By SHAYLENE ABBEY
Staff Writer

In 1967, 350 students enrolled at Niagara College. A handful of those spoke on behalf of all students, and one man was their leader.

A then 22 year old Larry Lanigan was the first Student Administrative Council (SAC) president.

Now 64, Lanigan, of Welland, is nostalgic about his time at the college. Lanigan says tuition for one semester was $150; $15 of it was for the SAC to fund school teams and events. The college had a cheerleading team, a basketball team and a hockey team," he says, adding "nobody showed up to watch" these games.

Lanigan described the reason why nobody came out to games.

 "It was different then, because students came to school, and then went home. There was no after [school] life."

Lanigan completed most of his program, but did not graduate. Instead he found work with Canada Packers, as an accountant for 10 months before

embarking on another career change: real estate.

In 1972, Larry attended a three week course at Centennial College, one of the only of its kind in Ontario at the time, in order to be a real estate salesperson. Lanigan says before the time of college courses for real estate, accreditation was obtained by other means. "You would be given a book to read, then you would go to a ministers house and write a test."

He worked for A.G. Robins Real Estate Ltd. before becoming a broker in 1974. He started his own company, Laurier Real Estate, and had about 15 employees. Lanigan says business took a hit in the early ‘80s because of high interest rates, which went up to 19 per cent.

In 2000, Lanigan started his own real estate brokerage company from his home in Fonthill. He says he enjoys it, and he is not one of those people who needs to have too many people around. He has no employees.

Aside from his home business, Lanigan  has other interests. In the early ‘90s he sang in a glee club, The Gentleman Songsters, in Niagara Falls. He enjoys gardening.

 "I garden tomatoes, herbs, but the flowers, my wife does that," he says, laughing. He and wife Marilyn have been married for 43 years. They have three children, two daughters and one son.

Although he has not been back to Niagara College's Welland campus in close to 40 years, Lanigan says he plans on being a part of the college's alumni pioneer group, those who first came to the college in its first few years.

Lanigan's business may be in real estate, but he offers up this advice. He says there's more to life than big houses. "You have to decide what's important to you and go for it."