News from Brock University
St. Catharines, Ontario, September, 2014 – This September 11th, Brock University renamed Meter Road on its St. Catharines campus Flora Egerter Way in recognition of the leadership and work done by Egerter and the Allanburg Women’s Institute in the late 1950s to establish a university in Niagara.
Ontario Premier John Robarts with Flora Egerter celebrating in 1963, celebrating the soon-to-be launched Brock University in Niagara, Ontario
Members of Egerter’s family and the Women’s Institute were on hand for the renaming celebration, which is part of Brock’s 50th anniversary celebrations this year.
“Flora Egerter and the Allanburg Women’s Institute were right to lead the charge for a University in Niagara, and the last 50 years have proved it,” said Brock University President Jack Lightstone at today’s ceremony.
“Our University is flourishing in ways that should make Flora and her like-minded collaborators, those who founded the University, and those who have supported us over the past 50 years, extremely proud.”
A plaque detailing why Flora is such an important figure in the history of Brock was also announced today and will be installed along the sidewalk at the corner the newly named Flora Egerter Way and University Road East, just outside the Campus Store.
“Seemingly, she was just an ordinary person living an ordinary life who came up with this brilliant idea. A lot of people have brilliant ideas but not many do something about it,” said Dorothy Krynicki, an administrative assistant in Brock’s Department of Political Science who has extensively researched Egerter.
“Her insight, her persistence, her achievement has affected thousands of lives,” said Krynicki. “She came up with the idea and saw it come to fruition in just seven years.”
In 1957, the Niagara Peninsula was in the midst of a baby boom. Its population was growing, and there was talk of opening four new universities in Ontario. The government money was there, but the local movement just needed a voice, and that’s where Flora Egerter came along.
She felt strongly about the need for a university in Niagara, and it was the resolution she presented to the Allanburg Women’s Institute – of which she was a member – that helped rally the community support that led to the eventual creation of Brock.
Egerter was born in 1893 and grew up in Thorold. She died in 1977 survived by three children and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Photo caption: Meter Road was officially renamed Flora Egerter Way on Thursday, in honour of the woman whose idea helped bring Brock University to Niagara. Pictured from left: Orval Egerter, Eileen Finnson (Egerter), Jean Egerter and Marion Egerter.
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