Grenfell Campus’s annual scholarships and awards ceremony has always focused on celebrating the accomplishments of students.

But at the 1992 ceremony, the students decided to do something different.

E.J. Ferriss Hodgett, Grenfell’s longtime and cherished vice-principal, was set to retire, and the close-knit student community wanted to recognize his contribution and wish him well.

So the president of Grenfell’s student union presented Mr. Hodgett with a special gift. Mr. Hodgett was surprised by the presentation. But he really shouldn’t have been. The entire campus held him in the highest esteem.

Mr. Hodgett was born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. He attended Methodist College in Belfast, where he was a member of a champion eight-man amateur rowing crew that won several regattas across the region.

He entered Queen’s University Belfast and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1949. He spent a decade working in the textile industry as a researcher but then began his teaching career at Methodist College in 1959.

In 1966, he travelled to University College London to earn a teaching certificate and then returned to Belfast to teach at Stranmillis University College.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Memorial University was growing. And as enrolment steadily increased, Memorial was looking for a better way to help first-year students adjust to the demanding academic standards expected at university.

In 1968, the university created the Junior Division, a special unit comprised of faculty members with a strong background in their academic disciplines along with extensive teaching experience and training.

Dr. Art Sullivan, of the psychology department, was named dean of Junior Division, and he recruited Mr. Hodgett as a physics lecturer.

Two years later, in 1970, Mr. Hodgett was named assistant dean of Junior Division and, as a straightforward and efficient administrator, he helped turn the unit into a well-oiled machine.

The proof of his accomplishments could be found in the success of first-year students once they moved on to more advanced classes. And his understanding of students’ educational needs and his proficiency as an administrator reached far beyond St. John’s campus.

 

Ferriss Hodgett (right) received his certificate for 25 years of service to Memorial University in 1992. Photo from Grenfell Campus Archives.

 

In 1971, a special advisory board recommended that Memorial open a new college in Corner Brook.

The West Coast Regional College, as Grenfell was originally named, would begin by offering the first two years of undergraduate degree programs. The campus would serve as a first stop for students from the west coast before needing to relocate to St. John’s to finish their degrees.

The entire west-coast region helped envision the college that would become Grenfell Campus. But in some way, the campus’s history of programming and academic excellence began in Junior Division with the work of Dr. Sullivan and Mr. Hodgett.

Junior Division had been their testing ground. The program was so successful in helping first-year students excel that when the time came to choose the core of individuals who would lead the new college in Corner Brook, there was an obvious choice.

Dr. Sullivan was named Grenfell’s first principal and Mr. Hodgett the first vice-principal.

They began their work long before the college in Corner Brook opened. They were involved in the physical planning and the development of programming. Their work behind the scenes meant that when the college welcomed its first students in 1975, the courses, resources and services they needed were already in place.

In 1977, Dr. Sullivan left his position as principal and returned to the St. John’s campus. But Mr. Hodgett had found his home.

He would remain vice-principal for the next 15 years.

For every new objective or initiative at Grenfell, Mr. Hodgett could be found doing the necessary work to make the dream a reality.

During leadership changes, he stepped up as interim principal to ensure smooth transitions. He ventured back into the classroom to teach physics whenever his services were required.

He helped guide the Fine Arts building to completion in 1988. And he was instrumental in planning for the new library building that would open a few years after his retirement.

But perhaps his greatest contribution to Grenfell was how he championed a student-centered approach to education that remains one of the campus’s defining characteristics to this day.

Mr. Hodgett died on Dec. 24, 1994.

In November of the following year, Grenfell’s new library was named the Ferriss Hodgett Library in honour of the man whose campus contributions began even before it opened its doors.

At a gala celebrating Grenfell’s 25th anniversary, Principal Adrian Fowler described him as “the soul of Grenfell.”

Mr. Hodgett had been with Grenfell when it was simply an idea. He made the campus his home and was its constant through years of growth and evolution. And his legacy lives on inside the library that bears his name and in the community spirit that makes Grenfell so unique.