RRC campus takes Roblin’s name
Ex-premier helped establish college
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/03/2011 (5491 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Red River College’s college’s Princess Street facility will now be known as The Roblin Centre in honour of former premier Duff Roblin, who was crucial in its development.
Manitoba’s 14th premier is perhaps best remembered for leading the construction of the Red River Floodway, but he also revitalized Manitoba’s education system by building schools, introducing the current system of school boards and helping establish the community college system.
At a ceremony at the downtown campus on Monday, Roblin’s daughter Jennifer Roblin expressed her family’s deep gratitude for the naming, calling it a “marvellous gesture.”
“Education was Dad’s focal point in 1958 (when he became premier). It remained so throughout his premiership,” she said. “And he would be thrilled and humbled to know that this incredibly beautiful building is named after him.” Duff Roblin died last May.
The large Red River College sign will remain atop the block of heritage buildings that were converted into the Princess Street campus several years ago. Roblin’s name will appear on the side of the building.
“We feel it’s important to recognize the critical role premier Roblin played in the development of Red River College as one of Canada’s leading institutes of applied learning,” said RRC president Stephanie Forsyth.
The Roblin Centre is part of a growing Exchange District campus that includes the nearby Massey Building on William Avenue and, as of September, the Paterson GlobalFoods Centre, in the old Union Bank Tower.
Red River, which also operates a large campus on Notre Dame Avenue, has more than 32,000 full-time and part-time students and apprenticeship enrolments.
When the Winnipeg Free Press published The Greatest Manitobans book in 2008, the province’s citizens named Roblin as our Greatest Manitoban.
Jennifer Roblin said her mother Mary would be amused to hear that a building housing an electrical engineering program would bear her late husband’s name.
“In our family it is Mom who rewired the kettle, kick-started the furnace and fiddled with the distributor cap on the car. Duff could not program the VCR,” Jennifer Roblin said.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca