During the period from 1911 to 1947, which spanned two World Wars, the Faculty Club had many occasions to honour those faculty who left the University whether for active service or to take academic positions elsewhere. This was often done by means of dinner or by specific mention at a scheduled dinner. For those who had died letters of condolence were written to the surviving partner. It is recorded that in April 1943 letters were sent to the widow of the late William Aberhart, a long-time Premier of Alberta, and to the widow of Mr. Alex. MacFarlane who had been the University machinist.  Top

Men's Faculty Club and The Gateway
A note in the Faculty Club archives refers to a letter from the Editor and the Associate Editor of The Gateway thanking the Men’s Faculty Club for the publication of the December 12, 1922 issue of the newspaper which was “edited for the Men’s Faculty Club by E. K. Broadus and R. K. Gordon”. (Dr. E. K. Broadus was Professor of English and one of the first four faculty members appointed to the University of Alberta in 1908 while Dr. R. K. Gordon joined the Department of English in 1912.) We shall digress very briefly from our account of the Club history to give a few excerpts from this issue of the student newspaper.

It contains short essays contributed by faculty including one by the President entitled “Dr. Tory recalls the good old days at McGill”, news items of happenings on the campus, some lighthearted notes on events that never occurred, and advertisements. Together they give an enlightening and entertaining picture of a bygone era. The list of non-events is headed “Things which never happened at the University of Alberta” and include the following: “Students request Professor to lecture a half hour overtime as they are interested, and are willing to give up football practice.” and “Professors are paid higher salaries than milkmen.” One short article describes the diabetes research conducted by Professor J. B. Collip of the Department of Biochemistry. Amongst the advertisements is one for Vince’s Suits and Overcoats on Jasper Avenue offering “Ready to Wear and Made to Measure Suits for $25, $35 and $45”, and another for the Macdonald Hotel advertising their Saturday afternoon Tea Dances with a cover charge of 85 cents.

The University Librarian, Donald Ewing Cameron after whom the Cameron Library is named, contributed a charming article “St. Andrews: The City of the Scarlet Gown. Librarian Recalls Bejant Days in the Haunted City-By-The-Sea — Scotland’s Oldest University”. (A “bejan”, according to The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, is “a ‘yellow beak’ or freshman, a term adopted from the University of Paris.”) The article is a delight to read, and we shall conclude this section by quoting the opening and closing sentences:

It should be a humiliating thing, no doubt, but I find it altogether delightful, that, when I sit down to write something edifying for “Gateway” readers about undergraduate days at the University of St. Andrews — which, by the way, is not in this world at all, but in the adjacent Kingdom of Fife — the memories that flock to the call are to a negligible extent of sombre or edifying aspect. ... Now, before the blue pencil descends, let me but say, that there is no doubt that Providence could have made a finer place for a University than St. Andrews, but there is equally no doubt he never did.

Faculty Common Room
When the Students’ Union Building, now University Hall, was opened in September 1950, there was space provided for a faculty lounge at the west end of the top floor. This lounge, known as the Faculty Common Room at the suggestion of Professor J. T. Jones of the Department of English, was furnished through a donation of $6000 from the Board of Governors “in recognition of the contribution of the academic staff to the war and postwar effort”. A plaque recognizing this contribution was installed in the lounge in October 1958.

The Faculty Common Room was open to all faculty (including women) and those with Board appointments. Membership fees were twelve dollars annually with half of this amount going to the University to help pay for the cost of the building. It was also used for meetings by the Men’s Faculty Club and the Faculty Women’s Club.

The room was divided into a large lounge with easy chairs and a smaller dining section with a small serving kitchen. There was some discussion of adding a few plants to the furnishings although it is recorded that the response to one faculty member’s offer of a rubber plant was “not overly enthusiastic”. A Heathkit High Fidelity System was purchased for $658 and assembled by some members which provided a sound system which if purchased ready-made would have cost between twelve and fourteen hundred dollars. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks consisting of tea, coffee and Peak Frean cookies were available during the week, and occasional lunches were provided with the help of a local catering service. There was some discussion of making arrangements for a girl [sic] to help in the kitchen for a couple of hours on Saturday evenings but this was not done because of the additional costs which would include providing transportation to and from the campus.

Most social functions, including those for which a liquor license was required, were held off-campus rather than in the Faculty Common Room, an example being a Wine and Cheese Tasting Party held at the Sportex Building on October 25, 1963. For this event an attractively printed brochure was prepared describing the various wines that had been chosen and containing the following admonition:

For those who have not attended a wine tasting session before we suggest perhaps one glass of each of the four classes of wine and a final glass of brandy. Those more experienced in the art who wish to make comparisons may like to sample more than one of each type. But remember there are seventeen varieties of wine and a brandy to taste, and few tasters are robust enough or rash enough to sample everything. A few social events were held in Athabasca Hall with the approval of the residence wardens and the assistance of the Superintendent of Residences, Reg Lister, at times when most students were away from the campus.It was hoped that these events would increase Club membership and provide a little financial capital toward the establishment of some licensed facility on the campus.  Top

A building for the Faculty Club
In the late 1950s there was some discussion of forming a Women’s Faculty Club. However in 1959 the Constitution of the Men’s Faculty Club was amended to permit the inclusion of women making such an organization unnecessary. Furthermore it was becoming apparent that there was no longer a need of both a Faculty Common Room and a Faculty Club and that the functions of both could be satisfied if the Faculty Club had its own building. It was noted that there was a recently opened faculty club building on the campus of the University of British Columbia.

In June of 1960 the Executive of the Faculty Club met with the University President, Walter Johns, to discuss the feasibility of the Faculty Club having its own premises on campus. Dr. Johns was quite definite that the Board of Governors would not approve of licensed premises however sympathetic they might otherwise be towards such a building. Furthermore he expressed concern that there may not be sufficient interest amongst faculty for a separate facility. A subsequent canvassing of faculty, which produced 237 responses, showed that there was little support for an unlicensed Club. Dr. Johns was informed of these results in March of 1961. Events of the next two years leading up to the construction of the present Faculty Club building have been recounted by A. S. (Bert) Knowler who was an Associate Vice-President (Finance) and Comptroller in a delightful memoir which is the primary source of the following account.

As the result of a casual conversation on a beautiful Sunday morning in June 1963 between Dick Eaton, the then President of the Faculty Club, and his neighbour Jim Parr, a subsequent Club President, a meeting of a few interested persons was arranged for one evening the following week to discuss the construction of a Faculty Club building. The meeting, held with the best of intentions at the Eaton home, soon “degenerated into a party” so that a subsequent meeting was called in ten days’ time (which presumably gave the participants sufficient time to recover from the Eatons’ hospitality.) After receiving tenders from a number of firms, the Faculty Club Building Committee selected the firm of Rule, Wynn and Rule who had designed both the Rutherford Library and the Students’ Union Building. The estimated cost was about $200,000 not including furnishings. The time taken to come up with a design was considerably shortened by copying the design of the Calgary Country Club but with the kitchen planned with future expansion in mind. The sod-turning for the new building was held early in 1964. A picture of this ceremony taken from Walter Johns’s A History of the University of Alberta 1908 – 1969 now hangs in the Lower Bar. The building was constructed by Poole Construction Company.

One of the early benefactors of the Faculty Club was Dr. Francis Winspear. He personally donated $50,000 to the cost of construction of the building and persuaded George Steer, Q.C. and Gerald Hefferman to each donate $15,000. (A plaque commemorating their generosity may be seen in the Club lobby.) Furthermore he arranged an unsecured loan of $200,000 from The Toronto-Dominion Bank of which he was a Director. (An additional loan was obtained from The TD bank to pay for an expansion to the Club in the mid 1970s.) Also we may note the generosity Hal Spellicy, General Manager of the Hudson Bay Company, Edmonton, for providing the original furnishings for the lounges.

However there still remained the important problem of obtaining a liquor license for the Club. Again it was Dr. Winspear who, convinced that a license was essential, was instrumental in obtaining one. After all attempts by the Building Committee to persuade the Board of Governors failed, Dr Winspear appealed directly to the Premier of Alberta, Ernest C. Manning, who interceded with the Chairman of the Liquor Control Board. A license was issued less than two months before the Club opened.

The Club was officially opened on the afternoon of Friday, November 13, 1964. Among those attending the ceremony were the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Alberta and the Chancellor of the University. Dr. Winspear unveiled the commemorative plaque in the lobby. The speakers included the Provincial Treasurer, the Honourable Mr. A. O. Aalborg, who brought the greetings of the Province, and Dr. Johns who spoke on the value of the Faculty Club to the University. The program of the opening ceremony may also be seen in the Club lobby.

The first organized event in the new building was the banquet for the Faculty Golf Tournament which was held before the Club had been officially opened - and even before it had been completed, an occupancy permit having to be obtained for this reason. As the lighting fixtures hadn’t been installed, lighting was provided by bare bulbs strung across the ceiling of the Lower Lounge.  Top

The Club six months later
An interesting account of the Club’s early operation may be found in a one-page article headed “The Faculty Club” which appeared in Folio. A few excerpts might be given to show how some aspects of the Club remain the same, even though food prices have increased dramatically.

The Club is said to serve “three delightful types of meals” at noon: Light lunch with homemade soup ($0.15), sandwiches ($0.30), dessert ($0.30) and beverage ($0.10); hot lunch consisting of soup, hot entrée and beverage ($0.85); and a noon buffet consisting of a three-course meal ($1.35). The price of the evening meal was between $2.00 and $4.00.

Children over high-chair age may be accommodated for meals but parents were asked to keep them out of bar lounges and the games room unless under adult supervision. The games available included billiards, shuffleboard, darts and table tennis.

There was a Faculty Club Parking Lot directly east of the Club, and suggestions for alternate parking when it was full were given. Members were allowed to bring guests and there was a Guest Book for them to sign. Members were advised that faculty who were not members of the Club could be guests not more than three times a year. (The Guest Book has been long gone, but problems with parking and the use of the Club by non-members still remain.)  Top

Club management I. Overview
The first Manager, a Mr. C. Medley, came to the Club with excellent recommendations both as a manager and as a chef. However, he proved to be unsatisfactory and was released after only a few months. Alex Cairns, the University Registrar, seconded Doug Burns, the Assistant Registrar, to the Club to act as interim manager until a permanent replacement could be found. However, problems in day-to-day operation of the Club were not limited to management. The Club’s first bookkeeper left the Club abruptly after a short time having been caught helping herself to vodka from the Upstairs Bar. Again the University Administration came to the Club’s rescue, and Mac Whidden, the Bursar, seconded one or two of his staff to the Club when needed until a permanent bookkeeper could be hired. Also Del Brooks of the Comptroller’s Office provided the Club with excellent financial analyses which proved to be most effective in controlling costs and making forecasts. During this period the daily lunches and Friday TGIF functions were well-attended but evening dining-room reservations were often so poor that they had to be augmented by last-minute calls to members of the Executive who were asked to attend preferably bringing guests if at all possible.

In 1965 Dimple Barlow, the Manager of the Hillcrest Country Club, was hired as the Club’s second Manager. On her retirement in 1975 Mrs. Barlow was succeeded by a Mr. Parker who had had several years of management experience in both private clubs and in industry and was the Manager of the Faculty Club of the University of Saskatchewan. He stayed for only a couple of years. The present Manager is Peter Graf who assumed the position on October 10, 1977 having come from Ottawa where he had been operating a restaurant and night club in the National Capital Region.

The Faculty Club is registered under the Societies Act of the Province of Alberta. Its operation is governed by bylaws, last revised in 2004, which must be ratified at an Annual General Meeting and then approved by the Province. In addition, House Rules, about a dozen in number, specify such day-to-day matters as hours of operation, conduct of members and their guests, parking, and complaints. The Club is managed by an Executive Committee of about twelve to fifteen members elected annually at the Annual General Meeting in accordance with the Club’s bylaws. In practice this is interpreted to mean that the Club is operated by the Manager with the advice and assistance of the Executive.

In addition to the Manager, the management staff consists of an Assistant Manager, a Function Coordinator who arranges reservations and special events, and a Receptionist. There is also a second Assistant Manager who serves as maitre d’.

The Faculty Club is located on land leased from the University at a nominal fee but is operated as a private club subject to City of Edmonton taxes and is now financially independent of the University. For many years the Board of Governors gave the Club an annual grant starting in 1964 with the amount of 10,000 dollars and increasing substantially in later years. However in the late 1980s the amount of the grant was gradually reduced until it was completely eliminated in 1993. A few years ago an offer from the University to have the Faculty Club’s name included in promotional material for a Campus Campaign was politely declined as this would have diverted funds, however small in amount, intended for the direct benefit of students.  Top

Club management II. The Mrs. Barlow years
Dimple Barlow was born in Athabasca and began her career in Victoria as the Assistant Manager of the Angela Hotel, a residential hotel mainly occupied by immigrant European noblemen. She came to the Hillcrest Club in 1954 as hostess and eventually rose to the position of Manager. She became Manager of the Faculty Club on April 1, 1965.

Mrs. Barlow, as she was known to staff and Club members alike, proved to be an efficient and well-liked manager. She not only inherited many of the problems that can arise with a new and growing organization but also had others thrust upon her. These included the parking problems, building maintenance and expansion, membership fees, and the student unrest of the late 1960s. We shall deal with each of these very briefly.

Parking was evidently an early problem as noted in the previously mentioned Folio article which appeared a few months after the present building was opened. Originally the Faculty Club had a parking lot immediately to the east of the building. However with the construction of the Biological Sciences Building in the late 1960s this lot had to be given up and was replaced by one to the west of the Club. A year or so later this lot was enlarged but only part of it was allocated for the Club’s use. Parking was mentioned in the House Rules where there was originally an item stating something like “Persons whose cars were illegally parked would be towed away.” Fortunately this was changed before it was ever acted upon so that the object of the towing was cars rather than their owners however attractive the earlier version might have appeared.

There were constant maintenance problems with the roof, with the balcony on the north side of the Club and the retaining wall underneath, and the kitchen — especially the kitchen which seemed to be always too hot, too small, poorly laid out, and with a floor that was often in need of repair. The cause of these problems might have been best described by one building inspector who referred to the “budget nature" of the Club.

In 1967 the Club embarked on a major building expansion which would give an additional 6000 square feet of space. The main features were increased dining and lounge areas, rearrangement of the bar and service facilities, an elevator and two electrically operated dumb waiters, extended cloakroom and washroom facilities, an additional small entrance door on the west side, a service ramp on the south side, and a consolidation and extension of the administrative areas. The total cost was estimated to be at least 200,000 dollars. The Club was able to obtain a loan from The Toronto-Dominion Bank at 7½ percent interest.

In order to help finance the expansion it was first suggested that members be assessed a levy of $150, but this proved to be unpopular and a motion for this levy was defeated at an Annual General Meeting in April 1967. In June the fees were raised three dollars per month. The increase in fees and the introduction of a uniform fee scale were the cause of one quite stormy Annual General Meeting and at least 100 resignations from the Club. Many of the letters of resignation were unfortunately verbose and somewhat intemperate, but all were answered with unfailing grace by either the Club President or the Membership Secretary. Fortunately many members withdrew their resignations and gladly rejoined the Club.

The University of Alberta experienced some of the unrest which occurred on most Canadian and American campuses in the late 1960s. The Faculty Club was invaded at least once by militant students who interrupted an Executive Meeting for a period of about one hour. Fortunately they were eventually persuaded to leave peacefully. Some demonstrations were peaceful, however, and on one occasion a student standing at the Club entrance with a sign protesting something or other made no objection when the spelling on the sign was corrected by a member entering the Club. There were other occasions of unrest but the exact details of these have been forgotten.

Mrs. Barlow’s retirement in 1975 was marked by a splendid banquet sponsored by the Executive and attended by present and past members of the Executive. Of the very many laudatory comments made of her ten years as Manager, the only one that appears to have been recorded is that of the Club President who said that Mrs. Barlow was “leaving the Club in excellent order”.

A sign of Mrs. Barlow’s thoughtfulness may be seen in the collection of Past Presidents’ tankards in the Lower Bar. This collection was begun at the Annual General Meeting in 1970 when she presented each Past President with a tankard on behalf of herself and the staff.  Top

Club management II. The Peter Graf years ...
Peter Graf was born and educated in Austria, and immigrated to the Channel Islands in 1962 where he worked in the restaurant business. In 1967 he came to Canada and worked for two and one-half years at the Faculty Club of the University of Toronto. In 1971 he moved to Ottawa and worked for two years at the Faculty Club of Carleton University before establishing his own restaurant and night club in the National Capital Region. He became Manager of the Faculty Club of the University of Alberta in 1977.

In the past thirty years during Peter Graf’s tenure as Manager, there have been great changes in the University of Alberta — in its size, in its physical presence in the city, and in its role in the Province and in society at large. Although these changes have had an influence on the Faculty Club, there are also problems independent of the nature and functioning of the University which appear to continually challenge the Club in spite of the efforts of the Executive and staff to solve them. Parking and building maintenance and renovation are recurring problems which must be addressed as they did during Mrs. Barlow’s tenure as Manager. Although there were occasional complaints about smoking during the same period, the subject occupied a significant amount of time of subsequent Executives. Most recently the inconsiderate use of cell phones in the Club by a few members and their guests is becoming a problem. We shall discuss each of these matters briefly in turn.

The Club continues to have access to part of the V Parking Lot immediately to the west of the Club but only between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. and after 4:30 p.m. There are parking meters to accommodate visitors to the Club during these hours. In addition there is additional parking in the adjacent Windsor Car Park. However there are continual problems with persons parking during the day for extended periods and with the parking of University vehicles apparently for days or weeks. These problems were exacerbated for a time by the construction of new Engineering buildings and an addition to the Windsor Car Park. However, continuing very amicable discussions with Parking Services and more patrolling of the Lot have done much to alleviate these problems.

The Faculty Club building has undergone seemingly constant repair and renovation: furnishings, air-conditioning, roof, kitchen (mainly the floor), interior modification such as converting the billiards room to a small dining room and then its removal to increase the size of the buffet area. One of the most important renovations occurred in 1991 with the extensive renovation of the Jasper Room and the addition of the atrium overlooking the patio. In recent years the Club has been completely redecorated to the satisfaction and admiration of almost all of the members.

One of the most contentious issues to face the Club over many years was that of smoking. Up to the late 1970s there was unrestricted smoking of cigarettes, cigars and pipes anywhere in the building and on Club property. Cigars and cigarettes were sold in the Club, and there were complimentary Faculty Club match folders, 50,000 having been purchased at a price of $8.40 per 1000. Although most members, smokers and non-smokers alike, were considerate of the wishes of others, there were always a few members who were vehemently opposed to smoking and a few who considered it their right to smoke in the Club. A summary of the references to smoking in the minutes of the Executive Committee and in Presidents’ letters to members for the period from January 1983 to March 1990 ran to almost six pages. Although some discussions of smoking at Executive Committee meetings and Annual General meetings were somewhat acrimonious, there were a few touches of humour. When an air filter was installed in the Lower Bar in the mid 1980s, the improvement in air quality was immediately noted, although the filter was not turned on for a day or so. Again one lively discussion of smoking at an Annual General Meeting was continued during the following social hour and was concluded by an argumentative non-smoker being told by a member of the Executive, also a non-smoker and not noted for abruptness, to “put that [the concluding argument] in your pipe and smoke it”. However, as society’s attitude toward smoking gradually changed, so did the Club’s policies on smoking. Possibly the most notable change was the banning of smoking in the Lower Bar to comply with a City of Edmonton bylaw which had the effect of turning the Lower Bar into a most congenial place to gather. At the same time smoking was banned everywhere in the Club including the patio.

We should make some mention of the inconsiderate use of cell phones, a problem which appears to be common almost everywhere today. The Club has resisted suggestions to post notices restricting their use as do some private clubs, and has simply included the following note in the monthly Calendar of Events: “Cell Phones. Members and guests are kindly requested to not use cell phones in the dining or bar areas of the Club, except for medical emergencies. Thank you.” Experience so far would indicate that stronger admonition may be necessary.

Club membership has been of continual concern to the Executive, and various changes have been introduced to take account of the changing demographics of membership and to make the Club not only financially healthy but also more attractive to members and prospective members especially new faculty. First of all because of the increasing number of retiring faculty the Bylaws were changed in 1988 so that members retiring after June 30 of that year would be required to pay dues at a reduced rate. Members who had retired on or before this date would be asked annually for a contribution. In 1991 members were offered a Prepaid Membership of 2500 dollars for those under 60 and 1250 dollars for those 60 or over. The generous response enabled the Club to make a substantial payment on the mortgage. The offer was repeated in 1996 with slightly different terms. The following year new faculty were offered a half-fee membership for two years, and in 2007 new members were offered a first year of free membership followed by one year at half fees. Also some Executive members have actively sought out new faculty to introduce them personally to the Club. All of these endeavours appear to be succeeding and on almost any day a healthy mixture of older and newer members may be seen using the Club.

Finally we shall list a few events of the last thirty years which may be of interest or significance:

• In 1978 an annual Members’ Night was instituted whereby members and their partners (but not their children or their guests!) were offered a complimentary dinner with a cash bar. This event proved to be extremely popular and indeed it appeared to be about the only time that a few members used the Club. Unfortunately the cost to the Club became excessive and Members’ Night was discontinued in 2002.
• Since January and February tend to be slow months for dining out, the Club began offering two-for-one coupons for use both in the Jasper Room in the evening and in the Upstairs Dining Room at noon. This has proven to be very popular although many members postpone using their coupons until quite late in February which presents seating and other problems for the staff.
• In 1983 the Club began serving a light breakfast on weekdays but this attracted so few persons it was discontinued after a few months. However coffee is available every morning in the Jasper Room from 9:00 a.m. and this has proven to be very popular.
• In April 1987 the Club began an annual Walk-Run-Jog Open with participants walking or running a 3- or 6-km. course beginning and ending at the Faculty Club and followed by a luncheon and the awarding of prizes.. The event is now named the Faculty Club W. Preshing Run in honour of Dr. William Preshing who has tirelessly promoted it since its inception. Part of the proceeds have gone to the establishment of a Faculty Club scholarship which now amounts to about 55,000 dollars and supports two annual scholarships, one undergraduate and one graduate.
• In 1990 the Faculty Club signed a ”Memorandum of Understanding Between the University of Alberta and the Faculty Club”, the signatories being the President of the University, Paul Davenport, and the President of the Faculty Club, John Bachynsky. This document begins “The University of Alberta and the Faculty Club agree to work cooperatively towards a relationship that is mutually beneficial. ...” and then defines briefly for the record the terms of this relationship in the course of which it recognizes “... the valuable contribution of the Faculty Club to the activities and image of the University of Alberta.”
• In 1996 an annual Faculty Club Golf Tournament was begun and was considered by many, but not all, participants as a replacement for the Faculty Golf Tournament held at the Mayfair Golf and Country Club. Golf is played at one or two of the municipal golf courses in the Edmonton area, and is followed by dinner at the Club and the awarding of prizes. Since 1999 the evening has concluded with a quiz on various aspects of University and local history with a bottle of wine given to the first person answering each question more-or-less correctly. Needless to say these tournaments have proven to be very popular.
• As a means of financing new chairs for the Upstairs Dining Room members may “sponsor” a chair for the sum of 300 dollars. About 140 chairs have been sponsored to date, prompting one member of the Executive to remark that the Faculty Club has more “endowed chairs” than any department or faculty on the campus.
• In April 1988 a Saturday Noon Brunch was begun and has become a very popular feature.
• In 2003 the Main Dining Room was renamed the Harriet Winspear Room in honour of the widow of Francis Winspear who as has been noted was an early friend and benefactor of the Club and indeed of the entire University. This event was celebrated by a reception on June 24 of that year and was attended by Club members and by many of Mrs. Winspear’s friends including the Lieutenant-Governor, Lois Hole. Mrs. Winspear was a staunch supporter of the Club and had dinner in the Winspear Room almost every evening until about a month before her death on March 13, 2008 in her 104th year.
• A wireless network was established in 2005 allowing members to access the Internet from their laptop computers anywhere in the Club. This has proven to be very popular for individuals working alone or making group presentations. Indeed this wireless connection together with complimentary morning coffee and the recent no-smoking bylaws have made the Lower Bar a most attractive place for some members to work.

The Guest Book
Club members were initially asked to have their guests sign a Guest Book displayed prominently in the lobby. An early account of the Club appearing in Folio had the following to say about guests visiting the Club:

It is interesting to note that since the Club opened in September it has had a wide variety of guests including local, provincial and national government representatives, professors from almost all Canadian and over thirty American universities, business and professional men, artists, and civil servants to name only a few. They come from as far away as Nigeria, New Zealand, Ghana, the Ukraine, Australia, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Hungary, Germany, the Soviet Union, Israel, South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia.

The book itself is a large binder with an attractive green cover bearing the University crest and the Faculty Club’s name in gold. The foreign visitors are well-represented including Russians with their entries in Cyrillic, Japanese with their kanji characters, and even a Tibetan writing in the seldom-seen script of that country. The guests represent all professions and occupations: doctors, professors, teachers, lawyers, students as guests of their professors or parents, and many others including one entry giving the now little-used occupation of “homemaker”. Many of the entries are almost illegible because of poor handwriting. Then there are the entries, some of these almost illegible too, which make the reader wonder about some of the persons who have been in the Faculty Club: Bart Simpson, Elvis, Pope John-Paul II (introduced by Oral Roberts), a well-known Canadian politician who shall remain nameless but who really has been in the Club and whose occupation is given as “political shyster”, a person who is a “cat psychiatrist” (as if cats, or their owners, needed psychiatrists!), and even allegedly a cat who signed its name in neat paw prints, ... .

It is time, now, to return the Guest Book to its cupboard where it should undoubtedly remain.  Top

The naming of rooms
In addition to the Harriet Winspear Room there are three other named rooms in the Club: the Jasper Room and the Saskatchewan Room on the lower level and the Papaschase Room at the south end of the upper level. The Jasper Room was named after the renovations in 1991 while the other two were named after the renovations in the late 1960s. These names, and the names of two rooms which no longer exist and which will be mentioned later, were chosen because of their historical significance to the Province of Alberta and western Canada and to the University. We shall give a few remarks about each of them. “Jasper” is a common name in Alberta. The 11000-square-kilometre Jasper National Park is the most northerly of the national mountain parks in Alberta and contains both the town of Jasper and Jasper Lake. Jasper Place was once a town lying to the west of Edmonton but in 1964 was incorporated into the city. Jasper Avenue is the main street in downtown Edmonton, and leads by way of Highway 16 to Jasper Park some 360 kilometre to the west. The name “Jasper” comes from Jasper Hawes who was in charge of a North West Company trading post named Jasper House on Brûlé Lake in the early 1800s and which was moved first to the shore of Jasper Lake and then a few years later to a site near the present town of Jasper.

The North Saskatchewan River which forms the northern boundary of the main campus of the University may be seen from the Saskatchewan Room. Both the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers originate in Alberta and come together about 50 kilometres east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to form the Saskatchewan River which flows into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba which in turn flows into the Nelson River and then into Hudson Bay. The resulting river system has a combined length greater than that of the St. Lawrence River and drains much of the western prairie. The name “Saskatchewan” is from the Cree kisiskatchewan for “swift current” and was adopted in 1882 when part of the present Province of Saskatchewan was made a district of the North-West Territories.

The Papaschase Room is named after the Papaschase Indian Reserve, a forty-square-mile tract of land which originally lay about five miles south of the then flourishing town of Edmonton. In 1876 it was ceded to the Cree and Assiniboine Indians by Treaty Number Six. Under the leadership of Chief Papaschase it was settled by about 200 persons who lived there until 1888 when they either left the Treaty or moved to the Enoch Band near Stony Plain. The land was then sold by public auction as fine agricultural land. The area is now bounded on the east by 17th Street, on the west by 119th Street, on the north by 51st Avenue, and on the south by a line just south of Ellerslie Road. The name “papaschase” is from the Cree word for woodpecker.

In the 1970s there were three small private dining rooms which were subsequently lost because of renovations. These were the Garneau, Strathcona and Patton Rooms. The Garneau Room was named after Laurent Garneau who in 1874 purchased the land which now bears his name on the east side of the main campus. The Strathcona Room was named after the 19th-century politician and railroad financier, Lord Strathcona, whose name was a common one in South Edmonton which at the time of the University’s founding in 1908 had just been incorporated as the City of Strathcona. The Patton Room was probably named after A. Patton who in 1882 was the owner or occupier of the land which subsequently became known as River Lot 5 and on which the University was built.  Top

The Faculty Club web page
In the mid 1990s the Faculty Club began to develop a web page giving information about the Club and its amenities. It has gradually evolved, rather slowly it must be admitted, until at the present time it gives a visually attractive and informative account of the Club, its day-to-day operation and special events. The home page begins enthusiastically as follows: “A European chalet in the middle of Edmonton! That’s what your guests will think as they enter the Faculty Club. ...” (It would be interesting to know how many members have ever had such thoughts as they enter the Club.) The web address for the Faculty Club is http://www.uofafacultyclub.ca .  Top

The Faculty Club today
Under Peter Graf’s management the University of Alberta Faculty Club has flourished and is now regarded with envy by visitors from other universities in Canada, the United States and abroad. For the last ten years the total membership has been over 2000. Much could be said about the role that the Faculty Club plays in the intellectual and social life of the University community. However this may be stated succinctly, as it was in the Application of Incorporation dated March 5, 1964, that one of the objectives of the Club was the promotion of “friendship, fellowship and intellectual association” amongst its members. To the ten persons who signed this document and to the very many others, a few of whose names appear in this short history, the present membership of the Faculty Club and indeed the entire University of Alberta are indebted.  Top

Acknowledgemts
I would like to thank the University Archives for making the Faculty Club files available and the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library for so agreeably providing space to consult them. I would also like to thank Doug Burns for his many helpful comments on events during the early months of the operation of the Faculty Club in its new building.  Top

References from University Archives
Box 73-204/1–12/1
Men’s Faculty Club: Constitution; list of officers; general correspondence; membership lists; Caen Library Committee; receipts and disbursements 1931 – 1961.

Box 75-22/3-21/3
Bylaws 1965; Faculty Common Room minutes 1950 – 1974; Presidents’ correspondence; Mrs. Barlow.

Box 75-22/22-50/4
House Committee minutes 1966 – 1970; Finance Committee 1967 – 1968; Entertainment Committee 1973; Newsletter 1967 – 1972; Questionnaire 1969; membership 1964 – 1969.

Box 75-22/51-75/5
Membership 1970 and some 1964-1965; fee increases 1969; furnishings, food services, staff training; finances 1967 – 1968; complaints and suggestions 1965 – 1972.

Box 75-22/76-95/6
Entertainment ideas 1962-1968; Newsletters 1966-1971; Daily Journal 1970-1973; House accounts 1965 – 1968; financial statements 1971 – 1972.

Box 75-22/96-102/7
Financial statements 1971 – 1975; membership listings 1968 – 1970; data processing (Membership listings) 1971 – 1972.

Box 75-22/103-111/8
Payroll deductions 1973 and some 1969.

Box 81-117/1,2
Faculty photographs.

Box 82-102/1
Faculty photographs.

Box 82-102/106-108/2
Correspondence regarding faculty photographs.

Box 84-4/1-2/1
Faculty Common Room minutes and correspondence; C.O.T.C.; Committee on Junior Colleges.

Box 88-71/1-3/1
Walter Gainer’s papers on Faculty Club building.

Box 94-68/-/1
Register, volume I, 1911-1931; Register, volume II, 1931-1947; party chits 1973. (The Registers have Accession Numbers 75-22-1 and 75-22-2 on labels pasted in the inside front covers.)

Box 94-68/-/2
Party chits 1974; reservations billings 1973-1974.  Top

Other references
Association of Professors Emeriti of the University of Alberta, 1999. Echoes in the Hall. An Unofficial History of the University of Alberta. Duval House Publishing and the of Alberta Press, Edmonton, Canada.

Johns, Walter H, 1981. A History of the University of Alberta 1908 – 1969. The University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, Canada.

Knowler, A. S., 2001. The Genesis of the Faculty Club at the University of Alberta – A Personal Recollection Thirty-Five years Later. (unpublished).  Top