First, Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Harry Farnham Germaine Letson, engineer and soldier, who won honour in the first world war and who, from the beginning of the second, has served his country with distinction in high national and international councils.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Henry John Cody, whose distinctions in Church, State and University no honour of ours can enhance; and who, facile princeps in the realm of Canadian education, now honours us by becoming one of our adopted alumni.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to propose in absentia for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside, historian and diplomat, deeply experienced in the affairs of Orient and Occident, and now exercising that experience as first Canadian Ambassador to Mexico.
The Senate regrets that duty in Mexico prevents him from being present in person, and recommends that he be granted the degree in absentia.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Sherwood Lett, jurist and soldier active and distinguished in two world wars; one of the organizers and leaders of an heroic military adventure, and decorated for gallantry therein; alumnus with a long record of unsparing devotion to this University.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, William Cameron Murphy, student of history and law, who masterfully transferred his training in the canons of those arts to the science and practice of war; those First Canadian Armoured Division won famous victories in Italy and the Netherlands.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, John Lawrence Plant, engineer, and organizer of aerial training; daring aviator, to whom the skies of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, of Africa and the Near East, are now as familiar as the skies of home.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to propose in absentia for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Norman Alexander Robertson, scholar profoundly versed in the history of civilization; counselor and friend of statesmen, whose mind is truly composed "to be skilful in his master’s business" and to illuminate that business with the Dry Light which "is ever the best".
The Senate regrets that duty in England prevents him from being present in person, and recommends that he be granted the degree in absentia.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Phyllis Gregory Ross, scientist and executive, who in the years of emergency controlled and directed, without fear or favour, a great department of the Canadian War Economy.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Gordon Wilson Stead, whose name in a new pilgrim’s progress would be Mr. Steadfast, though it was fated to be written on the waters of the Mediterranean where he cleared the way for battle and relief.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Percy Munson Barr. Scientist, teacher, organizer, whose special and expert services to the war effort as Colonel of the American Army have brought honour, likewise, to the land of his birth.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, George Michael Volkoff, member of our own staff, who has justified his record of unparalleled distinction as undergraduate by becoming a master of the atom’s mystery.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Lawren Harris, creative artist himself and sustainer of art in others, whose imagination has nobly interpreted the Canadian scene and ventures further into a region of "unpath’d waters, undream’d shores".
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, John Hubert Craigie, Dominion Botanist and benefactor of mankind, whose researches have helped rid the world’s wheat of one of its worst plagues, thereby mitigating, as far as one man is able, the plague of famine.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Richard Claxton Palmer of whom it may be said, as of the architect of St. Paul’s: "If you seek for his monument, look around you." The orchard-trees of the Okanagan Valley, its workers, and the fields themselves will witness that his science has been abundantly fruitful.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Samuel John Willis, who for nearly half a century has served this province as teacher in its schools, professor in its university, and Superintendent of Education, and whose quiet devotion to duty sets up a model for all public service.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Wilder Graves Penfield, teacher, discoverer, helper, and friend of mankind, who has shown by living example that Science and Humanity are one.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Walter Sainsbury Woods, Deputy Minister of Veterans’ Affairs: shaper and director of a vast and beneficent national service that is new in history. To him and to that service, many thousands of men and women in this and other universities owe a debt which will be repaid in an immeasurable enrichment of our national life.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to propose in absentia for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Bernard Heinze, Professor in the University of Melbourne: scholar, teacher, creative artist, who is a powerful agent in keeping his country’s music on levels of eminence and who, as ambassador of civilization, has lately brought to Canada the profit and delight of his art. In honouring him we would pay tribute to the genius of our Sister Commonwealth with whom we Canadians desire to be associated in a stronger and closer fellowship of peace.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the Honourable John Hart: statesman whose goodwill, moderation, and justice have won the gratitude of a State and the rare tribute of affection and respect even from opponents.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Chalmers Jack MacKenzie: engineer, soldier, teacher, citizen of many public services, Fellow of the Royal Society, who now heads our National Research in Science.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Lee Alvin DuBridge: renowned authority on radiant energies, whose wisdom and executive skill have been powerfully effective in war and peace alike.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Ernest Orlando Lawrence: maker and breaker of atoms, into whose hands are confidently entrusted responsibilities that few men dare assume.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Omond McKillop Solandt: many-minded and much-experienced, he brings to a great national service, in his own person, the expert equipment of a whole company of scientists.
Sir, I am directed by the University Senate to present His Excellency that you may confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, Governor-General of Canada, in both war and peace a nobly distinguished servant of His Majesty the King and the British Commonwealth, who now signally honours this University by consenting to become one of its members.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa George Moir Weir: sometime Professor in this University and later provincial Minister of Education, who has spent the energies of a lifetime in advancing public education and social welfare and whose achievement in that service has already become a landmark in the history of this Province.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa, Arnold Danford Patrick Heeney: Clerk of the Privy Council, and first holder of the position of Secretary of the Cabinet, who, as head of an unpublicized but vitally important department of state, applies to the new and difficult problems of his office superb resources of training, experience, and skill.
Mr. Chancellor, under direction of the University Senate, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Daniel Buchanan: for twenty years Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science in this University, the great value of whose performance in office is measured by the wealth of gratitude and affection bestowed on him by staff and students alike.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Georges-Henri Lévesque: doyen de la Faculté des Sciences Sociales de l’Université Laval et représentant distingué des Humanités, exerce sur l’ensemble de la vie canadienne une influence puissante et salutaire.
Georges-Henri Lévesque: Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences in Laval University and gracious exemplar of the Humanities, he exercises a powerful and beneficent influence on Canadian life.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Anne Catherine Bezanson: a notable example of Canada’s export of ability to the United States, who merits honour for patient and profound research in economics and for wise service in the cause of general education.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to propose in absentia for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Alice Ravenhill: distinguished scientist who, after devoting many years of energy to the advance of social welfare in Great Britain, has won the lasting gratitude of this Province by her pioneering efforts to make known and preserve its native culture.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Walter Palmer Thompson: Dean of the College of Arts in the University of Saskatchewan and the President of the Royal Society, whose service to education and to science is indicated but not measured by the high positions which he now holds.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, John Bennett DeLong, who for more than three decades served as an inspector of schools in the interior of this province and in the Victoria and Vancouver areas. In honouring him this University honours all those who with him or like him have laboured hard to establish and maintain the enviable reputation which the progressive public educational system of this province enjoys. In him this University is pleased to honour one who has exemplified in high degree devotion to the ideal of enlightenment on which the firm foundation of our democratic society rests.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Ira Dilworth, who has made a distinguished contribution to the life of this community, this province and the country at large, as teacher and scholar, as protagonist and promoter of the arts and education; in the classroom, on the public platform, and in his direction of an important part of our national broadcasting system.
That touch of magic which characterizes his activities is now appropriately employed as Director of Canadian International Broadcasting in girdling the globe in considerably less than the forty minutes which Puck required - and in promoting a better understanding and appreciation of man for his fellow man.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Luther Harris Evans, who in the last decade conducted with outstanding success an inventory of archives and manuscripts, on a scale not before attempted, throughout the United States; and who now administers, as Librarian of Congress, the largest single collection of books and other printed materials in the world. In this responsible office, Dr. Evans has shown a profound and scholarly grasp of the fact that the possession of knowledge and the power to make knowledge available may well determine in these days the fate of a nation. But we in Canada are especially grateful for a second conviction which informs Dr. Evans’ policy as Librarian: that in the making of knowledge available over its widest possible area of usefulness the least possible account should be taken of political boundaries. This honour now proposed will signalize to Dr. Evans the gratitude of Canadians that as Librarian of the Congress of the United States he has transcended even the limits of his national office.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Francis Thrower Fairey, Deputy Minister and Superintendent of Education of this province. The multitude of public duties which have been undertaken by Colonel Fairey over the past forty years testify eloquently to his exceptional energy, ability and humane understanding. In honouring him this University pays tribute to his wide and distinguished experience in war and peace in both executive and administrative positions; and to his administration of his present post which has been characterized by genuine insight into the nature of educational objectives, and by the thorough understanding of the educational administrator’s function in supporting those objectives.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Jessie Gordon Fisher, foundress of a school which this year celebrated its Golden Jubilee. The love, honour and admiration engendered in those who have felt her influence testify to her quality as friend and counsellor and the attainments and distinction of many of those who have passed through her hands proclaim her devotion to the best traditions of scholarship and public service.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Alexander Russell Lord, who since the early years of this century has served the province of British Columbia successively as school principal, inspector of schools and principal of the Vancouver Normal School, and during the past year has served as president of the Canadian Education Association. Humane, learned, wise and forthright, he has given generously of his time and effort on behalf of a wide variety of civic and provincial activities and has in addition made a distinguished contribution to the developing pattern of our national educational life.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, William Stewart Wallace, who this year completes twenty-five years of distinguished service as chief librarian of the University of Toronto Library. But it is not only as librarian of a sister university that we seek to honour him; as an outstanding historical scholar, as author of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and editor of the Encyclopaedia of Canada he has through tireless effort and broadly imaginative concepts merited the gratitude of Canadians everywhere.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Dr. William Harold Brittain, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at McGill University and Vice-Principal of Macdonald College, who has brought to his impressive academic achievement, industry and acumen; to his administrative record, diligence and efficiency; and to both, personal generosity and unfailing good humour - a good humour, Mr. Chancellor, which has made him known a mari usque ad mare as a skilled raconteur and a keen observer of the folk-ways of this Dominion. It is pleasant to recall that this is not his first or his only contact with the Province of British Columbia, for as long ago as 1912, he served here as Provincial Entomologist, an appointment which proved to be the first step in a long and distinguished career in which he was to be associated with McGill University, Macdonald College, the Agricultural Institute of Canada, the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, the Canadian Association for Adult Education, and the Royal Society of Canada. As organizer and administrator, as class-room teacher and practising scientist, he has long since made his mark; that all four duties should be fulfilled in the person of a single man is in itself sufficient cause that we should seek to honour him today.
Mr. Chancellor, in presenting Frederick Moore Clement, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of British Columbia, I feel that we are in his person offering a just and due tribute to the vital role of agriculture in the economy of our province and our country, at the same time that we honour one who has zealously promoted the welfare of the Faculty of Agriculture in the University of which he is one of the pioneers. His record of achievement in education and scholarship, in public service and administration, has indeed been beyond the ordinary in more than one province of the Dominion, and his influence has never been restricted to the professor's classroom or the administrator's office: there is no district in British Columbia which has not felt the benefit of his expert and affectionate interest. We believe that it is of importance that a University maintain close touch with the community it serves; there are many hundreds of our fellow-citizens who can bear witness to the energy, the intelligence, and the friendliness which he has displayed in carrying out this vital part of the University's work. His acknowledged and unusual gifts as a teacher, his patient and many-sided skill as an administrator, his understanding of the relationship between true learning and practical affairs are the outcome of his experience not only as Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics during the last ten years, but also as Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture in this University for the past thirty. Yet his arduous duties have not prevented him from undertaking, on many occasions, special duties of major importance to the University and to the province. To one who has successfully piled Pelion upon Ossa, and Ossa upon Olympus, we are happy to award the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Read his convocation speech....
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present James Gordon Taggart, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Government of Canada and sometime Minister of Agriculture of the Province of Saskatchewan, a native of Nova Scotia, whose talents, ever since his graduation from the University of Toronto in 1912, have been displayed and exercised in a long series of positions of both provincial and national moment in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and the federal capital, whose unremitting industry in the public service of Canada has brought to him an unrivalled knowledge and understanding of Canadian agricultural problems of every complexion, and whose record of notable achievement in this country’s wartime economy has been widely recognized in other countries as well as his own. It is in further recognition of his services, past and present, to Canada, that the Senate of this University now asks that he be presented for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to propose in absentia for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Basil Joseph Mathews, Professor of World Relations and of Practical Theology at Union College - teacher and traveller, theologian and historian, research scholar and author of many scholarly and influential works. As Professor of Practical Theology, he was trained by active participation in missionary councils and theological associations over a period of three decades; as Professor of World Relations he was prepared by travels which led him not only over the continent of North America, but to India, to China, to Indonesia, to Palestine, and to every country of Europe. The combination of sound learning, objective observation, and practical experience was a preparation little short of ideal for a post so exacting as his. And now, upon his retirement, Professor Mathews has returned to that ancient nursery of arts, the Oxford from which he first graduated. We know that the retirement will forward researches, the completion of which only administrative and classroom duties have prevented. In recognition, then, of past achievement and of the contribution which he made to sound learning in his years among us, the University of British Columbia awards to him the highest degree in its power to bestow.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present one of our own graduates, ALBERT EDWARD RICHARDS, Principal Economist of the Dominion Department of Agriculture, whose claims upon us extend to his days as an undergraduate; for it was he who, as President of the Alma Mater Society in 1923, played a prominent part in organizing the Student Trek and campaign which resulted in the effective translation of the University to its present site on this Campus.
Since graduation, he has been continuously associated in a career of exemplary merit, with the Federal Department of Agriculture; a career in which he has combined a thorough understanding of Canadian agricultural problems with the energy and power of analysis which characterized him even in his student days.
At this time, on his return from a series of international food conferences, the Senate of the University of British Columbia takes both pride and pleasure in presenting him for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present a graduate of this University, HOMER ARMSTRONG THOMPSON, archaeologist, classical scholar and humanist. There is not a University in the English-speaking world today and surely few in any foreign country which will not automatically associate his name with the Agora of Athens, for it is with the deliberate and laborious excavation of that site that he has now for twenty years been continuously associated.
From Professor of Classical Archaeology in the University of Toronto and Curator of Classical Antiquities in the Royal Ontario Museum, he has become Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow of the German Archaeological Institute of Berlin, President of the Archaeological Institute of America, and, finally, Fellow of Classical Archaeology in the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University.
In further recognition of the brilliant work of a man who is one of the world’s greatest living archaeologists, the Senate of his own University now present him for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, FREDERICK CLINTON CRONKITE, Dean of Law in the University of Saskatchewan, whose energy and abilities have for many years been in equal demand both in the classroom and in many fields of public administration. Generations of students have benefited by his capacity for legal analysis, and by his appreciation of the humane element in the application of legal rules. The public life of our country has been enriched by his willingness to give of his technical competence to the solution of many diverse problems of government.
In honouring him this University delights to honour one who has been animated throughout his career by a strong sense of personal interest in his students and public responsibility to the state.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, ERWIN NATHANIEL GRISWOLD, Dean of the Harvard Law School, whose succession at an early age to the mantle of Langdell, Ames and Pound followed upon a distinguished career as a legal scholar, practising lawyer and government consultant. Dean Griswold has brought to his present position an acute understanding of the relationship between the teaching of law and the administration of justice.
In honouring him this University pays tribute to a cultivated teacher and scholar and to an institution whose contribution to Canadian legal education we are honoured to acknowledge.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, VINCENT CHRISTOPHER MacDONALD, Dean of the Law School and Weldon Memorial Professor of Law at Dalhousie University. This chair perpetuates the memory of a former dean who chose our University of British Columbia site and who dedicated himself to legal scholarship and public service. Dean MacDonald, outstanding in both fields is well qualified to carry on the Weldon tradition.
In honouring him this University honours an educator who has the rare gift of seasoning the feast of learning with the spice of wit and a government consultant and advisor on difficult constitutional problems who leavens his great store of knowledge with abundant common sense.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, DAVID HUGHES PARRY, first Director of the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London, in whom are combined thorough scholarship in English Law and distinguished service in the thorny field of academic administration.
In honouring him this University pays tribute to his long and enviable record as a legal scholar and to his able handling during the difficult post-war years of the onerous duties which fell to him during his term of office as Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and as Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of the United Kingdom.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, CECIL AUGUSTUS WRIGHT, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto.
Dr. Wright’s abundant energy and keen and inquiring mind have combined to produce in him a profound knowledge and understanding of the common law, of its excellences and of its shortcomings.
His life is devoted to sharing this knowledge and understanding. For more than twenty years he has stimulated and enlightened students at Osgoode Hall and at the University of Toronto with his brilliant class discussions of legal problems and over the same period his articles and comments in the Canadian Bar Review and other legal periodicals have been eagerly read and highly regarded by the legal profession both at home and abroad.
In honouring him, the University of British Columbia takes this occasion to express its recognition of the debt which Canadian legal education owes to this penetrating scholar and stimulating teacher.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, RANDOLPHE WILLIAM DIAMOND, whose rich vein of scholarly interest applied to the practical problems of ore extraction have brought him to a top position in Canadian industry and engineering - which may be partially explicable in terms of his own experiments in differential flotation! In presenting him for this honour, the Senate would draw attention to his exceptional qualities of mind and character, of clear vision, controlled energy and patient persistence, which his education in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering has accentuated and disciplined to our mutual social benefit.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, JOHN NORISON FINLAYSON, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at this University, whose career as teacher, administrator and practical engineer, which has carried him from his native Nova Scotia to his adopted British Columbia, has been characterized by sound scholarship, urbane charm and unyielding devotion to the interests of engineering education. In presenting John Finlayson for this degree on the occasion of his retirement after fourteen years of affectionate association with him, the Senate delights to honour one who has represented in exemplary degree over many years the humanity, dignity and high standards of his "twin" professions of engineering and teaching.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, the RIGHT HONOURABLE CLARENCE DECATUR HOWE, whose vision in planning, and skill in marshalling our productive resources, in peace, for war, and for reconstruction, amply illustrate his own great gifts - and the value of engineering disciplines animated by a high sense of public duty. In presenting him, the Senate wishes to honour one who distinguished himself as a brilliant student, teacher and practitioner of engineering science before he mounted - or strayed - into what might be called the "Liberal" Arts.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, HARVEY REGINALD MacMILLAN, whose career has been built on great energy, clear intelligence, strong judgment, a Scots faith in the value of sound learning, and a profound belief in his country and its economic development. In presenting this pre-eminent forester and industrialist, the Senate pays tribute to his brilliance as a student and practitioner of the applied sciences, a brilliance which would have guaranteed him equal distinction in the teaching profession had he chosen, when tempted, to adorn it.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, FREDERICK EMMONS TERMAN, teacher, administrator, counsellor of governments, research scientist, whose contributions and influence have not been confined to his own United States of America but have been felt and acknowledged by many other countries including Canada and the United Kingdom. In submitting Dean Terman for this degree the Senate is happy to make this further acknowledgment of his distinguished contribution to the advancement of the science of electrical engineering and to his own pre-eminent position in both teaching and research.