Lindsay H. Place Field Inaugurated

by Dan Mullins

On September 6th, 2022, the City of Pointe Claire and the Lester B. Pearson School Board officially inaugurated the Judge Lindsay H. Place field. The field is located on John Fisher Avenue, which is immediately adjacent to St. Thomas High School (in the building which formerly housed Lindsay Place High School).

If you follow the LBPSB Facebook or Instagram account you may recall that a year ago the City of Pointe-Claire, in partnership with the school board, decided to name the municipal field in the late judge’s honour. The official inauguration took place on a beautiful day, students of the high school emerging to begin soccer practice as the ceremony drew to a close. Featured at the event were the unveiling of a plaque in honour of Judge Place, and words of remembrance and welcome from several dignitaries.

The event was hosted by Cindy Finn, Director General of the Lester B. Pearson School Board; Judy Kelley, Chair of the LBPSB Council of Commissioners; Tim Thomas, Mayor of Pointe-Claire; and Peter G. Nauth, Treasurer of the Lindsay Place High School Alumni Foundation. Margot Place, the daughter of the late Lindsay Place, was in attendance, as were City Councillors Brent Cowan, Bruno Tremblay, Eric Stork and Paul Bissonnette.

To one side of the field, the Lindsay Place High School Alumni Foundation’s donors have generously provided two handsome benches.
The text of the newly inaugurated field’s plaque reads:
“The mid-1930s saw the beginning of the Honourable Lindsay H. Place’s active involvement as a commissioner with the Protestant School Board of Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield, which he would chair five years later, until 1967.

In the ‘50s and ‘60s, he was one of the key players in the emergence of the Lakeshore School Board, which gradually became a major school board in Québec. A generous man, always willing to serve his community, Judge Place was also president of the Québec Association of Protestant School Boards and president of the Canadian School Trustees Association.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in Civil Law at McGill University, he joined Alcan in 1942, where he held several positions over the years, including as chief legal advisor and vice-president of the legal arm of the company. He worked at the Downtown YMCA in addition to serving as a director of childcare centres. He was appointed a municipal judge in Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield in 1956.
Judge Lindsay H. Place was devoted to his family, his community and to education.”