The University of Alberta will honour the contributions of a Sturgeon County farmer this week as part of its annual alumni celebrations.
Sturgeon County farmer John Bocock will receive the Alumni Centenary Award for Voluntary Service to the University on Sept. 22 as part of the 2016 University of Alberta Alumni Awards.
The awards kick off the U of A's Alumni Weekend event, said Sean Price, associate vice-president of alumni relations at the U of A. The celebrations include live music, a Golden Bears football game and the Green and Gold Day parade.
Bocock is getting this award for his more than 50 years of volunteer service to the U of A, Price said.
"John has been so connected to the Faculty of Agriculture for so many years," he said, having organized many class reunions and several scholarships.
The Bocock family also sold/donated their farm to the U of A for use in scientific research back in 2008.
Farmer and volunteer
Bocock, 82, is a dairy farmer, environmentalist and active community member. He got his bachelor's of science in agriculture from the U of A in 1957.
Bocock said there were just 30 students in his graduating class, just two of whom went on to become farmers and just one of whom was a woman. His Soils professor was Fred Bentley, who now has an annual lecture series named after him.
"We're running out of water and we're losing good land all the time," he said, which makes agricultural education all the more important.
"Unless we develop some new (farming) techniques, prices of food are going to get more and more expensive, and not everyone can afford more expensive food.
Bocock has volunteered with Initiatives of Change for more than 50 years. This international peace group seeks to promote racial harmony and reconciliation through inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogue.
Bocock said he decided to join the group when he saw one of its films, Freedom, at Edmonton's Varscona Theatre in 1958. After hearing the cast of the film speak on the importance of reconciliation, he realized he had to take a look at his own life.
"I realized my relationship with my brother Bill needed a bit of help," he said. The two reconciled, and have farmed together ever since.
Bocock now travels the world with Initiatives for Change telling his story to others to help speed reconciliation.
"When I watch the national news, most of it is bad news about bad relationships," he said.
"The lesson we seem slow to learn is how to get along with each other. We need to start making friends with people instead of dropping bombs on them."
Bocock was a long-time volunteer with what is now known as the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, and said he recalls being at the famous vote where the group voted against joining the National Farmers Union.
"I believe in working with my neighbours to hopefully make farming better."
The Bocock dairy herd has twice won awards for producing milk with the highest butterfat content in Alberta.
"Back in the day, we were on the provincial cow-testing program," Bocock explained, where the province would have farmers send in milk samples to determine which cows were the best producers.
Whereas other farmers were using ordinary Holsteins whose milk was just 3.5 per cent butterfat, the Bococks had switched to crossbreed varieties that cranked out 4 per cent.
Bocock helped establish several scholarships at the U of A and hosted his class's 55th reunion on his farm in 2012.
"Fortuitously, it coincided with the same weekend as Bill's birthday," he said, so they put up a tent for both events.
Bocock thanked his classmates for nominating him for this award (which consists of a plaque).
Visit ualberta.ca/alumni for more on Alumni Week.
