Switzer Family Dynasty Three generations of pharmacists (and counting) make a living — and a life — in Edson
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Harold and John Switzer pose with the portrait of H. A. Switzer and Co. pharmacy founder Harvey Switzer.
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new trail
SPRING 2007
here’s a large photograph of Harvey Switzer that hangs high on the east wall of Switzer’s Drugs on 50th Street in Edson, Alberta. Visible from anywhere in the store, the portrait shows a handsome man, one who would eventually serve as the town’s mayor as well as bequeath a family business to his children — and to his children’s children. On this day, behind the dispensing counter, Harvey’s grandson, Harold, ’88 BSc(Pharm), chats quietly with a customer, making small talk about the weekend’s hockey games. (Harold’s a big supporter of minor hockey in the town.) And so it has been and you can imagine it always remaining — the patriarch’s photo looming large over successive generations of Switzers who have made, and will continue to make, a living in this pharmacy and a life in this community. For over 95 years it’s been this way, beginning in 1912 when Harvey, a 1910 graduate of the University of Toronto’s pharmacy school, purchased the drugstore from the local physician who packed up and followed the Grand Trunk Railway as it pushed farther west. When Harvey Switzer opened H.A. Switzer and Co. on January 20, 1912, Edson was a frontier town much like any other: rough, lacking urban amenities, and far from the major cities. However, Edson had its share of men and women who saw endless possibilities and opportunity. Harvey Switzer — equal parts pharmacist and entrepreneur — was one of them. Realizing that a pharmacy would be tough to keep going on its own — even though the Grande Prairie Trail brought a constant influx of people through the town — Harvey and his partners undertook several other ventures and businesses over the years. Although the pharmacy remained the cornerstone of his family’s livelihood, the young man made sure the store also housed the local telephone exchange. He also added an ice cream and soda fountain, helping to cement the store as one of the centres of the town’s social life.