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| Volume 10, Number 5 | October 18, 2002 |
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Campus 'final resting place' for at least 3 souls
By Colleen MacPherson As ghouls and goblins begin to gather for annual Halloween celebrations, be on the lookout for those souls who call the U of S home year-round. Behind the Memorial Gates lie the ashes of the second chancellor of the University. Over by the Diefenbaker Centre can be found the final resting place of the seventh, and his wife. Add in a handful of ghostly sightings and the fact the U of S has its own cemetery, and this campus might begin to look like a scary place. A discreet bronze plaque marks the final resting place of the first person buried on campus - Sir Frederick William Gordon Haultain - whose ashes were interred at the Memorial Gates Oct. 23, 1943. A native of England and an 1879 graduate of the University of Toronto, Haultain had a distinguished career as Premier of the Northwest Territories from 1897 until the province was established in 1905. Haultain served in the Saskatchewan Legislature until 1912 when he was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Saskatchewan. On June 1, 1916, he was knighted and in 1917, was elected second Chancellor of the U of S. His final appointment, in 1918, was to the post of Chief Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. University Archives materials include a blue-bordered invitation card to the interment of Haultain's urn which followed a service in Rugby Chapel in Emmanuel College. Those attending were asked to wear "academic or ordinary dress". Although he has the plaque on campus and a Saskatoon neighborhood bearing his name, Haultain would have been better known had the University built the Brown and Vallance-designed Arts Building that was among the first contingent of structures in the original campus plan. An untimely fire, the Depression and Second World War all interfered with building what would have been named Haultain Hall. Thirty-six years later, the only other recorded burials on campus took place when John and Olive Diefenbaker were laid to rest next to the Diefenbaker Canada Centre on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River. For Olive, it was her second interment - she was buried in Ottawa in 1976 but was disinterred and moved to Saskatoon to be beside her husband. Prime Minister of Canada from 1957-63 and seventh Chancellor of the University, from 1969-79, Diefenbaker earned a BA from the U of S in 1915, an MA in Political Science and Economics in 1916 and a Law degree in 1919. After a successful law practice in Wakaw, Diefenbaker led the provincial Conservative Party from 1936-38 and was elected federally for the first time in 1940. He took the reins of the federal Conservatives in 1956 and during his term as Prime Minister appointed the first woman to cabinet, the first Aboriginal to the Senate, scrapped the Avro Arrow project and established protection for the wild ponies of Sable Island. Diefenbaker took an active role in planning his own funeral, particularly in ensuring the state event in Ottawa was as grand as that of his hero, Sir John A. Macdonald. He also made the arrangements for his own burial on the campus. Aside from getting Board of Governor approval, Diefenbaker wrote to the provincial government in January, 1979 asking that permission be granted for the burials. That required the creation of a cemetery. An official in the Justice Department which administers The Cemeteries Act, said the John G. Diefenbaker Cemetery was established to accommodate two gravesites. At only nine-feet by nine-feet, the cemetery is 'maxed out' with the Diefenbakers but the University can apply to have it expanded to a maximum limit of 12 plots. After his state funeral, Diefenbaker's casket was transported on a special train to Saskatoon where, on Aug. 22, 1979, he was buried alongside his second wife. In delivering the eulogy, then-Prime Minster Joe Clark began by saying, "John Diefenbaker is home." While he may have been at home, he certainly wasn't at rest. Diefenbaker Centre Secretary and Gift Shop Manager since the facility opened in 1980, Pat St. Louis said there were numerous sightings of the former prime minister in the Centre's first five years. Many people reported seeing him walking the trail at Devil's Dip, said St. Louis. One worker in the building, unaware of the graves, spoke of sensing a presence in the building. When told about the burial site, St. Louis said the woman never returned to the building. One of the most chilling experiences was that of the former Centre Director's son who, while working in the archives, "saw Diefenbaker come out of the stacks where all his papers are stored, and he had a aura around him." St. Louis can't explain why the sightings petered out, except to suggest that "maybe he's finally settled down."
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