Concordia College - Corona Borealis Yearbook (Edmonton, Alberta Canada)

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Whenever we timidly suggested to synodical officials that we ought to have a gymnasium, the reply was: ask your congregations to build one. But that took courage. I forbid my son to take part in baseball. I did not send my boy to college to take part in non-sensical gymnastics. When such letters arrived in the office, it was difficult to screw the courage to the sticking point. But we did proceed. Our Board appointed a building committee con¬ sisting of Rev. Ph. Janz; Prof. H. F. Witte; Mr. C. Kuhnke, secretary; and Dr. A. H. Schwermann, chairman. We began to plan a building to cost $20, 000. When this sum was gradually raised to $50, 000, it was in some instances considered to be altogether un¬ reasonable. The ideal solution to our problem would have been two buildings; an auditorium and a gymnasium. But that would have entailed a cost of perhaps $300, 000. So we had to combine the two into a multi-purpose building. The architects in the Department of Education told us that we would have to anticipate at times a conflict of interests. Similar information came from the National Council of Chief State School Officers, New York, from whom we received valuable advice. All agreed that such a building, even with its occasional conflicts, was far superior to nothing. Another problem was the floor: shall it be a polished wooden floor, or shall it be covered with mastic floor tile? The latter appeared more practical since the floor was to be used for many different purposes. In this not only our architects, but also the dean of the Physical Education Department in the University of California, Berkeley, concurred. And so Synod ' s Board of Directors asked us to use mastic tile. Gradually our Board evolved the plans for a gymnasium-auditorium 66 x 112 as it stands today, after constant consultation with Synod ' s expert architect, Mr. Edgar Buenger, chief consultant for the Mayo Clinic, and our Edmonton architects G. H. and John A. Macdonald. When we opened the tenders, the lowest was $122, 000. That took the heart out of us. But Synod was changing its policy concerning refusal to build gymnasiums. A long distance call came from its Board of Directors to proceed with the building. They were willing to con¬ tribute to the estimated total of $175, 000 the sum of $115, 000. The churches in western Canada had gathered $60, 000. Meanwhile, a 20 rank Felgemaker pipe organ had been purchased from Trinity church in Oak Park, Illinois for $1000. Total cost of this fine instrument, including transportation and installation, was about $7, 500. It was installed by the Pepin brothers. For the Schulmerich chimes the H. A. Schole family had contributed $675. The dedication followed on April 12, 1953. Some 1000 people were crowded in every nook and cranny of the building, including a mass choir of more than 200 voices on the stage. Several hundred guests were outside.

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Provincial Final Examinations Several subjects in the provincial finals were written by our first co-eds only, around 1929. Beginning with 1940, these annual Grade XII examinations became obligatory for all students. The first results were a cause for rejoicing: our students passed 84% of those subjects in which they were examined and thus obtained a high school diploma. In 1943 the results placed Concordia second highest among all high schools of Alberta, and this pace continued for a number of years. Our chief competitor was the University High School; we had no success in surpassing them. And Westglen High in Edmonton was another thorn in the flesh! Inspections Inspectors of the Department of Education visited us occasionally in the early years, for instance in 1924, ' 27, and ' 30; and since 1939 every year. We were grateful for their cour¬ teous and constructive criticism, and for their words of recognition. In addition to Concordia ' s thorough work, the inspectors commended the absence of boorish behavior in the classroom and the students ' neat appearance. This neat appearance impressed also our synodical inspectors. In fact, they suggested at times that we had set the stage for their visit. But such was not the case. The members of our faculty appreci¬ ated humor and laughter in the classroom, but monkeyshining was taboo. In the classroom the chapel, and in the dining room all students were to be properly dressed. If such men as lawyers and doctors always appear publicly in proper apparel, there was no reason why future physicians of souls should appear as beatniks. It must be admitted that we received encouragement for this rule from the following quotation concerning the North-West Mounted Police in southern Alberta. I found it in the twenties, and it remained under the glass top of the desk until I vacated the office in 1954: Fort Macleod, 1876 The Assistant-Commissioner directs that the dress and appearance as well as the demeanor of the men of the Force should on all occasions and in all situations be such as to create respect for the Corps they belong to, and he would like to see the men - if possible - properly dressed when they go beyond the precincts of the Fort. - Daily Orders Our New Gymnasium-Auditorium 1953 Today a well-equipped gymnasium is an essential part of every educational institution. It was not always thus. At Concordia Seminary in St. Louis with its 200 to 300 students we had a room in the basement large enough for two handball courts; and a number of us used the parallel and horizontal bars in the attic. Consider what the immortal J. Percy Page (now our venerable Lieutenant-Governor) did with his world-famous girls basketball team, the Edmonton Grads. From 1915 to 1940 the Grads played 522 games, won 502, lost 20; they whipped all comers on the continents of North America and Europe, played 29 games in four different Olympics and won them all. All their training these girls received in a room at the Edmonton McDougall Commercial Hi gh School, in floor area not as large as Concordia ' s is today. The truth of the matter was that in the early years of our existence most public schools had no gymnasium, much less our Concordia. There were some at our synodical institutions, but those were erected with funds gathered in the local community. Synod ' s policy up to the 1940s was: as a Synod we do not build gymnasiums; this must be done by the local constituents. The best we could do in our new buildings was to offer our student body (which in various years numbered more than 100) a room 25 x 37, north of the dining hall. This was used for handball, ping-pong, and social activities. There were no facilities for physical education and gymnastics, musical activities, audio-visual instruction, and larger social gatherings. Our chapel was an all-purpose room used for daily devotions, and in addition for classes, meetings, dramatic rehearsals, choir practices, and public gatherings. After a pep talk at the beginning of the school-year, a half dozen or more students would seek piano teachers, only to be told after a number of weeks by these same teachers to quit because they were not practicing enough. How could they? They had no suitable place to practice. With the passing of years conditions became more desperate, almost intolerable. Well do we remember January and February 1949. That year we had 123 students, of which 90 boys filled the dormitory to the rafters. Before Christmas they found recreation on the skating rink and the ski hills. But after New Year we had an uninterrupted cold spell lasting 46 days. The greater part of this time the mercury was between 30 and 40 below. Occasionally some bolder spirits ventured out, but came in with frozen feet, necessitating an enforced vacation in bed. Recurrently, student leaders came into the office with the doleful plea: What CAN we do for recreation?

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The Concordia Platoon of the Second Battalion of the Edmonton Regiment During World War II (1939-45) the National War Services Regulations required all stu¬ dents (17 years of age and older) to report for military training. The implications of this directive were far-reaching. Assuming, for example, that the war would last ten years, we would not at some future date have any ministerial candidates over a period of ten years. Our Board resolved to send a delegation to Ottawa. Its members were Dr. John W. Behnken, president of Synod; Pres. A.H. Schwermann, and Rev. Frank Malinsky, president of the Ontario District. On June 4, 1942, the Hon. Mr. J. T. Thorson, Director of War Services, gave us a sympathetic hearing. He spent about 30 minutes in trying to establish the connection between the Missouri Synod and the churches in Germany (where, of course, there was no connection except that we were in doctrinal agreement with the 13, 000 souls of the small Free Church of Saxony. ) And for the remaining five minutes he listened to our plea for exemption. Self- evidently, such requests came from many church bodies. These representations had the following results: late in 1942 an amendment was added to the Regulations to exempt all bona-f ide students for the ministry, provided they are members of a church body which is eligible to supply chaplains for the armed forces. (About that time our Synod had some 210 full-time chaplains in the American army and navy. ) This amendment came too late for the new school year in 1942, and so we lost a number of students that fall. Henceforth our ministerial students were under no compulsion to enter the armed forces. But when after Pearl Harbor in 1941 the situation began to look grim and the Japanese appeared to be threatening our West Coast, the government thought it imperative to prepare for any kind of emergency. It introduced military training in all schools for students 17 years of age and older. On January 29, 1943, Col. Walter Hale, doubtlessly one of the finest gentlemen in the Canadian army. Commander of the Reserve Army in the Edmonton area, appeared before our Board of Control together with Sargeant Labman; the following agreement was reached: Concordia students will form a unit of the Reserve Army, to be known as the Concordia Platoon, and will have drills twice or three times a week. Their pay will be $1. 30 a day for those over 17 years, and 60 p for those who are younger. Three two-hour drills con¬ stitute a day. Uniforms and full military equipment will be issued free of charge. Members of the Reserve Army will have to take a two weeks ' training course at Sarcee Military Camp near Calgary during the summer months. Henceforth our students appeared as a group of soldiers, in military dress. Instruction was given in and near the college. Occasionally they went out for field practice in an area northwest of the present Clover Bar Bridge, where at times they attacked the enemy and stormed the fort. Japanese Balloons It was most kind of the good Lord that He never did permit the enemy to attack us on the West Coast. The fear was very real, however, and caused the construction of the Alaska Highway. At that time the American army officials wanted to take possession of Concordia for administration purposes. For the students they wanted to build an army hut on the campus. But Mr. Rose, the chairman of the City Housing Committee, assured us: As long as there is any kind of building available in Edmonton, they will not take possession of Concordia College. The only danger which threatened us from Japan was the so-called nuisance balloons, released in the Orient and carried by the winds to the United States and Canada. Some of them were recovered by Canadians in northern Alberta. The parachutes attached to these balloons were made of exquisite silk nylon. A member of our church got possession of one of these parachutes with the consequence that their daughter appeared beautifully arrayed on Concordia ' s stage in a graduation gown made out of Japanese white nylon. In the Armed Forces In 1943, fifty-five of our students and alumni were serving in the armed forces: later more of them joined. Several of our Concordians had responsible positions in the Intelligence Service at Ottawa. Three of them gave the supreme sacrifice: Howard Blatchford, John Hedrich, and Donald Zander. Philip Janz, Herman Klann, Adolf Otke, Robert Schwermann, and E. George Pearce served in the chaplaincy; later also Wilfred Hyatt and Edwin Regal. These boys experienced again and again the truth of the statement, which originated in those years: There are no atheists in fox-holes.