2015-2016
News Release
REF NO.: 118
SUBJECT: Fall convocation approaches; honorary degree recipients announced
DATE: August 30, 2016
Memorial University has announced the names of three people to whom it will award honorary doctorates at fall convocation ceremonies in October 2016.
The Corner Brook session of fall convocation will take place at the Arts and Culture Centre on Thursday, Oct. 6. Dr. Frank Hayden, known as the father of the Special Olympics, will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Long-serving member of Parliament and Senator Patricia (Pat) Carney and William (Bill) Marshall, provincial politician and judge, will receive honorary doctor of laws degrees at fall convocation sessions in St. John’s on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Arts and Culture Centre.
Biographies of all honorary degree recipients follow below.
Honorary degree recipients are chosen by the Senate, the university’s academic governing body, after careful examination of the grounds for their nomination.
The honorary doctorate is designed to recognize extraordinary contributions to society or exceptional intellectual or artistic achievement.
The awarding of honorary doctorates, an important feature of Memorial’s convocation, serves to celebrate both the individual and the university as well as to inspire graduates, their families and guests.
Some 950 undergraduate and graduate students will receive their degrees during fall convocation. Distinguished retired faculty members who were recently accorded the title professor emeritus/emerita by the university’s Senate will also be recognized at convocation in St. John’s on Oct. 20.
Dr. Ken Barter, School of Social Work, and Dr. Shakti Chandra, Faculty of Medicine, will be honoured at the 10 a.m. session. Dr. Alex Faseruk, Faculty of Business Administration, and Dr. Edgar Goodaire, Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, will be recognized at the 3 p.m. session. Dr. Alice Collins, Faculty of Education, and Dr. Beverley Diamond, School of Music, will be recognized at the 7:30 p.m. session.
The distinction professor emeritus/emerita is open only to retired members of the faculty. To be eligible, a person must have served at least 10 years as a regular full-time faculty member at Memorial and must have held the rank of professor upon retirement. The prime criteria for nomination are sustained, outstanding scholarly work and/or service to the university.
Biographies of honorary graduands
Dr. Frank Hayden
For his work in both creating the idea for the Special Olympics and for his critical role in developing it, Dr. Frank Hayden will receive the degree of doctor of laws honoris causa during fall convocation in Corner Brook.
Professor emeritus at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., Dr. Hayden has also served on the faculties of the University of Illinois, the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario. From 1975-81 he was director of the School of Physical Education and Athletics at McMaster.
He has a special interest in sport and fitness programs for children, particularly for those with an intellectual disability.
A graduate of Physical Fitness Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, he has spent more than 60 years designing, implementing and evaluating exercise and sport programs.
Based on this research, in 1964 he proposed a national program of sport training and competition for persons with an intellectual disability, culminating with the National Centennial Games in 1967 to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday.
In 1968 he designed, organized and directed a games in Chicago for 1,000 athletes from 26 states and Canada and named it the Chicago Special Olympics. Within two years Special Olympics organizations were established in all 50 states. This was the beginning of Special Olympics International, the program that currently provides training and competition for more than five million athletes in more than 170 countries.
Dr. Hayden was awarded honorary degrees by McMaster University, the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto, St. Mary’s University (Halifax) and the University of Western Ontario. In 2010 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Applied Health Sciences of the University of Illinois. In 2013 the Halton Regional Board of Education opened a new state-of-the-art high school in Burlington, Ont.: the Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School.
In November 2016 he will be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2000 Dr. Hayden received his country's highest honour when he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
Patricia (Pat) Carney
For her distinguished service as a member of the House of Commons and Senate and for her role in the advancement of women in public life, Patricia (Pat) Carney will receive the degree of doctor of laws honoris causa during fall convocation in St. John’s.
Ms. Carney has worked as a business journalist, economic consultant, educator and politician over the course of her career.
She began her writing profession at the Vancouver Province and the Vancouver Sun, where for 15 years she covered B.C. business and national economic affairs.
The author of the best seller, Trade Secrets: A Memoir, Ms. Carney has been a regular contributor to numerous Canadian newspapers, magazines and periodicals.
Recruited by the Progressive Conservative Party to run in the 1979 election, Ms. Carney represented the riding of Vancouver Centre as member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1980-88, the first Conservative woman elected in B.C.
She served as minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, where she negotiated the Atlantic Accord with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, which led to the development of Atlantic offshore oil and gas resources.
As minister of International Trade, she was mandated with the responsibility for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. As president of the Treasury Board, she initiated a Task Force on Barriers to Women in the Public Service.
She was the first woman appointed to these senior economic cabinet posts. Ms. Carney served in the Senate of Canada between 1990-2008.
She was awarded the Order of Canada in 2011 for her achievements as a journalist, politician and senator in contributing to Canada’s economic and political development.
Ms. Carney has a BA in economics and political science and an MA in community and regional planning from the University of British Columbia (UBC). She was an adjunct professor at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning from 1990-99. She was also a member of the UBC Advisory Councils of the School of Journalism and of the Dean of Science.
She holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from UBC and from Simon Fraser University. She is also an honorary member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
William Marshall
For his contribution to public life in Newfoundland and Labrador, in particular his role in ensuring the province receive a share of the wealth from offshore oil, William Marshall will receive the degree of doctor of laws honoris causa during fall convocation in St. John’s.
Mr. Marshall was born in St. John’s in 1935 and lived there all his life.
Educated at Memorial University, the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University, he went on to a distinguished career both in politics and the law. Mr. Marshall was admitted to the bar in 1958 and, for 16 years, from 1970-86, he was the member of the House of Assembly for St. John’s East.
After being appointed to cabinet 1972, Mr. Marshall was instrumental in developing two pieces of legislation — the Public Tendering Act and the Public Service Commission Act — that aimed to reduce patronage in the rewarding of government contracts.
In 1979 he served as president of the Executive Council and later became the minister of Energy. It was in this latter role that he fought tirelessly for provincial power to regulate the Hibernia oil field as well as the Churchill Falls hydroelectric power development in Labrador.
On Feb. 11, 1985, Mr. Marshall was one of the signatories of the Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord, which awarded Newfoundland and Labrador the benefits of offshore oil development, including a $300-million development fund. Memorial University was the first beneficiary of the fund, receiving $27 million to build the Centre for Earth Resource Research in the Alexander Murray (Earth Sciences) building on the St. John’s campus.
Upon leaving politics in 1986, Mr. Marshall was appointed to Newfoundland and Labrador’s Court of Appeal the same year. Notably, while serving in that capacity, he wrote two judgments that freed two men convicted of murder from prison. Both were subsequently acquitted. Mr. Marshall retired from the bench in 2003.
For four decades Mr. Marshall also served as chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Central Newfoundland. In this role, he placed his remarkable gifts and wide-ranging expertise in all legal matters at the disposition of the diocese, pro bono. In recognition of his service, in 2015 Queen’s College conferred on Mr. Marshall the 10th honorary degree in the college’s 174-year history.
REF NO.: 118
SUBJECT: Fall convocation approaches; honorary degree recipients announced
DATE: August 30, 2016
Memorial University has announced the names of three people to whom it will award honorary doctorates at fall convocation ceremonies in October 2016.
The Corner Brook session of fall convocation will take place at the Arts and Culture Centre on Thursday, Oct. 6. Dr. Frank Hayden, known as the father of the Special Olympics, will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Long-serving member of Parliament and Senator Patricia (Pat) Carney and William (Bill) Marshall, provincial politician and judge, will receive honorary doctor of laws degrees at fall convocation sessions in St. John’s on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Arts and Culture Centre.
Biographies of all honorary degree recipients follow below.
Honorary degree recipients are chosen by the Senate, the university’s academic governing body, after careful examination of the grounds for their nomination.
The honorary doctorate is designed to recognize extraordinary contributions to society or exceptional intellectual or artistic achievement.
The awarding of honorary doctorates, an important feature of Memorial’s convocation, serves to celebrate both the individual and the university as well as to inspire graduates, their families and guests.
Some 950 undergraduate and graduate students will receive their degrees during fall convocation. Distinguished retired faculty members who were recently accorded the title professor emeritus/emerita by the university’s Senate will also be recognized at convocation in St. John’s on Oct. 20.
Dr. Ken Barter, School of Social Work, and Dr. Shakti Chandra, Faculty of Medicine, will be honoured at the 10 a.m. session. Dr. Alex Faseruk, Faculty of Business Administration, and Dr. Edgar Goodaire, Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, will be recognized at the 3 p.m. session. Dr. Alice Collins, Faculty of Education, and Dr. Beverley Diamond, School of Music, will be recognized at the 7:30 p.m. session.
The distinction professor emeritus/emerita is open only to retired members of the faculty. To be eligible, a person must have served at least 10 years as a regular full-time faculty member at Memorial and must have held the rank of professor upon retirement. The prime criteria for nomination are sustained, outstanding scholarly work and/or service to the university.
Biographies of honorary graduands
Dr. Frank Hayden
For his work in both creating the idea for the Special Olympics and for his critical role in developing it, Dr. Frank Hayden will receive the degree of doctor of laws honoris causa during fall convocation in Corner Brook.
Professor emeritus at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., Dr. Hayden has also served on the faculties of the University of Illinois, the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario. From 1975-81 he was director of the School of Physical Education and Athletics at McMaster.
He has a special interest in sport and fitness programs for children, particularly for those with an intellectual disability.
A graduate of Physical Fitness Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, he has spent more than 60 years designing, implementing and evaluating exercise and sport programs.
Based on this research, in 1964 he proposed a national program of sport training and competition for persons with an intellectual disability, culminating with the National Centennial Games in 1967 to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday.
In 1968 he designed, organized and directed a games in Chicago for 1,000 athletes from 26 states and Canada and named it the Chicago Special Olympics. Within two years Special Olympics organizations were established in all 50 states. This was the beginning of Special Olympics International, the program that currently provides training and competition for more than five million athletes in more than 170 countries.
Dr. Hayden was awarded honorary degrees by McMaster University, the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto, St. Mary’s University (Halifax) and the University of Western Ontario. In 2010 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Applied Health Sciences of the University of Illinois. In 2013 the Halton Regional Board of Education opened a new state-of-the-art high school in Burlington, Ont.: the Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School.
In November 2016 he will be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2000 Dr. Hayden received his country's highest honour when he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
Patricia (Pat) Carney
For her distinguished service as a member of the House of Commons and Senate and for her role in the advancement of women in public life, Patricia (Pat) Carney will receive the degree of doctor of laws honoris causa during fall convocation in St. John’s.
Ms. Carney has worked as a business journalist, economic consultant, educator and politician over the course of her career.
She began her writing profession at the Vancouver Province and the Vancouver Sun, where for 15 years she covered B.C. business and national economic affairs.
The author of the best seller, Trade Secrets: A Memoir, Ms. Carney has been a regular contributor to numerous Canadian newspapers, magazines and periodicals.
Recruited by the Progressive Conservative Party to run in the 1979 election, Ms. Carney represented the riding of Vancouver Centre as member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1980-88, the first Conservative woman elected in B.C.
She served as minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, where she negotiated the Atlantic Accord with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, which led to the development of Atlantic offshore oil and gas resources.
As minister of International Trade, she was mandated with the responsibility for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. As president of the Treasury Board, she initiated a Task Force on Barriers to Women in the Public Service.
She was the first woman appointed to these senior economic cabinet posts. Ms. Carney served in the Senate of Canada between 1990-2008.
She was awarded the Order of Canada in 2011 for her achievements as a journalist, politician and senator in contributing to Canada’s economic and political development.
Ms. Carney has a BA in economics and political science and an MA in community and regional planning from the University of British Columbia (UBC). She was an adjunct professor at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning from 1990-99. She was also a member of the UBC Advisory Councils of the School of Journalism and of the Dean of Science.
She holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from UBC and from Simon Fraser University. She is also an honorary member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
William Marshall
For his contribution to public life in Newfoundland and Labrador, in particular his role in ensuring the province receive a share of the wealth from offshore oil, William Marshall will receive the degree of doctor of laws honoris causa during fall convocation in St. John’s.
Mr. Marshall was born in St. John’s in 1935 and lived there all his life.
Educated at Memorial University, the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University, he went on to a distinguished career both in politics and the law. Mr. Marshall was admitted to the bar in 1958 and, for 16 years, from 1970-86, he was the member of the House of Assembly for St. John’s East.
After being appointed to cabinet 1972, Mr. Marshall was instrumental in developing two pieces of legislation — the Public Tendering Act and the Public Service Commission Act — that aimed to reduce patronage in the rewarding of government contracts.
In 1979 he served as president of the Executive Council and later became the minister of Energy. It was in this latter role that he fought tirelessly for provincial power to regulate the Hibernia oil field as well as the Churchill Falls hydroelectric power development in Labrador.
On Feb. 11, 1985, Mr. Marshall was one of the signatories of the Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord, which awarded Newfoundland and Labrador the benefits of offshore oil development, including a $300-million development fund. Memorial University was the first beneficiary of the fund, receiving $27 million to build the Centre for Earth Resource Research in the Alexander Murray (Earth Sciences) building on the St. John’s campus.
Upon leaving politics in 1986, Mr. Marshall was appointed to Newfoundland and Labrador’s Court of Appeal the same year. Notably, while serving in that capacity, he wrote two judgments that freed two men convicted of murder from prison. Both were subsequently acquitted. Mr. Marshall retired from the bench in 2003.
For four decades Mr. Marshall also served as chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Central Newfoundland. In this role, he placed his remarkable gifts and wide-ranging expertise in all legal matters at the disposition of the diocese, pro bono. In recognition of his service, in 2015 Queen’s College conferred on Mr. Marshall the 10th honorary degree in the college’s 174-year history.
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