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High
Honour
Newfoundland-born
journalists Ray Guy and Gwynne
Dyer lead a group of eight outstanding Canadians who will
receive honorary degrees from Memorial University during this
spring’s convocation ceremonies.
Memorial will also award honorary degrees to Dr.
W. O. Pruitt, Anton Kuerti, Dr. Michel Serres, Dr.
Wesley Whitten, Tim Borlase,
and Hon. Justice Louise Arbour.
Hundreds of degrees will be awarded at eight sessions of convocation,
starting with Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook May
11 at 10 a.m.
Convocation in St. John’s will take place at the Arts and
Culture Centre May 30 to June 1.
Ray Guy
Ray Guy was born in Come By Chance, Placentia Bay, and attended
school in Arnold’s Cove and Bell Island before attending
Memorial University and Ryerson in Toronto.
After graduating from Ryerson’s journalism program in 1963,
he started work as a general reporter at the St. John’s
Evening Telegram, eventually becoming the legislative
reporter at the House of Assembly. It was here, while writing
a daily column on the goings-on in the house, that Mr. Guy earned
his reputation.
His biting satire was usually trained on Premier Joey Smallwood
and his government, but Mr. Guy was also known for his humourous
essays on Newfoundland outport life.
Mr. Guy left the Evening Telegram in 1974 and worked as
a freelance journalist, playwright and commentator in the years
since. In 1978 he began an acting career as a regular cast member
of Up At Ours, a situation comedy series produced by CBC-TV
in St. John’s. He also had a short run as an actor with
the CBC-TV The Gullages.
Three collections of his columns have been published: You
May Know Them As Sea Urchins, Ma’am (1975); That
Far Greater Bay (1976); and Beneficial Vapors (1981).
In 1978 Guy wrote the text for Outhouses of the East,
which was illustrated by Sherman Hines’ photographs.
In 1967, Mr. Guy won the National Newspaper Award for feature
writing for No More Round the Mountain, which appeared in the
Evening Telegram on Oct. 6, 1967, and in 1977 he was awarded
the Stephen Leacock Medal For Humour for his book That Far
Greater Bay.
Mr. Guy will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree
at the 7:30 p.m. session of convocation on May 30.
Hon. Justice Louise Arbour
The
Honourable Madam Justice Louise Arbour has a distinguished record
in the legal profession, most particularly in the area of human
rights.
Justice Arbour received her bachelor’s degree from Quebec’s
College Regina Assumpta in 1967 and her law degree from the Faculty
of Law at the University of Montreal in 1970. She was called
to the Quebec Bar in 1971 and the Ontario Bar in 1977.
Her first employment was as law clerk for the Honourable Mr.
Justice Louis-Philippe Pigeon, Supreme Court of Canada. From
1972-73, she was research officer for the Law Reform Commission
of Canada. In 1974, she joined the faculty of Osgoode Hall Law
School, York University, serving as assistant then associate
professor, and as associate dean in 1987. She was also vice-president
of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1985-1987.
She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario (High Court
of Justice) in 1987, and to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in
1990. In 1995, Justice Arbour was appointed as commissioner to
conduct an inquiry into certain events at the Prison for Women
in Kingston, Ontario.
Between October 1996 and September 1999, she was the United Nations’
Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former
Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. She resigned this position when she
was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, where she still
sits today.
Throughout her academic and judicial career, Justice Arbour has
published extensively in both French and English in the area
of criminal procedure, criminal law, human rights, civil liberties
and gender issues. She also has served as an editor for the Criminal
Reports, the Canadian Rights Reporter, and the Osgoode
Hall Law Journal.
She has received honorary degrees from York University (1995),
University of Ottawa (1997), University of New Brunswick (1999),
Laurentian University (1999), Université du Québec
à Montréal (1999), and the Law Society of Upper
Canada.
Justice Arbour will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters
degree at the 10 a.m. session of convocation on June 1.
Gwynne Dyer
A global storyteller for a quarter of a century, Gwynne Dyer’s
unique background as a reserve naval officer (under Canadian,
American, and UK flags), filmmaker, and lauded academic, renders
him a respected voice on a range of issues. His biweekly international
affairs column is published in over 30 countries worldwide, including
the Washington Times, the San Francisco Chronicle,
the Jerusalem Post, the Vancouver Sun, the Japan
Times and the Johannesburg Times.
Born in St. John’s, Mr. Dyer has a BA in History from Memorial;
an MA in Military History from Rice University in Texas; and
a PhD in Military and Middle Eastern History from the University
of London. He held academic appointments at the Canadian Forces
College, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and Oxford
University before devoting himself entirely to journalism in
1973.
In addition to his internationally-syndicated column, Mr. Dyer
has worked as a lecturer in military history and a senior lecturer
in war studies. He is a founding member of the board of the Canadian
Institute for International Peace and Security.
His history in writing and producing documentary-style radio,
film, and television broadcasts began in 1985 with the seven-part
TV series War (one episode of which nominated for an Academy
Award). The accompanying book won Dyer the 1986 Columbia University
School of Journalism award.
Other Dyer documentaries include the National Film Board/CBC
series The Defence of Canada, which won a Gemini in 1987;
The Human Race (1994), an inquiry into the roots, nature
and future of human politics; and Protection Force, a
three-part examination of United Nations and peacekeeping actions
in the former Yugoslavia that first aired in 1995 and was nominated
for a Gemini.
Memorial’s 1984 Alumnus of the Year, Mr. Dyer will be awarded
an honorary doctor of letters degree at the 3 p.m. session of
convocation on June 1.
Anton Kuerti
Pianist Anton
Kuerti is one of today’s most famous artists. He has recorded
all the Beethoven concertos and sonatas, the Schubert sonatas,
and works by many other composers. He is widely regarded as one
of the truly great pianists.
Born in Austria, Dr. Kuerti grew up in the U.S. and has lived
in Canada for the last 30 years. His teachers included Arthur
Loesser, Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Rudolf Serkin. At the age
of 11 he performed the Grieg concerto with Arthur Fiedler and
was still a student when he won the famous Leventritt Award.
Dr. Kuerti was a professor at the University of Toronto for many
years, but now devotes himself entirely to performing, composing
and giving master classes. Among the many distinctions he has
received are honorary doctorates from several institutions, including
York University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Toronto
Arts Award, and an appointment as Officer of the Order of Canada.
Dr. Kuerti has toured 31 countries, including Japan, Russia and
most of Europe, and has performed with most major North American
orchestras and conductors. His vast repertoire includes some
50 concertos, including one he composed himself. His newest releases
are a CD of two piano sonatas by Carl Czerny and a two-CD set
of the Brahms piano concerti.
In Canada, Dr. Kuerti has appeared in about 115 communities from
coast to coast and has played with every professional orchestra,
including the Toronto Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has
performed with such artists as Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Janos
Starker, Barry Tuckwell, and the Cleveland, Guarneri, and Tokyo
String quartets.
Dr. Kuerti will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree
at the 10 a.m. session of convocation on May 30.
Timothy James Borlase
Timothy James Borlase is a program specialist for art, music,
drama, Labrador studies, and elementary education with the Labrador
School Board. He has worked in Labrador since 1975, using his
administrative and organizational skills to develop curriculum
and improve teaching. He is the author of numerous publications
on the heritage and culture of Labrador.
Mr. Borlase graduated in 1974 with a bachelor of arts (honours)
in theatre from the University of King’s College, Halifax,
then earned a bachelor of education in social studies from Dalhousie
University, in 1981 He was awarded a master’s of education
in fine arts and native education from the Ontario Institute
of Studies in Education in 1980.
Mr. Borlase has collaboratively designed a curriculum and an
instruction manual which reflects multiple components of a philosophy
of education and used a school-based improvement model to work
with school administrators and staffs on effective teaching strategies,
multi-grade groupings and self development. He has modified,
adopted and supplemented existing educational programs in all
areas of the curriculum to suit the needs of Aboriginal peoples
in isolated communities in Labrador, and has co-ordinated provincial
responsibilities and in-service as president of the Northern
Supervisors/Coordinators Association and the provincial Drama
and Music Special Interest Councils.
Among his literary endeavours, Mr. Borlase created and directed
a series of radio programs for the CBC on Inuit education and
the expanding role of the school in the community. He serves
as chair for the board of directors for Them Days magazine,
a quarterly journal whose mandate is the preservation of Labrador’s
distinct cultural heritage. He has authored of nine books, including
Who Asked Us Anyway?, a compilation of scripts documenting
the first 20 years of the Labrador Creative Arts Festival, and
Tusanittut, a book of nursery rhymes and songs in Inuktitut.
Among other honours, Mr. Borlase has received the 1999 Happy
Valley-Goose Bay Arts Achievement Award, the 1992 Best Director
and Best Production awards for Sisters at the Newfoundland
and Labrador Drama Festival, and a Lifetime Achievement in the
Arts Award from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.
Mr. Borlase will be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree
at the 3 p.m. session of convocation on May 31.
Dr. William Obadiah Pruitt,
Jr.
Dr.
William O. Pruitt Jr., currently a professor and senior scholar
in the University of Manitoba’s Department of Zoology, lived
and worked in Newfoundland from 1965-1969 as an associate professor
of biology at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Dr. Pruitt’s baseline research played a major role in the
establishment of Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. Today, his research serves as an important reference for
biologists working on the Great Northern Peninsula.
His subsequent work in environmental assessment of the proposed
NATO flight training in Labrador and eastern Quebec in the 1980s
has been recognized as an important contribution to the development
of environmental impact assessment methodology in the North.
Throughout his career, he has been recognized internationally
for his contributions to the understanding of winter ecology
of northern animal life.
Dr. Pruitt is perhaps best known for his dedication and insistence
on the highest ethical standards in both teaching and research.
As a young scientist at the University of Alaska, he opposed
plans to blast northern seaports on the Alaska coast with nuclear
weapons, a plan favoured by the US military and senior university
officials. The idea was to create an artificial harbour near
Point Hope, Alaska using “atomic engineering.” Dr.
Pruitt’s research showed that the blasts would cause widespread
damage to northern food chains and native people.
He is a prolific author, both of scientific and popular literature,
having published 67 scientific papers, 42 popular articles, 28
technical papers and two books on boreal ecology. He has also
produced three films.
Dr. Pruitt has been named a Fellow of the Explorers Club, and
has been awarded the Seton Medal (Manitoba Naturalists Society),
the University of Manitoba Outreach Award, the Centenary Medal
(Government of Canada Northern Science Award) and the Vilhjalmur
Stefansson Award by the University of Manitoba Northern Studies
Committee.
Dr. Pruitt will receive an honorary doctor of science degree
at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College’s convocation ceremonies
on May 11 at 10 a.m.
Wesley Kingston Whitten
Dr.
Wesley Kingston Whitten was born in Macksville, New South Wales,
and attended Sydney University. Graduating in 1939 with a degree
in veterinary science, Dr. Whitten is considered a pioneer in
reproductive physiology. Dr. Whitten served four years as a captain
in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps and later joined Australia’s
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
to work on the reproduction of sheep.
In 1950 he became a faculty member of the Australian National
University where he remained until 1961. As a faculty member
his research focused on delayed implantation of lactating mice
and his findings pioneered the study of mammalian pheromones
and their receptor, the vomeronasal organ. From 1966 to 1978,
he was associate director at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbour,
Maine. The author of over 100 publications, he was associate
editor of both Biology of Reproduction and Journal
of Experimental Zoology.
Two of his discoveries are so significant that his name has been
given to them. Whitten’s Medium allowed the culturing of
mammalian eggs and a major methodological development in the
study of oocyte maturation, fertilization and embryo development.
All methods in these field today are based on Dr. Whitten’s
original work. The influence of sexual pheromones on murine reproduction,
his discovery, is known as the Whitten Effect.
For his achievements Dr. Whitten was made a Fellow of the Australian
Academy of Science in 1982 and was given the Pioneer Award of
the International Society for Embryo Transfer in 1996.
In 1993, Dr. Whitten was awarded the prestigious Marshall Medal
from the Society for the Study of Fertility. The award was established
in 1963 following the suggestion of Sir Alan Parkes. It was to
be awarded “from time to time by the Society to outstanding
contributors to the study of fertility and reproduction”.
Dr. Whitten will be awarded an honorary doctor of science degree
at the 10 a.m. session of convocation on May 31.
Dr. Michel Serres
In a 1996 Times Literary Supplement review Simon Critchley
described Michel Serres as “possibly the best known and
most popular contemporary philosopher in France.”
Born in 1930 in Agen, France, Dr. Serres’ intellectual life
has not been a conventional academic one. He initially embarked
upon a naval career, serving for several years as an officer
with the French Maritime Naval Service before devoting himself
to the study of philosophy. In 1968, he earned his doctorate
with a thesis on the German philosopher, Liebniz. During the
1960s, Dr. Serres taught with Michel Foucault at the Universities
of Clermont-Ferrand and Vincennes. He was later appointed to
a chair in the history of science at the Sorbonne, where he still
teaches. He has also been a full professor at Stanford University
since 1984 and was elected to l’Académie Française
in 1990.
Dr. Serres is a philosopher of science, social science and mathematics,
and their dense interrelationships. It has often been observed
that his ideas are crafted from the vocabularies of numerous
fields of knowledge (mathematics, esthetics, history, physics,
literature, ecology), and that his work spans gaps between art
and science. Yet he is less a conventional tiller of interdisciplinary
academic fields than a philosopher and homme de lettres in the
grand French tradition. His writings create and renew intellectual
traditions, while not being easily subsumed under any of them.
Dr. Serres is the author of over 25 books including five under
the title Hermes (1968-1981), Angels: A Modern Myth (1993),
The Natural Contract (1990) and The Troubadour of Knowledge
(1991). He is also a past lecturer with Memorial’s Henrietta
Harvey Distinguished Lecture Series.
Dr. Serres will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree
at the 3 p.m. session of convocation on May 30.