Remembering Carl Dare, our final founder

Carl Dare, former president of Dare Foods and the last living member of the University of Waterloo’s original board of governors, died on Wednesday, April 9. He was 96.

“Carl Dare was one of the six community leaders who met in September 1955 to identify those who might serve on a possible Board of Governors for a “Waterloo College Associate Faculty,” (University of Waterloo),” writes university historian Kenneth McLaughlin. “He was the last surviving member of that remarkable group who founded the University of Waterloo.”

The Dare (formerly Doerr) family name is a familiar one in Waterloo Region. Dare Foods dates back to 1889, when Charles H. Doerr, Carl’s grandfather, opened a grocery store on the corner of Breithaupt and Gzowski (now Weber) Streets in Berlin, Ontario. By 1892 the store had become a biscuit-making operation. Born in 1917, Carl took over the family business in 1941 when he was twenty-four. He legally changed both his and his company’s name from Doerr to Dare in 1945. Under his leadership, the company became one of Canada's leading snack food manufacturers.

He also played a leading role in the founding of this university. In September 1955 he was invited to a luncheon at the Granite Club by Gerry Hagey, president of Waterloo College, and Ira G. Needles, president of B.F. Goodrich Co. of Canada, who were interested in sounding out the local business community on the idea of a new science-focused institution that would be associated with Waterloo College (now Wilfrid Laurier University). There, Dare lent his support to the idea.

As McLaughlin notes in his book "Waterloo: The Unconventional Founding of an Unconventional University," Dare was also one of 17 local business leaders and professionals who met at 4:00 p.m. on Friday December 16, 1955, in the boardroom of Waterloo College, near the corner of Dearborn Street (which would later become University Avenue) and Albert Street at the behest of Gerry Hagey. The meeting was chaired by Ira G. Needles, president of B. F. Goodrich Co. of Canada, with Dare serving as secretary.

As the three-page typewritten minutes of the meeting indicate, it was moved by Carl A. Pollock (president of Dominion Electrohome Industries), seconded by A. M. Snider (president of Sunshine Waterloo Co. Ltd.), and carried, that "Those present agree that they will serve as charter members of a Board of Governors for a Faculty of Science to be affiliated with Waterloo College and that they will record their agreement by affixing their signature to this motion. Also, that those invited to this meeting, but unable to attend, be given an opportunity to serve and to indicate their agreement by affixing their signatures to the motion."

Among the others on hand were A. R. Kaufman of Kaufman Rubber, John E. Motz of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, physician Harry Lackner, and lawyer J. Kenneth Sims, whose son Peter Sims would later serve as Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of Waterloo. Five men— including J. W. Scott, general manager of Waterloo Trust and Savings, eventually to be a part of TD Canada Trust—were listed as invited but unable to attend.

The names of those in attendance and those who served on the University's Board of Governors from 1957 to 1962 including Dare's are enshrined on a plaque located outside of South Campus Hall facing University Avenue.

Dare also served as a member of the Legal Committee that made the application for the university’s incorporation and he later donated his family’s papers and the extensive corporate records of Dare Foods to the University of Waterloo’s archives.

In 2007 the University of Waterloo awarded Dare an honourary LL.D recognizing his role in founding the university. “At that time, Mr. Dare vividly recalled travelling to Queen’s Park with the University’s first President, Gerald Hagey, to lobby the government of Leslie Frost for support for a new university in Waterloo,” writes McLaughlin.

A memorial service has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 30 at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Kitchener at 11:00 a.m.

“Carl Dare’s passing marks the end of a remarkable era and the passing of one of the Region of Waterloo’s leading citizens,” McLaughlin concludes.

 

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Taking innovation to the international stage

by Bill Bean

Every business, every idea and every product being created right now, is being “born global.”

That’s the takeaway from the Waterloo Innovation Summit, which ended its two-day run Tuesday at the University of Waterloo.

Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, students, government officials and academics gathered at the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre to share a conversation about innovation, and how the University’s role in a high-tech hub can benefit the local and national economy.

Although there was much discussion about whether a company should try to grow in Canada or go south of the border, the message that kept coming through was the global nature of the commercialization of innovation.

Torsten Kolind, co-founder and CEO of startup enabler YouNoodle put it bluntly: when it comes to startups everywhere, “Everyone is born global.”

“It’s not just, ‘Does this work in Waterloo, or Ontario, or Canada — does it work globally’,” he challenged the crowd. “Make sure you are looking way beyond what is happening on campus.”

Communitech president and CEO Iain Klugman, in a panel on the role of government in the innovation economy, said Canadians have to revisit their approach to competitiveness: “We’re not competing with Nova Scotia — we’re competing with the world.” Peter Harder, senior policy advisor to Dentons Canada LLP, and a former long-serving deputy minister in several federal financial portfolios, said, “We have to find a method to build Canadian participation in the global economy of the 21^st century. . . . What better base than Waterloo, the leader of Canada’s innovation agenda, to take that to the world?”

Attendees heard from the creators of University of Waterloo-linked startups who were in the spotlight Tuesday. The creators, in turn, put the University in the spotlight, crediting it with giving them the tools to build their own companies.

Matin Esfahani is CEO of Lumotune, which uses multi-layer transparent films to turn any glass surface into a display billboard. Key is the computer-controlled nanotechnology that allows portions of the film to become opaque, creating words or images. “We are monetizing glass space . . . this is the future of glass,” Esfahani said, “This would not have been possible without the Waterloo community. We graduated into an ecosystem made for us.”

Camelia Nunez is the co-founder of Milao, an on-demand language tutor. Although she holds a PhD in linguistics and lectured at the University of Waterloo, she was also a student, taking several courses in business and entrepreneurship. Within a year, she created and beta-tested her company on-campus and is now looking to get Milao into 10 universities in Canada and the United States. “In Waterloo, things happen fast,” she said.

A number of startup experts also shared their observations, including Eric Migicovsky (pictured above), founder and CEO of Pebble Technology, the company behind the Pebble watch ,who talked about his experience of building a prototype with parts scavenged from an old cellphone, and being head of a company that is making $60 million a year. He told startups to pay attention to the product-market fit. “Make something that people want. It’s up to the startup to figure out what people want.”

For more highlights from the summit, check the summit's blog.

Photograph by Jonathan Bielaski.

 

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Waterloo sends reps to Saudi education event

by Marta Bailey

Lynne Wight, Manager, Graduate International Agreements, Recruitment and Admissions, Graduate Studies Office will be attending the fifth annual International Exhibition and Conference in Higher Education (IECHE) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from April 15 to April 18.

University of Waterloo representatives have attended the IECHE since its inception, including President Feridun Hamdullahpur in 2012.  Joining Lynne at the University of Waterloo booth will be Valerie Herteis, International Marketing & Recruitment Specialists, Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment and Ralon Nazareth, Marketing and Recruitment Specialist, English Language Institute, Renison University College. Ralon and Lynne are pictured at right at the 2013 IECHE fair. The group is also very pleased to have alumni and co-op student assistance at the event.

Attendance is expected to exceed 300,000 visitors, including students and their parents.  Additional information about this event can be obtained from Lynne Wight. 

 

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CECA contest sees inspiring student responses

by Caitlin Feehan.

During National Co-op Week last month, the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE) co-ordinated a social media contest. Co-op students attending participating post-secondary institutes all over Canada were encouraged to submit answers to various questions about their work term experiences for a chance to win daily and grand prizes.

As it turns out, the University of Waterloo had the highest number of entries in Canada once again!

Below is a sample of the inspiring comments about UWaterloo’s co-op program sent in by contest participants. The statements demonstrate just how important the co-op program is to our students.

• “My CECA advisor taught me to take chances, which led me to my first work term being international. This has been positive on my career development because I demonstrated to myself and future employers that I can rise to the challenge of working in a multicultural and multilingual environment.”

• “Thanks to co-operative education, I'm graduating with the skills necessary to succeed in the field I'm most interested in. Getting a competitive, professional advantage is an immense asset for me, and I look forward to developing more skills in my future co-op terms.”

• “UWaterloo’s Career Action Centre always has lots of resources available for students. The [staff]are all very friendly. They taught me how to build up my résumé, cover letter and how to survive interviews. More importantly, they taught me that I need to respect my true self. This has helped me a lot in terms of my personal and career development.”

• “My CECA advisor taught me to believe in myself. It can be intimidating to apply for a job with a large, well known company that hundreds of students have already applied to. You may think it is a waste of time to apply because "you will never get the job" but remember that anything is possible and you have nothing to lose!”

• “My supervisor taught me that co-op can be immensely helpful in future career development. At my workplace, she treated me like a full-time employee - not just a student - and I developed skills like time and project management, attention to detail, and oral communication. I was able to present to the entire team about a project I was working on - something I never thought I'd be able to do as a student. I'm very thankful for the guidance and support she provided me during my work term.”

• “I learned that the technical as well as communication skills I developed during my work term will contribute significantly to my career development. My co-op employer helped me further develop my problem-solving skills and ability to think outside the box to come up with innovative solutions to everyday problems.”

• “I joined Co-operative Education because I felt it would prepare me for working full-time after graduation. The program has affected me positively, as I have gained so much experience in different roles and improved my skills for the future. I couldn't have asked for anything more.”

As you can see, Co-operative Education has a huge impact on the lives of co-op students at UWaterloo by allowing them to expand their horizons and contribute to their professional development.

Congratulations to Emily Kozlowski, Ali Barras, Faith Tang, Avree Scarcello, and John Lape, the social media contest daily prize winners from UWaterloo. Thursday’s winner, Avree Scarcello, also won the CAFCE grand prize of a $100 gift card to H&M.

Congratulations again to all of the winners, and we hope to hear from even MORE students during National Co-op Week next year!

 

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Another Heartbleed update from IST

Here's the latest on the Heartbleed bug from Jason Testart, director of information security services:

"The Heartbleed bug did not affect Quest, JobMine, or MyHRinfo. IST-provided services that were affected by the Heartbleed bug (other systems requiring authentication) were patched within 24 hours of its announcement with the exception of the uw_unsecured wi-fi service . The uw_unsecured wi-fi service returned to normal operation on Friday, and people who authenticated to the service between April 7 and April 9 have been notified and advised to change their passwords. We have contacted and continue to urge owners of other vulnerable systems on the campus network to patch them quickly."

 

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