A Visit to Calgary

I visited Calgary in 1973 with my family in tow as part of a month long camping trip. We sort of drove through and I’m not sure if it made an impression on the kids or not. However, when my son Brian decided to marry, he and his new bride chose a trip to Calgary and the Calgary Stampede, as well as a visit to Banff, as their honeymoon trip. This was a great source of pleasure for me as it brought a sense of accomplishment, as it seemed to indicate the big trip had some hidden benefit.


After the honeymoon, my son and his wife returned to Chicago and he called. He told me how he met a man and two of his adult kids on a parking lot in Banff. The man was locked out of his car and my son and his wife stayed with them until the repair guy came to unlock the vehicle. The man invited my kids to his house and gave them a tour of Calgary. He showed them the place where he worked, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). He showed them the next door neighbor to SAIT, the then Alberta College of Art. My son, who loved Calgary, said I should become the President of ACA. I asked if they had an open job, but of course, he didn’t know.

Several months later I received a call from a faculty member at the Alberta College of Art asking me if I would be interested in becoming the new President, as he was now on the search committee and was charged with finding new candidates. I held the phone back from my ear and stared at it, wondering if this was some sort of a joke that my son had invented. Knowing better, I continued the conversation, and eventually became the new president of the Alberta College of Art.

This story with all the significant details added was published in the Calgary Herald in 1994.