BU A-Z | BU Directory | Contact us | myBU | Webmail

BU Main Page > Library Main Page

BISHOP'S UNIVERSITY HISTORICAL TIMELINE
1998 - 2003

1998
●  Archbishop Desmond Tutu is awarded an honourary degree at a special fall Convocation

Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Principal Janyne M. Hodder, and Chancellor Alex K. Paterson.

Although difficult to choose just one highlight from an event which held so many special moments, one to truly remember was Archbishop Tutu dancing down the aisle with Chancellor Alex Paterson to the strains of "When the Saints Go Marching In" - pure magic! It happened so fast and spontaneously, it was difficult to get a clear shot, but the picture shown conveys the feeling nevertheless.

●   Gaiters men's basketball team wins the National Championships
●   CJMQ, Bishop's community radio station is expanded to 500 watts, and airs live university sports for the first time
●   Dobson-Lagassé Centre for Entrepreneurship is inaugurated
●   Renovations to the student union building are completed, featuring the new "Jehoshaphat's Loft" (student pub)
●   Over the years, 15 Rhodes Scholarships have been awarded to Bishop's graduates, the most recent is awarded in this year to graduate Drew Leyburne

1999
●  Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities (Learneds) is held for the first time at Bishop's University
●  Richard Tomlinson, class of 1943, breaks the record with the largest donation in Bishop's history of $3,800,000
●  After many years as a popular student "watering hole", the "G" (Georgian Hotel) in Lennoxville, is demolished

From the Student Handbook, 1979-1980.

2000
●  Motion picture Lost and Delirious directed by Lea Pool is filmed on the university campus
●  The Chemistry Department celebrates its 50th anniversary with special events and a symposium

2001
●  Dr. Lorne Nelson, Department of Physics, is awarded a Canada Research Chair in Astrophysics; the Government of Canada to contribute $1.6 million to his endeavour over the next seven years

Lorne Nelson award: Left to right: Mrs. Janyne Hodder, Principal;
Dr. Jonathan Rittenhouse, Vice-Principal; 
Dr. Lorne Nelson, Chairperson of the Physics Department
and Award recipient

●  Mona Blair Bandeen donates second Steinway piano to the Music Department
●  Esther Farnsworth, Bishop's oldest living graduate, Class of 1922, turns 100

2002
●  Dorothy Dutton, oldest graduating class member (1920), turns 100
●  Launch of $26 million venture-capital firm, MSBI: McGill - Sherbrooke - Bishop's - Innovations, to help market scientific research - the first of its kind in Canada
●  Golden Key Society inducts its first class at Bishop's
●  Bishop's 170th Convocation

2003 ● Bishop's University celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing on the Charter, January 28th, 1853. ● Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, visits Bishop's University on January 28 to receive an honourary degree on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the University Charter by Queen Victoria.   ● At a Special Convocation held in Centennial Theatre, the ceremony also includes the official unveiling of a postage stamp honouring this university. ● Bishop's is the first of  five Canadian universities to be featured on stamps this year, including Université de  Montréal, the University of Western Ontario (London), St. Francis Xavier (Antigonish,  Nova Scotia), and the Macdonald Institute of Guelph University in Ontario.   On January 28, 1853, Queen Victoria decreed, by way of "royal charter" that Bishop's College "shall be deemed and taken to be a university", authorizing the institution to grant degrees in the arts and faculties of Divinity, Law and Medicine. One hundred and fifty years later to the very day, Canada Post  honoured this event with a single domestic rate stamp, which was officially unveiled at a Special Convocation. During the ceremony, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, and The Most Reverend Andrew S. Hutchison, Archbishop of Montreal and Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, received honorary degrees. A total of 3 million stamps were made available in booklets of eight. The framed document presented by Canada Post to Bishop's University as pictured is now on display in the Old Library.   Principal Janyne Hodder greets Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson Governor General Adrienne Clarkson receives honourary degree from Chancellor Alex Paterson   Left to right:  Chancellor Alex Paterson, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, The Most Reverend Andrew S. Hutchison, Archbishop of Montréal and Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, and Principal Janyne Hodder   The President of Bishop's University Corporation, James Ferrabee, left, unveils the official stamp design.       Stamp and picture of the framed document as it now hangs in the Old Library.

● September:  Florence May Foreman bequeaths to the Bishop's University Foundation $4.3-million, the largest single donation in the university's 160 year history. As described by her cousin, Harry Smith, Bishop's alumnus of 1953, miss Foreman "was a steadfast believer in the enriching contribution of teaching and research to the country and to humanity as a whole."

The income from the trust fund created with her generous gift will be used to fund scholarships, research grants for faculty and to support the art gallery.