History grad makes history
Robin Guard becomes oldest Brock University graduate at age 93
Brock University student Robin Guard has a thirst for knowledge that hasn’t been quenched over time.
When he walks across the convocation stage on Friday for his master of arts in history, the 93-yearold St. Catharines resident will be the school’s oldest graduate ever.
“It’s a funny thing about growing old,” Guard says when asked what he thinks about the distinction.
“You don’t notice it. I wake up in the morning feeling good.”
Guard has gone from growing up with the steam engine railway as the ultimate in technology to enrolling last winter in an online interest course about space.
“It’s something I’m very thankful for, seeing the enormous transition and the comforts we have today,” he says in his downtown apartment. The biggest transition, he believes, is in the status of women. Guard, who has four children, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild, was born in the east end of London to a working class family. His maternal grandfather was a boot mender and he has happy memories of hanging out at the shop where they cut leather. There were horse-drawn carts and his mother would collect horse manure from the street for their garden.
As a child, his favourite toy was a Meccano building set and a steam engine that drove his models. So it’s not surprising he went on to University College in London for his bachelor of science in electrical engineering. That’s where he met his future wife Barbara on the first day of classes in a lineup for coffee. He was 23.
Guard says tuition was paid at the time by the British government because war had exhausted the country and it needed to get the nation built up again.
After graduation, his first job was in a coal-fired power station in Edinburgh but he ended up doing work in the nuclear power industry, working in Rome, Stockholm, Rio De Janeiro and Cairo.
He moved to Montreal with his family in 1965 for a job offer and later Ontario.
“I’ve never regretted the decision I made in 1965 to come to Canada. It’s the best country in the world, even better since Trump and Brexit,” he says.
Eventually, he decided he’d had enough of the fast-paced work world and retired from engineering to become a farmer.
He and Barbara bought a farm on Effingham Street in St. Catharines and farmed for 20 years.
“I suddenly realized I could put everything on the table for Sunday dinner we grew on the farm, except the salt,” Guard says.
He became passionate about organic farming and Barbara became an expert spinner and weaver using wool from their flock of sheep.
She died 20 years ago of breast cancer. Guard didn’t want to stay at the farm anymore without her.
He moved to Lisgar Street in west St. Catharines and that’s where he discovered Rodman Hall and everything Brock had to offer. He became involved with the gallery association. He’s also a volunteer at Shaw Festival and a Niagara Symphony Orchestra education chair emeritus.
When he learned you could take university classes for free over the age of 65, he decided to go back to school for an English literature degree. “I’ve been in technology all my life. What are people doing in humanities, people in literature and art and so forth?” he thought.
He says he enjoyed it best when he was debating ideas with the young students. But he says it’s unfortunate so many of them come to seminars and don’t say a word.
Going back to school for his master’s degree, which is not free, was his friend Allan Edgington’s idea. Edgington, 74, is also graduating on Friday in the master’s of arts in history program.
“Allan was the driving force here,” Guard says. “He’s just a kid.”
Guard wrote his thesis on the growth of Anglicanism. An atheist, he came up with the idea while living on Lisgar Street near an abandoned church and wondered about its story. He says he started digging around and enjoyed it.
“I’m an immigrant and I knew nothing about the origin of Canada until I got my head down and researched this.”
He got to know the rector at St. George’s Church and was given freedom to explore their archives. In return, Guard did a complete inventory of them.
Of particular interest to him was the origin of two Anglican churches on either side of Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines that a previous historian indicated was the result of a schism.
But Guard says he believes a second church was established because the famed Merritt family were passionate Anglicans who were tired of having to make a difficult journey across the creek to get to the other church.
Going back to school has given Guard the itch to learn even more. After taking that online course for fun last winter from Brock, he’s setting his sights on space technology.
“It’s been rather fun to go from science to literature to history. I’m seriously thinking about going back to science as my next step,” he says.
“Part of the fun of living is variety.”
Brock has more than 3,500 students attending convocation from Monday to Friday with 433 of them in graduate programs.
Guard says he will be in attendance to receive his degree.
“You better believe it.”