Viewing Object

Object Description

Object ID

2017.048.006

Title

Fred and Maureen Pepin in front of Lochiel School.

Date

26 Sep. 1996.

Description

Colour slide of Fred and Maureen Pepin standing in front of the white double doors of the restored Lochiel School. They are standing centred in front of the doors; Maureen is on Fred's right, and she is holding his arm. Fred is on the left, wearing a plaid shirt, a brown-beige coat, dark pants, and a hat. Maureen is wearing a dark skirt, white top, dark tie, and a straw hat with a ribbon. The school's name, "LOCHIEL" is above them on the roof of the school in front of the brick chimney, on a white board in black text.

People/Subject

Lochiel School

The first school was built in 1889 and known as Biggar Prairie School on the Richard Thomas Biggar homestead. On February 23, 1892 the name was changed by Alexander Cameron to Lochiel School. In 1896, a red school house was built with lumber floated from Bum Gartner's Saw Mill on Old Yale Road to the building site on North Bluff Road (now 16th Ave.). The original school was replaced in 1924 with a one room building--the old wing of the current building. The school operated for one year after which students were bussed to Murrayville. In 1937, the school was reopened. In 1950, the school was moved to a three acre plot on 224th Street just south of 16th Ave. On February 20, 1975, arsonists set fire to the school causing major damage. It was then moved to Campbell Valley Regional Park in Langley, BC.

Pepin, Alfred E. (Fred)

Alfred (Fred) Pepin is a grandson of Thomas Alfred Pepin, a pioneer settler of the Langley, B.C., area. He is married to Maureen Pepin. He is involved in the P. Y. Porter Tailgate Programme, and the Langley Heritage Society. He was awarded the Freedom of the Municipality in 2006.

Pepin, Maureen L. (nee Sankey)

Maureen Sankey was born in Vancouver and attended Lord Kitchener Elementary and Lord Byng Secondary. She earned her BA and teaching certificate from UBC in 1955, and her M.Ed. from Western Washington University in 1975. Maureen taught at Kitsilano and Killarney Secondary Schools before moving to south Aldergrove with her first husband in 1962. After teaching at Clearbrook Secondary for a year, she spent 22 years at Aldergrove Secondary as a teacher and then as Langley's first female vice-principal. During this time she was the Langley Teachers' Assoc. president (1973-74). She became the vice-principal of Langley Secondary in 1984 and retired in 1992, but worked part time at the Langley Education Centre after that. Maureen married A. E. (Fred) Pepin in 1977. She has one daughter, Jane, and a grandaughter Chelsea. Maureen was an active member of the Fraser Valley Hunt Club and the Langley Scholarship Comittee. In her retirement, she co-wrote" Roads and Place Names", edited "The Place Between", and co-wrote "The History of Langley Schools: 1867-2004." (2005) She was a volunteer at the Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association, a member of the Langley Heritage Association, and a docent at the Langley Centennial Museum.

Argus v4.4.0.36 - Langley Centennial Museum