Economics Faculty at 50th Anniversary Alumni Homecoming 2026 Event

Laurier’s Homecoming 2026, held on September 24-27, saw Economics Alumni Peter Friedmann, Terence Yhip, and Alan Macnaughton, along with Alan’s wife Bonnie, return to Laurier for the 50^th anniversary of their graduation. 

Peter, Terence and Alan were three of the six economics students from the Class of ’76 who graduated from the Honours Economics program. None had encountered each other since graduating – despite the fact that Alan and Peter ended up working in different parts of the Department of Finance in the early 1980s.  So, it was a nice chance to reconnect, swap stories from their time in Waterloo, and to meet up with some old professors, Alastair Robertson and Frank Millerd.

All three of Peter, Alan and Terence went on to graduate studies in economics after they graduated from Laurier.  Alan completed a PhD at the University of British Columbia, and is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo, and one of Canada’s most highly regarded tax accounting experts.  Terence also completed a PhD, at McGill. He later held senior positions in the Canadian and Middle East banking sector, lectured at TMU and was a Visiting Fellow at the University of the West Indies.  Recently, he published a book titled “Contemporary Issues for Caribbean Economies”.  Peter completed an MA in Economics at McMaster University, followed by a long career at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and roles at the Institute of Corporate Directors and on a number of boards at a variety of organizations.

On a brief tour of Lazaridis Hall, the three were particularly struck by the Active Learning Classrooms and how differently econometrics is taught these days. Back in the day, their statistical analyses were performed with punch cards, with the more complicated analyses requiring the use of mainframes at UW.  These days, students can sit in the classroom with their laptops and access data from around the world, and more importantly fix coding errors immediately rather than having to redo the physical cards and walk them over to UW.

All attendees from the classes of ’76 and ‘66 at the Forever Purple and Gold Luncheon received a 50^th or 60^th anniversary pin.  And Peter was the lucky winner of the door prize – a beautiful throw rug with a Laurier logo (pictured).

Thank you to the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association and all the alumni, faculty and staff for a wonderful job hosting the lunch and other Homecoming events over the weekend.  It’s a great opportunity for alumni to come together to reconnect with each other and Laurier and to learn about what's happening on campus.

Did you know Laurier’s economics department has a newsletter that you can subscribe to? Sign up at: https://bit.ly/lednewsletter . You can check out all of our articles hot off the presses as they come out on the site (accessed through the link) as well!