Alumni couple return to Ryerson to mark their first meeting 50 years ago
Carol and Peter Helston, both business grads from the 1970s, came back to class 50 years after their first meeting. Photo: Sarah Palmer.
September 1969 was a time of Vietnam War protests and miniskirts and songs about the Age of Aquarius.
It was also the time when 16-year-old Carol Coles walked into a business class in the Victoria Building and took a seat next to Peter Helston, the guy she’d eventually marry.
The Helstons recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of that September 4th meeting by revisiting Victoria, where I caught up with them. In fact, I found that romance is still alive in those hallways when I accidentally interrupted two students stealing a kiss near the lockers.
It took Peter and Carol a few semesters to get to that stage, however.
“That first day, I remember this gorgeous blonde walking in,” said Peter. “But what I ended up respecting most about her was her brilliance.”
What Carol remembers most was the ratio of men to women.
“I was thinking, ‘oh my God, it’s only guys and there are hardly any seats and I’m so scared’. Whereas Peter was probably just happy a female walked into the room,” she recalled, with a chuckle.
Carol and Peter Helston in front of the lockers in the Victoria Building where they took business classes 50 years ago. Photo: Sarah Palmer.
A growing friendship
The two were dating other people when they met but became good friends as part of a study group who’d also have lunch together and play cards in the cafeteria.
By spring they’d grown closer and Peter would occasionally leave a small bunch of tulips in Carol’s locker as a surprise.
“That's one of the things he won me over with,” said Carol, smiling. “Tulips are now my favourite flower.”
By May 1970, Carol and Peter were free to finally go on their first real date. “I blew the budget,” recalled Peter, who was working part-time to put himself through school. “We went to dinner at The Fifty-Fourth on the top floor of the Toronto-Dominion Centre, which is now Canoe, and I also had tickets for us to see the musical Hair.”
While Carol lived with her parents, Peter shared a house with fellow students who were anti-Vietnam War activists. “But I was too busy with work and school to get involved,” said Peter.
A photo of Peter and Carol from their student days in the 1970s. Photo courtesy the Helstons.
Both Carol and Peter were serious about their studies, with Carol winning the Retail Council of Canada award for top student.
“Ryerson was called ‘Ry High’ at the time but the business program had an intense course load,” said Carol. “It was all practical courses you needed to function in the business world.”
Peter agreed. “Deciding on Ryerson was the best thing I ever did,” he said. “The curriculum at Ryerson equipped you to hit the ground running and really be successful in business.”
And hit the ground running, they did. Carol graduated in 1972, Peter in 1973, and they married a week later on May 18, 1973. Peter landed a sales rep position at Maclean-Hunter and quickly moved up the business-publishing ladder.
The Helstons hold a photo from their wedding, which took place just after Peter graduated in 1973. Photo: Sarah Palmer.
Building a life together
After graduation, Carol became a management trainee at Sears and was initially offered a salary of $100 a week. When she found out the male trainees were being paid $125, she asked Sears to match it.
“I got up enough courage to use the phone booth down in the bowels of this building to phone Sears and ask for as much as the men but they’d only go up to $115,” recalled Carol, who later became a buyer for Sears.
The couple eventually got to work together in 1985, while raising three daughters, when Peter started his first company, MRO Publishing. He’d later sell that company and start another, Dixie Communications. Over the years, he’s sought out Ryerson graduates as employees, hiring 12 overall.
“I knew what they were taught, how hard they’d work,” said Peter, who is passionate about entrepreneurship, and the quality of Ryerson’s business training.
“If you have an idea and strong convictions that the idea will work, being your own boss having your own company is the best thing you could ever do,” he said. “The company can be small but it can be yours.”