Backgrounder: Donor, Provincial Government Help Create
New Mearns Centre for Learning

Bricks, mortar and steel may be the building blocks of institutions like UVic, but it’s the dynamic and far-reaching vision of individuals like William C. Mearns that actually create them. Mearns was instrumental in assembling the land that today is the university’s Gordon Head campus. A native Victorian, he cared deeply about his community and the affairs of this province.

In 1956, when the Victoria College Council was leading the drive to establish a university in Victoria, it was Mearns who urged them to acquire a former army training camp and property owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company and the City of Victoria that together became the UVic campus. The Victoria Chamber of Commerce agreed with Mearns and appointed him as one of the members of a committee of community leaders established to pursue his vision.

Backed by the support of a campus planner from California, the Gordon Head site was eventually chosen as UVic’s future campus. The Chamber of Commerce championed a fundraising initiative which raised an unprecedented $5 million to purchase the property Mearns had identified. UVic remains the only university in Canada to have purchased its own land.

Mearns’ influence on business, government and education spanned a good part of a century. As a young man, he earned degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford, and, later, in advanced management from Harvard. Starting his career as a meter man with B.C. Electric, the precursor of B.C. Hydro, he rose to vice president and senior executive director with B.C. Hydro. Later, W.A.C. Bennett appointed him chairman of the B.C. Harbours board when it developed the super-port at Roberts Bank. He was also a founding director of the Bank of British Columbia.

A career of directorships with various organizations, associations, clubs and boards reflects the character of a passionate and indefatigable man determined to create a better world. UVic awarded him an honorary degree in 1991 in recognition of a lifetime of service and achievement.

Mearns met his wife Loula while both attended Victoria College. The couple were strong supporters of UVic and participated in many university occasions and events over the years. Loula Mearns and children Craig, Lindsay and Marily continue to be good friends of the university.

The Mearns family’s involvement with UVic spans four decades and continues today through the William C. Mearns Centre for Learning.