Trinity College Alumni Affairs

Patten, Iacobucci and Tuttle honoured at joint Trinity-Massey ceremony

Sept. 7, 2005 – On Sept. 7 at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall, honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters degrees were conferred by Trinity College upon the Rt. Hon Christopher Patten, chancellor of the University of Oxford; the Hon. Frank Iacobucci, a former Supreme Court justice; and John Tuttle, one of Canada’s premier organists.

Lord Patten of Barnes, who was the last British governor of Hong Kong and oversaw the handover of the colony to China in 1997, was cited for his extensive work in international politics and for the close historical and contemporary connections between Trinity College and Oxford. At the Convocation, which was a joint event of Massey and Trinity colleges, an Honorary Senior Fellowship was also conferred by Massey College upon Lord Patten. This is the second such honorary senior fellowship every bestowed by the college; the first went to HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2003.

Frank Iacobbucci was honoured for his extensive contribution to the University of Toronto and its Faculty of Law and for his service as chief justice of the Federal Court of Canada and on the Supreme Court, along with his numerous other contributions to Canadian civil society.

John Tuttle is organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church in Toronto and leads both the Hart House Chorus and the Exultate Chamber Singers, a nationally prominent choral ensemble. He is Organist to the University of Toronto and teaches at the Faculty of Music.

Parents of first-year Trinity students, who gathered to see their students matriculate, were part of the celebration, believed to be the first such joint event in the history of Massey and Trinity colleges.

Conference hears Primate's views on the future of the Anglican Communion

June 30, 2005 - About 80 Divinity alumni gathered June 27 to 29 at a Trinity College Divinity Associates conference, entitled “Ties that Bind,” to discuss the state of the worldwide Anglican Communion in light of recent tensions among member churches, primarily over the blessing of same-sex unions.
Attendees heard a series of three addresses by Archbishop Andrew Hutchison (6T9), Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, on the history and growth of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the bonds that hold it together and its future in view of issues that have caused serious strains in recent years. The lectures were delivered for the Primate, who was ill, by Archdeacon Paul Feheley.

To read the Primates’ words, please click below:

Address #1

Address #2

Address #3

On the final day of the conference registrants drafted a statement, entitled “A Responsible Place at the Table,” which is being circulated to the worldwide church. It was a call to remain in communion while respecting differing points of view and accepting that conflict is part of reality. To view the statement, click here.

Ryerson Honours Provost MacMillan
June 9, 2005 – Trinity College Provost Margaret MacMillan taught at Ryerson University for almost 25 years, but it wasn’t until this June that she finally became a Ryerson alumna. MacMillan received an honorary doctorate from the Toronto university at a June 9 convocation ceremony.

In his citation for Provost MacMillan, Prof. John Cook, chair of Ryerson’s English department, said that she is a “historian, political commentator, university leader, and a wise and generous mentor to many of us. Dr. MacMillan, for your imaginative tracing and your moral commitment and sensitivity to the arc of human history…we thank you.”

“I was so delighted and touched to get the honorary degree from Ryerson,” MacMillan said after the ceremony. “I taught there for 25 years and had very nice colleagues and students. So it was a bit like coming home and having them make a fuss over you.”

To read John Cook's citation for Margaret MacMillan, click here.
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Chancellor Michael H. Wilson receives U of T honorary degree

June 7, 2005 – Trinity College Chancellor and former Canadian finance minister Michael Wilson received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Toronto June 7 for his contributions to Canadian politics, finance and voluntarism.

“This is a tremendous honour for me,” the Chancellor said in his address to the graduating students. “Receiving an honorary degree from the finest university in Canada, my alma mater, is an event I shall never forget.”

Wilson encouraged the graduates to make volunteering an important part of their lives. “It wasn’t my university major, nor my early jobs, but my volunteer work which would lead me into public life and later into my extensive involvement in the mental health field,” Wilson said. “My volunteer and political experience has taken me into another world. From Bay Street to Main Street. And more important, it has made me a better person.”

After working for several years in private finance, Wilson was elected a Conservative MP for Etobicoke Centre in 1979. In 1984, he became finance minister under former prime minister Brian Mulroney. He first did volunteer work for the Canadian Cancer Society in 1967. After he left politics in 1993 he became a committed advocate of mental-health issues. Wilson’s son Cameron was later diagnosed with depression and took his own life.

“Out of that loss,” said Trinity Provost Margaret MacMillan, introducing Wilson, “he has courageously undertaken to work to further our understanding and treatment of mental illness and to provide support and leadership for organizations such as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Neuroscience Canada Partnership.”

“Sometimes the work is difficult,” Wilson told the graduands. “It may be an added commitment to an already very busy life. It can take both a physical and an emotional toll. But I assure you, the rewards are boundless. Your life will be enriched.”

For Provost Margaret MacMillan’s citation for Michael Wilson, click here.

To read Michael Wilson’s full convocation address, click here.

Trinity College Confers Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degrees
May 10, 2005 – Two distinguished bishops of the Anglican Church received honorary degrees from the University of Trinity College on Tuesday, May 10. At the same time, the College, conjointly with the University of Toronto, conferred earned degrees upon 17 graduands from the Faculty of Divinity.

Honorary Doctor of Divinity (DD) degrees were bestowed upon the Rt. Rev. David Hamid, Suffragan Bishop of the Church of England Diocese in Europe, and the Rt. Rev. Colin Robert Johnson, Bishop of Toronto.

The Rt. Rev. David Hamid (MDiv Trinity 1981, BSc McMaster University 1978) After ordination in the Diocese of Niagara, the Rt. Rev. David Hamid worked in parish ministry in Burlington, Ont., where he came in contact with local Latin American refugee and immigrant communities. In 1987 he was appointed Regional Mission Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Anglican Church of Canada. From 1996 to 2000, as Director of Ecumenical Affairs and Studies with the Anglican Consultative Council, he was involved in every decision-making body of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In 2002 he was appointed Suffragan Bishop of the Church of England in Europe, which comprises 225 congregations from Ankara to Vladivostok.

Bishop Hamid received the honorary doctorate in recognition of his outstanding and varied ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada and his efforts to build closer ties between the Canadian Church and the international Anglican Communion. According to former primate, the Most Rev. Michael Peers (BA 1959, DD 1978 Trinity), who delivered the citation for Bishop Hamid at the Convocation ceremony, Bishop Hamid is arguably the most widely known living graduate of Trinity’s Faculty of Divinity.

The Rt. Rev. Colin Robert Johnson (MDiv Trinity 1977, BA University of Western Ontario 1974) was named the 11th Bishop of Toronto in 2004. Like John Strachan, Toronto’s first Anglican bishop, he was also Archdeacon of York (1994-2003). He was Bishop Suffragan of Toronto and Area Bishop of Trent-Durham (2003-04). As executive assistant to the Archbishop of Toronto from 1992 to 2003, he constantly pushed for innovative modes of ministry. At the same time, he held numerous volunteer positions within the church and the community at large.

Bishop Johnson was honoured for his many contributions as pastor and administrator to the Diocese of Toronto, its clergy and its communities. "Suffice it to say, he is the right leader for our times, as our College’s Founder, John Strachan, was for his. Both were and are people of courage, conviction, love of the Church and the Gospel," said the Rt. Rev. Michael H.H. Bedford-Jones (BA 1965, STB 1968, DD 1997 Trinity), who presented Bishop Johnson at the Convocation ceremony.

Bishop Johnson delivered the Convocation address.

CLICK HERE TO READ BISHOP JOHNSON'S ADDRESS.

Jalynn Bennett and Peter and Melanie Munk
Receive Honorary Degrees

September 2004

Read the citation of Jalynn Bennett, delivered by George Fierheller.

Noted Canadian businesswoman Jalynn H. Bennett was awarded a Doctor of Sacred Letters degree, honoris causa, September 8 by Trinity College. At the same time, honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters degrees were bestowed upon Peter and Melanie Munk.

Bennett, who addressed the college's incoming first-year students, came to Trinity after spending her freshman year at Wellesley College in Massachusetts during the angst-ridden days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. She came back to Canada and to Trinity to a more balanced environment, not just politically, but also in terms of the broader co-educational experience that she sought, which was not available at Wellesley.

'Having [also] been at an all-girls' high school, I realized that I had to learn diversity, which in the 1960s meant gender, primarily ' how men thought. I had to learn how to work with men collegially,' she said. She learned her lessons well and went on to become a leader among Canadian businesswoman who broke the gender barrier and reached the upper echelons of management.

After earning a bachelor of arts degree in economics in 1965, she joined Manulife Financial, where she served ultimately, from 1985 to 1989, as vice-president of corporate development, directing 10,000 employees and helping to mastermind the sale of $225-million worth of shares.

In 2000, The National Post named her ninth in the Power 50, a list of the 50 most powerful and influential women in Canadian business. Among other positions, she serves as a director of Bombardier Inc., Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and of CanWest Global Communications Corp. From 1989 to 1994 she was a director of the Bank of Canada and chair of its budget and planning committee.

Bennett's affinity for Trinity began in earnest when she served as Non-Resident Head of College as an undergraduate; she has been a member of the Trinity College Corporation since 1983 and was involved in the college's Spirit of Leadership Campaign in the late 1990s. In addition, at U of T she has served on the Munk Centre for International Studies advisory board, on the President's Advisory Committee and on the U of T Asset Management Corporation.

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Read the citation of Peter and Melanie Munk, delivered by Thomas Delworth

Born in Hungary between the world wars, Peter Munk escaped the ravages of fascism and put his abilities as a risk-taker and shrewd innovator to good use in Canada, his adopted country. He graduated with a bachelor of electrical engineering degree from the University of Toronto in 1952. He is the founder and chairman of the board of Barrick Gold Corporation, one of the world's most successful gold producers. In 2002 he founded Trizec Properties, now the second largest publicly traded U.S. real estate investment trust.

Melanie Munk, educated in England and Switzerland, worked for the Worth Fashion House and in interior design before marrying Peter Munk in 1973 and later continued her career as an interior decorator in Toronto. She is the daughter of the late David Bosanquet, of Horsham, Sussex, England, a hero of Britain's Far-East campaign during the Second World War ' one of a handful to successfully escape a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

The Munks are noted supporters of Trinity College and of the University of Toronto, where their lead gift helped to establish the Munk Centre for International Studies. Their commitment at the early stages of Trinity's Spirit of Leadership Campaign resulted in the Peter Munk and Melanie Bosanquet Munk wing in the college's new library, which incorporates the Churchill Room and the G8 Research Room. The David Bosanquet Garden, encircled by the Munk Centre and the library, honours the memory of Melanie's late father.

Their philanthropic efforts have also helped to create the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre in Toronto and the Centre for Research, Innovation and Technology at Technion University in Israel. Melanie Munk established a chair in cardio-vascular surgery at the Toronto Hospital.

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TRINITY BESTOWS HONORARY DEGREES

May 2004

Three distinguished bishops and a long-time benefactor received honorary degrees at the University of Trinity College on Tuesday, May 11. At the same time, the college, conjointly with the University of Toronto, conferred theology degrees upon 27 graduands from the Faculty of Divinity.

Honorary Doctor of Divinity (DD) degrees went to Bishops Terry Brown, Peter R. Coffin and Thomas Soo. G. Patrick H. Vernon received an honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters (DSL) degree.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Terry Brown (M.Div. 1974, Th.D. 1987, Trinity College) has been the bishop of Malaita in the Solomon Islands since 1996. After being ordained in 1975 and serving as assistant curate in Moncton N.B., he lectured in theology in the Solomon Islands for six years. Subsequently, he served for 11 years as Asia/Pacific Mission Co-ordinator of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. He has published scores of articles and briefs on church, mission, politics and human rights, many of them pertaining to the church in Asia and the South Pacific. Dr. Brown also delivered the convocation address to Trinity's 2004 graduating class. Read the address here.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Peter R. Coffin (BA Dalhousie University, STB 1971, Trinity College) became the bishop of Ottawa in 1999. Soon after being ordained in 1971, he taught biblical theology in Borneo. In the mid-70s he was a founder of the francophone parish of St. Bernard de Clairvaux in the Ottawa area. Partner in Mission work through the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada has taken him to Singapore, Burundi and Rwanda. He has also travelled to Papua New Guinea and has a keen interest in the Philippines. Through all of these endeavours he has maintained a lifelong commitment to multiculturalism and human rights.
The Rt. Rev. Thomas Yee-Po-Soo (M.Div. 1978, Trinity College) returned to serve the people in his native Hong Kong shortly after graduating from Trinity. He was ordained in 1979 in Hong Kong, where his early service ranged from prison chaplain, to curate of two parishes, to college chaplain at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before being consecrated in 1995 as area bishop (Western Kowloon) of the Diocese of Hong Kong and Macau, he was the founding director of the Diocesan Counselling Service, the bishop's representative on the Primary School Council, vicar of various parishes and area archdeacon. He was installed in 1998 as the first bishop of the Diocese of Western Kowloon in the Province of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui.
Granville Patrick (Pat) Harcourt Vernon (BA Hons.1949, Trinity College; Osgoode Hall 1953, LLB 1991) will receive the Doctor of Sacred Letters degree in recognition of his distinguished career in law, his public service in education and his staunch support of the Anglican church. Mr. Vernon entered the law firm of McCarthy Tetrault in 1953 and received the Queen's Counsel appointment in 1964. His long career included serving as a director of two international banks and as a commissioner of the Ontario Securities Commission. He is the past executive director of Bells of Old York, a charitable organization which sponsored the acquisition and retuning of the Bermondsey Bells, installed in the tower at St. James' Cathedral in Toronto. He is an honorary life trustee of Trinity College School, a long-time supporter of student aid at Trinity College and was chair of his class's 50^th reunion at Trinity in 1999.

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Rt. Rev'd Dr. Terry Brown delivers Trinity convocation address

Read the full text of the address here.

MORE RHODES SCHOLARS AT TRINITY

December 12, 2003 - Maria Banda, a Trinity College fourth-year international relations student who has some ideas that Prime Minister Paul Martin might want to try, and Navindra Persaud, the college's chemistry and physics don, have won Ontario Rhodes Scholarships.

Banda, 22, will graduate in June 2004 with an Honours BA with a specialist in international relations and minors in economics and history. She is one of two national winners of this year's As Prime Minister Award, part of the Magna for Canada Scholarship Fund. The competition this year asked students to answer the question: "If you were Prime Minister, what political vision would you offer to improve living standards and ensure a secure and prosperous global community?" Maria's winning essay, which garnered a $20,000 prize, can be viewed at www.asprimeminister.com

At Oxford, Maria plans to attain a master's degree in international relations and, afterward, a degree in international law at a U.S. law school. "Receiving the Rhodes Scholarship is a life-changing experience, which has opened the door to a global community of scholars who share a deep commitment to public service," she says. "I also take it as a vote of confidence to continue following my ideals - and ideas - at Oxford and otherwise."

Banda is co-president of the student-run International Relations Society and editor-in-chief of The Attaché, U of T's international affairs journal. She attended the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 and has been a senior analyst with the G8 Research Group at U of T.

A graduate of Thornhill Secondary School and a U of T Scholar, she has served as chair of Trinity's competitive debates committee and has participated in national and international debating championships as a member of the Hart House Debating Club. She is also a steward on the Hart HouseBoard of Stewards. She speaks five languages, loves to travel and is a committed environmentalist.

Navindra Persaud, who earned his BSc while studying at U of T's Department of Physiology as a University College student, will have completed two years of a medical-doctoral degree at U of T by the time he sets off for Oxford. The 23-year-old, who is Trinity's current chemistry and physics academic don, is headed for Oxford's Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology program, where he will apply his knowledge of neuroscience to explore how understanding the functioning of the brain can be used for the betterment of society.

Already he has studied with scientists from U of T, Harvard and Cambridge, investigating such phenomena as the molecular machinery that allows neurons to communicate with each other and the finely orchestrated activity of the entire brain as the body taps a finger.

He believes that scientific knowledge must be combined with ideas from other disciplines for the benefit of society. Next summer, before departing for Oxford, he plans to travel to New Delhi and the All India Medical Institute to study neurological infections in a developing nation.

While at U of T, he contributed to the University of Toronto Medical Journal and the University of Toronto Pharmacology Handbook. He also competed in basketball, volleyball, football and soccer, but his true athletic passion is long-distance running.

After Oxford, he plans to complete the final two years of his medical doctorate in Toronto and then enter a combined research and postgraduate medical training program. His goal is to research the neurophysiology of decision-making at the molecular, cellular and organ level, as well as the ramifications of different modes of decision-making in society.

A graduate of William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute in Toronto and a U of T Scholar, he credits his success to his parents who immigrated to Canada from Guyana so that he and his brother would have more opportunities. "This award is a dramatic example of the good fortune that I have had in my life and a reminder of the wonderful opportunities that exist in this world," he says.

The Rhodes Scholarship, valued in excess of $100,000, provides students from around the world with the opportunity to study at Oxford University. It covers all travel and tuition expenses for two years of study, with an option for a third year.

"This is wonderful news, and we are so proud of both of them," says Trinity's Provost Margaret MacMillan. "It is something to win one of the most distinguished scholarships in the world--and Trinity students have done it two years in a row!" Last year, Trinity students Zinta Zommers and Thom Ringer claimed both Rhodes Scholarships awarded in Ontario.

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PROVOST MARGARET MACMILLAN WINS GG AWARD

November 2003 - Provost Margaret MacMillan has won the 2003 Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction for Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World (Random House Canada). Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, honoured the winners during a ceremony at Rideau Hall Nov. 12.

The jury cited Paris 1919, an international best-seller and winner as such coveted prizes as the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, as "historical investigation and writing at its very best."

The full list of winners is available on the Canada Council Web site at: www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/2003/laureats-e.asp

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ARTHUR SCACE TO RECEIVE U OF T HONORARY DEGREE

November 2003
Trinity alumnus Arthur Scace (6T0) received an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Toronto fall convocation on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

Scace, past chairman and partner of the law firm McCarthy Tétrault, was cited for his outstanding contribution to law in Canada. In 1983, he penned an authoritative study on income tax law in Canada in 1983. He won the Robinette Medal in 2002, Osgoode Hall Law School's highest alumni award, and was granted an honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters degree by Trinity College in May 2003. He is also involved in many educational, arts and cultural organizations and serves as president of the Canadian Opera Company.

Scace, a Rhodes Scholar, and his wife Susan are both members of Trinity College's Corporation and served on the college's Spirit of Leadership Honorary Campaign Cabinet. During that campaign, in conjunction with the Henry White Kinnear Foundation, they dedicated the reading rooms on the second floor of the north wing of the John W. Graham Library to Trinity's Rhodes Scholars. A gallery of photos of the college's Rhodes Scholars can be viewed there.

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Michael Wilson Installed as Trinity's 11th Chancellor

September 3, 2003

Former finance minister the Hon. Michael H. Wilson was formally installed as the 11th Chancellor of Trinity College in the University of Toronto at the college’s Matriculation Convocation on September 3. He began serving a four-year term as chancellor in May.

Mr. Wilson was minister of finance from 1984 to 1991 in the Mulroney Progressive Conservative government and is currently chairman and chief executive officer of UBS Global Asset Management (Canada) Co., one of Canada’s largest pension- fund managers. His varied background in finance, philanthropy and community involvement will be a valuable asset to Trinity. A Trinity College alumnus, he received a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Toronto in 1959 and an honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters Degree from Trinity College in 1994.

“I am very honoured to be selected as Trinity's chancellor,” he said. “The years that our students spend at Trinity are very important in their lives. My own years as a Trinity student were very productive and formative.”

Click here to r ead the full text of Chancellor Wilson's Installation Address

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Honorary Degrees Granted to Peter Dobell and Gwynneth Evans

September 3, 2003 - At Trinity College’s Matriculation Convocation on September 3, two Trinity alumni were granted Doctor of Sacred Letters degrees, honoris causa.

Peter Dobell (BA 1949 Trinity) is the founder of the Parliamentary Centre, a private, non-profit corporation dedicated to strengthening Parliament and its committees and assisting Members of Parliament to be more effective.

Early in his career as a foreign service officer, which began in 1952, Dobell became convinced that Canada’s MPs needed to expand their knowledge of foreign affairs and he committed himself to making that happen. His plan took shape as he served with the Canadian delegation at the United Nations in New York from 1960 to 1965.

In 1968, he opened the Parliamentary Centre, which has operated training seminars for newly elected MPs and organized brief exchange visits for members of the Canadian Parliament and the United States Congress, to name a few of its educational endeavours. Service to parliamentary committees has also been a major part of the work of the centre.

Currently, the centre is advocating changes, which, if adopted, will enhance the role of private Members of Parliament. It is also responsible for training programs for legislatures in 15 countries.

Peter Dobell is a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Ottawa with his wife Jane. Avid outdoor enthusiasts, the pair has explored Canada’s lakes and rivers by canoe for more than 30 years.

As director general, national and international programs, of the National Library of Canada from 1994 until her retirement last year, Gwynneth Evans (BA 1961 Trinity; MSc Simmons College, Boston) reached the pinnacle of her profession.

In 2001, she assisted in establishing the Council on Access to Information for Print-Disabled Canadians, which aims to increase materials in alternate formats for the blind, dyslexic or others unable to use printed publications. She also played a key role in the development of the Adaptive Technologies in Libraries Program and the Large Print Publishing Program, funded by the federal government.

READ UP ON IT, which she launched, became an annual campaign to stimulate reading to children by parents. It married the development and publishing of Canadian books for children, in English and French, with the promotion of an active reading program.

Perhaps drawing from her experience in Uganda as a volunteer teacher for two years during the ’60s, she has dedicated herself passionately to literacy and social issues relating to access of information in other parts of the world.

She was president of the International Book Bank of CODE, the Canadian Organization for Development through Education, an NGO that responds to book requests and supports library development and publishing in local languages in Africa and the Caribbean. And her quest to find models of community library service saw her living in a tent in the Andes in 1997, observing and consulting with volunteers on a rural library project, and acting as a volunteer consultant in Ethiopia in 2000 and 2001 to OXFAM Canada’s Horn of Africa Capacity Building Program.

In recognition of her work, she received the Canadian Library Association Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award in 2002.

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Arbor Awards for Five Trinity Alumni

September, 2003

The Arbor Award was established in 1989 to recognize the University of Toronto's top volunteers. Alumni and friends who serve the university either directly or through their constituency are honoured annually at a ceremony at the president's residence. On September 4, the following five Trinity alumni received the award.

Sheila Amys (5T5) has worked with imagination and dedication since 1988 for The Friends of the Library of Trinity College, first as chair of publicity and later co-ordinating the college’s annual book sale. With seeming ease she organized media announcements, flyer distribution, and campus signs to publicize the event and even created elegant banners to promote the book sale within the gothic corridors of Trinity. As the main organizer (and later co-co-ordinator) she brought graciousness and calm to the gargantuan and labour-intensive effort of setting up and running the sale. Her work not only contributed to the increasing financial success of the event, but also helped to foster the volunteer community essential to the flourishing of the Friends.

“Old provosts never die, they just lose their faculties,” said the Rt. Rev. John C. Bothwell this spring as he bid farewell as chancellor to Trinity College. The quip was typical of Trinity’s 10th chancellor, who never missed an opportunity for a pun. Bishop Bothwell received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1948, a bachelor of Divinity in 1952, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1972, all from Trinity College. It seemed that he couldn’t get enough of the place. That trend continued when he returned to Trinity as Chancellor in 1991 after retiring as Archbishop of the Anglican Church for the Province of Ontario. The chancellor is required to chair the twice-yearly meetings of Corporation, to preside over the annual Faculty of Divinity convocation and to sit as an ex-officio member of several college committees. But those were a mere drop in the bucket to Chancellor Bothwell. He was a constant and salubrious presence at book sale and art sale, at Wednesday Eucharist and Advent Carol Service, or offering counsel to provost or student. At his farewell, there was a tag line to his quip about provosts. “Old chancellors never die,” he said, ”they just fade by degrees.” In his case, his many friends at Trinity would disagree.

Charles Laver, a member of the Class of 6T0, has volunteered faithfully since the first days of the Friends of the Library of Trinity College. More than a quarter-century ago, when the sorting and pricing for the fledgling annual book sale were done on the floor a few days before the opening, his signature activity was pricing the drama and poetry sections. In recent years, after early retirement from teaching, he has assumed a much increased, year-round role in organizing and energizing pre-sale activities, from sorting the books, to planning floor layout and crowd control, to handling complex book donations. In addition, he has served for many years as an alumni member of the Library Committee of the Trinity College Senate. Not the least, Charles has been a brick in recruiting and nurturing his fellow volunteers. He is an inspiration to both the old and new generations of the Friends of the Library.

Bill Orr has been an active supporter of Trinity College almost from the day he graduated in 1973. A former student Head of Arts, he has been a member of Trinity’s Corporation since 1974 and represented the college on the university’s College of Electors during the ’90s. He has served on numerous committees at Trinity, including pension, finance and investments, and was a member of the search committees for his alma mater’s current Provost and Chancellor. The outgoing chair of the Board of Trustees, he always put his thorough knowledge of the college and his practical approach to problem solving to good use when dealing with college affairs. Through all this, he also found time to volunteer as president of the Family Service Association of Toronto and as chair of the board of directors of the Dellcrest Children’s Centre. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1976 and is a partner in the law firm Heenan Blaikie.

Mary Shenstone (8T1) brings verve, common sense and humour to all her activities at Trinity College. As vice-president and then president of the St. Hilda’s College Alumnae Association, she encouraged greater alumnae participation by developing a stimulating lecture series. In recognition of the college’s Sesquicentennial in 2001-02, she led a campaign that doubled the endowment of the St. Hilda’s College Alumnae Association Exhibition Award, given to a woman in her final year who demonstrates academic excellence and extracurricular leadership. She is active on Trinity’s Executive Committee of Convocation, the St. Hilda’s College Board of Trustees and is a member of Corporation. Mary is a director with the Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Business Services.

Click Here to see the complete list of Trinity's Arbor Award Winners since 1989

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