Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Leo Marion, Vice-President of the National Research Council of Canada. Many are the reasons why this university in the west joins with those in the east in honouring so distinguished a Canadian. As a scientist he has gained an international reputation in the field of organic chemistry, and this fame has brought its proper recognition: prestigious medals, honorary degrees, and Fellowship in the Royal Society. As an administrator he has secured the confidence of his colleagues, particularly of those in universities, and through a keen appreciation of their problems and a critical understanding of their role, he has given them due encouragement. Finally, as a man of Canada he makes it clear by his own example that there is but one nation, in which all are subject to the same unalterable standards.
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Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the Honourable Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations. Among all men this renowned American, whose story is as inspiring as are those of the great pioneers and heroes of America’s legendary past, stands out as a profound thinker capable of conveying his rational ideas with cogency and clarity. Moreover, in a country that prizes success, he has shown that defeat can be as praiseworthy as victory and that a man’s stature, dignity, and wisdom can grow in adversity. Finally, for the salvation of a world torn by warring factions, in which hate and discord seem natural elements, he has preached peaceful co-existence and is today an apostle of unity. Of his life addressed to mankind’s betterment he has declared that "the way of an egghead is hard." This way is also lonely. But he has proved by his devotion to noble principles, and by his integrity of mind and soul, that he who strides this road can be a shining exemplar of all that is best in a man born to be free.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Herman Northrop Frye, Principal of Victoria College, Toronto. An author of high distinction known throughout the world of learning, he is one of a very small group of Canadians who can be truly and unreservedly called a humanist. Not only is he devoted to his discipline, the study of man in literature and criticism, but he is also dedicated completely to the serving of man, so that with him students come before reading and the affairs of his college before writing. Nevertheless, despite the burdens of conscience and office, he stands a scholar, and with his godly calling he links the religious past with the skeptical present and creates that needed understanding between the world of science and the world of the supranational.
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Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, James Arthur Baldwin, an American writer dedicated to the task of freeing his countrymen from themselves. As a writer he proclaims a concept of human liberty that lies at the core of education: "If we can liken life, for a moment, to a furnace, then freedom is the fire which burns away illusion." This theme with its variations, his essays and novels, he presents with titanic strength, grim realism, probing insight, and compelling style. And as an American he cries aloud with agonized intensity his analysis of his country’s dilemma, wherein dreams conceal reality, liberty is enchained by slavery, and two races are still at war, yet ever wedded to form one nation. For his conscience, his convictions, his courage, no less than his contributions to literature, he deserves all honour from an institution committed to the belief that light and learning ensure liberty. James Arthur Baldwin.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Malcolm Hayden Hebb, Manager of the General Physics Research Department of the General Electric Laboratory. Whether as student, theoretical physicist, or administrator, his record has been one of continuing brilliance; at this University he won the Governor-General’s Gold Medal; in his chosen discipline he is well known for his many publications in the field of solid state physics; and in the world of science his insight and organizing skill have been recognized by industry and government alike. The award today of the University’s highest honour is therefore amply justified. But on this occasion the Senate also remembers yesterday and hopes that there will be enhanced and perpetuated by this act an association with a family whose members link the earliest years of the University with the present, an inspired teacher and his inspiring son, who have both proved their wisdom. Malcolm Hayden Hebb.
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Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Frederic Hubert Soward, Dean of Graduate Studies, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Were this University to strike an image of the ideal professor, the likeness would be that of this remarkable Canadian who, more than anyone in our faculty, proves by example that the offices and responsibilities proper to a man devoted to his university, discipline, and country can be discharged equally, effectively, and decorously. As a teacher, with inspiration he has challenged his students for forty-two years; with experience he has helped to plan the growth of this university; and with wisdom he has played a part in moulding her special character. As a historian he has shown incisive understanding of this nation’s problems in foreign policy both present and past, and of her future role in the world community. Finally, as befits a man who loves his native land, his strength of intellect and integrity of soul he has made of service to every citizen. No honours can truly match the gifts he has given so freely; they can only reflect our thanks.
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Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, General Secretary of the Canadian Medical Association. When misunderstandings between doctors, government, and society have unhappily ceased to be a rarity, it is a great relief to live in a country where disagreements have been avoided for the most part, and where the medical profession, displaying sage far-sightedness, early adapted itself to meet a world conscious of vast social change. Credit for both leading and reflecting medical opinion is due this skilled doctor, who for almost twenty years has given his colleagues dynamic and astute leadership. For his perception of the coming new dimensions in providing medical care, for his unstinting concern for the health of a nation, and for his integrity of purpose that makes the corporate body of Canadian doctors a true instrument of humanity, the University is delighted to enrol him as one of its members.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Cecil Howard Green, a leader in geophysical exploration, whose love for science and higher learning was first aroused in Vancouver. Because in today’s world there must exist a very close and understanding bond between industry and the universities, the efforts of this brilliant engineer to promote, widen, and enrich this necessary liaison are of the greatest importance. In recognition of his renowned professional competence, of his unceasing support of education, and of his wise counsel to institutions devoted to the sciences of the earth, the University of British Columbia is privileged to join with others in America and Australia in awarding a well-earned degree to one who left here at the end of his sophomore year.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Gerhard Herzberg, Director of the Division of Pure Physics of the National Research Council, Fellow of the Royal Societies of Canada and of London. In an age when man’s explorations have taken him to the outermost limits of the heavens and to the innermost recesses of the elements, the contributions of this scientist to our growing mastery of the universe insure that he be ranked an Olympian, one of the world’s most eminent spectroscopists. For his analysis of the spectra of molecules and radicals, stars and comets, and for his ability to convey with power and imagination the significance of his work to any audience, this University is proud and grateful to add to his many honours duly won and humbly borne her own highest award.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Whether the subject be seventeenth century England or twentieth century Germany, Laud or Hitler, or the writers of history past and present, his works are marked by vigorous criticism, penetrating analysis, and new understanding, all presented with forceful, cleverly reasoned argument and a lively, lucid style. The holder of this prestigious chair, by thus rousing excitement and controversy, has not only provoked and forwarded the true spirit of historical enquiry and scholarship, but has also proved himself a complete historian.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Harold Rocke Robertson, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. It is always a pleasure to enrol among the graduates of this university the head of a sister institution, especially if that institution is in a very precious sense an alma mater. When the recipient is also a son of the province, a doctor whose dedicated service to the citizens and veterans of Vancouver will be long remembered, and an academic colleague whose responsible counsel and exemplary leadership still inform the Faculty of Medicine, to pleasure is added understandable pride. But surpassing both is a feeling of humility in the presence of a man possessing rare surgical skill, quiet wisdom, and wide humanity.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Dorothy Maud Somerset, First Lady of the Theatre in The University of British Columbia. From a spring play to a full season, from a course in English to an autonomous program, from a converted hut to a modern playhouse, these are the monumental achievements of this unassuming, hard-working, patient scholar, whose vitality and enthusiasm, understanding and discipline, have given students, actors and spectators everywhere the transforming experience of the theatre’s potent magic. So many moments of pure enchantment deserve our warmest thanks just as they have also earned their gracious maker our devotion.
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Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Harry Tremaine Logan, whose name appears in the first calendar of this university as Instructor in Classics, in the thirtieth as Member of the Board of Governors, and in the fifty-first as Professor Emeritus and Special Lecturer; a man who has won outstanding distinction as student, soldier, educational pioneer, and chronicler; a wise and affectionately regarded teacher whose obvious humanity has been for more than half a century a source of vital inspiration for hundreds of students. Today as he smiles serenely at the passing years, richly meriting our gratitude, he also wins our admiration, even as he would have Cicero’s, for here is a man old in body yet ever young in spirit.
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Francis Reginald Scott, McDonald Professor of Law at McGill University, Member of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Intelligent, versatile, articulate, this passionate Canadian is so widely accomplished and acclaimed that he appears before you a true descendant of the Renaissance man. An inspiring teacher, a much respected expert in constitutional law, a man who brings out the best in two cultures and makes them one, he has also happily given full rein to both a well-tempered zest for social reform and an inherited love for writing poetry. Such a plentiful harvest from the grove of Academe makes Bacon’s words ring out: "Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability."
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Gerard Piel, Publisher of Scientific American. At a time when the means of communication are more exciting than ever before but the problems more exacting, in an age when instant understanding can maintain peace and save lives but misunderstanding can endanger both, and in a world in which a man to be truly free must understand the power of science no less than the force of literature, Scientific American has proved that in the reporting of scientific knowledge the highest standards of science and the best traditions of journalism can be fruitfully conjoined for the enlightenment of Everyman. For so striking an achievement, this university is delighted to honour a dynamic American who every month since May, 1948, has realized his aim that "science shall occupy the same place in the mind of every thinking citizen that it occupies as an integral part of our modern civilization."
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FRANK ARTHUR FORWARD
Madam Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Frank Arthur Forward, Professor of Metallurgy in the University of British Columbia, Director of the Scientific Secretariat in the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada, President of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. As an engineer and inventor this brilliant colleague has won international fame for his exceptional discoveries in the field of metallurgical processes. As a leader, he has raised the stature of the department of Metallurgy here to a new level of excellence, and has given similarly strong and forthright guidance to his fellow engineers. Finally, as befits this Canadian scientist of unquestioned eminence, he has been entrusted with the important task of developing a national policy towards science. It is therefore with a very deep-felt pride that this university honours one of its own community, knowing well that his enrollment will add lustre to the institution.
Madam Chancellor, I have the sad honour to present to you posthumously for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, George Torrance Cunningham, late Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of British Columbia, Freeman of the City of Vancouver, Great Trekker. A successful businessman whose creed was always to serve the welfare of the people, a devoted citizen who gave Vancouver imaginative leadership, an untiring champion of education who judiciously counselled this university for thirty years, he has left an unchallenged reputation for friendliness, integrity, and true philanthropy. Such a record of dedicated public service cannot be erased by death, and the name of this magnanimous benefactor will ever by "writ large" among our most distinguished graduates.
Madam Chancellor, born and educated in Montreal, Alexander Young Jackson studied art in Canada, the United States, and France. He was already a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy when, in 1920, he and six others formed the "Group of Seven." These were the men who developed a painting style that may justly be called Canadian; these were the men who helped to reveal a culture that may justly be called Canadian. Alexander Jackson has carried his palette and brushes all over Canada; his genius for capturing the Canadian landscape, however, is known well beyond his own country. It was thus fitting that he should receive the Canada Council Medal in 1961-1962. Madam Chancellor, I present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, an artist whose paintings, as a former Governor General once said, "have the very breath of Canada in them," Alexander Young Jackson.
Madam Chancellor, the Canadian who faces you has led a full and enviable life of service to humanity. A graduate of the Vancouver normal school, she taught for some fifteen years in the schools of this province before taking her baccalaureate degree and earning a brilliant diploma in Social Service in 1939. She quickly made her mark, becoming training supervisor in the Department of Social Welfare in 1943, a position that she held with distinction until 1962. During these years thousands of social workers were permanently influenced by her teaching. An ardent advocate of professional training in her field, she urged her beliefs in the classroom, on the podium, and in the journals. Her book, In-Service Training for Social Agency Practice, published in 1958, has become a standard text internationally and helped her to win an award from the Canada Council. For the past five years she has been in demand as a teacher of teachers in Malaya, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. Madam Chancellor, I now present to you, for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, one who has brought rare distinction in the field of social work to this University and to this province, Martha Eleanor Ahern Moscrop.
Madam Chancellor, Lloyd Allen Royal, a native of the State of Washington, graduated from the School of Fisheries of the University of Washington in 1931. He at once devoted himself to the fisheries department of his state, becoming Chief Biologist and Assistant Director. After service in the United States navy he resumed his civil activities as Chief of the Stream Improvement Division. He was thus a man of unsurpassed experience when, in 1949, he joined the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission in New Westminster, first as Chief Biologist, soon as Director. The Commission had come into being in 1939 as the result of a Convention between Canada and the United States for the protection, management, and extension of the salmon-fishing in the Fraser River and its subsidiary waters. That Convention is now looked upon as a classic example of international cooperation. Because he has been responsible for much of its success, because he has been a dynamic leader and a gifted diplomat, I now present to you, Madam Chancellor, for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Lloyd Allen Royal.
Madam Chancellor, in the course of a long and notable career, Sir John Eccles should have become by now accustomed to academic honours. Trained in medicine in his native Australia, he continued his education at Magdalen College, Oxford, as Rhodes Scholar from Victoria. He has devoted his life to teaching and research, first in England and New Zealand, and then, since 1951, as Professor of Neurophysiology in the Australian National University at Canberra. Techniques refined over the years have led him to probe more deeply than any man in history the intracellular phenomena that characterize nerve-cells and their inter-communication. So fruitful have been the results of his work that, in 1963, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. A Fellow of the Royal Society since 1941, he was President of the Australian Academy of Science from 1957 to 1961; he has remained a Fellow of Magdalen and has acquired an extensive list of distinctions. Madam Chancellor, it is my honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, a medical scholar of renown, Sir John Carew Eccles.
Madam Chancellor, a graduate of St. Michael’s College, Osgoode Hall, and Harvard University, Paul Martin also attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Geneva School of International Studies. His service to his country has been long and honourable; one can merely select from his many achievements. He was the only Canadian Member of Parliament to attend the meeting of the League of Nations in 1938; his contributions to international amity continued after the war and he was primarily responsible for the expansion of membership in the United Nations in 1955. He helped to win respect for Canada in the dispute in Cyprus and today he is President of the Council of N.A.T.O. He is Senior Member of Parliament and since 1963 has been Secretary of State for External Affairs, an office that he has insisted on maintaining above politics. Madam Chancellor, I present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, a Canadian statesman and diplomat, the Honourable Paul Martin.
Madam Chancellor, after two years at Victoria College, Gordon Neil Perry graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1933 with honours in economics. In due course he attained the degrees of Master of Public Administration, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University. He began his career in the civil service of British Columbia, first as Secretary of the Economic Council, later as Director of the Bureau of Economics and Statistics and Economic Advisor on Dominion-Provincial relations. He moved on to Ottawa in the Department of Finance, to Washington as Financial Counsellor in the Canadian Embassy, and to the International Bank for reconstruction and development as Assistant Director in the Asiatic and Western areas, including Ethiopia and the Americas. He was thus a natural choice as Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration in 1961. So effective was his leadership that in 1963 he was given in addition the post of Vice-President of the University. He arbitrated a number of labour disputes while carrying out his administrative tasks and finally, in October, 1965, his sense of duty compelled him to accept appointment as Deputy Minister of Education. Thus he returned to the city of his birth. Madam Chancellor, with great pride I bring forward for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, a graduate of the University of British Columbia who has spent his whole life in the service of his country within the province, within the nation, and in the world beyond, Gordon Neil Perry.
Mr. Chancellor, as University Professor of Anthropology and the History of Science in the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania, Loren Corey Eiseley was the first to hold a Distinguished Professorship at his institution. His many accomplishments during a generation of academic life reveal clearly why he was so honoured. Educated at the Universities of Nebraska and Pennsylvania, he taught at Kansas and Oberlin before returning to Pennsylvania in 1947. A noted scholar, he has been a working member of archaeological expeditions in the United States and Mexico. It is by his writing, however, that he has become well known beyond his academic field. A scientist, he is at the same time a humanist, with a compassionate understanding of man in his natural environment. To man and his history – in fact, to all living things – he applies objective reason along with the imagination and warmth of comprehension that keep the cold efficiency of the machine in proper perspective. In combining scholarship, teaching, and administration Loren Corey Eiseley has never forgotten that anthropology is the study of man. I therefore present him to you, Mr. Chancellor, for the degree Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, Roger Gaudry is a Canadian scientist whose versatility as scholar and administrator has won many honours. Born in Quebec, he was a student at Laval, from which university he went to Oxford as Rhodes Scholar in 1937. Upon his return to his alma mater he finished his Doctorate in Science and at once began an eminently successful teaching career. His work in organic chemistry, particularly in the synthesis and metabolism of amino acids, soon became well known. He was invited to lecture at the Sorbonne in 1950; he was President of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 1955-1956; he was the recipient of the Pariseau Medal from the Association Canadienne Française pour l’Advancement des Sciences in 1958; he has been a member of the Defence Research Board and the National Research Council. In 1954 he became Assistant Director of Research, later Director and vice-president, for the pharmaceutical firm of Ayerst, McKenna and Harrison, Ltd. He made of its Montreal branch the largest pharmaceutical research centre in Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Vice-President of the Science Council of Canada. In 1965 he was appointed the first lay Rector of the University of Montreal. Mr. Chancellor, I present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, a scientist who has added lustre to the reputation of Canadian research in chemistry, an administrator who is bringing fresh vigour to the planning of higher education and research in Quebec as well as the other provinces of Canada, Roger Gaudry.
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Mr. Chancellor, to honour its own is always satisfying to a University. Although Henry Gunning was born in Northern Ireland, although he holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also taught, it was at the University of British Columbia that he did his undergraduate work and it was at the University of British Columbia that he became Professor of Geology, Head of the Department of Geology and Geography, R.W. Brock Professor of Geology, and Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science. From this last post he resigned in 1959, after a decade of service, to spend two years as a consulting geologist in Rhodesia for the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa. Upon his return, he continued his activities as a consulting geologist, with his base in Vancouver. Mr. Chancellor, Henry Cecil Gunning has combined a singular devotion to the University over a long and trying period with a reputation for impeccable scholarship in the study and in the field. I therefore present him to you for bestowal of the degree Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, Leon Johnson Ladner, Q.C., B.A., LL. B., LL.D., is a man who has devoted his whole life to the service of this University, this Province, and this Country. Born in Ladner, a community named after his father, Leon Ladner went to school there and in New Westminster. After study at the University of Toronto, he was admitted to the Bar in 1910 and began the practice of law in Vancouver two years later. In the same year he initiated his association with the University of British Columbia as a founding member of the Convocation. He it was who, in May, 1921, moved the resolution urging the establishment of the University at West Point Grey. In 1921 Mr. Ladner was elected to the House of Commons, where he sat until 1930, taking a protagonist’s part in all issues affecting his province. He was elected to the Senate of the University in 1955 and remained a member until 1961. In 1957 the Senate elected him to the Board of Governors; his vigour led to his re-appointment by the Lieutenant Governor in Council in 1963; he retired in 1966. For nearly twenty years he merited the title Honorary Lecturer in the Faculty of Law. Because he is devoted to the University, because he is an exemplary British Columbian and Canadian, Mr. Chancellor, I present Leon Johnson Ladner for the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, the Bench has contributed many notable men to this Province, many generous friends to this University. Prominent among these is John Owen Wilson, a native son of British Columbia. Called to the Bar in British Columbia, after service with Canadian troops in the First World War, for many years he practised law with his father, the late E.P. Wilson, in Prince George. He became Judge of the County Court for the Cariboo in 1939 and five years later was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. From 1945 to 1955 he lectured in the Faculty of Law. He moved to the Court of Appeal in 1962 and in the following year was named Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. His long career on the Bench has developed a natural wit and a sympathy for his fellow man. A lover of the outdoors, he has taken delight in the rivers and mountains of British Columbia. His wide reading has contributed to his judicial knowledge and unsurpassed experience. The young lawyer looks to him for sympathy and understanding. Mr. Chancellor, because of his distinguished record for wisdom and humanity, I present John Owen Wilson for the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
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Mr. Chancellor, when John Barfoot Macdonald took office as President of the University of British Columbia in 1962, he accepted, consciously and willingly, a formidable task. After five years it is no exaggeration to assert that he has transformed this campus. Of the accomplishments that won him an enviable reputation as a scientist and administrator before he arrived I shall not speak. We shall remember him for all that he has done for us: we shall remember him for the Macdonald Report, we shall remember him for the multiplication of universities and colleges in the Province, we shall remember him for the metamorphosis that has occurred in the scope and importance of graduate studies, we shall remember him for his forthright courage and his insistence upon excellence in every phase of the University’s activity. Above all, we shall remember him for his integrity, that most prized of all academic qualities. To John Barfoot Macdonald I say ave atque vale, hail and farewell; and that he may remember us I present him to you, Mr. Chancellor, and ask you to confer upon him the degree Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Adelaide Sinclair, retired Deputy Executive Director of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. Lecturer in economics and political science, Director of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service, international civil-servant, these are some of the posts held and outstandingly administered by this much honoured Torontonian. And to these honours we gladly add, to show that the West no less than the East appreciates the qualities of judgment and practical common-sense that articulate the mind of this warm-hearted lady of infinite patience - Adelaide Sinclair.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Richard Biggerstaff Wilson, Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Governors, University of Victoria. Of the families long associated with the development of the capital of our province, that of Wilson is among the most respected. And of those who bear this name none is more distinguished than this successful businessman and most acclaimed mayor of his city, who now oversees our sister institution with wisdom and strength. For imagination in leadership, for Centennial Square, for true service to the community, the bestowing of this award is an act of thanks – Richard Biggerstaff Wilson.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Percival Archibald Woodward, Knight of Grace in the Order of St. John, merchant and philanthropist. Born of a pioneering family, this exemplary British Columbian has shown himself no less a pioneer. Just as his bold, imaginative leadership in the field of merchandising led to new concepts of marketing, so his enlightened generosity has made it possible for this University to develop a profoundly important new approach to medical education. For these and other benefactions, and for a life of service dedicated to the good of the people of this province, it is only proper that a name inscribed for ever over one of our libraries should be for ever listed among our most deserving graduates – Percival Archibald Woodward.
Mr. Chancellor, it is sometime said that Canada lacks a culture of her own. John Hugh MacLennan is in his own person a substantial answer to the charge. A native of the Maritimes, winner of the Governor-General’s Medal and a Rhodes Scholarship, he studied at Dalhousie, Oriel College, and Princeton, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1935. Since then his writing has brought him, and therefore Canada, fame wherever English is read. What he has accomplished for Canadian letters is reflected in part by his winning of the Governor-General’s Award for fiction in 1945, 1948, and 1959; and for non-fiction in 1949 and 1954. In 1952 the Royal Society of Canada presented the Lorne Pierce Gold Medal for Literature to him and he accepted an Associate Fellowship in the Society in the following year. His work, especially his novels, deals sensitively with the Canadian scene that he knows well. Mr. Chancellor, with pride I introduce to you for the degree Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, one who understands Canada and interprets her to the world, John Hugh Maclennan.
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For one whose ideas have become truths, his buildings monuments, and his name immortal, there is no citation long enough to rehearse justly his achievements and honours. Yet for this legendary master architect who has revolutionized the practice and teaching of architecture, there is a single title that can symbolize the measure of his genius and the horizons of his dreams. Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Walter Gropius, founder and Director of the Bauhaus.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Blythe Alfred Eagles, Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of British Columbia. A native of this province, winner of the Governor-General’s medal at this University, this outstanding bio-chemist, after a brilliant career in the department of dairying, accepted the responsibilities of Dean. For eighteen years he discharged those duties with honour, dedicated to his discipline; devoted to his students and colleagues. For one who has so successfully blended a love of man with a love of science, it is fitting that he be given the well-earned right to add this highest degree in Science to his first degree in Arts – Blythe Alfred Eagles.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Arnold Whitney Matthews, Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of British Columbia. As a tonic for decanal success, this Albertan graduate has written and accurately filled his own prescription: create a strong academic program; establish solid bonds with professional groups; and relax with athletics; to be administered regularly for fifteen years. Whether the place be a classroom, a research laboratory, the boardroom of the Canadian Pharmaceutical Association, the Canadian Rugby Union, or the Men’s Athletic Association, a curling rink or a golf course, "Whit" has displayed such enthusiasm, leadership and integrity that, even after bestowing on him our highest award, we are still happily in his debt – Arnold Whitney Matthews.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Charles Seymour Wright, Knight Commander of the most honourable Order of the Bath. Whether as lecturer in our institute of Earth Sciences, or at the Pacific Naval laboratory in Esquimalt, or at Byrd Station to measure the earth’s magnetic field, whether as Director of Research in the Royal Navy, or as signaller in the First World War developing "trench wireless", or as member of Captain Scott’s last Antarctic expedition, for more than sixty years this Canadian-born explorer and pioneering geo-physicist has revealed his virtue, worth, and undiminished youth. It is therefore a privilege to enrol Charles Seymour Wright as a graduate of this university.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Arnold Cantwell Smith, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat. A peerless civil servant and diplomat extraordinary, this Rhodes Scholar from Ontario has won the confidence not only of the Commonwealth but of men everywhere for his tireless efforts to establish a circle of nations held together by multi-lateral bonds created of common understanding. He who has brought his country so much distinction rightly deserves our award, an act of thanks for the qualities that his office requires and that he displays: integrity in negotiation, compassion in reconciliation, and patience in the search for the golden mean that ensures peace.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Michael Willcox Perrin, Chairman of the Board of Governors of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, of the Council of the Royal Veterinary College, and of the Wellcome Foundation. As the roll-call of these demanding responsibilities makes clear, this Wykehamist Oxonian, who was born in Victoria and at one time studied physics at Toronto, is an enlightened administrator committed to the belief that science and industry exist but to serve mankind. For his undeviating adherence to this creed, for strength in leadership, wisdom in counsel, and warmth in humanity, and for his unfailing support of the work of our Woodward Library, it is in every way appropriate that a Knight Bachelor and Master of Arts be enrolled among the Doctors of Science.
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Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Alfred Walker Hollinshead Needler, Deputy Minister of the Department of Fisheries of Canada and Chairman of the Food and Agricultural Organization’s Committees on Marine Resources Research and Fisheries. In a world and time in which the harvesting of the oceans has assumed critical importance, no man has won more influence and admiration than this Canadian scientist, civil servant, and diplomat for his knowledge of the law, economy, and biology of the seas, scrupulous honesty in the interpretation of scientific evidence, and unrivalled ability in the promotion of international agreements. These are the qualities that have guaranteed for Canada and other nations a judicious division of benefits that will multiply in future decades. So esteemed a service and so rich a legacy rightly invite our grateful homage.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, Professor Emeritus of Physical Chemistry at Cambridge University. As befits a Fellow of the Royal Society dedicated to the task of improving Natural Knowledge, this versatile scientist has revolutionized the field of photochemistry by his development of the methods of kinetic spectroscopy and flash photolysis. Such original brilliance has won him not only world fame, but also the title Nobel Laureate. To this and other honours we add one more, in token of our recognition of and gratitude for his personal involvement in the growth of our own Department of Chemistry as well as his unique contributions to science and his inspiring encouragement of young colleagues.
Read his convocation address....
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, John Robert Nicholson, Privy Counsellor and Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of British Columbia. As lawyer, executive, Member of Parliament, and Minister of the Crown, this determined son of New Brunswick has amply demonstrated not only professional, managerial, and political excellence, but also an active concern for the well-being and development of this country from shore to shore. The Universities of Canada and the University of British Columbia in particular owe him a special debt for the sympathetic understanding with which he has helped them to solve formidable problems. For so meritorious a record of public service, and for the gracious and trusted manner in which he discharges his present high office, it is a proper tribute that the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province be enrolled among the graduates of the University to which he is the Official Visitor.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Jacob Biely, Professor Emeritus of Poultry Science at the University of British Columbia, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Born in Russia, schooled in Siberia, impelled apparently by the advice "Go East, young man, go East," this new Canadian took his first degree from this university. Today, forty-four years later, he receives his fourth degree, the third from the institution that he has served so well as student and member of faculty for more than half a traditional life-time. As on the first occasion, when he stood head of his graduating class, he has earned them all maxima cum laude. For no one in this province has done more to bring together the international resources of science and the local needs of the poultry industry, to the benefit of both. For his distinction in research and teaching, for his service to his profession and community, and for his loyalty and affection unsparingly given to his Alma Mater, the University with enthusiasm awards her highest honour to a colleague and friend.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Raymond William Firth, Professor of Anthropology at the University of London, Fellow of the British Academy. To say of a man that he is one of the world’s outstanding anthropologists and that his name ranks with those of Malinowski and Lévi-Strauss is not a conceit adopted for a happy occasion but an acknowledged truth. This University is therefore proud to add to its roll of graduates one who through his research has established the techniques of fieldwork basic to the development of anthropology as a disciplined social science, through his teaching has made others discover a potential for creative thought, through his missionary efforts and those of his graduates has been responsible for the ordered growth of anthropological studies in all parts of the world, and through his coming here as a Canada Council Fellow has made us aware that behind the reputation and learning there is a humanist, full of wit and wisdom.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour of presenting to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, John Murdoch Buchanan, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia. Born in this province and one of the University’s first graduates, he achieved success in business and industry. He has rightfully won abiding thanks and affection for the energy, wisdom, and integrity he has shown in the harvest and defence of one of the Coast’s most important natural resources. Yet we honour him today rather for the extraordinary concern and devotion he has felt towards his church and community, and for the tireless, inspiring support he has given the Board of Governors, Senate, Staff, Alumni, and Students of this university. Scores of graduates have recognised his efforts. There are many in this Province, however, who because of his quiet modesty, will never know how much he has helped them. Through his achievements, tuum est has received a richer meaning and every graduate of today an exemplar worthy of imitation.
Mr. Chancellor, in the Centennial Year of our Province, it is eminently fitting that the Senate should present to you for recognition a British Columbian who has proved a ceaseless pioneer in higher education, a member of this University’s staff from its inception in 1915 to his retirement, a man of wit, inspiration, and magic, a Master Teacher whose accomplishments are part of a cherished legend and whose name adorns our theatre: in sum, a shaper of our cultural heritage. As a critic of literature, director of the Players Club, and Lecturer, nay, Ambassador, for the University throughout the Province, from all quarters he has won for his craft and university support and admiration, for himself deep respect and enduring affection. For so signal a contribution to our Province, I ask you to confer the Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, upon Frederic Gordon Campbell Wood.
Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you for Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, John William Ker, Dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of New Brunswick. At a moment in our country’s history when the preservation, conservation, and proper harvesting of our natural resources are of crucial importance to our future, it is a matter of the greatest pride to this community and Province that one of its own, one of our own graduates, should possess learning, skill, and judgement so highly valued. For here is a respected teacher and scholar, a clear-sighted administrator, as concerned for the scientific as for the professional basis of his discipline, a leading member of Associations of Foresters, and a wise consultant whose advice has been repeatedly sought, and followed, both regionally and nationally, particularly by the Science Council of Canada, which he helped to found. In response to so distinguished a record of service to his calling and country, the Senate is delighted to welcome home an alumnus and to award the University’s highest degree to John William Ker.
Mr. Chancellor, as we in British Columbia celebrate our Centennial Year, I am delighted to have the privilege of welcoming to our Province and University His Excellency The Governor General of Canada. To this fellow westerner from Alberta we, in common with all our citizens, are overwhelmingly indebted, not only for the gracious dignity and hospitality that he has brought to his office as First Canadian, but also for the example of a career of singular achievement. Whether at Oxford as Rhodes Scholar, in Toronto as lawyer and Parliamentarian, on the Hill as Speaker of the House of Commons, in New Delhi as High Commissioner, or now in Rideau Hall, whatever the responsibility or the challenge, unfailingly and unflinchingly, he has responded with common sense, good humour, discretion, courage, and honour. For qualities that entitle the possessor to be called a Maker of Canada, and for a life of upright service to his country, I ask you to confer the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, upon Daniel Roland Michener.
Mr. Chancellor, The University of British Columbia seeks always to honour those who have achieved distinction. Our pleasure is especially acute this afternoon, for, in presenting Arthur Hill to you, I remind you that he was born in Saskatchewan and that he was a student at this University before and after the Second World War, his formal education having been interrupted by three years of service in the Royal Canadian Air Force. As a student he was active in the U.B.C. Players’ Club and he worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Thus, when, along with his wife, who was also of the theatre, he moved to England in 1948, his experience and tradition were wholly Canadian. Recognition came all but instantaneously and from that very year to the present he has been in constant demand, on the stage and before the cameras, in England and in the United States. In 1963 he received the Drama Critics’ Award and the Antoinette Perry Award as the Best Actor of the Season for the role of George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? To-day, as he brings enjoyment to a vast audience, he is recognised as one of the elite in a taxing profession. For these reasons, Mr. Chancellor, I ask you to confer the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, upon Arthur Edward Spence Hill.
Mr. Chancellor, Canada’s contribution to the theatre is nowhere more powerfully displayed than in the career of Frances Hyland. Born in Saskatchewan, she won a scholarship for study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England. She made her professional debut in the West End in 1950 and for some years graced the London stage in a variety of roles. She returned to Canada to join the Stratford Festival Company in 1954 and received such praise that she has been a regular player at Stratford ever since. Her talents were widely recognised and she has in consequence appeared frequently in New York, Chicago, and again in London, as well as in Canada. She starred in the first major feature produced by the National Film Board and she has been seen on television in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. She is also well-known in Vancouver’s Playhouse Theatre. Whether she be Eliza Doolittle or Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth or Ophelia, she brings to the stage verisimilitude and charm, appeal and excellence, to such a degree that she may justly be called Canada’s First Lady of the Theatre. Mr. Chancellor, I therefore present to you, for the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Frances Jean Hyland.
Mr. Chancellor, from time to time The University of British Columbia seizes the opportunity of welcoming home one of its own graduates who has made his name throughout the nation. So it is today, when we honour Lister Sinclair, who in 1948 was granted the degree Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Mathematics. He later took an M.A. at the University of Toronto and lectured in Mathematics for three years before resigning in order to enter the world of the creative arts, a world to which he had been earlier introduced as a member of the Players’ Club. For two decades his graceful hand has rested with authority upon the productions of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he has become Executive Producer in the Arts and Sciences. Clearly, he has achieved the top rank as writer, actor, teacher, and producer. He has been a principal contributor to the C.B.C.’s dramatic series, which has perhaps had more impact upon the Canadian public than any other production in the medium of radio. In 1958 he was commissioned by the B.C. Centennial Committee to write the play commemorating the anniversary. The World of the Wonderful Dark was the result, an artistic triumph that British Columbians have not forgotten. Because he has contributed so significantly and in so many creative fields of endeavour to Canadian culture I ask you, Mr. Chancellor, to confer the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, upon Lister Shedden Sinclair.