UBC Reports | Vol. 49 | No. 10 | Oct. 2, 2003

25 Year Club

UBC honours the Quarter Century Club

By Brian Lin

For Richard Prince, the secret to his lengthy academic career is taking it one day at a time.

“It’s impossible to predict, when you begin a job, how long you will stay,” says Prince, an art history, visual art and theory professor who celebrates his induction into the Quarter Century Club this year with 25 other faculty members and librarians.

Established in 1996, the Quarter Century Club was established to recognize faculty members and librarians who have served at UBC full-time for 25 years. Each new member receives a certificate of membership, a gold pin or pendant, and a club membership card good for free admission to the Botanical Gardens and discounted admission to the UBC Aquatic Centre.

Having conducted research and taught at UBC for a quarter of a century, Prince says he hardly ever notices the passage of time, except on one occasion a couple of years ago when he walked past the grove of oaks adjacent to the SUB.

“There is now a beautiful canopy forest,” Prince muses. “When I began working here, they were just little saplings.”

Prince was hired as an assistant professor in 1978, but his relationship with UBC began long before.

“I was raised not far from campus and did both my undergraduate and graduate work here before I started teaching, so I feel like I’ve been here all my life.”

Prince, best known for his series of sculptures based on the northern lights, which has spanned more than two decades, says interacting with students is by far the most rewarding aspect of university life.

“There hasn’t been a single year where I haven’t met students who were exceptionally brilliant and doing outstanding work,” says Prince. “It’s a privilege to be able to help them form the ideas and attitudes which, in the long run, will make a better world.”

In addition to Quarter Century Club inductees, this year’s annual dinner, held on Oct. 2 also honours 50 faculty members and librarians who have worked at UBC for 35 years, a group known collectively as Tempus Fugit (time flies).

For a complete list of this year’s inductees to the Quarter Century Club and the members of Tempus Fugit, visit www.external-affairs.ubc.ca/ceremonies/qcc.