One of the first graduating classes at Canadore College is celebrating.
Grads of the 1972 Aircraft Maintenance program recently held their 50th anniversary reunion.
The college says the course was one of only two aviation programs offered at Canadore in the early 70s.
“The training I got from Canadore was tremendous, and it did carry me through all of my studies in aviation from then on,” says Darlene Tripp-Simms, who graduated with her license to fly rotary-wing aircraft, and went on to teach others to fly.
The program was first offered in a building at the former Eloy’s Farm site at the bottom of College Drive, where Canadore’s student residences are now located.
Since then, the college moved the program to the former BOMARC missile base on Highway 11 north before opening its Aviation Campus in 2002.
Dan Guest, one of the organizers of this 50th anniversary reunion, graduated from both of the original AMT programs and has worked across Canada and overseas.
“I went to Iran in 1978, and I spent about five years working in Sudan, in Africa,” he says. “I’m struck by how far it has come from where we started in ’72. I’m very impressed. I think, based on the new technology that I’ve seen, it’s just going to improve.”
Canadore now offers nine aviation programs.
