“A university is an institution for all time. It can only build
soundly if it has wide vision and a far-seeing penetration. It
cannot permit itself to be too seriously affected by the
difficulties of the moment, whether in its spirit or its
material well being. For it has a carryover value, which is one
of its greatest assets: and to maintain this value a continuity
of purpose is essential.” R. C. Wallace 1 The one-hundred-year
history of the University of Alberta has been a century of
vision, a vision borne out of the partnership of two ambitious
men: Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first Premier of Alberta,
and Henry Marshall Tory, a McGill University professor who
became the University of Alberta’s first president. Critics at
the time dismissed their dream as impossible, or at best
impractical, but the vision would become a reality. The passing
of the University Act in 1906 by the new government of Alberta
paved the way to the official opening of the University in 1908.
The early years, under the careful