She was the star of the field hockey team. He was captain of the basketball team. When these two Thunderbird athletes crossed paths at UBC in the 1930s, sparks flew, igniting a love that would last a lifetime.
Calgary-born Myrne Nevison was an Arts undergrad when she met George Pringle, a fellow Vancouverite and young Theology scholar. Like Myrne, he was a talented athlete who became captain of the Thunderbirds basketball team for the 1935/36 season.
George’s prowess on the basketball court was matched by his academic achievements and spiritual dedication. His coach once described the scholarship student as “the perfect man...no man was more looked up to."
In Myrne, George found his match. An adept field hockey player whose accomplishments on the field were regularly celebrated in the local press, she, too, had an inquiring mind, which she put to use as an associate editor with the Ubyssey.
But the 1930s weren’t the easiest time to be making plans for the future.
The aftereffects of the Great Depression still lingered, and global tensions were threatening to erupt in war.
When George graduated Union College in 1938, having led his team to the city league finals, he moved to the Okanagan to become a minister. Myrne, meanwhile, remained at UBC and entered teacher college. This was meant as just a temporary separation, but the couple’s plan for a life together was brutally disrupted by WWII.
George had a strong sense of duty and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he trained as a navigator. The day he left for Europe, Myrne accompanied him to the train station. As the engine chugged away, George serenaded her with the bittersweet lyrics to the popular Vera Lynn song of the day: “We'll meet again / Don't know where, don't know when / But I know we'll meet again / Some sunny day...”
Myrne would never set eyes on George again. He died in the skies over England in January of 1943 and was laid to rest in a war grave in Bransgore, England. Back home, his parishioners, friends, and former university teammates struggled to make sense of the loss.
Brokenhearted, Myrne channeled her grief into action. In 1949, she successfully campaigned to have a school named in George’s honour. George Pringle Elementary School / École Élémentaire George Pringle in West Kelowna stands to this day.
Eventually, Myrne moved past the pain of her loss, and carved out a remarkable career that George would have been proud to witness. After a few years as a high school teacher she resumed her studies, and eventually returned to UBC as a professor of counselling where she rose to department head.
She became president of the Canadian Counselling Association in 1965, and later worked in policy development for the Liberal party, for which she gained the admiration of Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
Yet for all her successes, Myrne never found a partner who could take the place of George.
She died peacefully in 2006 at the age of 90, having never married. Her undying love was noted in her obituary, which described her efforts to preserve the legacy of her “significant other,” George Pringle: an athletic, brave, and kind young man who, perhaps, is somewhere serenading his Myrne once more:
“...Keep smiling through
Just like you always do,
'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.
So will you please say hello
To the folks that I know,
Tell them I won't be long.
They'll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singing this song.”
Photo credit for top header image: City of Vancouver Archives (CVA 1184-623). Photographer: Jack Lindsay.
