Mr. Chancellor, The University of British Columbia is highly honoured to have present today in the persons of our distinguished guests a veritable galaxy from the firmament of public service.
The first of these guests whom I would like to present to you for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, is the Queen’s Representative in British Columbia, the Official Visitor of the University, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, the Honourable Frank Mackenzie Ross. Our guest’s career reflects one of the familiar designs in the pattern of Canadian life. Born and educated in Scotland, with a distinguished record of service in the First World War, he has demonstrated great acumen in industry and balanced it by deep concern for the welfare of his fellow citizens and the development of our country. As Lieutenant-Governor, he has endeared himself to those fellow citizens by the distinguished and considerate manner in which he has discharged the duties which devolve upon his high office and, in particular, those responsibilities which have attended upon the Centennial celebrations of the Province.
For his wide range of public services, for qualities both personal and official, for a record of devotion in peace and war, I now present to you the Honourable Frank Mackenzie Ross.
Mr. Chancellor, Happy is the country whose traditions of public service attract to our political life men of probity, honour and ability. Happy also is the country in which differences of political outlooks can be maintained without personal rancour and in which a common sense of devotion to the public good transcends honestly held differences of policy.
The University of British Columbia counts it a high honour to contribute to the Centennial celebrations of the Province and to the Golden Jubilee of our University by assembling here on this platform a constellation of representatives of Canadian Political parties who embody these high traditions.
We are particularly proud to have, both as University guest and as a recipient of academic distinction, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable John Diefenbaker. Noted among his fellow Canadians these many years for his forensic ability, his deep concern for human rights and fundamental freedoms, his espousal of a vigorous Canadianism, we have come to know in recent years Mr. Diefenbaker’s vision of the new Canada, his fervour in presenting it to his fellow Canadians, and his capacity for arousing their enthusiasm to identify themselves with it. No one on this platform, Mr. Chancellor, and least of all those in political life, would deny either the vigour of the appeal nor the attractiveness of the vision.
As a patriot, as a man with a deeply moral view of his obligations to his fellow men, as the leader of a political party with a keen sense of its historic mission and responsibility, as the Prime Minister of Canada, the Senate of this University delights to present to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the Right Honourable John Diefenbaker.
Mr. Chancellor, the export of human resources from the Maritime Provinces westward is a part of Canada’s folk-lore. Like-wise the vision of a British nation extending from ocean to ocean was from the earliest days part of the Canadian dream.
In the person of the Premier of the Province of British Columbia, the Honourable W.A.C. Bennett, we see both folk-lore and dream in living and lively form. Born in New Brunswick, inspired by the sage’s advice, "Go West, young man, go West," he has brought to the Province of British Columbia a robust faith in the future of our country and a shining confidence in the glories of our Province, a confidence matched only by the dynamic energy with which he has translated policy into programme.
For his manifold contributions to the development of British Columbia and for his recognition of the importance of research and education in this development, it is a great pleasure on this Centennial occasion to present to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the Queen’s First Minister in the Province, the Honourable William Andrew Cecil Bennett.
Mr. Chancellor, I now have the honour to present another from our constellation, whose recruitment to political life and to the leadership of his party all can applaud, for he too embodies in exemplary degree those traditions of unity and diversity already mentioned.
Born to the ministry, reared to the pleasures of academic contemplation and professional baseball, tempered in the bare knuckle school of post-war diplomacy, he gravitated into the political arena as one equally well known in the capitals of the world, as he is from Vancouver to Halifax, for his contributions to the cause of world sanity and the rule of law.
For the sense of mission to his fellow men that has animated him throughout his career, for those engaging human qualities which have made him "Mike" to millions throughout the world, no less than for the high offices he has adorned, and is adorning, it gives me very great pleasure to present to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, a Canadian Nobel Prize winner and the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons, Lester Bowles Pearson.
I now have the honour, Mr. Chancellor, to present to you for further academic distinction a great Canadian, the Honourable Brooke Claxton. In war and peace he has for almost half a century, served his country well. On the battlefields of France, in the cloisters of the University, in the forum of public life, his career has been varied and continuously distinguished. Here I must do no more than select form amongst his many accomplishments. As minister of National Defence in the years that followed the second world war he sat on the Council of N.A.T.O., and through his acknowledged wisdom and restraint, helped to win for Canada a respected position as a mediator among the nations.
More recently as Chairman of the Canada Council, he has assumed responsibility for stimulating the arts and developing humanistic and social learning in this country and in that capacity has shown a perceptive sympathy towards Canadian universities. Holder of an award for gallantry in the field, teacher and practitioner of law, head of a great business organization, servant of the Crown, Chairman of the Canada Council, he is living proof that the most honoured prizes are won in pursuing not only the curriculum of knowledge, but also the curriculum of life, and I now present him to you, Sir, that you may confer the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, upon the Honourable Brooke Claxton.
The University Senate, as you well know, Mr. Chancellor, has as one of its major functions the discovery and recognition of human quality in a wide variety of fields of thought and action, and it is a great pleasure to me that it commands me now to present to you for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Major James William Coldwell, Leader of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. Born and educated a west countryman in England, Mr. Coldwell early became a Canadian west countryman, school teacher, principal and alderman in Saskatchewan, before emerging on the national scene as a Member of Parliament and Secretary of the newly formed political party with which ever since his public service has been identified.
It is for the quality of service Mr. Coldwell has given to his party, to the House of Commons and to this country that we seek to honour him today. Studious, friendly, courteous and generous; these qualities alone might have made him a great parliamentarian; to these must be added his sense of compassion and concern for human justice. They account for his moral influence throughout the whole national community.
And so, Mr. Chancellor, I now present to you a deeply respected Canadian teacher, prophet, world citizen, who added stature to our House of Commons and depth of understanding to our national life, Major James William Coldwell.
Mr. Chancellor, it is more than possible that in the light of history our guest and Congregation Speaker today, Lieutenant-General E.L.M. Burns, Commander of the United Nations Emergency Force, may well emerge as one of the symbols – indeed of the folk lore – of our time.
Equipped by training and experience as an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, where he has risen to the rank of Lieutenant-General; in the Canadian public service, where he occupied the position of Deputy Minister of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs; decorated for his personal courage; distinguished for his determination, patience and leadership; marked by his record of high dedication to the international rule of law by his service as President of the United Nations Association of Canada, he was supremely fitted to assume the exacting duties demanded of one of the pioneers on the frontier of the emerging world community.
As Canadians, we are proud that our institutions and our society contributed to the training his duties called for. As members of a University community, which is itself part of an international community, we delight to recognize the disciplined humanity which has characterized him throughout his career; and so, Mr. Chancellor, I present to you now for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Lieutenant-General Eedson Louis Millard Burns.
Democracy it has been said, Mr. Chancellor, is the most difficult of all forms of government, because it depends on the voluntary acceptance of responsibilities on the part of its citizens. There are many who evade, some who accept grudgingly, a few who gladly assume these responsibilities.
It gives me great pleasure on behalf of the Senate to present to you Mrs. Rex Eaton one of those who has gladly assumed and magnificently carried out her obligations as citizen.
A Nova Scotian by birth and early education, she has demonstrated throughout a life of varied service a deep concern for the dignity and worth of the human individual; an abiding faith in the citizen volunteer; a humane compassion for human welfare; and a strong conviction about the special and particular roles of women in our society.
The quality of her service has been demonstrated and recognized in the fields of industrial and labour relations, in prison reform, in Civil Liberties, in the development of the profession of nursing, in the advancement of the work of the United Nations, as Associate Director of National Selective Service during the war, and today as the re-elected President of the National Council of Women.
Mr. Chancellor, the Senate requests of you that you add the tribute of our University to honours already won, and that you now confer the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, upon Fraudena Gilroy Eaton.
Mr. Chancellor, I now take pleasure and pride in presenting to you, for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, one of this University’s distinguished graduates, a pioneer of the Atomic Age, John Harry Williams, Director of the Research Division of the Atomic Energy Commission of the United States.
Born in Eastern Canada, he received his education in the West, first at The University of British Columbia, and later at California. As a young and brilliant physicist on the staff of the University of Minnesota, he was called to wartime service by the country of his adoption, and was one of that group whose researches at Los Alamos led to the development of the first atomic bomb.
His wartime service ended, he returned to Minnesota and to academic life; also to a changed world, a world dominated by the threat and promise, the hope and the fear, of atomic energy, the release of which had been hastened by the urgency of war. In this new world, Dr. Williams was again summoned to the service of his country and his community and in this service has been recently appointed as Research Director of one of the world’s most important programmes of scientific development.
For his brilliance as a research scholar, for this gifts as a leader, and for his demonstrated ability in the area of great affairs, I now present to you, Mr. Chancellor, John Harry Williams.
Mr. Chancellor, the effective communication of ideas is a primary concern of institutions of learning and an essential condition of the unity of societies of people. To the traditional means of communication our century has added radio and television, instruments of great power, promise and danger, whose power and promise require study and understanding, whose danger requires wise and effective control. The newly appointed President of Carleton University, Arnold Davidson Dunton, is Canada’s most gifted practitioner and student in these complex fields. Not only has he proved himself a gifted journalist and pioneer in the new fields of communications, but he has also shown himself possessed of great imagination, judgement, and understanding of the nature of the Canadian society. These qualities, fostered by the bicultural city of his birth, Montreal, and developed by his education in both the Old and New Worlds, have marked his editorial direction of the Montreal Standard, his management of the Wartime Information Board, and most recently his Chairmanship of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Canada is justly proud of the achievements of her radio and television services and recognizes gratefully his contribution to those achievements.
As a mark of this recognition, Mr. Chancellor, I now present to you for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, a master of the fourth estate, Arnold Davidson Dunton.
Mr. Chancellor, in the community of learning Charles Edwin Odegaard has long had an honourable and distinguished place as a scholar and teacher of mediaeval history.
In the distantly related community of academic administration he had already made a name for himself as Executive Director of the American Council of Learned Societies and as Dean of Arts at the University of Michigan, before he was called upon to assume the Presidency of our sister University of Washington.
To the community of the Pacific North-West we welcome him not only because of his personal contributions to the world of scholarship and his demonstrated educational leadership, but also because of the close bonds of common interest and common purpose which bind our two universities.
It gives me great pleasure, Mr. Chancellor, to present to you now for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the President of the University of Washington, Charles Edwin Odegaard.
Mr. Chancellor, To the Greeks, monumental achievement could be best described in terms of piling Mount Pelion on Ossa on Olympus. It is now my pleasure to present to you an adult educator, whose missionary zeal, devotion to his craft and whose effectiveness in practising it have led him to create the Banff School of Advanced Business Management, to direct the development of the Banff School of Fine Arts and to represent within the Olympus of the Canadian Senate the needs of our educational and cultural development.
Donald Cameron represents that most vigorous tradition of community, provincial and national service which has characterized the Extension activities of the University of Alberta since its inception. To this tradition he has a kind of financial wizardry which is as rare as it is admirable when applied to the promotion of Educational ventures.
So, on behalf of the Senate, I now present to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, a pioneer in new directions in adult education, Senator Donald Cameron.
Mr. Chancellor, if the public image of Canada is gradually developing clarity and depth; if Canadians are beginning to take pride in the vision and determination that created a country from the vast reaches of a continent; if our first first citizen emerges from the perspective of history as a player who created the part; then the author of "Dominion of the North", "The Young Politician" and "The Old Chieftain" also emerges as a creative interpreter of that past, a great teacher to his own and succeeding generations and a writer whose imagination and style matches the range and reach of his subject.
I now present to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Donald Grant Creighton, Professor and Head of the Department of History of the University of Toronto, scholar, teacher, writer, transmitter of the vision and power of Sir John A. MacDonald – perhaps even by virtue of this forerunner of the conservative renaissance.
Mr. Chancellor – Donald Grant Creighton.
Mr. Chancellor, were it within my competence, I would suggest that you confer not one but several degrees upon Professor Woodhouse, Head of the Department of English in both University College and the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto. This suggestion is no mere conceit prompted by this happy occasion. Rather, such a gesture would represent more adequately the varied contributions of one who has served his discipline, his university and his country with an unlimited devotion born of his love of humanism and liberty.
As a scholar, he has gained international eminence for his studies of Milton: as a member of the faculty of the University of Toronto, he has enlarged his university’s reputation by his editorship of its Quarterly and by his creation of the first and today the most important centre for English Studies in our country: as a Canadian, he has championed the Humanities Research Council, has been its strongest mainstay and its frequent chairman. To all these activities he has brought a quality beloved of Canadians, a robust common sense.
Mr. Chancellor, we are all gladly in his debt. And it is with the same gladness that we ask you to confer upon Arthur Sutherland Pigott Woodhouose the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Baron Hubert Lister Parker, of Waddington, Privy Counsellor, Lord Chief Justice of England. Experience, the matured fruit of a distinguished career, courtesy and tolerance, wisdom and clarity: these are the qualities with which he discharges his tasks in the Royal Courts. With this symbol of our deep respect and lasting admiration for both the holder and his office, it is now our privilege to add to the dignities of one who is an adornment to his profession and to his native land.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Rosser Lynn Malone, President of the American Bar Association. It is always a pleasure to honour a citizen of our mighty neighbour, but particularly so when that person has a record of service to his profession, to his state, (of New Mexico), and to the government of the United States, which makes clear his prowess as a lawyer, his interest in legal education, and his contribution to the betterment of the administration of justice. Such attainments have already received due tributes. To their number we gladly add our own.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Albert Brunois, member of the Council of the Order of Advocates of Paris. In our dreams a true Frenchman must be a fighter for liberty, defender of justice, a humanist of striking charm. Professor Brunois makes reality of these dreams, for he is a gallant soldier, a distinguished jurist, an educated gentleman. To thank the Paris Bar for sending such a representative is a happy task; to honour such a man a privilege.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Alexander Campbell DesBrisay, Chief Justice of the Province of British Columbia. In his public life he is guided by the courage of his convictions, a courage inherited from his renowned ancestors; in his private life he finds pleasure in the arts and delight in the outdoors, thus combining the sophistication of the old world and the directness of the new. Therefore, we pay tribute to him, a Canadian devoted alike to his calling, his community and his country.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Walter Stewart Owen, Queen’s Counsel, President of the Canadian Bar Association. British Columbians everywhere are proud of this brilliant advocate who, in his ascent to merited fame, has shown the same characteristics that make his province great; rugged strength, youthful vigour, the inventiveness and determination of the pioneer. It is therefore proper that he who has brought distinction to his province should in turn be honoured by his province’s University and awarded its highest prize.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Sir Hugh Stott Taylor, Fellow of the Royal Society. This famous knight is an exemplar of a combination now rare and precious: he is both an eminent scientist who shows unusual brilliance and a distinguished administrator who acts with humane understanding. While Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University, he contributed to the international progress of his discipline, he championed the cause of higher studies, he encouraged and inspired young people. Now, in retirement, he puts us further in his debt by carrying on through his Presidency of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation this vital task of discovering and assisting graduate students of high promise. With this degree we salute, and thank, this man of clear wisdom.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, John Everett Robbins. In a life devoted to education, this Canadian so often acclaimed has been teacher, civil servant, and government envoy. Today he is editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia Canadiana, bringing to this task a deep knowledge of his country and a deeper knowledge of his countrymen. Notwithstanding the onerous responsibilities of his many duties, love of his fellow citizens has led him to accept the Secretary-Treasurership of the Canadian Social Science Research Council, of the Humanities Research Council of Canada, and of the Canada Foundation. Through these organizations he has found deserving scholars, he has helped their worthy causes, he has advanced our national scholarship. Such devotion to our interests demands our recognition, and so we ask that he who has been our helper should now receive our thanks.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Bernard Law Montgomery, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter.
This University recognizes that there could be no citation so apt, no phrase so immediately forceful in its power to evoke the memory, as the name he himself chose, Montgomery of Alamein. It recalls that moment in history when in the desert of North Africa two Generals and two worlds opposed each other in the struggle for freedom. Trusting in the power of Divine Providence and the courage of his men, confident of his own skill, devoted to his country’s purpose, General Montgomery fought our battle, defeated our enemy, and brought hope and inspiration to free men everywhere.
Alamein kindled a flame in the hearts of British soldiers, and under his inspired leadership, saw the beginning of that triumphal march through the African desert, through Sicily and on to the gates of Rome.
As Commander of the famous 21st Army Group, the Field Marshal continued to display those qualities of brilliant leadership and unswerving devotion and faith, from the shores of Normandy across the Rhine to the City of Berlin, each battle adding to the measure of his greatness.
From despair and subjugation came hope and freedom. From victory came peace and reconstruction.
There is much to be related, Mr. Chancellor, of his accomplishments in the task of reconstruction in post-war years in Europe, and as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and of his contribution to the nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But our hearts and minds refuse to be drawn away by these achievements, from our memory of this master of the battlefield at Alamein.
As history has associated Marlborough with Blenheim, Wellington with Waterloo, so this great General will ever be linked with that turning of the tide of war – the victory of Alamein.
Sir Winston Churchill addressing the heroes of that encounter said this: "In days to come when people ask you what you did in the Second World War, it will be enough to say: ‘I marched with the 8th Army’".
Mr. Chancellor, I present to you the leader of that army.
Read his convocation address....
A one time scholar of Jesus College, Cambridge, Sir Saville joined the Dominions Office in 1930, and during the past thirty years has been one of those whose sensitivity and insight has contributed greatly to the development of that indefinable piece of metaphysical architecture, the Commonwealth of Nations, whose persistent influence in human affairs we are delighted to recognize.
Equally are we delighted to recognize and to honour in Sir Saville a distinguished representative of the United Kingdom, a diplomat of great experience and skill, and an understanding friend and interpreter of Canada, and of her role in the Commonwealth.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you one who has served Canada with great distinction as soldier, scientist, and diplomat. As soldier he served in two world wars, in the second becoming the General Officer Commanding the First Canadian Army Overseas. As scientist he served as President of the National Research Council, and of the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada. As diplomat he has been Permanent Delegate of Canada to the United Nations and representative of Canada on the Security Council, and more recently Chairman, Canadian Section of the International Joint Commission.
His career throughout has been characterized by his high sense of service to his country, pride in its accomplishments, faith in its future, and has been identified by equal tenacity and integrity. He is, in the words of Milton, a man "fitted to perform, justly, skillfully and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war".
And so, Mr. Chancellor, I present to you, for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Andrew George Latta Mcnaughton.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, the Vice-President of McMaster University, Henry George Thode, Fellow of the Royal Society. That he is a chemist of rare insight, the honours he has already won make evident; that he is an administrator with valued judgement, his present offices witness; that he has earned the confidence of all his colleagues throughout this country, his Presidency of the Royal Society of Canada declares. To recognize and further honour a man of such accomplishments is a pleasure this University gladly accepts.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Kenneth Wiffin Taylor, Deputy-Minister of Finance of the Government of Canada.
As the sphere of influence and range of activity of government increases, it is a matter of great concern to ensure that the Civil Service is staffed by men and women of integrity, humanity, intellectual distinction, imagination, and also, if possible, humility. Our guest today illustrates the fact that the desirable is, in rare cases at least, realizable. Possessed of a scholarly mind, imagination, and an exceptional range of interests he has also demonstrated his effectiveness in a variety of posts of great public responsibility. Above all, in him, the community of scholarship sees one whose learning serves his integrity, and whose modesty illuminates his humanity.
Mr. Chancellor, it is a privilege to welcome to The University of British Columbia His Excellency The Governor-General of Canada. A graduate of our sister University of Laval, he has brought honour to her and to himself by distinguished service to his country in both peace and war. As a soldier in the First World War he became widely known for both gallantry and leadership. As Canadian Minister to the Allied Governments in London during the Second World War, as Canadian Representative to the French Committee of National Liberation, and particularly as Canadian Ambassador to France from 1944 to 1953, he won wide recognition for Canada’s contributions to the common cause, and transmuted a filial relationship with a parent country into a mature entente cordiale.
As a citizen he has served Canada in so many capacities, most recently as a founding member of the Canada Council, with such distinction, that his appointment as the Queen’s representative was acclaimed from ocean to ocean. And so, Mr. Chancellor, it gives me great pleasure to present to you now, for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Canada’s first citizen, Georges Philias Vanier.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, John William Gardner, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In view of the importance of the great philanthropic foundations to the world of learning and human well-being, it is essential that they be directed and guided by those who themselves have a vision of excellence. It is therefore fitting that the Carnegie Corporation and its sister Foundation have as their president one who, as student and teacher has proved his high academic competence; as officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, his sense of duty and capacity for leadership; and as educator, executive and benefactor, his capacity to relate the instruments of Education to the service of mankind. Most recently he was chairman of a panel which produced a most stimulating Report on Educational objectives today. The title of that report is a just description of this man’s personal goal, and the honours he has won make it obvious that in the minds of all he has been zealous in his search: - the Pursuit of Excellence.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the Honourable Howard Charles Green, Secretary of State for External Affairs. As lawyer, as member of Parliament from Vancouver for 25 years, and now as Minister of the Crown, he represents to many Canadians both the unassuming dignity and integrity of professional and political life. There is a conscience, and insistence upon accepting the full responsibilities of constituency, party and country; there is humility and with it a wish for simplicity; there is a store of high ideals all worth holding; and there is the quiet strength of an earnest Christian. Whatever the office, whether private or public, this British Columbian has always won the respect, affection and thanks of his fellow-citizens, and so it is particularly fitting that The University of British Columbia award him her highest honour.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Frank Chalton Francis, Knight Commander of the Bath, Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum. Since books are the indispensable tools of the scholar, so the entire world of scholarship is indebted to a few outstanding national libraries, of which the British Museum is one of the greatest and most revered. But the usefulness of a library, however great its collections, is dependent upon the sympathy and understanding given to its direction. The community of scholarship is indeed fortunate in the Museum’s director, for there is no one better qualified by training and interest to maintain and enlarge its reputation for unfailing service and courtesy. Sir Frank is a master of the subject of bibliography; his cause is the establishment of international co-operation among libraries. In acknowledgement of a debt we delight to see grow, this University is pleased to recognize the unique importance of the institution he serves and the enlightened guidance he is giving to it.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Louis Booker Wright, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library. The past fifty years have seen the rise of many research institutions in America. Of these one of the most important is the Folger, a renowned centre for the study of English civilization in the Tudor and Stuart periods. Much of this renown it owes to its present director, a man who has won international fame as administrator and scholar. His concept of the character and place of a research institution marks both the Folger and Huntingdon Libraries, and his intellectual integrity and achievement are an inspiration to the scholars he serves. His own field of study is America in the colonial period, and, in the fashion of those pioneers, he has built something new. Also like them, he has built it to endure. For tireless and inspired effort on behalf of the world of scholarship, and for great accomplishment, this University delights to honour him.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Sydney Clifford Barry, Deputy-Minister of Agriculture in the Government of Canada. A Graduate from this University, Mr. Barry’s record of service illustrates two characteristics of which we may be particularly proud. A sense of devotion to the public well-being and the public service and the zeal of the trained scientist in the pursuit of ever improving standards of performance and production. Throughout his long career in the Department of Agriculture during which he has risen to assume the highest position in that Department, he has demonstrated a steadfast adherence to the application of science to the improvement of agricultural productivity in all its branches. Theory and practice have been united in his efforts to expand the sale of Canadian agricultural products on the world scene and to secure an improved economic position for the Canadian farmer. In recognition of this zeal and this steadfastness, his Alma Mater delights to recognize the effectiveness of his efforts and the distinction with which he has pursued these goals.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, thomas wright moir cameron, Director of the Institute of Parasitology at McGill University.
A Scot, educated in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, he had already established an enviable reputation as a scientist when he came to Canada in 1932. This reputation has been enhanced by the development of his Institute into one of the leading centres for the study and elucidation of the complex relationships existing between hosts and parasites. His stature as a scientist has been recognized by his election to the Royal Society of Canada in 1939, by his Presidency of the American Society of Parasitologists in 1949, and more recently by his term of office as President of the Royal Society of Canada. This University now takes pleasure in adding our own thanks to one who has so enriched the scholarly reputation of his adopted country.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you Paul Emerson Cooper, engineer, industrialist and humanitarian.
A free society requires of its leaders a willingness to balance public concern against private interest, and a readiness to give freely of their time, energy and talents to promote the welfare of the society. Such a man is Paul Cooper, whose contributions to the community through leadership in industry and through outstanding service to the Community Chest, the Children’s Hospital, the Red Cross and The University of British Columbia, have commanded the respect of his fellow citizens.
Because of his concern for the able and his compassion for the unfortunate; because of his willingness to work for their well-being; because of the intelligent leadership he gives and has given to their cause, the University delights to honour him, and I now present him for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Gordon Meritt Shrum, O.B.E. Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, Professor and Head of the Department of Physics, Director of the British Columbia Research Council, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Just as this province was settled and its character moulded by pioneers, so this University has grown and matured through the efforts of another generation of pioneers similar in spirit, though later in time. From the moment when the University moved to Point Grey more than thirty-five years ago, Dr. Shrum’s devotion to its interest and well-being has been unswerving. With courage, energy and purpose, he has met and overcome every challenge presented to him. And the results, whether the field be academic, University extension, housing or the armed forces, have been marked by his powerful individuality. Like a hardy settler, he has flourished, nurtured by self-reliance, tutored by wide experience, tempered by a robust humour. And we have flourished with him; we, this province and this country. For with a complete disdain for physical limitations, he has assumed burdens and responsibilities more fitting to a giant.
Mr. Chancellor, it is with great pleasure that I present to you, a man who has become a legend in his own lifetime, the Paul Bunyon of the groves of academe, Gordon Meritt Shrum.
Read his convocation address....
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Earle Douglas MacPhee, LL.D., Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, and Dean of Administrative and Financial Affairs of this University.
To assume the directorship of a newly formed school, to become its first Dean as an established faculty, and to bring it to its present state of mature development, this man of vigour and persuasion, with a gift of foresight to match his strength came here a decade ago, with a reputation built on successful careers in the worlds of learning and business, both at home and abroad.
What has been accomplished in the past ten years in designing a programme of business studies to meet the needs of both a growing University and an increasingly complex economy, owes much to a knowledge and experience, intimate in depth, broad in application; and to a personality unswerving in its sense of duty, devotion to ethical principles, and loyalty to students and colleagues alike.
Nor have his interests and energies been consumed in the building of his faculty, for he has found the time to contribute greatly to the financial direction of the University, the economic development of the province, and the advanced training for business leadership throughout the country.
In all his endeavours the acuteness of his understanding and the force of his personality have made inevitable the acceptance of his leadership.
For distinguished service, well over and above the call of duty, to the University, to the province, to the world of business, I now present to you, Mr. Chancellor, a man of protean energy and warm human quality, Earle Douglas MacPhee.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Charles Johnstone Armstrong. Dr. Armstrong was born in this city and attended Victoria College, where he served as President of the Students’ Council. His studies of classics here, at The University of British Columbia, and at Harvard, where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree, were a fitting apprenticeship for the works of a scholar and the labours of university administration. The step-son of the late Percy Harris Elliott, Dr. Armstrong has won distinction for his intellectual power and his rare gifts of leadership as President of the University of Nevada. It is most fitting, therefore, that The University of British Columbia and Victoria College should award him the high honour of a Doctor of Laws degree.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Sperrin Noah Fulton Chant, O.B.E., Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science.
Such an honour is a fitting reward for one who has put his colleagues at this University and his fellow citizens so greatly in his debt.
As dean he has administered a faculty of ever increasing size and complexity with sure understanding, enduring patience, and a nice disregard for academic nicety. As answer to the claims and conflicts of competing scholars he has supplied common sense, urbane good humour, a knowledge and awareness of human beings and an unquestioned fairness.
These are the same qualities that earlier led the Royal Canadian Air Force to give him, as Group Captain, the responsibility for organizing and directing their personnel services, and that later caused the Department of Veterans Affairs to recruit him to plan the re-establishment of Veterans into civilian life.
Most recently, as Chairman of the Royal Commission on Education for this Province, he has once again been called upon to plan for the future. To this task, as to the others, he has brought the dignity and wisdom, the sanity and tolerance, the broad humanity and scholarly integrity for which the Senate of the University delights to honour him.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the Right Honourable Oliver Shewell Franks, Privy Counsellor, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, Master of Arts, Chairman of Lloyds Bank, and, commencing in 1962, Provost of Worcester College, Oxford. These offices and dignities, chosen from among many, illustrate the diversity of his talents, the excellence of his accomplishments, the trust and regard won from all he has served. As an academician, he rose from Fellow to Provost of Queen’s College, Oxford: as a servant of the crown he showed himself a man of capacity, determination, and tact, first in the Ministry of Supply, later as the British Ambassador in Washington. As a leader in business, he ably directs the affairs of several great financial houses. That he is a member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council is proof no less of his devotion to his country, than of his country’s dependence upon his integrity and ability. All these activities are linked together by the discipline which he studied, then taught, and now practices: from being a student of moral philosophy, he has become a practitioner of the science of philosophy in the arts of banking, governmental, public, and university affairs.
Read his convocation address....
Mr. Chancellor, in the year when the city of Vancouver is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary, it is particularly fitting that the Senate of the University should mark the occasion by honouring one who has given faithful and distinguished service to the city as Mayor and Alderman for a full third of its lifetime.
In times when public attention is naturally attracted to the larger forums of public debate, provincial, national and international, - but when the problems of city growth urgently require the attention of able and informed men and women, George Miller’s record of service stands as an example of integrity, devotion and quiet efficiency in this sphere of public life.
Mayor of Vancouver in 1937-38, President of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities in 1940-41, President of the Canadian Federation of Mayors and Municipalities in 1951-52, his many contributions to municipal government have been widely recognized, locally, provincially and nationally.
For all these services and many others well and truly performed, and for those personal qualities which make him a beloved Freeman of Vancouver, I ask you to confer upon George Clark Miller, in absentia, the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
We all regret that for reasons of health he was not able to be with us today.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Edward Annand Corbett, first Director of the Canadian Association for Adult Education. This beloved Canadian of single purpose - to liberate his fellow citizens by education from the confines of limited environment - this founder of the Banff School of Fine Arts and pioneer in other varied and informal approaches to the road to learning, has had his path illumined by two inner qualities: a Presbyterian sense of conscience and a Rabelaisian delight in human behaviour. The one has led him to be ceaseless in his efforts to sustain and enlarge in the Canadian mind an understanding of the importance of life-long learning: the other has made him a lover of all parts of this country and all types of its inhabitants. Indeed, there is no corner of this land that his personality has not touched, his ideas reached, whether through his teaching or his writing, or through the radio or the film. It is thus with a pleasure nationally felt that we add today to the dignities already conferred upon him by sister universities from sea to sea – Edward Annand Corbett.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you, James Robbins Kidd, Secretary-Treasurer of the Humanities and Social Science Research Councils of Canada and past Director of the Canadian Association for Adult Education.
The universal recognition now given to the need for continuing education throughout adult life in our society reflects the work of those great Canadian pioneers of whom, Father "Jimmy" Tompkins, Father Coady and Dr. Edward Corbett are examples, and also of the next generation of which Roby Kidd has been a leader.
As President of the World Conference on Adult Education held in 1960, and now, as Chairman of UNESCO’s Advisory Committee on Adult Education, he testifies to the stature that Canadian practices and programs have gained throughout the world and also to the leadership Canada continues to give.
For his own contributions to that leadership, as director, researcher, writer and consultant, I now present him to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you a man, qualified by training and experience, by managerial capacity and imaginative insight, for the exacting and challenging task of directing Canada’s largest scientific research undertaking.
A graduate in engineering of our sister University of Saskatchewan, it is a tribute to the versatility of our guest today that he might well have enjoyed the excitement of a career in professional hockey, had he not chosen the less financially rewarding but equally strenuous career of university teaching and scientific investigation.
Following distinguished service in the Royal Canadian Air Force, he became Scientific Assistant to the then President of the National Research Council, Dr. C.J. MacKenzie, and in due course, General Manager, Vice President and President of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.
Canadians are particularly proud of the contribution which this research establishment has made and is making to world understanding of the peaceful possibilities of atomic energy, a contribution which received wide recognition at the recent acceptance by India of an atomic reactor contributed by Canada to that country, and installed under Mr. Gray’s leadership.
For his many contributions to the scientific advancement of his own and other countries, for his effective concern to ensure that young Canadians shall enjoy the opportunity of working at the frontiers of new knowledge, and for the drive and stimulation he has brought to his chosen field of investigation, I now present to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, James Lorne Gray.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Gregoire Fere Amyot, Deputy Minister of Health and Provincial Health Officer of the Province of British Columbia. It is proper that we should recognize this devoted civil servant whose experience and wisdom in matters of public health and whose humane concern for the welfare of all people have secured him a commanding role in councils, local, provincial, national, and international. And it is peculiarly fitting that at this time we should acknowledge on behalf of the province, and on behalf of the University, our sense of obligation for his many contributions to both medical administration and medical education. The Senate of the University delights to honour him in his personal as well as his official capacity and to enroll him among our graduates.
In an age when other men stretch out to the far-off planets and bring closer the stars through giant telescopes, Albert Friedrrch Frey-Wyssling delves into the primary material of life, laying bare with the electron microscope the morphology of protoplasm. As leader in the postulation of cell-structures and as forerunner in the development of the tools and techniques now used to test these postulates, he has pushed investigations to the threshold of that realm where the unity of life is most apparent. I therefore ask you, Mr. Chancellor, to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, upon Albert Frey-Wyssling, Professor of General Botany and Plant Physiology and formerly Rector of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, a scientist of genius.
Mr. Chancellor, the name of Patrick Duncan McTaggart-Cowan has a legendary and heroic ring which, in (light?) of the exploits of the bearer of this name, is truly appropriate. As an undergraduate of this University and of Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, he was noted for a physical stamina and a devotion to duty that no amount of personal discomfort could limit. During the past war as Chief Meteorological Officer for the Ferry Command, he supplied the crews with information necessary for a safe crossing of the hazardous Atlantic. Despite very restricted sources of data, he was able to plot the weather with such uncanny accuracy that no pilot would set forth without – and I quote – "the clearance of the one and only McFog". Since the war he has served in the Federal Department of Transport where he is now Director of Meteorology. To this office, with its increasing responsibilities for providing services to meet the exacting requirements of jet flight, he brings his own exacting standards. Mr. Chancellor, I now present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, and undergraduate hero, a wartime legend, a dedicated public servant.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Myron Mcdonald Weaver, Dean of Graduate Studies at Union College, Schenectady, and Dean Emeritus of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. This University, always delighted to honour those who have earned her gratitude, welcomes back with sincerity, warmth, and affection the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Because he believes that the science of medicine is a humane one and that medical students, teachers, and practitioners must always strive to be both humanist and scientist, he gave this faculty at its beginning aims and principles that have guided its youth and are leading it to a mature greatness. But he is not only a man of high ideals: his dreams for this faculty would have been impossible had he not also possessed in abundance the ability to discern human quality. Thus he was able to bring together a staff that made his vision a reality. Today, the citizens of this province, through the Senate, ask of you, Mr. Chancellor, to express our gratitude to Dean Weaver by granting him an honour, which his courage, integrity, insight and wisdom have won for him.
Madam Chancellor, on the twenty-fifth day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-four, the newly-installed president of the University defined his concept of the ideal holder of his office. Today, almost eighteen years later, the University of British Columbia proclaims to this Congregation that his ideal, unattainable by most, matched by a distinguished few, he has himself surpassed. At the time he concluded his description by saying: "But above all else he should have... courage and integrity, for the influence of these will live on after him in the lives of his staff and students, the men and women who come in contact with him, and in the quality and reputation of the University he serves".
Courage he possesses, as unyielding today in his battles with the educational problems of a postwar world as yesterday in his exploits against the enemy in the First World War. It is a courage that commands followers, guarantees achievement, takes decisions, acknowledges their consequences. To this courage he brings integrity, as unblemished today when he helps create and mould the Canada as yesterday when he helped to plan and forge the National Federation of Canadian University Students. It is an integrity that makes the possessor claim failure more readily than admit success, shun the expedient and the mediocre, seek out the common good, be the public conscience.
But the measure of this legendary Canadian admired and loved from sea to sea is not a matter of courage and integrity alone. In him there is a higher quality, a mystic refiner that transforms allelse - the power of greatness. Because of this he has won the approving trust and wholehearted support of all citizens, attracted to this campus a staff of outstanding worth, and made this University internationally famed. The limited horizons of yesterday have given way to the unlimited promise of tomorrow. This is the work of a man of courage, integrity and greatness: he can justly boast "exegi monumentum aere perennius".
Today the Senate of the University of British Columbia pays him its greatest tribute, albeit one unequal to the honour he has brought to this University, province, and nation; it enrolls him as a member of the community he has nobly served, and perpetuates an association at once rich and warm.
Madam Chancellor, you are asked to confer the degree of doctor of laws, honoris causa, on Norman Archibald MacRae MacKenzie, Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Holder of the Military Medal and Bar, Queen's Counsel, Master of Laws, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, President of the University of British Columbia.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Claude Thomas Bissell, President of the University of Toronto, Chairman of the Canada Council. Nurtured by the great university over which he now presides, and inspired by the traditions of his predecessors in that office, not only does he sustain that greatness but he adds richly to it through his personal distinction as a man of letters, through his exuberant Canadian personality, and through his leadership, at once vigorous and imaginative, bold and challenging. Whether at his University or at the Canada Council, his presence is proof enough that the institution is devoted to the enrichment of the things of both soul and mind.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Deputy Minister of Education in the Province of British Columbia. It is with gratitude that this University thanks one of its graduates, one who has become one of the Province’s most loyal servants. His career, in which he has risen from teacher to principal, from inspector to Deputy-Minister, has been marked by two illuminating qualities: deep responsibility and quiet wisdom. For more than thirty-five years he has demonstrated in his public and private life the exacting duty of the teacher not only to master his subject and to instruct his students, but to understand the community and to help realize its aspirations. To this comprehensive understanding of the many different communities that constitute our Province, he brings a judgement which, because of wide experience and unquestioned devotion, has grown to wisdom. To all institutes of learning he is a friend and valued counsellor.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Ronald Gould, Knight, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers of Great Britain, President of the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession. Such obvious competence has not gone unhonoured and to the number of great distinctions already won the Senate delights to add, keenly aware that the immense problems of education in the world today will be solved only by men like him, leaders endowed with vision and ideas. Himself a teacher and an administrator, he is as conscious of the essential importance of both, as he is of the need for their organization and inspiration. And as an organizer and an inspirer, he has been brilliantly successful, bringing to a profession old and conservative new dignity, clarifying insight, challenging ideas. Here is a dynamic man, as outspoken as he is outstanding, a prophet with honour.
Read his convocation address....
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Isadore Michael Lerner, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the University of California at Berkeley. Yesterday an exemplary graduate of this University, today he is a pre-eminent scientist, one of the world’s foremost geneticists, famed for his research and writings, respected for his willingness and ability to discharge administrative duties both national and international, declared a true academician whose natural humanism turns a study of evolution into a study of man in which the practical is balanced by the philosophic.