How I Joined St. Lawrence College
(Dick Tindal)
I was working for the Ontario Government in Toronto in 1969 when a Queen’s Professor and
mentor of mine contacted me with the news that St. Lawrence College, Kingston Campus, was
going to launch a full time program in Public Administration and would be hiring someone to be
the principal instructor. My recollection of specifics is rusty – this all happened 45 years ago –
but I will describe the experience in three parts.
The Opening Pitch
The College invited me to an evening interview, at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Some
College personnel were in the city for other reasons and it was convenient for them (and me) to
have this rather unusual arrangement. I was ushered into a room by a short, energetic man
with close-cropped hair. He spoke rapidly and didn’t always finish sentences before starting
new ones, sometimes on entirely different topics. The effect was sometimes confusing, but
oddly compelling.
The Reinforcement
When Cy Page had concluded our interview, he got up and banged on a door that connected to
an adjoining hotel room. I waited with a mixture of puzzlement and mild concern. The door
opened and someone shuffled into the room in pajamas, with the top hanging out in places,
rubbing his eyes and looking rather like an amiable bear emerging from a satisfying hibernation.
It was thus that I met Bill Cruden. Whatever we discussed must have met with approval,
because I was invited to Kingston for a second interview.
The Closer
When I went looking for Bill Cruden’s office in Kingston, I was met by a lady who was very
professional, polished, and attractive. My impression of St. Lawrence College, formed from my
two previous encounters, improved dramatically. This organization must be okay after all, I
remember thinking, to have hired someone as classy as Vi Cathcart. I joined the College.
A couple years later I had the pleasure of working for Cy Page, then Chair of Business on
Cornwall Campus, as part of a teaching assignment split between the Kingston and Cornwall
campuses. He presided over a sometimes unruly business department in Cornwall, one that
included such characters as Pat Doyle. More than once, as the rather diminutive Cy stood in the
front of the room chairing a meeting, Pat would yell out “stand up, I can’t see you”
I also saw a great deal of Bill Cruden over the years, including working closely with him on a
couple of the College’s interminable studies on evaluation and grading. [Does anyone
remember the “snake oil” salesman from California named Don Stewart, who brought us HPIF?
Bill and I often disagreed on issues, but one of his great strengths was that he never held a
grudge. He could argue with me intensely one day, then see me the next, grab me around the
shoulder and give me a hug – rather like the amiable, sleepy bear that represented my first
impression of him.