Legacy of a changemaker: Honouring the tireless efforts of William Reid

“We’re not fooling in Calgary. We mean business.”

With more than 1,200 people attending a May 1951 town hall, William Reid wanted to show the Alberta government why it was time to expand the offerings at the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta.

In his heart, he believed Calgary deserved its own university.

Reid’s tenacity as the chair of the Calgary University Committee finally paid off three months later with an olive branch from the provincial government, paving the way for what we now know as the University of Calgary.

Nearly 75 years later, his daughter, Joan Van Housen, can’t help but smile about what her dad was able to accomplish and what came after he passed away less than a year after that landmark government decision.

“He would be very pleased,” she says. “But he would also give credit to all the people who worked on it.”

A family man with compassion for his community, Reid’s legacy lives on across Calgary’s educational landscape.

Community-minded leadership

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1902, Reid’s family moved to Canada when he was a teenager.

He wanted to be an accountant and, after high school, started by articling before writing the exams through UAlberta.

Reid became senior partner in the firm William F. Reid and Co. and quickly became a staple of the Calgary community with roles in the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce, Chartered Accountants’ Association of Alberta, Kinsmen Club and Calgary Youth Centre, among others.

He was elected to the Calgary school board in 1945, where he stayed until 1950, including serving as chair from 1946-1949.

Van Housen says her dad always had time for family and his community, as well, regularly hosting get-togethers, planting a garden every summer and often building an ice rink during the winter.

She says Reid was also an avid photographer, with a darkroom in the family basement to develop his pictures.

“He was just a really good person,” Van Housen says. “He always did things for other people and for the community.”

Being in elementary school, Van Housen says she didn’t really realize how important her dad was in the education world until he started taking phone calls during the winter about whether school would be cancelled.

A modest proposal

Another major role Reid took on in 1946 was that of chair for the Calgary University Committee.

The group began a concentrated effort for the establishment of the University of Alberta in Calgary (UAC), regularly meeting with then-Premier Ernest Manning.

With the main campus in Edmonton getting most of the government’s attention, Reid and his colleagues sent out a litany of letters and set upon a tireless tour of meetings to expand the Calgary campus’ footprint.

Time and time again, they were turned down.

“The premier seems to think we want a big new university with all the buildings and equipment, but that is not the case,” Reid said in The Albertan (now the Calgary Sun) in March 1951. 

“All we asked is for first- and second-year courses in buildings that are available at present. The cost would have been only $50,000 a year, taking student fees into account.” That’s the equivalent of about $580,000 in 2025.

After being turned down again, Reid said he was “bitterly disappointed,” and called on Manning to come clean about his true intentions on how long Calgary would have to wait.

Sending a message to Edmonton

The committee organized a town hall meeting in May 1951 and invited then-Education Minister Ivan Casey.

They presented him with a petition featuring more than 2,000 signatures from people wanting to see Calgary get its own university.

In July 1951, Manning and his government finally approved the expansion, which would offer a Bachelor of Arts including pre-law and a Bachelor of Science including candidates in medicine and dentistry, engineering, pharmacy, household economics, commerce and nursing.

“The members of the committee would, I am sure, like to think of their efforts of the past six years NOT as having achieved their goal, but merely an education in community affairs in preparation for the many tasks still to be faced by the committee,” Reid wrote in the 1952 edition of Evergreen and Gold, the UAC yearbook. 

He hoped the community would keep supporting the university by encouraging young people to attend the branch and keep growing it.

Honouring a legacy

Unfortunately, Reid couldn’t see his vision for the university fully take shape as he passed away from a health condition in March 1952.

An elementary school in South Calgary was renamed in his honour in 1955, reflecting his belief in lifelong learning, while a scholarship in his name was set up at UCalgary.

“He was really passionate about continuing education,” says Van Housen. “He didn’t want to see people stop their education after the end of high school or at the end of university.”

While she didn’t attend UCalgary as a student, Van Housen created her own legacy here during a 23-year career, including as director of Student Awards and Financial Aid.

“I really enjoyed working with the students and helping them with their forms and things like that,” says the namesake of the University of Calgary Alumni Association Joan Van Housen Bursary. “I’m also grateful for the opportunity to work with so many wonderful staff, donors and government officials while I was working there.”

She was also named to the Order of the University of Calgary in 2000.

Lessons for the future

Van Housen says it’s incredible to see what UCalgary has become since the first time she set foot on campus, and even since her retirement in 2001. 

As the school turns 60, Van Housen says she is reminded of something her dad told her while she helped him in the garden when she was seven or eight years old.

“We were transplanting little plants — they were pretty tiny,” she recalls. “I remember I said to him, ‘I can’t do this.’ He turned to me and said, ‘There’s no such word as can’t. You just don’t want to try hard enough to do it.’”

It’s a spirit Reid showed in his quest for Calgary’s university and one that reverberates today in Canada’s entrepreneurial university.