50 50 YEAR LEGACY
FROM SSB TO STS
GORDON FREIGHT'S 50 YEAR LEGACY BY PETER DITCHBURN, FORMER HEAD OF SCHOOL
Gordon`s history with the school began in August 1970 when the staff of Strathcona School for Boys (SSB) met at 1232 Riverdale Avenue SW to discuss the assignments for the new school year and also to prepare for the amalgamation with Tweedsmuir: An Academic School for Girls, and the big move to a new country campus in 1971. The staff consisted of 13 full-time teachers, including Gordon. Sandy Heard had planned for the amalgamation and beyond with teachers who would best serve the new independent school – Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS).
Gordon with his wife Nancy Elias, daughter Christine (Freight) Williams ‘06, and son-in-law Corey Williams.
Gordon's first year as a French teacher at SSB was an unusual one. The school was housed in the lower floor of the Heard residence and in two Atco portables on the property – as well as in rooms at the then Riverview United Church in Britannia. The 13 teachers taught 172 boys in Grades 1–10. Gordon recalls the staff room was the enclosed front porch of the house and in winter, staff would stand close to the heat registers to keep warm. Assemblies, weather permitting, were held in the garden alongside the Elbow River. Games were held in the yard in front of the portables. There was a close bond among all involved in Strathcona School for Boys and Gordon, the youngest teacher, discovered “that the school was part of me” and so began his fifty-year adventure.
