Stu Crawford (Arts’51) has been a presence around the Queen’s Gaels men’s hockey team for more than 75 years. On March 2, the day he turns 100, the diehard fan, former Golden Gael, and Second World War veteran will see his presence made permanent. The club is officially naming its dressing room at the Memorial Centre “The Stu Crawford Team Room.”
“Stu’s got some serious longevity in his bones,” says Dave Descent, president of the Men’s Hockey Booster Club. “He was a quality player and he really emphasizes the tradition and the respect that our team brings.”
Before Mr. Crawford battled on the ice for his university, he was battling in the skies over Nazi Germany as a bomb aimer with the Royal Canadian Air Force. On April 8, 1945, his Lancaster was shot out of the sky.
“We ran into trouble over Hamburg. There was a 10-mile stretch where the flak was pretty heavy,” recalls Mr. Crawford.
“I was the bomb aimer. I’m lying on my stomach and watching all of this. They had maximum firepower trying to shoot us down,” he says.
“But you tend to ignore these things because you’re pretty busy. It’s almost like a good hockey game. You get so damn involved, you forget about anything else.”
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An archival photo of Stu Crawford, No. 20, with his beloved team in 1947.
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Mr. Crawford, today at his home in Kingston.
After the war, Mr. Crawford returned to Kingston to study philosophy and psychology at Queen’s, where he played with the Golden Gaels from 1947 to 1951.
He learned the game playing on the frozen Cataraqui River, behind his house. His neighbours in Kingston’s “Swamp Ward” were the Cook brothers – Bill, Bud, and Bun. Bill had been captain of the New York Rangers and is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Mr. Crawford is humble about his own skills.
“I was a Swamp Ward type of hockey player. A shinny player. I wasn’t great, but I had great company.”
He recalled the Golden Gaels playing at the old Montreal Forum.
“There were 8,000 fans there – 8,000 screaming McGill fans,” he says. “You can imagine what that was like.”
Mr. Crawford worked for decades at the Kingston Whig-Standard, retiring in 1987. Until just a few years ago, he still played hockey once a week in Gananoque.
In 1986, Mr. Crawford and some hockey buddies decided there needed to be some honour for Queen’s annual match with the Royal Military College. And so was born the Carr-Harris Cup, a celebration of hockey’s oldest rivalry.
Mr. Crawford will be honoured before this year’s Carr-Harris Cup match at RMC, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 24, when he is to be presented with a replica Golden Gaels sweater like the one he wore during his playing days.
Stu Crawford’s name still resonates with today’s players, Mr. Descent says.
Golden Gaels coach Brett Gibson asked if Mr. Crawford could come to the arena on Remembrance Day to speak to the team. He was glad to oblige.
“The players went down on the knee in a semicircle in ‘pay--attention mode,’” Mr. Descent says.
“Stu talked about his war experiences and how it relates to hockey. You could just see in the boys’ faces, all the respect and the admiration they had for him.
“Then they all went up and personally introduced themselves. To say Stu was overwhelmed would be an understatement.”
Chancellor Murray Sinclair named to Order of Canada
Queen’s University Chancellor Murray Sinclair (LLD’19) has been named a Companion of the Order of Canada.
The 15th chancellor of the university, his appointment was one of 135 announced Dec. 29 by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon. The list includes five other members of the Queen’s community.
Chancellor Sinclair has had a distinguished career, including being appointed Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge. The retired senator is perhaps best known as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, overseeing its groundbreaking final report in 2015.
He has received honorary doctorates from 14 universities, including Queen’s in 2019, and serves as general counsel to Cochrane Saxberg LLP, Manitoba’s largest Indigenous law firm.
His appointment to the order recognizes his commitment to the representation of Indigenous legal issues and his dedication to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.
The Order of Canada is one of the country’s highest civilian honours. Other Queen’s community members named to the 2021 list of recipients:
- Dr. Connie J. Eaves (Arts’64, MSc’66), officer: For her work advancing our understanding of cancer development, and leadership nationally and internationally in stem-cell biology.
- The Honourable Justice Hugh L. Fraser (Arts’73, Artsci’74), officer: For his contributions to Canadian sport as an internationally recognized expert in sports law and as a former Olympian.
- Graham Farquharson (MBA’69), member: For his work in developing and managing Canada’s first mine north of the Arctic Circle and his innovative leadership and philanthropic support of community organizations.
- Patricia M. Feheley (Artsci’74), member: For her long-standing contributions to the Canadian art scene and her promotion of Inuit art and culture.
- George M. Thomson (Arts’62, LLB’65), member: For his innovative approach to leadership as a judicial educator and mentor and for his significant contributions to family law in Canada.
Queen’s commitment to sustainability earns award
Queen’s has won an award for its efforts to reduce the university’s greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable Kingston has bestowed Queen’s with the 2021 Greatest Overall Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Reduction Award, recognizing its decrease in emissions by 6,023 tonnes.
The milestone is one of several in environmental stewardship that Queen’s reached in 2021. Others included the university’s impressive first in Canada and fifth in the world ranking in the Times Higher Education 2021 Impact Rankings for advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Queen’s also announced in October it had achieved a 35-per-cent reduction in emissions between 2008 and 2020, showing the university was on track to reach net zero emissions by 2040 through the Climate Action Plan.
“It’s extremely gratifying to the university to have achieved that goal and to be recognized for this,” said Principal Patrick Deane in a video accepting the award. “It fits very well into our overall commitment to sustainability.”
Sustainable Kingston is a non-profit that supports the Kingston community in achieving its vision of becoming Canada’s most sustainable city. Each year it recognizes local institutions or organizations that are working against environmental degradation to create a more sustainable future.
Queer Alumni Chapter launches
Several alumni have joined forces to create a queer alumni chapter at Queen’s.
Stacy Kelly (Artsci’93), a former staffer who helped launch the Queen’s University Association for Queer Employees in 2005, saw the great work being done by the Queen’s Black Alumni Chapter and Queen’s Indigenous Alumni Chapter and wondered why there wasn’t an equivalent group for the LGBTQ community, much like there is at many major U.S. universities.
It seems other alumni were asking the same question, so they joined forces and worked with the Alumni Relations department to start the Queen’s Queer Alumni Chapter.
Calls for more equity and diversity prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement and Canadian residential school headlines fuelled the motivation for some chapter organizers to help the LGBTQ community.
The chapter aims to focus on socializing and networking, as well as advocacy work to help LGBTQ members of the Queen’s community feel welcome and safe. It also wants to take an active role in fundraising and establish a bursary for LGBTQ students.
$1M gift supports Indigenous STEM students
Queen’s will be able to provide ongoing support for its new STEM: Indigenous Academics (STEM:InA) program, thanks to a $1-million endowment established by alumnus Norman Loveland (BSc’65 (Civl)) and his wife, Gay.
The Lovelands are long-time champions of Queen’s engineering programs and chose to support this program – an academic support and community-building program for Indigenous students enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)-based undergraduate degree programs – through the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science.
STEM:InA aims to create a strong and successful community of Indigenous STEM students at Queen’s through services, programming, and events. It also works to alleviate the isolation felt by many by building a distinct Indigenous STEM community.
“This endowment from the Lovelands will truly help us create a strong and successful community of Indigenous STEM students here at Queen’s,” says Vice-Principal (Advancement) Karen Bertrand. “This initiative provides Indigenous students with the social and academic foundation they need to thrive and make a positive impact on the world, and this endowment makes that possible.”
The new Stonecroft Artist-in-Residence
Sri Lanka-born artist Rajni Perera has been announced as Agnes’s 2022 Stonecroft Artist-in-Residence. Working in painting, sculpture, textile, and mixed media, Ms. Perera explores diasporic mythology, gender politics, and the immigrant identity through the lens of science fiction imagery. Her work has been exhibited in Toronto and Montreal, as well as internationally, and she has been shortlisted for the 2021 Sobey Art Award – one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art prizes. For her Stonecroft residency, Ms. Perera is working on an important commission for Agnes in collaboration with students in the Queen’s BFA program.
Honouring the Bader family
As it announced three new gifts from its most significant donors – the Bader family and Bader Philanthropies, Inc. – Queen’s also recognized them by proclaiming Nov. 15 Bader Day.
The honour commemorated the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the late Dr. Alfred Bader (BSc’45, BA’46, MSc’47, LLD’86) on campus, inaugurating an ongoing relationship between the university and the Bader family that has been marked by a series of transformational gifts.
“The philanthropic impact of the Bader family and Bader Philanthropies, Inc. at Queen’s is unparalleled,” says Vice-Principal (Advancement) Karen Bertrand. “These most recent gifts will put our students on the forefront of training and research in the fields of art history and art conservation while supporting our mission to advance Indigenous initiatives at the university.”
Continuing a philanthropic tradition that began in 1948, the latest series of gifts from Dr. Bader’s wife, Isabel (LLD’07), and Bader Philanthropies, Inc. aid Queen’s mission to advance research and knowledge and, as such, include:
12 paintings to Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The paintings, all from the Dutch 17th century, include still lifes, Biblical scenes, and scenes from daily life.
Nine Leica S9i microscopes to help students in the Queen’s Art Conservation program examine and treat cultural artifacts.
Funding for the Outdoor Gathering Space, modelled after an Ojibway round house, and endowing a new full--time, permanent curator of Indigenous arts and culture at Agnes.
Queen’s has announced a partnership with world-renowned Canadian photographer, and Queen’s Honorary Doctorate recipient (2007) Edward Burtynsky to help realize his new public art piece, Standing Whale. The partnership will engage the expertise of students in multiple programs across the Faculties of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Faculty of Arts and Science. Special projects in these programs will be designed to tackle structural and conceptual challenges with the aim of bringing this artwork to life in a public setting.
“My hope is that this public art sculpture, Standing Whale, will become a true Canadian statement: one that symbolizes our commitment to protecting the environment, our cultural institutions, and heritage,” says Burtynsky. Standing Whale is a true-to-size, 75-foot artistic re-imagining inspired by the story of a pod of North Atlantic blue whales that perished in an unprecedented ice event off the coast of Newfoundland in 2014. The North Atlantic blue whale, like so many other species worldwide, is at risk of becoming a casualty of the climate crisis and Standing Whale acts as an homage to and lament for this loss.
The family and Bader Philanthropies, Inc. have been among Queen’s most significant donors, gifting the 15th-century English castle Herstmonceux, home to the Bader International Study Centre; providing $31 million in support of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts; a lead gift of US$40 million in support of Agnes Reimagined; more than 500 paintings and works on paper to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre; and funding a variety of student awards.
Bader Day saw a visit to campus by members of the family and the conferring Nov. 17 of an honorary degree on Daniel Bader.
A new partnership brings artistic vision to life
Queen’s has announced a partnership with world-renowned Canadian photographer, and Queen’s Honorary Doctorate recipient (2007) Edward Burtynsky to help realize his new public art piece, Standing Whale. The partnership will engage the expertise of students in multiple programs across the Faculties of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Faculty of Arts and Science. Special projects in these programs will be designed to tackle structural and conceptual challenges with the aim of bringing this artwork to life in a public setting.
“My hope is that this public art sculpture, Standing Whale, will become a true Canadian statement: one that symbolizes our commitment to protecting the environment, our cultural institutions, and heritage,” says Burtynsky. Standing Whale is a true-to-size, 75-foot artistic re-imagining inspired by the story of a pod of North Atlantic blue whales that perished in an unprecedented ice event off the coast of Newfoundland in 2014. The North Atlantic blue whale, like so many other species worldwide, is at risk of becoming a casualty of the climate crisis and Standing Whale acts as an homage to and lament for this loss.
