The park is located just north of the former Lindsay Place High School, which closed this summer after 59 years due to low enrolment.
Article content
The city of Pointe-Claire will honour Judge Lindsay Place by naming a sports field in John Fisher Park after the man who played a major role in building the education sector in the West Island in the 20th century.
Advertisement
Article content
The city passed a motion at Tuesday’s council meeting to officially name the park the Judge Lindsay H. Place – Sports Field.
The park is located on John-Fisher Ave., just north of the former Lindsay Place High School, which closed this summer after 59 years due to low enrolment.
The Lindsay Place school building recently reopened under the name of St. Thomas High School, which has relocated from its previous premises on Ambassador Ave. in Pointe-Claire. The relocation move consolidates the student population at the newly-branded high school (which includes former Lindsay students) and helps maintain an array of academic programs.
The school opened in 1962 bearing the name of Place, who was described on the LPHS website as a “driving force behind the emergence of the Lakeshore School Board as it expanded from a few schools and gradually became a major school board in Quebec” in the 1950s and 60s.
Advertisement
Article content
Place also served as president of the Quebec Association of Protestant School Boards and president of the Canadian School Trustees Association.
Ian Howarth, a former LPHS teacher who organized a farewell gathering of former staff and students on the school’s final day of classes in June, applauded the move to honour Place. He says renaming the sports field, better known as the ‘Upper Field’, is “as good as any idea when you get right down to it.
“I think it’s the best way to keep Lindsay Place’s name out there and out of respect for his name and what he did for the community back when he was a judge.
“They named a school after him for a reason,” Howarth added. “I’m just glad his name is being kept alive. Otherwise, a good chunk of history just disappears.”
Advertisement
Article content
“There was some movement afoot about the renaming of Broadview Ave., which is the school’s address at 111 Broadview, and renaming it Lindsay Place. However, I don’t think the city was prepared to do that. This was their best option to answer to the general clamour about Lindsay Place being forgotten somehow,” Howarth said.
There are also plans to honour Lindsay Place, who died in 1976 at age 65, within the confines of the newly-dubbed St. Thomas High School.
Judge Lindsay Place, known as “Bill” to friends, volunteered as a commissioner of the Protestant School Commission of Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield and later became the board’s chairman. He also served as an executive with the downtown YMCA, a municipal judge in Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield, and director of Child Care and Child Development Centres.
“Those accomplishments were achieved in his spare time: Lindsay H. Place worked full time as a vice-president of the legal arm of Alcan,” according to the LPHS website.
Pointe-Claire names sports field after Judge Lindsay Place - Montreal Gazette
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment