Gino Bruni, Rhodes Scholar – Mixing Time in the Books with Hockey at Oxford
By: WJO
Gino Bruni never played a game with the RMC varsity team during his five years of OUA eligibility.
The Reserve Entry Training Plan (RETP) Officer Cadet (Air Force logistics) did try out for the hockey Paladins in I Year. He was a late cut with a team that was “loaded” with Special Interest Students – non cadets.
The party line at the time was – “RMC is evolving” – the questionable justification for using non cadets with the varsity teams. A few years later a college policy was implemented to permit only 25% of non-cadets to comprise a varsity team. If that policy was in effect during his I & II years, in all likelihood he would have evolved into a 2nd or 3rd line forward (or better) through his time at RMC.
The closest Gino came to participating with the varsity team was during II year when he “volunteered” to be the team equipment manager – by far the most thankless job with a competitive hockey team.
Gino went off to Gananoque and played Jr “B” along with three or four other officer cadets during III Year.
His hockey playing during his six years at RMC also comprised of:
Playing IMs. He won two championships with 8 Squadron, and was the chosen MVP in one of those years.
He also played on the RMC team in the CFB Kingston Intersection League, while completing a Masters Degree. Gino was the leading scorer in the league in the 1st year and his team won the championship in the 2nd year.
CFB Kingston organized a Civilian-Army-AirForce-Navy 4 team hockey tournament in 2010; he was chosen the MVP of the Civilian team. (At the time Gino was considered a “civilian” while completing his Masters Degree.)
His passion for hockey was evident when he was a regular at the Constantine Arena noon hour shinny sessions from September to April, for two years. He rarely missed a day!
Fast forward to the 2010 – 2011 school year & hockey season ; Gino Bruni is a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford! Most readers are aware of the Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes; it is widely considered the “world’s most prestigious scholarship”.
Gino left Canada near the end of September for Oxford. His first term is already completed. He is studying Law – his father, Mike, and mother Janice, are successful and highly respected lawyers in Alberta.
Gino was home in Calgary over the recent holidays and told us. “In terms of the university life, the biggest challenge is balancing school commitments with hockey and having a social life.”
In addition to having his nose to the grindstone – buried in Law Books – surprise, surprise he is playing varsity hockey for the Oxford Blues!
Famous Alumni (from the Oxford hockey Blues team) include Rt. Hon. Lester B. Pearson (former Canadian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize Winner), Rt. Hon. Roland Michener (Governor-General of Canada), Hon. Dr. George Stanley (Designer of the Canadian flag & of course, former RMC Faculty) and Clarence Campbell (former NHL President).
“Hockey is a lot of fun and there is a great group of guys made up of mostly Americans, Canadians and even some Brits”, Gino told us through a recent e-mail.
In their second match of the season, Gino Bruni put forth a stellar performance, netting six goals and three assists as his Blues defeated Cardiff 17-3. The varsity schedule at Oxford consists of about a dozen games.
The “Blues” just recently returned from a six day trip through Munich, Prague, and Berlin. This past Saturday night (22 January) they lost to one of their main rivals University of London “Dragoons” 6-3.
Through our recent communications we asked Gino what it was like playing hockey at Oxford.
“Being on the hockey team in Oxford is not what you think. Many people at the university are shocked to hear there is an ‘ice’ hockey team at Oxford.” He went on to add. “The ice rink is 95 percent public skating so our games are usually starting near midnight. Our rink has no glass; there is only a curtain to stop the puck above the boards.”
In closing, he made a point of telling us, “My goal will be to try and focus on doing more outside of school this term as it’s easy to get sucked into studying all the time!”
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11088 Captain Howard Hisdal (RRMC RMC 1976) first became interested in Canada’s peacekeeping efforts in 1962 when his father went away to Egypt to serve for a year on the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF). Howard later joined the Canadian Forces and got his first degree at Royal Military College in Kingston. He served as an infantry officer in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment. Then he resumed his academic career by going to UBC to become a high school teacher, later going to Carleton University to earn a Master of Arts degree in Canadian history.
When Howard moved to Kelowna in 1994 he rejoined the Canadian Forces and became an armoured officer in the British Columbia Dragoons, an army reserve regiment. Howard now has 21 years of military service and has been teaching in the history department at Okanagan College since 2005. He has recruited and trained soldiers who have served in Bosnia and in Afghanistan, some in both places. He is still a serving officer as well as a professor at Okanagan College. Mr. Hisdal provided an overview of Canada’s peacekeeping efforts in the past half century on Thursday, January 13th at 7 pm the ongoing Okanagan Institute Express series at the Okanagan College Theatre. Source
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Sergeant Alexandre Doucette served as officer cadet instructor at CMR Saint-Jean 1960-5
Alexandre Doucette was born on March 13, 1926 in Pointe Verte, New Brunswick. He enlisted with the Canadian Army in the summer of 1943, in Quebec, at the age of 17. It was the call for adventure which prompted his enlistment, and in May of 1951 he left Canada to serve in the Korean War with the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment. After the Korean War, Mr. Doucette served in the Infantry School at Camp Borden, Ontario. From 1948 to 1950, he was an army cadet instructor in New Brunswick. In 1950, he rejoined his regiment and spent six months training at Fort Lewis in the United States before leaving for Korea. Mr. Doucette served as a Sergeant during the Korean War. He will never forget witnessing the near death of a young soldier he went to school with, and an incident which caused many injuries, both serious and minor. Mr. Doucette is happy to have had the opportunity to see what conditions the South Koreans were living, and to be able to visit Japan on two occasions. He will never forget the feeling of accomplishment and participation in the war. From 1960 to 1965, Mr. Doucette was an officer cadet instructor at Saint-Jean Military College in Quebec. In 1965, he rejoined his regiment and was deployed to Germany with NATO forces for two years. Mr. Doucette retired from the Canadian Forces in December of 1970. He was then employed with Pratt & Whitney Canada in Longveuil, Quebec as a supervisor of distribution of pay and mail, and as the maintenance supervisor. Mr. Doucette retired on March 31, 1991. Since his retirement in 1991, Mr. Doucette enjoys golfing, gardening, and reading. He is a member of the Royal 22e Régiment Association, a life member of the Vanier Foundation, and a member of the Quebec Citadel Royal 22e Regiment. Mr. Doucette lives in St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Quebec, with his wife Juliette. They have three children and five grandchildren.
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=feature/korea2003/korpilgrim03/kbios03/adoucette
Alexandre Doucette est né à Pointe-Verte, au Nouveau-Brunswick, le 13 mars 1926. Poussé par le goût de l’aventure, M. Doucette s’enrôle à Québec au cours de l’été 1943; il n’a alors que 17 ans. Après la guerre, M. Doucette sert à l’école d’infanterie au camp Borden, en Ontario. Entre 1948 et 1950, il est instructeur pour les corps de cadets de l’armée du Nouveau-Brunswick. En 1950, il rejoint son régiment et passe six mois à Fort Lewis, aux États-Unis, pour un entraînement avant le départ pour la Corée. En mai 1951, il quitte le Canada pour servir en Corée au sein du 2e bataillon du Royal 22e Régiment. Monsieur Doucette est sergent pendant la guerre de Corée. Jamais il n’oubliera ce jeune soldat, avec qui il est allé à l’école, pratiquement mourir sous ses yeux ni cet incident qui a causé de nombreuses blessures, graves et moins graves. M. Doucette ne regrette pas d’avoir pu constater les conditions dans lesquelles vivaient les Coréens du Sud, ni d’avoir pu visiter le Japon à deux reprises. Il se rappellera toujours le sentiment du devoir accompli que lui a apporté sa participation à la guerre. De 1960 à 1965, Alexandre Doucette est instructeur, cette fois pour les officiers cadets au Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, au Québec. En 1965, il rejoint son régiment qui est déployé en Allemagne avec les troupes de l’OTAN, pour une période de deux ans. Il quitte les Forces canadiennes en décembre 1970 et prend un emploi chez Pratt & Whitney à Longueil, au Québec, à titre de surveillant de la paye et du courrier et surveillant de l’entretien. M. Doucette prend sa retraite le 31 mars 1991 et, depuis, il occupe son temps à jouer au golf, à faire du jardinage ou à lire. Il est membre de l’Association du Royal 22e Régiment, membre à vie de la Fondation Vanier et membre du Royal 22e Régiment de la Citadelle de Québec. Il vit à St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, au Québec, avec son épouse Juliette. Ils ont trois enfants et cinq petits-enfants.
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14585 Brigadier-General John Madower, OMM, CD (RRMC RMC 1984) assumed the duties of Assistant Chief Military Personnel in 2010. He began his military career as a member of the 1st Battalion Nova Scotia Highlanders. Upon reaching the rank of Corporal, he was accepted as an Officer Cadet at Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, British Colombia. Graduating with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, he then completed the Basic Aerospace Engineering Course in Borden, Ontario.
John is the current commander of the Canadian Contingent for the Nijmegen Marches. He led a Canadian Forces team in 2010 comprised of 233 participants. It was the 94th annual International Four Days Marches Nijmegen, a prestigious long-distance marching event in the Netherlands, that Canadian military contingents have participated in since 1952.
He is also a key member of the RMC Club of Canada executive committee where he fills the crucial role of Canadian Forces Liaison Officer.
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