John M. (Jack) Harper Honoured by Naming of New Library Branch
In the spring of 2008, the Waterloo Public Library Board announced that the new west side district branch library would be named in honour of community builder John M. (Jack) Harper.
Construction of the John M. Harper District Branch Library began in late 2009, at the corner of Laurelwood Drive and Fischer-Hallman Road, in northwest Waterloo. The 21,000 square foot branch will open in 2011 as part of a joint facility with the YMCA.
“It is an honour for the Library Board to celebrate the many contributions that Jack Harper has made to our community through the naming of the library branch,” says WPL Board Chair, Tim Jackson. “Mr. Harper is widely respected for his many public and private sector endeavours that have made Waterloo a great place to live and work.”
WPL serves one of the fastest growing communities in Canada. Every day and on average, more than 1,600 people visit the Waterloo library.
The official announcement of the branch naming was made at a Waterloo City Council meeting with the Harper family and members of the Library Board in attendance.
Background
The Waterloo Public Library is extremely pleased to recognize the numerous and diverse achievements that John M. (Jack) Harper made to the community by naming the new west side branch library in his honour.
John M. (Jack) Harper was born in Toronto and moved to Waterloo with his family at an early age. He attended local public and secondary schools, graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1939, and studied law at York University. He was called to the bar in 1948 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1958.
Mr. Harper joined the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada in 1940. He served first as a Private, then as a Lieutenant and Captain, and was promoted to Major and Company Commander in 1944. He served in Canada, the Caribbean, England, France and Holland, and was appointed Honorary Colonel to the Highland Fusiliers of Canada in 1990.
During and after the war, Mr. Harper’s military service was recognized with many awards and decorations, including a War Medal, Voluntary Services Medal, Defence Medal, the France and Germany Star, the Centennial Medal, the 125th Commemorative Medal, the Normandy Medal and the 50th Anniversary Medal (France).
In 1948, after completing his military service, Mr. Harper began practicing law in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, with an emphasis on corporate, commercial, tax and municipal law.
Throughout his business career, he was active in the private sector – for example, as Vice-Chair and a Director of the Economical Mutual Insurance Company, and as Chair and a director of the Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada. He was an honorary Director of both of these organizations, and until 2007 continued to provide legal counsel to Gowling, Strathy & Henderson in Kitchener.
Mr. Harper was extremely active in the community. He served on the Board of Governors of Wilfrid Laurier University for three years, and he also served as director, officer or advisor to a number of other educational institutions and local community organizations, including the Kitchener-Waterloo YMCA, KW Counselling Services, the Waterloo Lions Club, the Waterloo Law Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the KW Community Foundation, and the United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo.
Mr. Harper was named Kitchener-Waterloo “Citizen of the Year” in 1975, and a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary International Foundation in 1993. He became an Honorary Director of St. Mary’s Hospital in 1997, and that same year worked with community volunteers on the preservation and exhibition of the Seagram Museum collections.
Mr. Harper was on the Patron’s Council of the 2004 Campaign Waterloo (University of Waterloo), and served as an Honorary Chair during the same year with the RIM Park Campaign.
Construction of the new John M. Harper District Branch Library began in late 2009, at the corner of Laurelwood Drive and Fischer-Hallman Road, in northwest Waterloo. The new branch is scheduled to open this fall.
Note: John “Jack” M. Harper - 1917 to 2008
On Thursday, July 10, Library staff and board members were saddened to hear that Jack Harper, for whom the new branch of the Waterloo Public Library was recently named, had passed away at the age of 91.
In an article in the Waterloo Region Record, his son Jim Harper said his father “…was humbled by the honour.” And, from longtime friend, Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Elizabeth Witmer, “His volunteer spirit will live on, through the library and the work that he did for the community.”
