A Welcome Message from Johannean Stanley Kwok
Autumn 2013
It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the 2013-2014 academic year at St. John’s College (SJC). For those of you who are returning to SJC, I hope you will enjoy a rewarding and successful academic year as you get reacquainted with the beautiful campus and familiar faces. For new students, I encourage you to build new friendships as you enter this exciting international community of scholars from around the world.
As one of the original Johanneans of St. John’s University, I would like to share with you a brief history about the founding of this College. The roots of St. John’s College UBC can be traced back to the famous St. John’s University, which was founded in 1879 by American Anglican missionaries in Shanghai, China. As graduates of St. John’s University, we like to call ourselves the Johanneans. In 1988, when the first St. John’s University (Shanghai) Alumni’s world reunion was held in Hong Kong, the Johanneans unanimously supported the notion of reestablishing the University in its original Shanghai campus, which was then the home of East China Normal University. Despite facing many difficulties and constraints over the years, the Johanneans persisted with this vision.
In 1989, Johannean Robert Ho (class of 1943, SJU) and Dr. David Strangway (Past-President, UBC) jointly probed the idea of establishing St. John’s College at UBC. Johannean George Shen (class of 1949, SJU) worked on a preliminary plan which was supported by various overseas St. John’s University alumni associations.
In 1993, Robert Ho invited me for breakfast to outline his vision of St John’s College UBC, and I was asked to manage the project and to help make this dream become a reality. To that end, Robert Ho spearheaded with other Johanneans to raise money for the joint endeavor, and collectively raised $4 million with him taking up the largest share. The donation was matched by UBC and the Van der Linden family who donated $4 million through the help of lawyer Blake Bromley.
Together with the UBC campus services department, we selected James Cheng Architect to design the building. James went to Shanghai to visit and study the design of the original St. John’s University campus. The current St. John’s College complex that you all live in today was designed in spirit of the S.Y. Hall, where a lot us Johanneans used to gather on cold and sunny days during our student years in St. John’s University.
On the occasion of the College’s Anniversary celebration, I congratulate the College for 15 years of success. I also hope that the spirit of our alma mater will continue to perpetuate to the new alumni of St John’s College so that one day you all may succeed our dream of reestablishing St. John’s University.
Dr. Stanley Kwok
SJU 1948 (Architectural Engineering)
Architectural Association Dip. 1954
Royal Roads University , Victoria, BC ,2012 Hon LLD
Past President, SJUAA Vancouver
Honorary President, SJUAA Vancouver since 2002
