Please join the McMaster Ottawa Branch as we bid a fond farewell to
Peter George
President & Vice-Chancellor,
McMaster University
who is retiring from McMaster after 45 years as a member of faculty and 15 years of outstanding service as President in June 2010.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Rideau Club
99 Bank St.
15th Floor
Ottawa, ON
Enjoy hors d’oeuvres, complimentary drinks, and mingling
with fellow McMaster alumni and friends from 5 to 7 p.m.
Admission is free.
Please RSVP to alumni@mcmaster.ca, or by phone, toll free: 1.888.217.6003, tel: 905.525.9140 ext. 23900.
Leave your farewell message to Peter George at his official tour blog.
Please join us as we bid a fond farewell to
Peter George
President & Vice-Chancellor,
McMaster University
who is retiring from McMaster after 45 years as a member of faculty and 15 years of outstanding service as President in June 2010.
Here is the current Peter George Farewell Tour schedule:
|
BRANTFORD |
September 20, 2009 |
The Brantford Club |
|
October 27, 2009 |
Rideau Club |
|
|
BEIJING |
November 24, 2009 |
TBA |
|
SHANGHAI |
November 26, 2009 |
TBA |
|
December 1, 2009 |
The Hong Kong Banker’s Club |
|
|
TORONTO |
December 10, 2009 |
Albany Club |
|
MONTREAL |
March 11, 2010 |
Club St. James |
|
CALGARY |
March 29, 2010 |
Petroleum Club |
|
VANCOUVER |
March 30, 2010 |
Vancouver Club |
|
VICTORIA |
March 31, 2010 |
Fairmont Empress |
|
HAMILTON |
April 21, 2010 |
Convention Centre |
Please RSVP to alumni@mcmaster.ca, or by phone, toll free: 1.888.217.6003, tel: 905.525.9140 ext. 23900.
Leave your farewell message to Peter George in the comments section of this blog.
petergeorgetour.wordpress.com 
October 2, 2009 at 7:08 pm |
I received an invitation to attend a farewell reception for President George in Ottawa at the Rideau Club on October 27, 2009. Unfortunately I shall be out of the country at that time. Please inform President George of my profound regrets at being unable to be present and of my sincere admiration for all the great work he has done on behalf of McMaster University.
October 2, 2009 at 7:12 pm |
Please convey my great regret to President Peter George for not being able to attend his retirement reception at the Rideau Club in Ottawa.
I have the very warmest recollections of Dr. George whom I came to know when I was awarded an honorary doctorate by McMaster. He is a most thoughtful and gracious host and, more importantly, I considered him to have been a great President for McMaster. I am sure he will not simply “retire” and so I will be looking forward to meeting him in the course of our various respective activities.
I do wish him the very best for the next phase of his wonderful career.
October 23, 2009 at 6:15 pm |
Peter,
We wanted to express our heartfelt felicitations on beginning the next phase of your career!
We are very proud to call ourselves McMaster Grads largely because of what you have helped McMaster become – an outstanding University. We want to thank you for your leadership, vision, guidance, stewardship, and professionalism. We also want to thank you for your genuine interest in and support for the Ismaili community. We are very proud to call you a mentor and friend.
Until our paths cross again, please enjoy your time with your family and friends.
October 30, 2009 at 5:09 pm |
I remember walking to class in the morning and seeing Peter George on campus smiling. Always smiling!
He is part of my fondest memories of university and I will definitely be coming to his Farewell Tour. So lucky to have had you as President during my studies! I was thinking about going back to do my Masters. It won’t be the same without you there but I am sure you are moving onto bigger and better things.
All the best Mr. George! =)
November 12, 2009 at 7:44 am |
Hello President George
I have a little story to share with you … I’m sure you have congratulated an almost uncountable number of graduates as they crossed the convocation stage. A few years ago I was one of those graduates and on my convocation day you made an indelible mark on my memory.
As an elite varsity athlete, good student, and university employee I had had the pleasure of meeting you on several occasions prior to my convocation. You must have an amazing memory for faces and names, or perhaps just an equally amazing ability to ‘connect’ with individuals, because on the day I crossed the convocation stage I shook your hand and you said “Hello Ellen, what’s next for you?” I was totally thrown off guard!! I expected to shake your hand and keep on walking but instead you had a personal comment for me. I answered “I hope to teach English in South Korea”. Which is what I did and where I still am now – teaching Social Studies in South Korea – and hence why I will not be able to attend your farewell party.
The point of my story is to relate that to me you were more than just a guy in a suit who was the face of McMaster. To me you were the intelligent leader and personable individual who guided ‘my’ university and made me feel like, for all it’s greatness, Mac was also a place where I belonged and was a person, not a number. Thank you.
Congratulations on a job well done and best wishes as you embark on the next phase of your life!
November 21, 2009 at 3:04 pm |
All the best in retirement.
From June Attig Howie Bullock, class of ’40, member President’s Club, now age 90, residing in LTC in Oshawa.
November 25, 2009 at 3:50 pm |
Peter
You have done a wonderful job at McMaster and you are personally responsibile in so many ways for making it the desirable destination for both undergrads and graduate programs it has become. I am grateful to McMaster for my own excellent experience as a candidate in the MA(T) program and proud of its excellence as someone who has always been a Hamiltonian at heart. So, on my own behalf, and on behalf of your old school, UTS, may I offer my thanks and congratulations for all you have contributed.
Michaele Robertson ’86
Principal, UTS
November 27, 2009 at 4:06 am |
Hello Peter, wow, how has time gone by so quickly. Congratulations on 45 years of service McMaster. John and I are sorry we can’t attend the event on Dec. 10th, but we wish you well and all the best in your future plans. Hope you and your family are well. You will be a tough act to follow.
Cheers,
John and Chris Hawkrigg
December 4, 2009 at 9:46 pm |
Hello Peter,
We have only met casually, at a 25th reunion for the class of ’79 Chem Eng. I recall you were willing and able to chug a beer (and perhaps two) for the group. I saw in you someone who could easily connect to people, not matter what their stripes.
From a three generation family of McMaster people (my father, Harold Bridle, Registrar’s office, and mother, Grace, MUMC, my brother Larry, ’79 Elec. Eng., and my daughter Leah Bridle, ’06 BA History, ’07 MA History, I wish you the best as your follow a new path in life. You have contributed to making McMaster a place our family is proud to call home.
Best,
Warren Bridle ’79
December 7, 2009 at 3:05 pm |
Greetings from one of your early students in the late 1960s at Mac. I am still involved in economics as a consultant. Best wishes in your new career. You have made an excellent contribution to Canada in the past and I am sure will continue to do so.
December 10, 2009 at 8:51 pm |
May the wind be at your back and the sun shine on your face. Mazel tov!
December 12, 2009 at 11:15 pm |
Dear President George,
It was a privilege meeting with you on December 10, 2009 at the Fairmount Royal York Hotel in Toronto and I have had the opportunity to speak with you personally. Being the University’s President, you are very approachable and warm. Thank you for being such an outstanding President of McMaster Unversity and through your leadership McMaster has become one of the world’s most renown university ! I graduated in 1985 and received a B.A. in Sociology and I am now working in a legal related field. My wish is that in the future McMaster University will be able to offer law programme.
I wish you the very best in your retirement and that you can spend more time with your family and your little daughter.
Take care
Amy
February 5, 2010 at 5:58 pm |
Peter
You have had a long and successful career at McMaster and I am looking forward to meeting you in person when you come to Calgary.
Your tours will give many of us an opportunity to thank you and to recognize you for all you have done for the University.
Congratulations !
Jean Rankin
February 9, 2010 at 8:06 pm |
Peter,
Thank you for supporting the Instructional Development Centre at a time when it was quite difficult to do. There are many faculty members who had projects funded by the Centre and so helped their students learn. It is quite surprising how a decision made by a President can have a positive effect on the learning of a student.
Thank you for being a President who cares for his students in this way.
Alan Blizzard
February 10, 2010 at 4:29 pm |
All the best in your retirement Peter. Retirement is lots of fun, as
I found out after retiring a few years ago.
I was at McMaster from about 1968 to 1971 or so, and came away with a PhD from the Geology Dept., with Dr. Derrick Ford as my supervisor.
After that I worked as an engineer at Syncrude in Edmonton and Ft
McMurray for 35 years or so, and retired to Victoria a few ago.
I wish you a happy and long retirement. We expect to be at you get-
together in Victoria on March 31
Dr. Julian Coward
February 28, 2010 at 4:40 am |
Dr. George
May you have a long, healthy, and happy retirement after many years of distinguished dedication to McMaster.
Sincerely
Mona Hunter
March 3, 2010 at 4:43 am |
President George,
While contemplating a major career change and family move in 2006, I looked up your message to my graduating class (Marmor 1996, Pg 9). You wrote about a McMaster education being about “character, civility and the common good, about public service and genuine concern for those less advantaged than ourselves”.
Those words played a significant role in my decision to join the public sector, putting my engineering education at the service of public transit.
Thank you, and best wishes in retirement,
Craig Harper, B.Eng.Soc ’96
Calgary, Alberta
March 11, 2010 at 5:07 pm |
Dear Peter,
As you step down from your long, productive and highly successful career as a member of faculty and president of McMaster University, I want to convey my personal greetings to you, and extend congratulations and best wishes on behalf of my colleagues at Concordia University.
I feel privileged to have worked with you as a colleague in Ontario for six years. It was a time of great challenges and much success as we worked together around the COU table and with representatives of government to advance the cause of higher education. While I left the very convivial group in Ontario to join the rectors of Quebec, I still had the opportunity to benefit from your professional wisdom and good company at AUCC over the past two years.
Your wise and seasoned leadership has been a source of inspiration to us all and I have on several occasions benefited personally from advice you have provided me. I shall also remember with fondness some of those more “social” moments we shared: a couple of drinks on an outdoor terrace in India while on the Premier’s trade mission, and those lively outings into the Ontario winterscape with our spouses, Allison and Lindsay, and other PAPOOPSI colleagues. I use the word “social” with quotation marks because, despite the winter sports, sing-songs, skits and other diversions, the comically named “PAPOOPSI” and similar events brought us closer together and provided another kind of opportunity for collegiality and big picture thinking.
I’ve learned a lot from you and owe you a debt of gratitude – but it’s only a very small piece of what McMaster owes you for your years of long service. You will undoubtedly receive a fitting tribute from the university that you have served for 45 years. I am sorry I will not be with you at the Ronald V. Joyce Centre for the Performing Arts in Hamilton on March 23rd. However, I do wish you an outstanding celebration, and above all, I wish you long years of good health and happiness, with all the time in the world to enjoy your family and favourite past times.
With all good wishes and much affection,
Judith Woodsworth
March 23, 2010 at 5:27 pm |
WLTS-Div College’61
Dear Peter: Having not having the pleasure of being at Mac when you were there, I was reading the article you wrote for the Magazine!
I AM impressed by the growth and amazing reports about Mac,especially in the feild of Medicine. When I was at Mac, I was one of the Nurses’, on call, in my second year at the Divinity College. May you have a blessed Retirement….a new and worthwhile time of refreshment and Fun…Do have fun tand take time to smell the COFFEE, I mean, the ROSES!
Sincere wishes!
Liz Mottishaw/Martel.
March 25, 2010 at 6:31 pm |
Dear Peter:
Congratulations on all that has been achieved at Mac during your presidency. I count it a privilege to be your former Mac colleague and value my continuing strong professional and personal ties to Mac.
I regret that a UK trip prevents me from attending the March 31st farewell reception in Victoria and congratulating you in person for all that you have accomplished during your three terms as President.
With very best wishes for all that the future holds in store.
Martin Taylor
President and CEO, Ocean Networks Canada
May 4, 2010 at 4:23 pm |
Dr George,
Here’s wishing you a long and healthy retirement.
Though we did not know you when we were at Mac in the early 70’s, we have enjoyed meeting you in recent years, mainly at the annual Chinese ALumni Dinner in Toronto. You have certainly set the bar high in the dinstinctive effort to connect with Mac stakeholders past and present. There is no question that Mac is a better place with you.
We will miss your alumni farewell party in Mississauga on May 26 since we will be vacationing in China. Enjoy the party.
Kelvin and Stella Tse
June 8, 2010 at 5:00 pm |
Peter:
I just wanted to add my voice to the many who have already thanked you for your tireless service on behalf of McMaster University. The achievements during your tenure are too numerous to count. Your successor has big shoes to fill.
I have fond memories of meeting with you on a number of occassions in Vancouver. You always had time for a bit of a chat despite many others clamouring for your attention. It is with sincere regret that I was unable to attend the Farewell Tour.
My hope is that the next phase of your life will be long and lived in good health. May ‘Baba’ and Lily Rose spend countless hours in play!
Regards,
Fran Goldberg
Class of 1976 and Alumni Gallery Inductee 1995