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Gathering in memory of Lloyd Bannerman (updated, 2 photos)

Family, friends and colleagues gathered at Algoma University’s Doc Brown Lounge Sunday afternoon to remember Lloyd Bannerman on what would have been his 100th birthday.

Family, friends and colleagues gathered at Algoma University’s Doc Brown Lounge Sunday afternoon to remember Lloyd Bannerman on what would have been his 100th birthday.

It was a celebration of the life of Bannerman, an immensely popular and humorous philosophy professor, who was the first academic to be hired at Algoma University when the institution first opened on Sault College property as Algoma University College.

He helped lay down a curriculum for Algoma and guided the school through its earliest days.

Algoma University College moved to the site of the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School in 1971, and, in 2008, became fully independent as Algoma University.

Bannerman began teaching at AUC in 1967, and retired as a full-time professor in the 1980s before moving to southern Ontario.

Bannerman passed away in November 2014.

“It was absolutely wonderful,” said Guy Bannerman, the professor’s eldest son, speaking to SooToday about Sunday’s celebration.

“I never actually lived here with my parents in the Sault when both of them had teaching careers here after I had left home, so today was the first time I’d ever heard people speak directly about my father’s influence so it was incredibly moving and really, really important to fill up this 18-year gap in our family history when we were going in different directions.”

Bannerman’s ashes were placed in the Bishop Fauquier Memorial Chapel Cemetery, located behind Algoma University, Sunday at 1 p.m., and a stone will be placed to mark the spot.

“It’s been a thrilling day,” said Bannerman’s wife Leah, a former Sault College early childhood educator.

“I think Lloyd would have loved it (today’s celebration).  I just wish he could have been here, we thought he was going to make his 100th birthday.”

“It was good to hear other people’s experiences (from students and colleagues) and how they all fit together.”

“I thought it was fantastic to hear all those different views from people who knew him in different ways,” said Maja Bannerman, Lloyd Bannerman’s daughter.

“He was a person who didn’t change personalities around different people,” she said.

“With Lloyd you never knew what he was going to say, but you knew whatever he was going to give you would be a gem,” said Don Jackson, retired Algoma University professor of law and politics, who first met Bannerman at AUC in 1974.

“He was a thoughtful, intelligent and extremely respectful man and took everybody seriously, it didn’t matter if you were a four-year-old, 80 years old, a colleague or a student, he was unequivocal in terms of his commitment to the well-being of his fellow creatures,” Jackson said.

Jackson praised Bannerman for his help in starting the Shingwauk Project in 1979.

That project has grown immensely and is now known officially as the Shingwauk Residential School Centre, based out of Algoma University and dedicated to preserving the memory of the Shingwauk Residential School experience and educating the community at large about the significance of that era in Canadian history.

Sunday’s event included singing from the Healing Lodge Singers, a video interview of Lloyd Bannerman, speeches from Bannerman family members including his wife Leah, sons Guy and Christopher, daughter Maja and granddaughter Rachel, as well as colleagues such as Don Jackson, former Algoma University President Celia Ross and Shingwauk Residential School and Algoma University graduate Mike Cachagee.

(PHOTO: Lloyd Bannerman, courtesy Algoma University)


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