Leadership and Purpose

Leadership and Purpose: A History of Wilfrid Laurier University tells the story of the creation and growth of one of Canada’s leading universities.

On October 30, 1911, a jubilant crowd of nearly 1,500 people gathered in their Sunday finest on the lawn of a large home on the rural outskirts of Waterloo, Ontario. They were there to mark the opening of the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary of Canada. With just four students and one full-time professor, the seminary was modest in size but it had the enthusiastic support of an entire community. Even the most optimistic supporter, however, could not have foreseen how this small religious school would evolve over the next 100 years into a thriving public university with 17,000 students and a national reputation for teaching and research excellence. In Leadership and Purpose: A History of Wilfrid Laurier University, historian Andrew Thomson tells the remarkable story of an academic community whose vision, determination, and perseverance are a testament to the transformative power of education.