The student commons in the Integrated Emergency Services Complex on the Timmins campus of Northern College, has been dedicated to retired college president Fred Gibbons.
The training centre for paramedics, police officers and firefighters is one of the many innovations credited to Gibbons.
He told the dedication ceremony that when he announced his retirement, he knew it would be hard to detach from Northern, and sever his deep connection.
“So naming the Student Commons for me creates a new connection, if you will,” he remarked.. “One that will have perpetuity, one that won’t have to be severed, one that I’m certainly proud to lend my name to.”
The complex is also a fire station and ambulance base for the east end of Timmins. Gibbons refers to it as a place of magic.
“It would be my fondest desire to see the Student Commons become such a place of magic and discovery;” he told the gathering, ”a space where first responders of the day and first responders of tomorrow can share experiences, learn from one another in one of the premiere education facilities in Ontario.”
Gibbons worked at Northern for 25 years, the last eleven as president.
