U of A president speaks fondly of Medicine Hat ties
Medicine Hat played an important part in the story that inspired new University of Alberta president Bill Flanagan, who says the institution can play an important role for all Albertans.
“I think my dad’s story is very much reflective of the story of the University of Alberta — that’s to provide opportunity to students from across the province,” Flanagan told the News in an phone interview this week.
He was named the 14th president of the university in September, and in his initial address outlined the challenges and opportunities facing the institution. Underlying that, he stressed, is the core mission to provide and promote excellence in learning to members of the university community.
“In my dad’s case, he grew up in the Great Depression in Medicine Hat, a very large family with 12 kids, in very difficult circumstances,” said Flanagan of his father Francis Flanagan, who obtained a teaching degree from the U of A on scholarship for Second World War veterans.
“It opened up a whole world of opportunity to him. It transformed his life and the lives of so many.”
He eventually settled in the Lacombe area, though many relations remained in Medicine Hat.
Of note is Flanagan’s aunt, Noreen Flanagan, who served as chief local administrator of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital in the 1960s.
She was Medicine Hat’s Citizen of the Year in 1971 for her boosterism and dedication to local theatre. In 1978 her contributions earned her inclusion in the Order of Canada. Bill Flanagan attended as he was working in Ottawa that year as a parliamentary page.
“Community was a theme that runs through the family,” said Flanagan, who on his mother’s side is related to the Horners, a ranching family north of Brooks that over the years included a number of MPs, and MLAs, including recent Alberta finance minister Doug Horner.
Flanagan himself earned under graduate degrees from Queens and the University of Toronto, then studied further at the Sorbonne in Paris and Columbia University in New York City. He was recently Dean of Law at Queens.
Taking the helm in Edmonton, universities are facing budget constraints and hurdles for traditional in person learning.
Flanagan is optimistic and pointed to the recent award of the Noble Prize for Medicine to U of A researcher Michael Houghton among a team that identified the hepatitis C virus.
“It points out the role that a research intensive university can play in Alberta, driving economic growth and opportunity, and in that case garnering global attention,” he said.