From one-room schoolhouse to big city campus: Professor’s legacy memorialized with student award

From Depression-era farm boy to University of Calgary professor, Dr. Albert Herman’s journey is remarkable.

Herman, PhD, had been a high school student when he was put in charge of the family’s farming operation near Rhein, Sask., with his mother and sisters, while his older brothers were serving in the Second World War. “He hated it because it took away from his academic studies,” says his son, Mark Herman, BA’82, chair of UCalgary’s Board of Governors. “He didn’t have the time for school that he wanted to put in.”

Albert, however, never lost sight of his education.

When his big brothers returned, he enrolled in a nearby normal school — an institution that provided teacher training — and got a certificate in a matter of weeks. Still a teenager, he landed a job in a tiny town in southern Saskatchewan.

In a one-room schoolhouse.

The posting ended after only a couple of years because one area family — with a lot of kids — moved, which essentially shuttered the wee school.

Not one to waste time, Albert attended the University of Saskatchewan, earning BA and BEd degrees, and moved to Alberta, where he met his future wife, Phyllis, a fellow teacher. By the time Mark was born in 1960, Albert was principal at the Bentley, Alta., high school. “But he had more aspirations than that,” says Mark.

While in his 40s, Albert added a master’s degree and a PhD from the University of Montana, which required moving the family to Missoula for one year and a couple of summers.

In 1969, Albert began an award-winning run as professor at UCalgary’s Faculty of Education — now the Werklund School of Education. He retired in 1985.

“He had a very good career,” says Mark. “Obviously, he highly valued education from the time he was working on the farm, and he couldn’t spend as much time as he wanted on his own education, to the pursuit of four degrees, and then a teaching career.

“From the very early days, my sisters (Karen, BA’79, LLB’79, and Margo, BEd’79) and I really got a good sense of how important education was.”

From Education to Economics

Shortly after Albert died in 2018, Mark and his wife, Jan, established and subsequently endowed the Dr. Albert Herman Award in Economics. Creating a student award as a tribute to his father made sense. “He was a big supporter of education,” says Mark. “I think he’d be very pleased.”

The award, up to $2,500, goes annually to a student going into their fourth year in the Department of Economics. It is based on academic merit and research standing.

For Howard Leong, the 2024 recipient, the honour serves as acknowledgement.

“Your work being recognized as the top research in the department is really something — I think it’s very noble for them to do that. And I love that this is a merit-based scholarship, where everyone is eligible as long as you’re an economics undergrad. 

It really helps with finances, but, most importantly, encourages us to become producers of knowledge for society through research, rather than passive consumers.”

Christa Rath, BA’24, who received the award in 2023, points out that she’s not a typical university student. She had a baby 16 months ago and completed her degree while on maternity leave from her full-time job.

“I’m in my late 30s and I’ve been at this for a while,” says Rath. 

“The award was a really big help to let me focus on school and not the financial concerns in my life. Just having that acknowledgement of what I’ve been able to accomplish within my educational career was really nice, as well. I’m sure there aren’t too many students for whom a financial award isn’t a benefit.”

Beyond the money, Leong appreciated the opportunity to present his research at a department event. “Our work is not only recognized, it’s being elevated onto a bigger stage,” Leong says.

High achievers are worth celebrating, according to Mark, who was appointed to the university’s Board of Governors seven years ago and has served as chair since 2022. He was also an elected member of the UCalgary Senate for six years.

“One of the great things about being on the board is we get exposure to superstar students, whether it’s student leaders or scholarship winners or students competing on interscholastic teams,” says Mark. “They’re phenomenal. They’re absolutely terrific. They really give you the confidence that we can turn over the keys and say, ‘OK, you folks can run things now.’”

Philanthropy at UCalgary is an investment in a future that promises to present plenty of challenges, says Mark. “I believe that education and technological advances are going to be a huge contributor to solving some of those problems. We need to be teaching people to think critically, questioning, ‘Does this make sense?’ Across the whole spectrum of education, we need more of that.”

Of course, an excellent example of academic success and persistence in the face of adversity happens to be Albert Herman.

“He was a humble man,” Mark says of his father. “He never spoke about his accomplishments and what he had done — how he had raised himself up through his teens and 20s. But he set his own course and worked very hard to achieve what he did.”