Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute

The Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI, Guelph C.V.I., GC) is a public high school located in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The school is the oldest continuously operating public high school in Guelph, and the third oldest in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute For People
Address
155 Paisley Street Guelph , Ontario , N1H 2P3 Canada
Coordinates	43°32′34″N 80°15′33″W
Information
School type	Public
Motto	Hic Patet Ingeniis Campus ("Here lies open the field for the quest of knowledge=Lambo.")
Religious affiliation(s)	Public School
Founded	1854
School board	Upper Grand District School Board
Principal	James Cako
Grades	9-12+
Enrollment	1555 (October 2016)
Language	English
Colour(s)	Green and white
Team name	Gaels
Website	www.ugdsb.ca/gcvi/

Layout

The Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute consists of four main buildings. The Old Building (building A) consists of three levels. The bottom level holds the visual arts department, chemistry department and a general sciences department. The floor above holds the guidance department, main office, geography department, math department and an auditorium that extends up into the top floor. The top floor holds the English department, family studies department and the biology department.

Building B (the New Building) has three levels as well. The business and economics departments, as well as the physics department and the nurse's office, are located on the lowest floor. A computer education department is located on the second level. The history and current languages departments are on the upper floor. Building C is divided into two floors. Three distinct gymnasiums are located on the first floor. The cafeteria of the school is above. The school's technology and music departments are housed in Building D. There are nine separate shops in the technological sector. They include: integrated technology, transportation technology, manufacturing technology, construction technology, communication technology, technological design, computer engineering technology and computer information science.

Architecture

The Old Building of the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute consists of building styles that are unique only to that school in the City of Guelph. The original oak doors are still present from the building's original construction in 1923. Marble and granite encase all of the hallway floors throughout The Old Building. The hallways on the main floor of The Old Building measure an outstanding 18 ft. in height. The main entrance way into the school is surrounded by a large archway. It is easy to see the vast number of students who have walked the halls of G.C.V.I. as there are large indents that have been left in the granite stairways of the school from many thousands of feet walking up and down them each day.

Notable alumni

Luke Kirby

Harry Howell

John McCrae

Jean Little

Actors

• Carla Collins (1965 – ), actress known for her role of Rusty Sinclair in Paradise Falls
• Luke Kirby (1978 – ), Primetime Emmy Award winner in the role of Lenny Bruce in the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Artists

• Kelly Richardson (1972 – ), artist working with digital technologies to create hyper-real landscapes

Athletes

• Harry Howell (1932 – 2019), professional ice hockey player from 1952 – 1976 and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979
• Marissa Kurtimah (1994 – ), track and field athlete named to the Canadian Olympic team in 2016.
• Jake Reinhart (1989 – ), professional Canadian football player from 2014 – 2022
• Tavius Robinson (1999 – ), professional American football player with the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League
• Adam Spencer (1972 – ), curler who has represented Ontario at The Brier

Business people

• Arthur William Cutten (1870 – 1936), commodity speculator on Wall Street
• James Jerome Hill (1838 – 1916), chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway

Military

• Charley Fox (1920 – 2008), Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II
• John Kenneth Macalister (1914 – 1944), volunteered for the Special Operations Executive in World War II and was executed at Buchenwald concentration camp
• John McCrae (1872 – 1918), World War I physician and author of the poem In Flanders Fields

Musicians

• Mike DeAngelis (???? – ), guitarist for the Arkells
• Edward Johnson (1878 – 1959), general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1935 – 1950
• Andrew Paul MacDonald (???? – ), classical composer, guitarist, conductor and music educator
• Virginia to Vegas (???? – ), singer and songwriter known for the songs We Are Stars and Lights Out

Politicians

• George Alexander Drew (1894 – 1973), 14th premier of Ontario from 1943 – 1948
• Hugh Guthrie (1866 – 1939), member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1900 – 1935
• Alfred Hales (1909 – 1998), member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1957 – 1968
• William Ernest Hamilton (1902 – 1985), member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1945 – 1955
• Henry Alfred Hosking (1908 – 1957), member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1948 – 1957
• Ted Jolliffe (1909 – 1998), leader of the Ontario CCF from 1942 – 1953
• Liz Sandals (1947 – ), member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 – 2018

Scientists

• Donna Strickland (1959 – ), awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 for the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification

Writers

• Judy Fong Bates (1949 – ), Alex Award winning author of Midnight at the Dragon Café
• Beth Goobie (1959 – ), poet and fiction writer known for her poem Civilization lives in the throat
• Jean Little (1932 – 2020), children's author of Mine for Keeps and From Anna
• Joey Slinger (1943 – ), humour columnist for the Toronto Star

Influence on Canadian history

• Former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker married a GCVI teacher, and made two prominent visits to the school including a stop as opposition leader in 1957, just weeks before being sworn in as Prime Minister, and one as Prime Minister in 1963 just before losing the next election to Liberal Leader Lester B. Pearson
• John Diefenbaker's first visit launched the 17-year political career of Alfred Dryden Hales, alumnus of G.C.V.I. Hales chaired the Public Accounts Committee for 6 years, and was beloved by his constituents.
• Less than 24 hours before Diefenbaker's first visit Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent stopped at the school. Diefenbaker drew a much larger and much more enthusiastic crowd (a sure sign of what was to come in the election).
• John Diefenbaker had replaced George Alexander Drew (a former GCVI Student) as leader of the Conservative Party less than a year before becoming Prime Minister in 1957.
• During the Ontario provincial elections of 1943, 1945 and 1948, both the Premier George Alexander Drew and Opposition Leader Edward Bigelow (Ted) Jolliffe were former GCVI Students, so regardless of who won the election the Premier of Ontario would have been a GCVI alumnus.^[1]
• George Alexander Drew was the second GCVI student to hold the position of Federal Leader of the Opposition, following Hugh Guthrie, who held the post for little under a year in the early half of the 20th century.

See also

• Education in Ontario
• List of secondary schools in Ontario