Jim Wallace '69 was on campus this past August. He's an alumnus from the very earliest cohort, having started at RLC (or RLS as it was then) in the first year. In a sense, his involvement with the school predates its founding: he met R H Perry while a camper at Camp Kawabi, and he followed Perry here.

After graduating, Jim went to Queen's University. Then, in 1979, he founded Sharp's Creek Forge, now home to a group of artisan blacksmiths living and working in Huron County. He is a blacksmith and it's possible, even likely, that you've seen his work. Many installations are in public spaces. He's contributed to the town centre in Hensall, Ontario, the Waterloo Gaol, and crafted sections of wrought iron fencing at Osgood Hall. He created the fence outside the Canadian Film Institute, which includes images—they are cut out of the metal—from the first film ever made, Edward Muybridge's "The Race Horse." (For selections of his work, click here.)

He was on campus to install fencing at the front of the school, something he's been working as a way of giving something back. The stonework is what you know—this where Bright Street meets Highway 141—though he's now replaced the pickets with ironwork. There are shields set on iron fences, each with a detail of the RLC school crest.

Jim says, "this is the little piece that I can give," though it's not little of course. It's something he made with his hands;  it's a reflection of his life's work; it's a personal expression of something that is important to him. It's also the first thing that people will see when they arrive on campus. It's huge.

Something I loved, too, was seeing him install the pieces. He was helped by Caden '24, a current student who has spent the last two summers as a member of our maintenance team. I can't tell you how great it was to see the two of them—one of the first graduates of the school working with a student who will graduate this coming year—installing a piece of the school that will last for decades. I think it's easy to forget that the school is the work of many hands, but it is. Nothing is here just because. Everything is here because someone was moved to put it here, to give a little bit of themselves.

And in the photo above there are two of them, Jim Wallace '69 and Caden '24 after setting the last section of fencing.