2003 Fredericton Encaenia - Ceremony B

O'Brien, Daniel

Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)

Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.

Citation:

ENCAENIA, MAY, 2003
DANIEL O'BRIEN

to be Doctor of Letters

For forty years, the University of New Brunswick has shared this campus with St. Thomas University. In many ways, the two institutions co-operate, in other ways they compete, yet in every way, the relationship is neighborly and collegial. In no small measure, the success of that relationship is owed to Dan O'Brien, president of St. Thomas since 1990. He has been not only a good friend to UNB but also a remarkably successful leader who has transformed St. Thomas into a vibrant and exciting seat of learning.

Before coming to Fredericton, Dan O'Brien distinguished himself as a student, teacher, and scholar. He has a bachelor's degree from St. Mary's University, a masters from the Maritime School of Social Work at Dalhousie, and advanced graduate credentials from the University of Toronto and the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded his doctorate. His expertise is in social planning, and he has more than twenty book-length research monographs to his credit in addition to numerous articles and book chapters. He has presented more than 70 papers at conferences near and far, and has been recognized for his achievement with scholarships, research grants, and special honours. Before coming to Fredericton, he taught at Dalhousie University for twenty-one years where he eventually became Director of the School of Social Work and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Health Professions. He had impeccable credentials and an enviable track-record when he and his wife Valerie accepted the challenge to lead St. Thomas into the twenty-first century.

Dan O'Brien's accomplishments at St. Thomas are the stuff of legends. He has revamped almost every administrative office on campus, added new academic programs, doubled the physical space available for residences and teaching, conducted two highly successful fund-raising campaigns - each surpassing its target - and drawn national attention for the percentage of budget allocated to student scholarships. In a period of little more than ten years, he has spent a staggering $30 million on new construction and renovations, and has produced operating budget surpluses in every year of his presidency. Moreover, he has transformed a Catholic University by broadening the curriculum and reaching out to non-Catholic students, while maintaining the Catholic identity of the institution and redefining the role the Church continues to play in campus life. The test of his achievement is the high regard with which he is held by his staff and the professoriate, the students, and the alumni. His colleagues like him, and recognize the strength of his commitment and the visible transformation he has made in the University.

What Dan has contributed to Fredericton and the larger community is equally impressive. He brought with him a reputation for community service in Nova Scotia that included the presidency of the Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers, work with Family Services, the Drug Dependency Commission, Group Homes, and others. In Fredericton, he has continued to volunteer his time to such agencies as the Greater Fredericton Economic Development Corporation, the Region HI Hospital Corporation, the United Way, and Team Fredericton. And throughout his career, he has served on professional associations at the regional, national and international levels.

In almost every way, Dan O'Brien is our cooperative and congenial partner on this campus. We overlook, for the moment, his fiercely partisan attachment to the Tommies hockey club. Even that we acknowledge as a friendly rivalry. Above all, we have enjoyed the warmth and down-to-earth friendliness of his style, a characteristic he shares with his wife Valerie. Together, they have enriched the lives of all who live and work here. We at UNB greet him today as colleague, neighbour, and friend, and we salute him, both for his long and accomplished career and for his outstanding achievement as builder and leader of a revitalized St. Thomas University.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 4

Citations may be reproduced for research purposes only. Publication in whole or in part requires written permission from the author.