About Myself

I was born at Rimbey, Alberta on 6 February 1942. My parents are George (William George) Buchanan, born at Neepawa, Manitoba in 1906 and Dorothy May Ing, born at Kirriemuir, Alberta in 1920.

In 1964-1967, I served as a missionary in France and western Switzerland for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was a wonderful experience that I still remember fondly nearly 40 years later!

In 1968 I married Judy Kinney from Raymond, Alberta. In 1970 I graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Education in French. Judy and I raised a family of six children: Rob, Blaine, Laurel, Evelyn, Andrew and James. They have all grown and are on their own. For more information on our family, see the genealogical databases here on my website.

After two years of teaching in the classroom, I became a senior high school teacher at the Correspondence School Branch of Alberta Education in 1972. I taught various subjects over the years, especially French as a second language. Because of my strong interest in computers and education I became a charter member of the Alberta Teachers' Association Computer Council. I won three computers in provincial educational programming contests in 1984 - 1985. In the late 1980's I served as acting Modern Languages Department Head and then acting Assistant Principal of English/Modern Languages for two years, until this unit was merged with others to form the Humanities Unit. When a pilot project was set-up to allow students to submit their assignments by e-mail I was on the planning committee and then coordinated the e-mail project. From March 1997 until my retirement on August 31, 2001 I was Online School Coordinator with the Alberta Distance Learning Centre.

Personal Interests

Computers

In 1967 I was hired by Teledyne Corporation to work in their CMR Data Processing office in Calgary. There I got to work around computers and learned my first bit of computer programming in Fortran IV. In 1981 I bought my first computer and taught myself to program. Since then, it has been thrilling to see the developments in computer technology.

 

Languages

I studied French in school, but it was the experience of living in France and Switzerland in 1964 - 1967 that really gave me a love of languages. I studied German for one year at university, did a little self-study course in Esperanto, and completed two years of study in Spanish.

 

Education

I love to learn and to teach others.

 

Making Things

My wife Judy and I built our own house, doing nearly all the work ourselves.

 

Genealogy

My Buchanan ancestors came to Canada from Omagh, Tyrone, Ireland in 1847, during the worst of the potato famine. My Watson ancestors came ot Ontario from the border country of Scotland about 1820. My Ing and Wright ancestors came to Alberta from London, England around the turn of the last century. I am always interested in finding more information on my ancestors and sharing it with anyone who is interested.

 

Contact information:

Bill Buchanan

RR 3 Site 304 Box 11

ONOWAY, AB, Canada

Tel: 780-967-2004