Because of You - Donor Report 2011

A Fitting Memorial
The Johnstons pay tribute to a husband, father and serviceman

Signalman Alan “Ack Eddy” Edward Johnston served his country during World War II with the skills he learned at PITA (Provincial Institute of Technology and Art). Now his family’s contribution to the Promising Futures^™ Campaign will mean his name will live on in the new Trades and Technology Complex.

Alan Johnston was a student at PITA (now SAIT) when war broke out. He enlisted and continued his studies at the #2 Wireless Training School on the PITA campus.

Johnston shipped out to Europe where he served as a signalman for an artillery unit helping to aim anti-aircraft guns. “Ack Eddy” was his signalman nickname.

Alan returned to Calgary where he met Emely, his wife of 51 years. He worked as a technician in various sporting goods stores fixing bicycles, ski equipment and rackets. In his spare time he loved woodworking particularly cabinetry. And as a couple, Alan and Emely were avid square and round dancers.

In 2006, at the age of 88, Alan Johnston passed away.

Alan may not have used his SAIT skills after the war in his career; but he did pass on his passion for electronics to the next generation. His son Bruce says his dad continued to tinker in a basement workshop full of vacuum tubes and radios, where the two worked on projects and Bruce learned the basics of electricity which inspired him to attend SAIT. Bruce graduated and eventually became a SAIT instructor before working in industry as an electrical engineer.

“My son Bruce and I were talking about what we could do to remember my husband,” says Emely Johnston. “We decided a contribution to SAIT would be a celebration of his life.”

Emely and her children Bruce and Marlene will honour Alan’s memory by making a contribution of $54,000 to SAIT’s Promising Futures^™ Campaign, the SAIT Opportunities Fund and a scholarship for a carpentry student.

Emely says the scholarship is very important because each year a student receives a carpentry scholarship, it will recall Al’s love of cabinetmaking. And Bruce says a contribution to the Trades and Technology Complex is appropriate because there will be a plaque in a student lounge in the Aldred Centre approximately where his dad trained before heading to war.

It will be a fitting place to pay tribute to his father and tell his story.

“The plaque will include my father’s World War II rank and nick name “Ack Eddy” which was based on the signalman’s alphabet. I hope that inspires students who see it to pull out their laptops and Google it on the internet. They might learn more about World War II and the role SAIT played.”