How it all began

The University of Waterloo had its recorded beginnings on December 16, 1955 — a Friday — at a meeting of 17 local business leaders and professional men, called by the president of a small-town college to talk about doing big things. It began at 4 p.m. in the boardroom of Waterloo College, near the corner of Dearborn Street (not yet called University Avenue) and Albert Street. The participants had been invited by Gerry Hagey, a former business executive and president of the college for the past two years, who had already persuaded a few of his friends that it was time to expand the college's scope and size.

There were "numerous questions", according to the three-page typewritten minutes of that afternoon's meeting. (Hagey's own copy is now in the university archives.) Then it was moved by Carl A. Pollock (president of Dominion Electrohome Industries), seconded by A. M. Snider (president of Sunshine Waterloo Co. Ltd., a furniture manufacturer), and carried, that “Those present agree that they will serve as charter members of a Board of Governors for a Faculty of Science to be affiliated with Waterloo College and that they will record their agreement by affixing their signature to this motion. Also, that those invited to this meeting, but unable to attend, be given an opportunity to serve and to indicate their agreement by affixing their signatures.”

The meeting was chaired by Ira G. Needles, president of B. F. Goodrich Co. of Canada, with Carl Dare, president of Dare Biscuit Company, as secretary. Among the others on hand were A. R. Kaufman of Kaufman Rubber, John E. Motz of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, physician Harry Lackner, and lawyer J. Kenneth Sims. Five men — including J. W. Scott, general manager of Waterloo Trust and Savings, eventually to be a part of TD Canada Trust — were listed as invited but unable to attend.

Before they adjourned, the participants appointed a committee to set the legal paperwork in motion and work with the existing Waterloo College board. And they were reminded that cooperation would be needed from the Canada Synod of the United Lutheran Church, which operated Waterloo College.

More meetings would follow. By the time the first students registered, in July 1957, the new entity included engineering as well as science, and was called Waterloo College Associate Faculties. In 1959 it separated from the parent college, becoming the University of Waterloo, and federating with the other college that already existed in town, St. Jerome's. Meanwhile, the original Waterloo College began its evolution into today's Wilfrid Laurier University.