Mount Royal College - Varshicom Yearbook (Calgary, Alberta Canada)

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a glimpse into the life of Dr. Garden 1911 Student at Mount Royal College Canadian Infantry 1916 B.E.F. France Graduation from Toronto University 1919 First year as Principal of M.R.C. At Brandon he pinned the Wings 1949 a fishing trip to in 1942. Also Squadron Leader on his son John Baker Lake with in Air Force Daughter Mary in Charlie Middle in 1944 4

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DR. J. H. GARDEN We, the students of Mount Royal College, have chosen to dedicate this edition of Varshicom to our beloved past principal Dr. John H. Garden. He will long be dear to the hearts of each and everyone of us.

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Taken from an article by Sandy McPherson that appeared in THE CALGARY HERALD, Dec. 24th, 1955 PERSONALITY OF WEEK On Dec. 10, 1955, there was issued from the princi¬ pal’s office of Mount Royal College a terse statement — a new building was to be erected. It was no news to the legion of friends who sur¬ round the genial college head, Dr. John H. Garden, be¬ cause building for the future has been his lifetime creed. There was a time when he was a rising but strug¬ gling young Methodist minister shortly after the First Great War. He was sent to Rockyford. First thing he did was build a new church. A new appointment followed at Pincher Creek. Again a new church and this time the signal honor of it being the first building to be dedicated to the newly formed United Church. AND THE officiating dignitary at the ceremony — beloved Dr. George W. Kerby. That was only natural for Dr. Garden had been Dr. Kerby’s first pupil when they were building and completing Mount Royal Col¬ lege here in 1911. In 1928, still in the ministry, Dr. Garden moved to Scarboro United — and up went another church. After that there was a transfer to Brandon, Mani¬ toba where some renovation work was done, and finally a trip to Hamilton, Ontario. That was th e end of my building conceded the doctor, at least during the depression. Dr. John H. Garden, pastor and noted Alberta educator, started life on a farm near Aberdeen sur¬ rounded by shorthorns, and grew into manhood de¬ termined to be a botanist. When he was 17 years old his life was inter¬ rupted by an invitation from an ' older brother, James, to travel to Calgary. He accepted and ar¬ rived in Canada in 1910. Like the forward days of 1955, the year 1910 was pretty good for contractors and the Garden brothers decided they should enter the field of real estate. THEY SOLD A few houses, and, of course, they helped in building, some of the homes. Botany was forgotten for the time being and John Garden enrolled in Mount Royal to study architecture. That is where he really became infected with the “building bug”. Actually there was no indication of such a bent in the boy at Turiff, near Aberdeen, where the Garden family had lived for hundreds of years. In that com¬ munity a young boy learned to tend cattle and milk cows, but he also took his schooling and his church seriously. Particularly the church. John Garden attended church in Cummingston where Bruce slew Cummings on the steps of the church. And that wasn’t the only extraordinary event in the parish. If you visit the scene , he said, you ' ll see a big church. “Once , he recalled, there was a fight between the elders and the managers over an organ. The managers wanted it and the elders were against it. Before the following Sunday the managers had made their decision. They cut a hole in the roof of the church and lowered the organ to its resting place. The patched roof still stands. Deciding to study botany and pursue that course through life went with Garden traditions and John met family encouragement in Scotland when he expressed his wish to enroll at Carnoustie House. After all it had been his great uncle, Sir Alexander Garden who had originated a flower that still enjoys universal popu¬ larity. In his honor it is called the “gardenia.” Then the letter arrived from his brother in Calgary. I GUESS that was a turning point in my life”, he recalled “for it’s a long way from Aberdeen to the Canadian west”. If there was a hint of the future in the ministry for John Garden in those early years, he gave no indica¬ tions as he settled in Calgary. He met and successfully wooed Miss Alice Fraser, the daughter of Dr. Charles Gordon Fraser, and he began to look with a keener interest at the field of education. With his bride he went east to study for his BA at the University of Toronto. And in the midst of all these well-laid plans he became embroiled in the First Great War, en¬ listing, with other students, in the 19th Battalion. He was injured and after convalescence, trans¬ ferred to YMCA work, attached to the Canadian Forestry Corps. Meanwhile Dr. Garden was to hear the news of his first child, Mary, and a joyful surprise awaited him in England for his wife and daughter crossed the ocean before the end of the war. He had never seen his daughter and Mrs. Garden coached the child on recognition of her father by keep¬ ing a picture of the doctor in a trunk. MEETING AT Euston station, she told the little girl: “Here’s your father.” Mary screamed and protested: “That’s not my Daddy. He’s home in the trunk.” In 1919, after his discharge, John Garden moved to the ministry attending Victoria College in Toronto. The years between the Great Wars saw him taking over new churches and building — building all the time. His family grew, with John, Charles, Arthur, Kirby, and Jean following Mary. Education now is foremost with the doctor and evidence of his keen de¬ sire for knowledge was seen in his children. John is a B.Sc.; Charles, a doctor in Edmonton, died in 1950; Arthur, also a B.Sc., in the research field; Mary is a graduate in science from McMaster College; Kirby also leaned towards the scientific area with a B.Sc. in architecture. And Jean graduated from Mount Royal. When the opening came for a Principal at Mount Royal College in 1942, the name of Dr. John Garden was one of the first to be suggested to the governors. It’s only fitting, though, that he should be seated in the headmaster’s seat in a college, and it’s also fitting that he should have pursued the ministry. For wasn’t there a John Garden who was president of Aberdeen University from 1650-1678? And didn’t an¬ other John Garden lead in a Scottish disruption when the Presbyterian church was founded? And if there is a touch of the romantic adventurer in Dr. Garden today, cannot it be recalled that his grandfather was chief constable in Aberdeen and was murdered one black night by a thug? EVEN HIS maternal grandfather lived to be 100 years old — and re-married when he was 75. 5