Naming the Board
(excerpt from “Lester B. Pearson School Board, 2003. A Brief History of the Lester B. Pearson School Board. Montreal, QC”)
“As part of its mandate the Provisional Council was responsible for choosing a name for ‘School Board 50-08’. Suggestions from stakeholders in all six founding boards were received and were narrowed down by a committee in charge of the naming process.
The Provisional Council decided to choose a new name with the provisos that it would be recognizable and that all of the board’s future employees would be proud to work under it. The name that was eventually selected honors Lester Bowles Pearson, Canada’s fourteenth Prime Minister, who served between 1963-1968. As a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957, for his work in organizing a peacekeeping force during the Suez crisis, attaching Lester B. Pearson’s name to the school board was an easy choice.
Lester B. Pearson’s great-grandson, who [was at one time] a student at the school board, attended the official naming ceremony where prizes were awarded to winning entries.”