William James Lea is an expert on maps, but he never needed one to guide his own journey. He never needed a course correction.
“I can’t believe how lucky I have been in my life,” the 95-year-old Algonquin College pioneer said in a recent interview. “Things sort of clicked together. These are circumstances that overtake you. You go on a certain path and you don’t know where it’s going to lead, but you want to make a change and (it works out).”
Then a novice to teaching, Lea was hired in 1966 to create a cartography program from scratch for the Ontario Vocational Centre in Ottawa. The OVC later merged with the Eastern Ontario Institute of Technology to form Algonquin College. Lea served as head of the College’s Survey and Mapping department during the ‘70s – overseeing the curriculum he painstakingly designed.
Lea celebrates his 95th birthday on Dec. 9 – another milestone in a life charmed in equal parts by love, luck, dedication, and destiny.
Lea’s mapping skills were forged during the Second World War as part of the Royal Canadian Military Engineers. He was put through basic training, advance training and then specialized in air surveying: his knack was for taking photos from above and producing maps of the world below. After he being shipped overseas, he served in France, Belgium, Holland, and England.
During his stint in England, he met his brother for a drink at the Canadian Club. That was where fate introduced him to an Englishwoman named Kathleen.
“She liked to go ballroom dancing,” he says. “I didn’t know how to dance. Kathleen taught me how to dance.” She then followed his lead by accepting a marriage proposal and moving back to Canada. Lea worked for a photographic air survey company in Toronto after the war, but he was looking for a change after 20 years on the job. Teaching appealed to him, but his expertise wasn’t needed in high schools. He took a long shot and applied for a job at the OVC. Ever humble, he’s still “thankful that no one in the surveying and mapping branch of the federal government wanted the job.”
Right place, right time. When OVC Principal Ken Shoultz called to offer Lea the position, there was only one other person’s opinion that mattered. He recalls putting down the phone and turning to his wife and saying, “Do you want to move to Ottawa?”
The rest his history.
His new role marked a complete change in profession. That meant deciding on course topics (from field surveying to telescopes), designing curriculum, and filling in the gaps in his own knowledge.
“I had to research a lot of stuff,” Lea recalls. “It was a great opportunity for me.” “I’ve always managed to … move forward in life.”
The Centre needed a teacher, but it also needed the proper gear to deliver Lea’s new two-year technician program. Lea’s diligent search landed nearly $9,000 worth of equipment from the federal government, including drafting tables and three chart plotters. “I went to Crown assets and got a lot of equipment they weren’t using,” he recalls proudly.
His program had 14 students in its first year, and would continue to grow under Lea’s leadership. He refers to himself as the “last of the Crazy Eights” – four couples bound by the evolving institution who became lifelong friends, and helped build Algonquin College’s very foundations.
The Crazy Eights included OVC’s principal, the late Ken Shoultz, who went on to be the College’s first dean of the Technical Centre for Algonquin College; and vice-principal Ron Watson (who later became dean on Perth campus).
“I always felt a little but guilty hobnobbing with the principal and vice principal of the school,” Lea jokes.
Fittingly, Lea was in the audience at Spring 2017 Convocation to see Algonquin College present his friend and former mentor with an honorary degree.
It was a fitting tribute. After all, friendship and family anchored Lea’s life – and they were inextricably woven together by the Centre-turned-College. His wife Kathleen even worked in the same campus book store for a few years. The other Crazy Eights included Ron’s wife Shirley, Ken’s wife Doris, and another couple, Valerie and Nick Morling (a marketing teacher in the Business program).
They formed a leadership team on campus and a friendship team off it – often vacationing together, and establishing a bond between their families. In fact, it was one of Shoultz’ kids who coined the term “Crazy Eights” after witnessing the adults’ antics at a dinner party.
“One of the daughters said, ‘listen to them, they’re crazy,” and we picked it up,” Lea recalls. “We holidayed together, dined together, laughed together, (and) cried together when things didn’t go right.”
Lea retired at 65, and has outlived his dear friends and his dearest friend, his wife. But they are never far from his thoughts. In a life of twists and turns, the campus gave him some of his happiest years and memories.
Thirty years removed from the classroom, he still recalls the most important lesson he conveyed to students. “Attention – (to absorb) the information I was teaching him.
“Teaching is very much an act,” he continues. “When you think about it, here you are at the front of a classroom with 30 to 40 students who are somewhat eager, but are also assessing me. Teaching is a bit showmanship, it really is. If you sit at your desk, and pop your textbook up, and teach from your textbook – there is (nothing compelling).”
Lea’s secret was to create a mobile, interactive classroom. He made sure he knew the material and he taught as he wandered the class, taking questions, and engaging students in conversation.
The tactics may have been far from commonplace back then, but fall in line with modern strategies for student engagement. Lea – and the College – were ahead of their time.
He remains humble about his ability to keep students interested all those years. “It wasn’t my personality, it was the course,” he laughs.
Lea enjoyed his summer’s off, but was always devoted to research, prepping the next year’s teaching material, and visiting companies for the latest information in his field. Bringing that kind of industry expertise into the classroom remains at the heart of the College’s modern vision. Lea even found time to fit in part-time classes and earned his Chartered Survey Technologist BA while teaching.
On the College’s 50th anniversary, Lea is very conscious of the College’s founder – his friend, mentor, and the man that gave him a chance.
“Ken started the whole thing,” he says. “I was fortunate to land a job teaching at the OVC, meet wonderful people, and get friendly with them.”
For a trip down memory lane, Lea often turns to his photo collection of the Crazy Eights. “Regrettably, they are gone; I am the last man standing,” Lea says. There is no trace of bitterness in his voice, and only a hint of sadness. It is the warm, sentimental tone of a man with great memories, and few regrets.
“Thank you, Algonquin College,” he adds. “You made my life what it is today.”