History behind two new school names
Calgary board honours man and nature
A beloved Calgary philanthropist and a large glacier rock will be honoured with school names next fall.
The Calgary Board of Education announced Tuesday that its two new elementary schools in the city’s northwest will be named Eric Harvie School, in Tuscany, and Buffalo Rubbing Stone School, in Panorama Hills.
Both schools are expected to open in September, 2016.
Harvie, who was born in Ontario in 1892, moved to Alberta in 1911 and studied law in Edmonton. After serving in the army during the First World War, he opened a law practice in Calgary.
Harvie made it rich in the late 1940s when a massive oil strike was made on land where he owned the mineral rights, but his passion for the province spurred him to use that wealth to benefit all Albertans.
He founded the Glenbow Museum to share his passion for artifacts he collected from all over the world. His support was vital to the creation of the Banff School of Fine Arts, the Calgary Zoo, Heritage Park and the Luxton Museum, also in Banff.
Harvie was named to the Order of Canada in 1968 and, more than three decades after his death in 1975, Harvie’s family ranch was designated a provincial park, Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park.
Though not a person, Buffalo Rubbing Stone is also well known to many Calgarians.
The large glacier rock, also known as Crater Rock, rests in the middle of a small park in Panorama Hills ( near the intersection of Panorama Hills Way and Panorama Hills Road).
When millions of buffalo used to roam the prairies, the animals used the stone to rub against. The CBE says the name “honours the significance of the buffalo in the history of Alberta.”
Both new schools will serve students in kindergarten to Grade 3 when they open and will add more grades in future years. Both schools will have capacity for 600 students.