Family Tradition

It’s a legacy that began with Anne Rogan (née Garnett) in 1946 and has continued through the generations. The Class of 1947 alumna’s children and grandchildren attended Lakeland College, met their future spouses there and even worked at the college, coaching and mentoring each new crop of students. Anne passed away in the summer of 2020 at the age of 93 and as her family went through her belongings, they found one of her report cards from 1946. She’d been enrolled in home economics, her son Alan recalls.

A Lakeland Legacy

“She was the first of our family to go to college,” explains Alan, Lakeland’s athletics director. “She finished in 1947 and started working in the kitchen as a cook assistant. She was so excited to be making $40 a month. She was even more excited the next year when she moved up to pastry chef and was paid $70 a month. I can still remember her telling me how it was just super.” Following her passing, Alan and his family reminisced about how most members of their family were connected to Lakeland.

“We were laughing about how we should start charging a finder’s fee for the students we send,” Alan says. “Lakeland is like a family. It’s not too small, not too big. My brother’s girls were impressed that the faculty knew who they were. They weren’t just student numbers in a book, they were actually a person to their instructors. At Lakeland, it’s

Top, Anne celebrated her 90th birthday in 2016 and is pictured with her entire immediate family. Bottom, Anne’s Lakeland College class photo from 1947.

personal. It’s family.” After his mother graduated from Lakeland, the tradition continued with the next generation. Alan’s brother Neil attended Lakeland from 19911993, taking crop technology, where he met his wife Gisela, who was also a student. She completed the herd health and livestock program. They have three children – Marlis, Lana and Spencer – all of whom have been or currently are Lakeland students as well.

“My parents went to Lakeland. My sister went there and now my brother. I had heard such good things about it,” Lana explains. “And it was close to home. So I took early learning and child care there.”

Living up to her family’s legacy wasn’t much of a concern for Lana during her time at Lakeland. “My experience definitely lived up to theirs,” she says. “My favourite part was the connection to the instructors. They know you so well and actually care about you, both as a student and the other parts of your life. The rest of my family had good experiences with their instructors too, so I wasn’t too worried about having to follow in their footsteps.” Alan’s sister Karen married Peter Chapa, a fish and wildlife graduate from the Class of 1979.

Though he’s not a Lakeland alum, Alan has been with the college since 1986. He started working in shipping and receiving before transferring to recreation and athletics. He met his wife Denise through her twin sister, who played on the volleyball team, and after they were married, Denise attended Lakeland as well.

Their son, Jesse, was practically raised in the gym at Lakeland. He chose to study interior design technology after getting a taste of it during high school through the Careers and Technology Studies (CTS) program. He graduated in 2020.

“We are very blessed, very fortunate, to have Lakeland. My sister’s husband still talks about his experience and is still in contact with some of the people he graduated with. My wife is still connected to her teammates from the college volleyball team. My brother still has some great friendships from playing for the Rustlers,” Alan says. “I’ve been around the college for 35 years and we’re starting to see second generation student-athletes coming through our program. It’s so neat to see our family among them, attending college and becoming involved the way my generation was.”