D
avid Rodney has twice stood atop Mt. Everest, the only Canadian to do so more than once. International keynote speaker, documentary producer, author, adventure guide and educator, he was recently re-elected for a third term as MLA for the constituency of CalgaryLougheed, and named Associate Minister of Health for the province of Alberta.
And it all started in Yorkton. Born in Mankota, Rodney was in Grade 1 at St. Paul’s Elementary School in Yorkton when he admired a painting his grandfather had of an alpine scene, wondering what the world would look like from the top of one of those mountains. That wonder planted a seed that would bear fruit on Mt. Everest three
decades later. In Grade 5, Rodney’s class went skiing—and Rodney discovered something else he liked about alpine life.
Teaching and climbing
But school days in Yorkton sparked more than just an interest in mountain climbing. He remembers his Grade 9 English teacher asking, “Who will write a book? Who will make a film? Who will be famous?” Rodney raised his hand several times over. And his Grade 10 social studies teacher impressed him with the comment that “government, when done well, is one of the most important ways to effect social change.”
Rodney considered both law and medicine, but wasn’t convinced either was his true calling. From a former vice-principal, he sought the name of the headmaster of a school in the West Indies the Sacred Heart student council had raised money for, and at the ripe old age of 20 spent six months working full-time as an educator on St. Vincent Island. “Living in a postcard,” with a fulltime job, Rodney realized “the world really is your oyster—provided you work to make it so.”
“We had incredible educators and role models at SHHS,” Rodney recalls. “We were taught about finding out what our mission, our vocation, our calling in life truly is—and to determine what skills and expertise are required, then go out and get them.”
Returning home, he obtained his B.A. and B.Ed. from the University of Saskatchewan, then moved to Calgary as a special educator. Over the next few years, he taught at several different kinds of schools. “And all this time I was climbing mountains.”
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