for that first
year were very interested in and excited
about the idea of starting a new
institution,” she notes.

Many other tasks kept Urquhart
scrambling in the few months before
classes commenced. She had to decide
which courses to run, ensure that library
materials were bought, and make sure
that courses were transferable to UBC
and SFU. She credits Douglas College
for giving FVC plenty of help initially.

“They’d been through it all five years
before, with nobody helping them, and
so they were eager to help us.”

Douglas College courses were used
initially, with FVC instructors teaching
them. SFU lent the college a librarian to
oversee the first acquisitions, which
were stored in high school libraries.

The first college offices were at the
Edenbank trading post in Sardis and at
WJ Mouat school in Clearbrook. Classes
were initially held in church basements,
schools, storefronts, and the Coqualeetza
Centre.

Once the initial hiring was over and
the principal had arrived, Urquhart
became the supervisor for all college
activities in Chilliwack. As the college
grew, she narrowed her focus to
continuing education.

Urquhart broke new ground for
women in many instances. Back when
she was coordinator of night school for
the Chilliwack school district, she was
the only woman included in the regular
meetings of principals. She was the first
woman member, and eventually the

Headlines/June 3, 1992

Betty Urquhart

president, of the Lower Mainland
chapter of the B.C. Continuing
Education Association. She was also the
first woman president of the Chilliwack
Chamber of Commerce.

“A lot of the younger women
don’t realize how different and
difficult it was as recently as 20

years ago.”

“T received quite a frosty reception
sometimes. Some of the men in power
felt threatened by me. A lot of the
younger women don’t realize how
different and difficult it was as recently
as 20 years ago.”

As her career progressed, Urquhart
also kept busy with community work
and raising her four kids with her
husband. She volunteered with
Community Services and belonged to
the Chamber of Commerce and the
University Women’s Club. Looking
back, she realizes she was too busy. By
1981, she was “burnt out”, and took a
year off. When she came back, it was to
a job as a communication instructor.

In recent years, she has coordinated
the college’s communication course
offerings at CFB Chilliwack.