A Historic 60 Year Timeline of RDP
As a new year approaches, we reflect on the fun we have had celebrating our 60th anniversary with you all. It has been a pleasure reminiscing throughout 2024 with our 60th anniversary events and social media timelines posts. To help cap off the celebrations, we’ve condensed RDP’s history into a fascinating timeline. We hope you enjoy!
In 60 years, Red Deer Polytechnic has proudly grown from 119 students with only 5 staff members and 10 instructors to be one of Alberta's sought-after destinations for post-secondary education, attracting students from across the province, the country and around the world.
The vision of RDP (formerly Red Deer College) has always been bold. With humble beginnings that started in the hallways of Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School and turned into the beautiful campus on the busy corridor of the Queen Elizabeth Highway.
- Now with 80+ industry-ready program areas
- 60% of programs including Work-Integrated Learning
- 4200 solar panels on campus
- 770 International students in 2023 from 35 countries
- 3553 Indigenous students in 2023
- 192 ACAC provincial team and individual titles within Athletics
But before all that, what was then Red Deer Junior College was established by the Order-in-Council in 1963, where we became the second public college in Alberta. Spearheaded by the Red Deer Public School District Board of Trustees working in collaboration with the University of Alberta. (As a pre-requisite of the Colleges' Act, an affiliation with a university was required to obtain the Order-in-council.) We can thank key individuals Margaret Parsons, George Harold Dawe, Lillian Scott and Bob Jewell for this institution’s inception.
In 1964, we officially opened in the temporary quarters of LTCHS with program offerings in arts, science, and education. Kings & Queens Athletics were immediately established with brand colours grey and gold. The Legacy Yearbook was produced.
A year later, Red Deer Junior College published our first school paper called Periscope (later named Accent). By 1976, RDJC happily opened on our current campus. With the original campus only including the main entrance, administrative building, 1300 academic wing, Forum, a Library by the Forum, 1400 academic wing, team teaching theatre and separate main gym building. The first career diploma programs were Nursing and Business Administration. In 1969, we grew substantially with enrolment at 403 students and 38 faculty members. We gained a third floor, new classrooms, adult upgrading courses, and the proclamation that RDJC would become a provincial institution.1970, RDJC began offering two-year university transfer courses. The campus expanded further, including residence towers opening to accommodate 160 single students and 18 families. Jumping to1973, there was an amendment that removed "junior" from the Order-in-Council and Red Deer College became the official name of the institution. By 1977, RDC hit enrolment numbers of 2000 students with more programs continually added. In 1978 the college logo was introduced with yellow, green and blue colours.
In 1979, the Student’s Association opened its own building, making us the province's first and only technical institute/college where the student body raised its own building. We then offered our Legal Assistant certificate program and began offering apprenticeship programs off campus and by 1980, nine new apprenticeship programs were available.
By 1983, we opened the Apprenticeship & Technology wings, which made us the 3rd largest trades and tech school in Alberta (at that time) and the most comprehensive community college in Canada! An enthusiastic King's Hockey fan began wearing a lion costume to many of the games and over time the budding mascot was named "King Lion" by the teams. This was the humble beginning of a great mascot and around 1983 drawings and caricatures of this mascot appeared on banners, stationery, and advertisements. With a new costume, "King Lion" was even invited to the 20th Anniversary celebration. Soon after, a contest was held to officially name the popular Lion. Alumn Glynis Boultbee won, and thus Rufus Da Cat was born. The name cleverly had the initials RDC. Then T-shirts, buttons, and stuffed toys were created featuring RDC’s favourite cat, Glynis was gifted one of the toys.
The current beloved Series Summer Workshops was originally born in 1975, beginning in facilities at Hinton Forestry School first. But 1984, Series transferred from Alberta Culture to our campus and our Management Development Centre opened to provide skills for the business community. International student enrolment grew to 89 students. 1986 was a big year for us, the Arts Centre brick building, a now iconic staple of campus photos, officially opened with two new programs: Theatre studies and Bachelor of Music. In 1988, the Alumni Association was formed and still goes strong to this day.
Leading us into 1990, we announced our first collaborative degree, Bachelor of Science - Nursing, with UofA and our cooperative program in aviation with Sky Wings Aviation. There were 37 students who graduated from the U of A collaborative degree in 1994, the first graduating class from that collaborative program!
As we moved into the 90's, 1993 was a tougher year with staffing changes and government budget reductions. But during that time we were still able to introduce the Locksmith Apprenticeship program. In 1995, the library introduced over 5,000 international databases and "The Net Effect" a ten-station internet access gallery in the library, quite impressive for the time! We also gained a Costume Cutting and Construction program. The Department of Nursing had it's 25th anniversary. And Extension Services moves off campus to a downtown location as a community and workplace development training centre, what is now Continuing Education & Corporate Training. And the mascot Rufus was updated with a new look featuring a deserving crown.
By 1996, we received our first electronic application via the Internet! A new fitness facility opened. We began our collaboration with University of Calgary to offer year 3 and 4 of Bachelor of Arts in English, Psychology, and Sociology. Plus, in collaboration with the University of Alberta we began offering a Bachelor of Education degree, Elementary route with minor in Middle School. In 1997, we unveiled a new deer head logo with the slogan, "Look what you can do". The college offered its first completely internet-based course in Communications in 1998, and we underwent a $17.3 expansion by upgrading the Biology and Chemistry Labs. Then in 1999, the G.H Dawe Memorial Award of Excellence was granted at convocation to recognize co-founder George Harold Dawe, who passed in March 23, 1999.
Kicking off the new millennium with a bang, our Series Summer program celebrated its 25th Anniversary, Queens Hockey officially joined the ACAC, our Nursing program expanded, and in 2001 we had the ground-breaking ceremony for the Library, SA, Bookstore, + Kinesiology Studies expansion. We also welcomed our first intake of applied degree Motion Picture Arts.
2002 saw the completed expansion of the FarSide Lounge, The Lift, and the groundbreaking with Bethany Care Society & David Thompson Health Region to build CollegeSide (multi-use care facility on campus). Our new-at-the-time International Education strategy was established.
In 2004, we celebrated our 40th anniversary, and our Coat of Arms was unveiled, plus the established Colleges Act changed to allow Colleges to participate in applied research activities.
Rufus was almost retired, luckily he came roaring back with the look and vibes we know and love today. 175 conference titles and 18 National Championships later, Rufus loves competing against cougars, eagles, snakes, wolves, broncos, huskies, and even the odd Ook.
In 2005, a campaign was launched for an impressive and bold expansion titled "Building Communities Through Learning" (BCTL) which would later become the Four Centres which you may know as the area where Visual Arts, CIM-TAC, The Patch, Cenovus Energy Learning Common, and Nova Chemical Learning Common reside. And by 2006 email accounts were issued to all students which has been the norm to this day. In 2008 a new visual brand was unveiled for Red Deer College with the tagline "when you get here you understand". By 2009 the new expansion opened, named the Four Centres, for trades, innovation in manufacturing, corporate training and visual arts. To end off the 2010's, the Olympic Torch Relay Celebration was held on campus for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver!
2011 was the grand opening of the new downtown campus in the Millennium Centre. Students within RDP’s Donald School of Business were the first cohorts to take their courses within this unique learning space in the heart of Red Deer. Now, we’re pleased to provide education and training for learners enrolled in programs and courses within our Continuing Education and Corporate Training division. The year also marked the 25th anniversary of the Arts Centre.
In 2012, Hockey Alberta relocated their headquarters to our main campus, strengthening our ongoing strategic partnership. Their team is now housed in RDP’s Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre on main campus. We also opened the Marketplace, which included a tech store and expanded food services.
In 2013, RDP was recognized by Alberta Venture magazine as one of Alberta’s Top 25 Innovators. This celebrated how our post-secondary institution provided (and continues to provide) valued support through applied research to industry innovators. Additionally, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of our Alumni Association.
2014 was a huge year for us where we marked the 50th anniversary of our institution—a milestone that was truly exciting for us. We hosted numerous events and initiatives throughout the year to honour our institution’s storied history and roots in central Alberta.
In 2015, RDP opened our Makerspace in the Library. This space celebrates invention, innovation, resourcefulness and creative thinking. Students, faculty, staff and community members collaborate in the Makerspace to use a variety of equipment to create a variety of projects.
In 2017, the Government of Canada provided $9.5 million in funding to RDP, bolstering our sustainability efforts. The funding, in part, permitted the installation of new and alternative energy sources, including 4,100 photovoltaic solar panels now installed on buildings throughout our main campus. These initiatives contribute to the Polytechnic’s goal of becoming a net zero energy institution by 2031.
2018 saw the completion of the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre, just in time to be one of the host venues for the 2019 Canada Winter Games. It was also the beginning of a significant transition for us at RDC, as we began our journey to become a Polytechnic.
In 2019, RDP opened the Alternative Energy Lab which serves as a teaching, research and data hub to increase knowledge and awareness about alternative energy technologies for students, industry and researchers.
2021 saw a significant milestone in our institution’s story, as we became Red Deer Polytechnic. We continue to grow with more than 80 industry-relevant programs, providing degrees, diplomas, certificates, apprenticeships and micro-credentials.
In 2022, Stuart Cullum was appointed the 12th President of Red Deer Polytechnic! That same year, we celebrated Visual Art instructor Ian Cook for his remarkable 50 years of service to RDP.
In 2023, we received a generous $300,000 donation from Bill and Irma Welikoklad, which enabled significant upgrades to our health simulation lab, including improvements to the audio-visual system, soundproofing, and new high-fidelity manikins. We’re very appreciative of the investments made by the Welikoklad family over the years, and with our community we mourn the loss of Bill Welikoklad earlier in December.
At the start of 2024, we received a historic $20 million donation from our long-time friends and supporters, Jack & Joan Donald and family. This gift will support the creation at RDP of the Donald Family Institute for Healthtech Innovation. In recognition of the Donald Family’s longstanding partnership with the Polytechnic over several decades, College Boulevard (the main road on campus) has been renamed Donald Boulevard. The RDP community mourns the loss of Jack Donald earlier this year.
Throughout 2024, RDP underwent renovations to student spaces, including the creation of the Global Hub for International Students and the Pónokaisissáhta Indigenous Student Centre. A large Pride mural was unveiled on the Students’ Association building exterior.
In 2024, the Queens Volleyball teams of 1981 to 1989 were announced as inductees to the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
Now as 2024 comes to a close we look ahead to the bright future of RDP and the next 60 years. With our 2030 Strategic Plan: Productivity & Social Impact guiding the institution forward, the future of RDP students and Alberta awaits!