Headlines from the past is a recurring feature looking back at stories we've covered over the past 40+ years.
The construction of the new expansion to Archbishop Carney secondary school in Port Coquitlam in 1997 had divine guidance.
Prior to joining the church where Fr. Stan Galvon was the parish priest for St. Joseph’s Church in Port Moody, he was an electrical engineer.
In fact, it was his former profession that embarked Galvon on his journey to the church. He was working in Edmonton when his sister called from St. Lucia, in the Caribbean, where she was doing volunteer work and some generators needed repair.
While there, Galvon fell in love with the sea and subsequently enlisted in the navy for four years then worked for an oil company in the United States.
But, Galvon told the Tri-City News, he felt something was missing in his life and when he returned to work in Vancouver, he joined a volunteer group from the Holy Rosary Cathedral that helped out in the city’s Downtown Eastside.
Galvon said he enjoyed the spiritual discussions he had with some of the people he met and the Catholic church’s top man in Vancouver, Archbishop James Carney, suggest he enter the priesthood.
“I thought that was something that made sense to me,” Galvon said.
His duties as chair of the building committee for the Port Coquitlam school put his electrical engineering and project management skills to good use as he must make sure the architects, builders and contractors are being efficient with the construction project’s $4 million budget.
Faith and science, Galvon said, are “a compact partnership.”
The Tri-City News has covered civic affairs, local crime, festivals, events, personalities, sports and arts in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody since 1983. Bound back issues of the paper are available at the Coquitlam Archives, while digital versions of several past years can be found at issuu.com.
