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1979: Diefenbaker Funeral
Alumnus, lawyer, politician, Prime Minister, Chancellor: John George
Diefenbaker was many things, but he was always a friend of the University of
Saskatchewan. On Wednesday 22 August
1979, six days after his death in Ottawa, he returned for one last time to the campus that had been such an
important part in his life. First he
lay in state in Convocation Hall for the morning and much of the
afternoon. His casket was then carried
across campus to a site adjacent to the Diefenbaker Centre, then under
construction. In a ceremony that
included Prime Minister Joe Clark, Premier Alan Blakeney, dozens of dignitaries
and hundred of mourners, Mr. Diefenbaker and his late wife Olive were buried
on the grassy knoll overlooking the South Saskatchewan River.1 Mrs. Diefenbaker’s remains had been exhumed
from their former resting place in Ontario, and were buried beside her
husbands’ at his request. In June of
1980, the Diefenbaker Centre was officially opened. The building is a combination archives and museum housing the
papers, library and memorabilia of Mr Diefenbaker.
| Images |  |
1979a - Diefenbaker, J.G. - Portrait, Feb 1915. Photograph Collection, A-955
1979b - Convocation–Dais, 1 Nov 1969, Photograph Collection, A-7752
1979c - The Green and White, 1979.
| Sources | |
1. The Green and White, 1979.
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