Chronology Continued
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1968
This year is sponsored.
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You'll note that this year includes events listed under “Also
in . . .“ These are events for which we don't have a specific
date. If YOU know the
specific date of an event shown there, please
notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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January 12 UBC's Music Building, part of the
Norman Mackenzie Centre for Fine Arts, opened at a cost of $2.5
million. The School of Music was first headed by Dr. G. Welton Marquis,
a master of music composition. Prior to 1968, the music department
was located in army huts along the West Mall.
January 18 CP Air took delivery of its first
Douglas DC8-60. Its route will be Vancouver-Tokyo-Hong Kong.
February 15 B.C. skier Nancy Greene won gold
in the Winter Olympics. Says the Canada's Walk of Fame website:
“Despite an ankle injury just a month before the 1968 Olympics,
Nancy Greene took home gold and silver medals in the giant slalom
and slalom respectively. Her victory in the giant slalom by a margin
of 2.68 seconds is still considered one of the most decisive wins
in Olympic history. 1968 also saw her keep the World Cup title as
she raced to 10 titles on the tour.”
February The Surrey Centennial Fine Arts Centre
opened with a production of Brigadoon.
March 7 There was a big parade in Vancouver for Olympic
Gold champion Nancy Greene.
Also March 7 Voters in the school districts
of North and West Vancouver, and Howe Sound, decided overwhelmingly
in favor of establishing a community college, the fourth two-year
college approved in the province. Following the referendum, a new
college council was formed, and at its inaugural meeting, members
voted on a name. From among forty names—including Evergreen,
Alpine, Sunset, Muskrat, and Seagull—suggested by North Shore
residents, the clear winner was Capilano. See the September 10
entry below.
March 11 Methanex—the world’s largest
producer and marketer of methanol—was incorporated in Alberta.
Fuel cells convert hydrogen, of which methanol is a source, into
electricity with zero emissions. Methanex—which has operations
in North America, New Zealand and Chile.
March 12 The inaugural meeting of The Elector's
Action Movement (TEAM) was held at Grandview Community Centre; they
will go on to become a real force in Vancouver’s civic politics.
Among the prominent people involved at the time: Arthur Phillips,
Walter Hardwick, May Brown and Marguerite Ford. Walter Hardwick,
whose influence was immense—urbanologist Gordon Price calls
him “arguably the most influential alderman in Vancouver’s
history”—was the first TEAM member to be elected, and
that happened this year. When TEAM finally gained a majority on
council in 1972, Art Phillips became mayor. Hardwick topped the
polls.
April 1 Joachim Foikis, armed with a grant
from the Canada Council, became Vancouver's Town Fool. He sported
a jester’s cap and bells and strolled around warning of impending
nuclear destruction.
April 20 Pierre Elliot Trudeau was elected
Prime Minister.
April 26 Premier W.A.C. Bennett and Vancouver
City Archivist Major J.S. Matthews dedicated New Brighton Park.
One eye-witness reported that Major Matthews, who was a very forceful
fellow with a stentorian voice, frightened some of the smaller children
in the audience to tears.
 May 2 John Emerson, actor and pianist, died
in Vancouver, aged 57. Writes Constance Brissenden, “He was
born in Vancouver March 13, 1911. He was the eldest of seven sons
of a music-loving lawyer. After WWI, the family home became the
focus of support for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Emerson attended
UBC where he acted with the University Players' Club. From 1930
to 1964 he was a popular pianist and musical arranger. He promoted
local talent, and discovered 13-year-old Mimi Hines in the east
end. He was noted for reading poetry on his national CBC radio show,
and wrote and performed in radio plays. From 1954 to 1956 he staged
popular ‘capsule musicals’ at the Arctic Club. Praised
for his versatility, he said ‘Versatility is a euphemism for
doing all the things I have to do to earn a living.’ ACTRA
(Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists) gives an
annual scholarship in his name. His name is on the StarWalk on Granville
Street.”
May 17 George Clark Miller, mayor of Vancouver
in 1937-38, died, aged 86. Writes Donna Jean McKinnon: “He
was born January 9, 1882 in Huron County, Ontario. Miller was the
first mayor elected in Vancouver under the at-large system, running
as an independent. Wards had been done away with by an earlier plebiscite
and party politics made its entry into Vancouver government. The
strain of deprivation in Vancouver in the '30s and the indignation
of the public over political showmanship made administratively-minded
Alderman Miller a timely candidate in the election for the 1937-38
term. His slogan was 'Let's stop bickering and get down to work.’
He made no extravagant promises, and would not promise not to raise
taxes. He stood for law and order and was opposed to civil protests,
specifically those by the unemployed or against the Spanish civil
war. A decade later, when then Mayor Charles E. Jones died in office
(September 1, 1948), Alderman Miller took over the mayor's duties
until the end of the year.
May 20 West Vancouver was “twinned”
with the Montreal suburb of Verdun. A similar ceremony was held
in Verdun on June 24. For an explanation of the admirable “twin
city” concept, go to this
site. Six delegates from Verdun, including Mayor J.
Albert Gariépy and the city's director general, Guy Gagnon
participated in the twinning ceremony in West Vancouver. During
these respective events, a West Vancouver Park was named on Nun's
Island in Verdun and a Verdun Park was inaugurated by West Vancouver
officials.
May Simon Fraser University was censured by
the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). The charge:
interference by the Board of Governors in academic affairs. The
censure would be lifted in November.
June 1 Famed deaf and blind American woman
Helen Keller died in Westport, Connecticut, aged 87.
June Kenneth Hare became president of UBC,
succeeding Walter Gage.
July 2 John Robert Nicholson was sworn in
as B.C.’s lieutenant governor, succeeding George Pearkes.
July 18 This was opening day for the Bank
of British Columbia. A mob of customers descended on the brand-new
bank at 999 West Pender, at the corner of Burrard. In a big newspaper
advertisement the new bank wanted everyone to know that all its
female employees wore “smartly tailored sea-blue uniforms”
featuring mini-skirts. “But don’t let them fool you into
thinking they’re without brains," the ad continued. "They’ve
all been hand-picked for their secretarial, executive, teller or
other banking duties. They’re smart in the head, too.”
Opening capital of the bank: $12.8 million in shareholders’
equity. To have a B.C.-based bank was a dream of Premier W.A.C.
Bennett and, fittingly, it was Mr. Bennett who officiated at the
opening.
August A large influx of Czechs and Slovaks
occurred, after the Soviet army invaded what was then Czechoslovakia
and put an end to what has become known as the Prague Spring. About
1,200 professionals, students, writers, artists and service industry
workers, among others, arrived in British Columbia. Today there
are about 10,500 Czechs and Slovaks in the Lower Mainland—the
majority being Czech. (Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two
republics in January 1993.)
Also in August Granville Street's Theatre
Row beautification project opened.
September 7 Jimi Hendrix and the Jimi Hendrix
Experience played at the Pacific Coliseum. He acknowledged his grandmother,
who lived in Vancouver and was in the audience. There is a good
description of the show here
by Colin Hartridge, who was there.
September 10 On the first day of classes at
Capilano College some 750 students had enrolled, twice the anticipated
number. Classes were held in temporary quarters at West Vancouver
Senior Secondary School, and later in several church basements,
a warehouse, and even a bowling alley. The college operated on an
after-hours basis, from 4:00 in the afternoon to 10:30 at night.
Initially, the college offered 23 courses in four different career
and vocational programs. Fees were set at $100 per semester.
The first principal was Vancouver-born Alfred (Alf)
H. Glenesk. Unaware of the job opening to head the new college,
Glenesk had not applied. But the fledgling college needed a man
with his background. His 22 years in education and his experience
as vice-principal of another recently established two-years college,
Vancouver City College, made Glenesk the ideal candidate. He was
persuaded to take the job, and served as principal of the college
from its inception to the spring of 1974.
In 1968, the original Capilano College library was
a 3.4 metre by 30.5 metre portable unit erected on the grounds of
West Vancouver Senior Secondary. Well before its 15,000 books were
in place, however, the library was described as already "bulging
at the seams." In 1993, the college's 25th anniversary year,
a new $10.9 million library would be opened.
Also September 10 Vancouver's $32 million
International Airport terminal, designed by Zoltan Kiss on behalf
of Thompson, Berwick, and Pratt, opened for use. It will be officially
opened October 25.
September 11 Japan Air Lines inaugurated its
Tokyo to Vancouver flights.
September 22 Mrs. Evelyn MacKechnie of Vancouver's
Community Arts Council—which had been showing heritage film
and slide shows on the area for years—led a group of about
200 people on a walking tour—in the rain—of Vancouver's
derelict Gastown area. Gastown had been in decline for years, and
the CAC thought public awareness of the historical importance of
the area could arrest that decline. They were right. Media coverage
was good, and the walk (which became the first of many) caught the
attention of retailers and developers. The CAC organized more tours,
and the prospect of Gastown’s demolition began to fade.
There's a funny story about one development firm,
Town Group Ltd., which had been involved in negotiations to purchase
the old Alhambra Hotel on Maple Tree Square. They'd been working
on it long before the Arts Council involvement. Town Group—the
principals were Larry Killam, Robert Saunders, Howard Meakin and
Ian Rogers—had, wrote Gary Bannerman in his history of Gastown,
just about closed the deal for $80,000. The day after the Arts Council
walk, the price jumped to $89,500.
Gastown would get a big boost in 1970 when The Old
Spaghetti Factory opened on Water Street. Its funky ambience drew
big crowds to the area.
September Stanley E. Higgs, Anglican minister,
was named the executive head of Vancouver's Central City Mission.
(From 1960 to 1968 he had been chaplain of Haney Correctional Institute.)
Higgs would retire from the Mission in April 1974 after 47 years
of service to the church and the community. See his interesting
entry in our Hall of
Fame.
October 11 Thomas Reid, politician, died in
Surrey, aged 82. “He was born,” writes Constance Brissenden,
“April 18, 1886, in Cambuslang, Scotland, about eight kilometres
southeast of Glasgow . . . and just 12 days after Vancouver’s
incorporation. Reid came to Canada in 1909 and farmed in Newton,
B.C. He was elected a Surrey councillor in 1922, and was reeve from
1924 to 1934. He was twice head of the Union of B.C. Municipalities.
Reid was the Liberal MP for New Westminster from 1930 to 1949. He
fought for railway freight reductions and natural resources issues.
In 1937, he helped form the Fisheries Commission, retiring as chair
in 1967. He was devoted to rehabilitation of Fraser salmon run.
In 1958, as a result of his efforts, the run had its best year since
1905, with B.C. packing more than one million cases. Appointed to
the Canadian senate (1949), becoming Canada's only bagpipe-playing
senator.” Reid was vociferous in support of legislation restricting
Oriental immigration. A Surrey elementary school is named for him.
October 14 George Norris’ famous Crab
fountain sculpture was installed in front of the Planetarium and
Centennial Museum in Vanier Park. The striking stainless-steel sculpture
recalled a local native legend that the crab guards the entrance
to the harbor. It remains one of the most photographed objects in
the city. See this
site.
October 24 The first kidney transplant in
BC was performed at Vancouver General Hospital.
Also October 24 Grant McConachie Way, the
road leading to Vancouver International Airport, opened to traffic.
The road was named for the famed bush pilot and CP Air founder.
Also October 24 UBC has seen its share of
strife over the years. Today its Faculty Club was the site of student
unrest: American Jerry Rubin and a number of UBC students invaded
the Faculty Club and took it over for 22 hours, after which they
left voluntarily.
October 25 Vancouver's International Airport
terminal was officially opened by Paul Hellyer, Minister of Transport.
(It had been open for business since September 10.)
October 26 The Centennial Museum and H. R.
MacMillan Planetarium were officially opened. The “centennial”
in this case was the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation:
the project got underway in 1967. Mayor Tom Campbell was there;
so was H.R. MacMillan himself. The planetarium, costing $1.5 million,
was his gift to the city. Today it’s the Vancouver Museum (renamed
in 1981) and “the Pacific Space Centre, home of the H.R. MacMillan
Planetarium.” The Space Centre would be launched in 1994. And,
yes, that famous roof really was inspired by the shape of coastal-native
hats.
October 27 Band leader Guy Lombardo, 66, with
“the sweetest music this side of heaven,” appeared in
Vancouver to a capacity audience at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
Lombardo’s Royal Canadians was the most popular orchestra in
North America: Over 50 years they sold 300 million records. Lombardo
died in Houston, Texas, November 5, 1977.
October 29 In a Page One story, the Province
reported on a prediction that “Vancouver’s rush-hour traffic
will clog not only existing bridges over Burrard Inlet by 1985,
but the new $100 million First Narrows crossing and parts of a proposed
$135 million downtown freeway system as well.” We didn’t
get the crossing or the downtown freeway system, and it’s a
couple of decades later than 1985, but we’re certainly clogged.
Also October 29 The East Wing of City Hall,
a four-storey annex constructed to make room for the growing civic
bureaucracy, was officially opened by H.R.H. Prince Philip. Legend
has it it was raining heavily while Philip officiated, and he said
something like “I’m very pleased to officially open this
building, whatever it is, on behalf of Her Majesty—now let’s
get the hell inside out of the rain!” Architects of the building:
Townley, Matheson, and Partners. Townley, Matheson designed the
original city hall.
November 1 Chances are good that if you work
in downtown Vancouver, or attend a performance at the Queen Elizabeth
Theatre, or take in a Lions game at B.C. Place, or settle down to
read at the Vancouver Public Library, you’re being warmed by
the folks at Central Heat Distribution. They heat more than 180
buildings in the downtown through a network, many kilometres long,
of subterranean pipes, bringing steam (converted from natural gas)
from their building on Beatty Street to big clients like the new
Shaw Tower all the way down to the tiny bursts of steam that sound
the pipes on the Gastown Steam Clock. Customers include hotels,
office buildings, small manufacturers, condominiums, shopping centres
and civic buildings.
You can see the initials CHD on manhole covers throughout
the downtown.
John Barnes, Central’s president, says the company
started November 1, 1968.
A group of engineers had been talking over coffee
about the fuel oil and coal used to heat buildings at the time,
not to mention the beehive burners used to burn woodwaste. One of
them, Dave Leaney, suggested Vancouver could have a “district
energy” system like some other cities. Two years later it had
started.
The result: cheaper heating bills for buildings (no
boilers to buy) and far less pollution.
(Incidentally, the cavernous building CHD occupies
at the west end of the Dunsmuir Viaduct was once home to the printing
plant for Pacific Press.)
November 7 The Port Coquitlam cenotaph, now
with the names of Port Coquitlam’s dead of World War II added,
was moved to be placed prominently in City Hall Park. A plaque commemorating
the Korean War was affixed to the cenotaph's base.
November 25 Students protesting against admissions
policy ended a three-day occupation of the administration building
at Simon Fraser University that resulted in the arrest by a squad
of 100 unarmed RCMP officers of 114 people—almost one officer
per protester. SFU’s brand-new president Dr. Kenneth Strand,
who had called the RCMP in, had used a bull-horn to warn the students
to vacate the premises. The Province printed the protesters'
names, ages (most were from 18 to 22) and addresses, and noted that
Strand said the university had adopted a “get tough” policy
in the wake of the occupation.
December 12 Vancouver Sun columnist
Allan Fotheringham was prescient in his comment on the opening of
the 29-storey MacMillan Bloedel Building at Georgia and Thurlow
in downtown Vancouver. “No major new building in town,”
Fotheringham wrote, “will dare to build out to the property
line now that Massey-Erickson have shown the advantages of stepping
back to leave some welcome space for the poor pedestrians.”
Architects Arthur Erickson and Geoff Massey accomplished something
else with the $14.5 million new building: its deeply recessed windows
and the gentle tapering of its two abutting towers give it a handsome,
heavy elegance. Eleven of the 29 floors were occupied by MacBlo;
the others were to be rented out.
The company’s CEO, J.V. Clyne, told 250 invited
guests at the opening: “This home office in Vancouver will
testify that MacMillan Bloedel is a B.C. company, founded here and
run from here.” Alas, no more. In November 1999 Weyerhaeuser,
the big U.S. forest products company, became even bigger with a
$3.6 billion takeover of MacBlo.
Today, with its original owner moved out, the building
is known as, simply, 1075 Georgia Street West.
December 13 Kew Ghim Yip, physician, died
in Vancouver, aged 66. He was born in Vancouver January 16, 1902.
He took medicine at Queen's, but interned as a doctor in Ann Arbor,
Michigan because of B.C. restrictions on Asian hospital interns.
Kew practised in Chinatown for more than 40 years, from 1927 to
his death. Larry Wong, of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society
(www.cchs.ca) says that Kew was a son of well-known Chinatown merchant
Yip Sang's second wife, and practised at 53 East Pender in the late
1930s. “In the days before medical coverage,” Constance
Brissenden writes, “he conducted a free weekly clinic at Main
and Hastings for old age pensioners and others. A doctor with Mount
St. Joseph Hospital on Campbell Avenue, he helped fundraise for
its Prince Edward site. Active in the Chinese community, he was
known for his philanthropic work.”
December 14 Premier W.A.C. Bennett made the
front pages today with a proposal that Canada be reshaped to consist
of five provinces: British Columbia, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec,
and Atlantic. The 60th parallel would disappear as a boundary, too,
with both B.C. and Prairies extending right up to the Arctic Ocean.
Bennett claimed this would result in an immediate 300-per-cent increase
in living standards for residents of the Yukon and the Northwest
Territories. The plan involved an extension of the Pacific Great
Eastern railway (now BC Rail) from Fort Nelson to Whitehorse. The
idea was hooted down in Ottawa and in the media, but Bennett said
reaction of the public to the notion was decidedly in favor.
Gordon Wismer, lawyer and BC attorney general, died
in Victoria, aged 80. He was born March 23, 1888 in Sutton, Ont.,
near the south end of Lake Simcoe. He worked his way west, arriving
in Vancouver in 1907. He began a law practice in 1913 with Gerald
G. McGeer. From 1922 Wismer ran his own firm, becoming one of B.C.'s
best-known criminal lawyers. He was elected the Liberal MLA for
Vancouver Centre in 1933, and served as attorney general under Duff
Pattullo from July 5, 1937; under John Hart from April 4, 1946;
and under ‘Boss’ Johnson until defeat of the coalition
government in 1952. He established the New Haven Borstal School
for Young Offenders in 1938, and in 1950 disbanded the B.C. Provincial
Police Force, shifting policing duties to the RCMP.
December 28 We have a note that the thermometer
dipped today to -.2 F, “the only sub-zero temperature ever
recorded in Vancouver.” We have also seen a mark of -3 for
December 29, 1968.
Also in 1968
BC’s population topped 2 million this year.
It had reached one million in 1951. See this
site. BC's population as of March, 2004 was 4.168 million.
A referendum in the two North Vancouvers on the question
of amalgamation was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the municipality
(90 per cent), but given just a razor-thin Yes vote in the city,
(50.5 per cent) which had split away in 1907. The rules said there
had to be 60 per cent approval in both places, so they remained
separate. Heavily influencing the city’s vote was Mayor Carrie
Cates, who was against amalgamation.
The federal, provincial and municipal governments
joined forces to build the Pacific Coliseum. It opened this year.
At the opening, Vancouver Civic Chaplain George Turpin offered the
prayer: “Please God, bring us the NHL.” And lo, He did!
The $6 million, 15,600 seat arena was a state-of-the-art facility
that would become best known as the home of the Vancouver Canucks.
(Their first game would be on October 9, 1970.)
Algo
Communication Products began. They are the sponsors
of 1968 in The History of Metropolitan Vancouver.
Hockey’s Lynn
Patrick was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
Whistler Mountain Ski School began.
Heli-skiing began at Whistler.
Coast Plaza at Stanley Park Hotel opened.
Adman Jimmy Lovick, described as “the true giant”
of Vancouver ad men, died. The agency he had started in 1948, which
by 1958 was the biggest in the country, did not long survive its
founder’s death. “Lovick seemed to live on airplanes,”
wrote business writer Michael McCullough, “becoming the first
customer of Trans-Canada Airways to log a million air miles. He
captured national accounts including Kelly Douglas (which owned
the Super Valu chain of supermarkets and Nabob Foods) and Nelson
Laundries. He parlayed his Social Credit Party connections into
major provincial government contracts. Lovick once flew to Toronto
to pitch the Toronto-Dominion Bank account. In the middle of an
Ontario snowstorm, he drove down Bay Street in his pinstripe suit,
in a rented convertible with the top down. Launching into his presentation
to the bank's brass, he took off his trousers, opened a window and
threw the pants out, trying to impress upon the bankers the need
to change their pinstriped image. It worked.”
After Lovick’s death, McCullough continues,
“the James Lovick Agency went through a series of mergers,
becoming Baker Lovick, then McKim Baker Lovick. Now its remnant
is part of New York-based BBDO.”
Punjab-born Dr. Har Gobind Khorana won the Nobel
Prize for Medicine, for the synthesis of a gene in a test tube and
original work in DNA research that opened up several new areas of
research. In interviews he acknowledged the important influence
of his work in 1952 at B.C. Research on the UBC campus. In 1970
Khorana would become Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See this
site.
The first phase of the Peace River development was
completed with the construction of the 183-metre-high W.A.C. Bennett
Dam, initially bringing 681,000 kilowatts of power on line.
The Student Union Building (‘SUB’) went
up at UBC. It’s unique on campus: it is student-funded and
run by the Alma Mater Society. The AMS is a non-profit student organization
whose main objective is to develop, promote and coordinate the activities
and particular interests of the UBC student body. The AMS has a
membership of more than 40,000 students and is one of the largest
student employers in Canada, with 400 part-time student staff and
50 full-time staff on the payroll. AMS runs all food services in
SUB except Subway Cafeteria.
SUB also houses 22 multi-purpose meeting rooms that
accommodate 10 to 600 people for a wide variety of events.
An extension to UBC’s Faculty Club (designed
by the architectural firm Erickson Massey, who won awards for it)
was built with funds from membership fees.
UBC’s Metallurgical Engineering Building went
up.
The Charles Crane Memorial Library, a unit of the
Disability Resource Centre, was formed at UBC as a reading room
with the donation of a personal collection of about 6,000 Braille
books, belonging to the late Charles Allen Crane—one of the
more remarkable people in local history. Crane, known as Charlie
among friends, was often referred to as “Canada's Helen Keller”.
Almost completely deaf and blind from birth (Helen Keller had normal
sight and hearing until she was 19 months old), Charlie was a bright
student at the Halifax and Jericho Hill schools for the deaf and
a special student at UBC from 1934 to 1937. He was the first deaf/blind
person to attend a university in Canada. He was also outstanding
in athletics, particularly in wrestling. Later in life, due to lack
of publicity and support, Charlie settled into a life of manual
work and personal study. He became an avid Braille book collector,
and with help from others also created his own Braille books. After
Crane's death in 1965, by his previous request, his collection of
6,000 Braille books was bequeathed to UBC to benefit blind and visually
impaired students. The Charles Crane Memorial Library is one of
a kind in Canada. Since 1970 the library and its dedicated volunteers
have recorded talking textbooks and background materials. A special
disbursement was established in 1974 as a continuous funding base
for the library, staff, book budgets and raw materials. By 1981,
the centre had expanded to house nine sound-proof studios with state-of-the-art
professional recording equipment and high-speed duplicating and
editing equipment. Hundreds of cassettes can be copied per hour,
serving 35 to 50 blind, visually-impaired or print-handicapped UBC
students per year. Through inter-library loans, the Centre serves
up to 500 students. In 1996 holdings were about 46,000 titles.
Talking books produced at the Crane Library are sold
on a non-profit basis to libraries and schools in such places as
New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Ghana,
South Africa, the U.S. and Sweden. About 300 new Braille publications
are purchased each year from commercial sources in Canada, the U.S.,
Great Britain and continental Europe.
The library is known today as the Crane Research
Centre.
UBC’s Ladner Clock Tower was built near the
university’s Main Library. It stands 123 feet high. Named after
Dr. Leon J. Ladner, QC (who donated $150,000 of its $160,000 construction
cost), it houses a 330-bell carillon meant to be played during special
occasions, such as the May Congregation. For the past several years,
the bell has not sounded because of corrosion problems. It was “built
in honor and memory of the pioneers of B.C. and in particular Thomas
Ellis and William Henry Ladner.”
The tower was not a popular structure when first
built. Students of the university thought the money could have been
better spent on just about anything else. Some of the names they
bestowed on it were less than flattering, and it has been the butt
of several engineering week pranks. One year engineers climbed up
and painted the hands on the east face red (red and white are the
engineering colors) leaving the rest black. Another year, a Volkswagen
Beetle was put on top of the clock tower. No one knows how they
got it up there, but we do know how it was brought down—the
university rented a crane large enough to lift it off. The Engineering
Undergraduate Society (EUS) had to pay for the rental of the crane!
The Ladner Clock Tower is a good orienteering point for new students
and lost visitors since it can be seen from most central points
on campus.
UBC’s Biological Sciences Building (Botany,
Zoology, Oceanography and Microbiology), built in 1950 with a south
wing added in 1959, had a west wing added.
The Health Sciences Centre opened on the UBC campus.
Early members of the BCIT Student Association were
instrumental in getting new facilities built on the Burnaby campus.
With the construction of a new playing field and track this year,
the association reached its first big goal. Next, they began a long
campaign for a campus residence to accommodate a growing number
of out-of-town students, Success would not arrive until September
1973.
A new two-storey library building opened at BCIT.
Vancouver magazine began publishing.
Pacific Yachting magazine began publishing.
Swimmer Elaine Tanner went to the 1968 Olympics in
search of two golds, but had to settle for two silvers.
Park & Tilford Gardens, eight separate theme
gardens on the North Shore, were created by a privately-owned distillery.
In the Rose Garden there are nearly 300 plants in 24 varieties.
There is free admission and parking, and the gardens are open seven
days a week.
Marilyn Horne, who liked Vancouver, returned to star
in the Vancouver Opera Association staging of Rossini’s Barber
of Seville.
Neil Longton's Espresso Coffee House, “where
local and visiting musicians could and would play until dawn,"
closed after a fire. Among performers often seen there, says reviewer/singer
Renee Doruyter, "were a couple of Vancouver's best-known exports,
the internationally renowned composer/arranger/ instrumentalist
Don Thompson, now living in Toronto and one of the most musical
drummers on the scene, and Terry Clarke, now based in New York.”
Soccer’s Vancouver Royals played this one year
in the NASL.
The Vancouver Aquarium began to study Arctic marine
mammals in the Lancaster Sound Area of Baffin Island.
The Silver Ann was the last vessel built at
Britannia shipyard.
Relief, a cast bronze work by Eliza Mayhew,
was installed in the Bank of Canada building at 900 West Hastings.
“Architect W.W. Rennie commissioned this $30,000 work,”
writes Elizabeth Godley, “after seeing photographs of the artist's
work in Canadian Art.”
The Fathomless Richness of the Seabed, a ceramic
mural by Jordi Bonet was installed in the lobby of the Guinness
Tower at 1055 West Hastings. Architect Charles Pine commissioned
the work. “Inspired by sea life,” writes Elizabeth Godley,
“it beautifully complements the facade of the Marine Building,
just around the corner.”
Relief, a sculpture in precast concrete by
Leonhard Epp, was installed at the Gulf & Fraser Fishermen's
Credit Union, 803 East Hastings. The building’s architect was
Robert Harrison.
Tuning Fork, a distinctive corten steel sculpture
by Gerhard Class, was installed on the plaza of UBC’s Music
Building. Alfred Blundell donated this work, which cost $5,000.
An abstract fountain of bronze alloy at Capilano
Road and Ridgeway in the District of North Vancouver was installed.
The artist, George Norris, was commissioned by the District.
Choreographer Anna Wyman, who had come to Vancouver
from Austria in 1967, began to present student performances.
The arrival of Imperial Records, Western Canada's
first modern vinyl mastering and pressing plant, helped spur a generation
of new labels. Many were custom imprints created by musicians to
release their own music.
A building that began life in 1906 as the Grandview
Methodist Church, at 1895 Venables, became home this year to Inner
City Services which included the Vancouver Free University and storefront
legal offices for such tenants as future premier Mike Harcourt.
Today, it’s the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.
1968 was a fruitful year for local publication. All
of these began that year:
* British Columbia Historical News A quarterly,
published by the British Columbia Historical Federation. It is now
titled British Columbia History, editor John Atkin. www.bchistory.ca/news.html
* Capilano Courier A weekly published by Capilano
College, Courier Publishing Society. A student publication with
student news, opinion and letters.
* In Pharmation A monthly publication for
membership of the British Columbia Pharmacists' Society.
* Logging & Sawmilling Journal A monthly
trade publication.
* Nursing BC Published five times a year by
the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia.
* Pacific Yachting A monthly publication for
the yachting fraternity.
* Soleil de Colombie A weekly publication,
in French, with news about francophones in B.C.
*UBC Library News A free quarterly published
by the University of British Columbia Main Library
* Vancouver Magazine A high-circulation monthly,
a city lifestyle magazine.
* World Market Perspective A monthly business
investment magazine.
Author Guy Bennett, born in Cambridge, England in
1959, came to Vancouver. In 1988 he will self-publish Guy's Guide
to the Flipside, described by BC Bookworld as “an offbeat but
acerbically truthful view of Vancouver's less-celebrated attractions.”
The book was re-issued by Pulp Press in 1992. See this
site.
Ethlyn Trapp, radiologist, was awarded the Order
of Canada. For her extraordinarily distinguished career, see our
Hall of Fame.
Nat Bailey and wife Eva sold 13 White Spot Restaurants
and other related interests to General Foods for $6.5 million.
Dick McLean’s Leisure magazine first
appears.
Kirkland Lake, Ontario-born Mario Bernardi, who began
his professional conducting career in England, returned to Canada
to form a professional chamber orchestra for the National Arts Centre.
In his future: conducting Vancouver’s CBC Orchestra.
Author E.G. Perrault produced a thinly disguised
biographical novel about the early days of rogue B.C. timber baron
Gordon Gibson Sr., The Kingdom Carver. See his interesting
entry here.
Calgary-born restaurateur Hy Aisenstat, who with
his wife Barbara had started with Hy’s Steak House in Calgary
in 1955, was now at the head of 12 companies, with restaurants across
Canada, and in Chicago, Honolulu, Palm Springs and Beverly Hills.
He called his restaurants “saloons.”
Frank Baker, restaurateur, promoter, trumpet player,
etc., etc., opened the 1,200-seat The Attic in West Vancouver. Guests
were entertained by Lance Harrison and His Dixieland Band. A real
showman, Frank played the trumpet (learned at the Four Square Gospel
Church) and always wore a trademark white suit. Outside The Attic,
he showcased the Aston Martin driven in the James Bond movie Goldfinger.
Walter H. Gage, UBC mathematics professor, was given
the Master Teacher award.
Harry Jerome, world-class sprinter, 27, competed
in the Olympic Games in Mexico City, his final attempt for an Olympic
medal, in the final of the 100 meters. He raced home-two tenths
of a second slower than the winner, who set a new world record time
of 9.9 seconds. Jerome finished seventh.
Eburne-born Arthur Laing, who had been the federal
minister of Indian Affairs, was transferred to public works. The
Arthur Laing Bridge would be named for him.
Richmond Minoru Chapel was re-dedicated and re-consecrated
this year for the use of all denominations. It began its life in
1891 as a Methodist chapel built at the corner of Cambie and River
Roads by volunteer labor. The frame structure featured a tower and
pointed-arched windows, typical of Gothic Revival churches of the
time. When the Methodists and Presbyterians united in 1925, the
Chapel became known as Richmond United Church. In 1961 the Municipality
of Richmond purchased the property on which the church stood in
order to relocate the railway through Brighouse Industrial Estates.
The church stood boarded up, its fate unsettled. Finally, with strong
support from the former Reeve Henry Anderson, the church was moved
to its present location in Pierrefonds Gardens. See this
site.
Stratford, Ontario-born Frank Stalley became the
director of radio for CBC in Vancouver. He will hold that post until
1972, then be posted to London, England.
The Great Northern Cannery, built in 1891 in West
Vancouver, is sold by its owners, the Millerd family (who had bought
it in 1923). The complex is now the site of Environment Canada's
Pacific Research Laboratories. See this
site.
Gordon Shrum stepped down as Chancellor at SFU.
The M.V. Scenic, which since 1932 has been
the only floating post office in the British Empire, known as the
Burrard Inlet T.P.O. (Travelling Post Office), comes to the end
of its long and faithful service.
The Oak movie theatre, which opened August 4, 1937
with great fanfare at Kingsway and Marlborough, and hailed as a
masterpiece of “art moderne,” closed its doors.
The Radio station that had started back in the 1920s
as CFQC, then became CKMO, then C-FUN, changed owners and got its
fourth name, CKVN, emphasizing news.
John R. Fisk became Chief Constable of the Vancouver
Police Department, succeeding R.M. Booth. Fisk would serve to 1974.
The Richmond Arts Centre and Brighouse Centre Library
opened.
Richmond Hospital expanded to 154 beds plus 29 bassinets.
Langley’s Cottage Hospital became Cedar Hill
Centre, a 50-bed extended care facility.
A Martial Arts Centre was opened in Steveston.
The federal and provincial governments agreed to
begin a $40 million program for bank and dike protection on the
Lower Fraser, and other Lower Mainland rivers subject to flooding.
The city of Richmond reached an agreement with the provincial government
to share the cost of building and maintaining the dikes, taking
the care of the dikes away from individual land owners.
The B.C. Professional Pharmacists' Society was established.
Today it’s the British Columbia Pharmacy Association, a voluntary
association of 1,600 member pharmacists and more than 420 member
pharmacies (1,067 members and 158 pharmacies in the Lower Mainland)
“which provides an active, unified voice for the concerns of
the profession.” The association, registered under the Society
Act, is distinct from the regulatory body (the College of Pharmacists
of B.C.).
Harold Steves was elected to Richmond council. He
will be actively involved in preserving Steveston's heritage. (He
is the great-grandson of Manoah Steves, after whom Steveston was
named.)
The Coast Plaza at Stanley Park Hotel was built at
1733 Comox.
John Henderson, a long-time Vancouver School Trustee
(1943 to 1964) died, aged about 88. He had been named Vancouver's
Good Citizen in 1961 because of his long service in a score of organizations
and for many personal deeds. A Vancouver elementary school is named
for him.
1968 Firebird
[Photo: www.claringtonclassics.ca]
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