When I was growing up in Montreal during the 1960s, I took for granted that I would attend McGill after high school. Little did I realize then what a unique privilege that would prove to be.
As a young Architecture grad, I made a deliberate choice to stay in Montreal and make my life and career here. In 1991, when I had a chance to apply for the role of project manager at McGill, I jumped at the opportunity.
McGill proved to be a dream environment for an architect-project manager. A research-intensive university like McGill is arguably one of the most complex and diverse organizational environments. It is a specialized mini-city unto itself, with just about every type of job description imaginable – from neurologist to electrician, and from agronomist to cook.
In no other organization does one have such a variety of facilities and buildings on which to work: an automated research greenhouse, a poultry research complex, a bio-hazard level 3 research laboratory, state of the art chemistry teaching laboratories, a leading-edge music building, innovative multi-media classrooms, a football stadium, significant 19th Century heritage buildings, even a water control dam at the Gault Estate.
During my 24-year career at McGill, I came to see that the University’s success is due in no small part to the commitment of its staff and alumni. This dedication was on full display in 1998, when an ice storm crippled Montreal. McGill was forced to shut down, and a few dozen building operators, plumbers, and electricians from Facilities Management worked 16-hour days for 10 days straight to keep more than 150 buildings from freezing, despite having to operate with only a 1% ration from Hydro Quebec of its normal electricity supply.
Since retiring, I have stayed connected to McGill, as a judge of the Student Sustainability Challenge, and as Treasurer of the McGill University Retiree Association.
For me, McGill is both a mirror to, and a product of, the city in which it is anchored. Only after visiting other places did I realize how unique and special McGill’s connection to Montreal is. There is nowhere else I would have rather lived or worked.