The Purdy family consisted of Gordon Stanley Purdy, his wife Margaret E. (Lundrigan) Purdy, and their five children. Gordon Purdy was a World War I veteran and originally from Wallace River, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. Margaret, known as Peg, was from Seaton Carew, Country Durham, England.
Ray Sloan was an environmental scientist, conservationist, and instructor at Mount Royal College.
School of Nursing and Midwifery (Mount Royal University)
The School of Nursing and Midwifery is part of Mount Royal University's Faculty of Health, Community, and Education, and as of 2019 offers the following programs: Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Midwifery, the Bridge to Canadian Nursing, and the Advanced Studies in Critical Care Nursing Certificate.
Mount Royal’s nursing program was launched in 1967 as a two-year diploma program under the directorship of Jean Mackie. At the time, the College's Diploma Nursing Program was controversial because previously most nursing education had consisted of either apprenticeship programs run by hospitals or four-year degree programs taught in universities. However, the program grew and gained acceptance over several decades, eventually expanding to include certificate programs in specialty areas of nursing including: operating room and intensive care nursing, post-basic mental health nursing, occupational health nursing, extended care nursing, and gerontological nursing. The Diploma Nursing Program continued until 1993, with the last cohort graduating in 1995.
In the 1980s, the Nursing and Allied Health Department started to explore options for offering a nursing degree program through Mount Royal College. After several years of research and planning, an agreement was reached in 1992 through which the three nursing programs offered in Calgary were merged into one program, the Calgary Conjoint Nursing Program (CCNP), a collaborative baccalaureate program offered by Mount Royal College, the University of Calgary, and the Foothills Hospital School of Nursing. The program launched in 1993 with the first class of students graduating in 1997. The program offered classes at all three institutions and students had the option of completing either a four-year Bachelor of Nursing degree or a two-year nursing diploma. The Calgary Conjoint Nursing Program was initially only approved for a six-year trial period, but the partnership continued for eleven years, with the last students graduating in 2004.
As the Calgary Conjoint Nursing Program wound down and the last intake of students occurred in 2000, the Mount Royal College Centre for Health Studies sought out other partnerships in order to continue to provide a Bachelor of Nursing option without interruption to student enrollment. They eventually reached an agreement with Athabasca University in 2000, which allowed Mount Royal to provide university-level nursing courses at the Lincoln Park campus taught by Mount Royal faculty. The Athabasca University at Mount Royal College (AU @ MRC) Bachelor of Nursing program officially launched in 2001 and ran until 2013, with the last intake of students into the program occurring in 2010.
The partnership with Athabasca University allowed Mount Royal College to continue to provide university-level nursing education while it pursued independent degree-granting status.
In 2007 the nursing program became Mount Royal College’s very first baccalaureate degree program, and in 2011 the School of Nursing launched Alberta's first Bachelor of Midwifery degree.
Steve Bascom was employed in Mount Royal College's Department of Program Research and Development.
Tom Besse was an instructor at Mount Royal College, as well as Coordinator of Theatre Arts and the Chairman of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Besse graduated with a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Alberta. Besse was hired in 1967 to build MRC’s drama department, where he increased student enrollment from 60 students in 1967 to 1200 students in 1984. He taught at Mount Royal College for thirty years and was involved in directing, producing, and acting in over 60 theatrical productions.
Violet Armstrong was a student from Taber, Alberta who attended Mount Royal College in the early 1940s as part of the Provincial Health and Recreation Youth Training Programme. She "taught youth leadership and recreation classes in communities around the southern region. In 1944 Vi moved to Berkley, California with her husband, Malcolm Taylor. There she worked in Richmond, California's Recreation Department as a youth programmer and counsellor, creating some of the city's first integrated sport and social programs."
Wayne Haglund is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Mount Royal University.
Stephen Wilk was the coordinator of the Mount Royal History Project and a former teacher of psychology and sociology at Mount Royal College during the 1950s. The goal of the Mount Royal History Project was to research the history of Mount Royal College to produce a book for the college's 90th anniversary. As Project Coordinator, Wilk acted as the photo page editor and conducted interviews of former Mount Royal students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Wilk acted as the Project Coordinator of the Mount Royal history project from 1996 to 2004 and produced a complete but unpublished manuscript entitled "An Institution and its Communities: A History of Mount Royal College 1910-2000."
Wilk held a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, a Bachelor of Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry, and was a historian primarily focused on the history of Alberta. He was an active member of several local historical societies including the Nose Creek Historic Society, and was involved with local archives, museums, and heritage preservation efforts. He was the author/editor of several books on local history including "One Day's Journey", a history of the Airdrie District, "Pioneers of Faith", a history of the Airdrie United Church, and "100 Years of Nose Creek Valley History".
In addition to his work as a historian, Wilk was a United Church of Canada minister (since 1952) and served as a medic with the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. Stephen Wilk died on November 12, 2006.
