CREDIT: JOHN SING
Fanshawe College unveiled the naming of the Donald J. Smith School of Building Technology with the help of Catherine Finlayson (left) and Smith's widow, Joan (right).

The School of Building Technology at Fanshawe College is now named after the late founder of EllisDon, a London construction company.

The Donald J. Smith School of Building Technology was named after the construction company founder, who – with his now widow – was a large supporter of Fanshawe for decades.

A ceremony was held on April 27 in T building, which houses construction, civil engineering and apprenticeship programs, and hosted the patriarch’s wife Joan and several members of the Smith clan.

Catherine Finlayson, the college’s executive director of Advancement and Alumni, opened the ceremony by honouring the Don and Joan’s involvement with Fanshawe throughout the years.

“This celebrates the very, very long history of involvement between Fanshawe College and Don Smith and Joan Smith,” Finlayson said. “From the early days of the college, Don stepped forward and was an outstanding advocate for Fanshawe and for the community college system.”

Finlayson invited Donald R. Smith to speak on behalf of the family.

“It brings our family a tremendous amount of pride to be here to do this and celebrate this,” he said. “Our dad was always committed to Fanshawe and the education of young people here and always wanted to support.”

Graduates of the programs in Building Technology often filter into the Smith family’s construction company.

“It’s hard to fathom EllisDon without the input of the Fanshawe grads,” Donald said. “It takes a great faculty and staff and management of a college to produce that level of education that can produce that kind of quality graduate that can move up and run companies.”

Donald pledged continual support to the college.

“We’ve undertaken to donate $1 million over a stipulated period towards the construction and towards new programs here at Fanshawe,” he said. “It takes people to step up if we’re going to build a great institution, and [my dad] certainly did back then and we’re trying to fall in his path.”

Dean of the Faculty of Technology says support from partners is what makes programs at Fanshawe strong.

“Partnerships in post-secondary education are so important and we look forward to working with the Smith family to raise the profile of the Donald J. Smith School of Building Technology, while continuing to draw the best students to our programs,” she said.

The Smiths were awarded honourary diplomas respectively – Don in 1992 and Joan in 2008.