Dr. Vianne Timmons

2020 marks the 95th anniversary of the founding of Memorial University College, created out the ashes of the First World War but developed with a spirit of hope. At Memorial, remembrance is built into our institutional psyche.

We are a living memorial. And from this distinct origin the university has inherited a responsibility to remember and commemorate those who served. We exist because of their sacrifice.

I have no doubt that those who worked to see Memorial become a reality would be pleasantly surprised by what we are nearly 100 years later. Let me share some of the highlights.

After Memorial University moved out of the original Parade Street campus, the College of Fisheries, Navigation, Marine Engineering and Electronics opened there in 1964. The college continued to grow and was renamed the Institute of Fisheries and Marine Technology. In 1992, the provincial government merged the institute with Memorial University. Today, the Marine Institute has become one of the most respected centres for marine learning and applied research in the world.

The move from Parade Street to Elizabeth Avenue in 1961 was a catalyst for our growing university. Our St. John's campus is a vibrant teaching, learning and research community offering a full range of academic programs.

In an attempt to strengthen relationships between Newfoundland and Britain, President Lord Taylor established a modest residential campus in the town of Harlow, England, where he had once served as a medical officer. In 1969 the doors of Harlow Campus opened and since then more than 4,500 students from 26 disciplines have studied and lived there – gaining an invaluable international perspective.

In the early 1970s the university approved the creation of a branch campus to enable students from outside the Avalon Peninsula to study closer to home. The West Coast Regional College in Corner Brook officially opened in 1975 offering two years of university study. In 1979 it was named Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, after the intrepid physician and social entrepreneur. Today Grenfell Campus is a student-focused, community-engaged campus of Memorial University that offers a growing suite of undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Memorial University has a long history in Labrador, not only in research, but also in the well-remembered educational and engagement activities of the Extension Service. The Labrador Institute of Northern Studies was announced in 1977, and in 1997, the university changed the focus of the institute's activities and renamed it the Labrador Institute of Memorial University. Today the institute is on the path to becoming an academic unit of the university and our sixth campus. The Labrador Institute is committed to Northern-led, Northern-focused and Northern-based education.

From a mere 55 local students in 1925, Memorial now has more than 18,000 students from more than 100 countries. And five years from now, when we recognize the 100th anniversary of our founding, we will celebrate those past and present who made us what we are today.

I hope at that time, we will have beautified our campuses and made them places the community can enjoy and reflect on how far we’ve come.

But at no point we will forget our origin – a living legacy of those who lost their lives in the First World War and subsequent conflicts. It is a unique origin among universities in North America.

At this institution, we carry our responsibility as a living memorial with us every day as we work to make a difference and to make things better for our young people, and all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. I am proud to be part of Memorial University – a university that remembers.

In one moving example of remembrance, students recorded a video at Beaumont Hamel to express their appreciation for the courage and sacrifices of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. I hope you will take the time to watch it and reflect on what July 1 means to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.