Bassett, Douglas Graeme

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1988
DOUGLAS GRAEME BASSETT
to be Doctor of Laws

The average Canadian watches television twenty-three hours per week. What the average Canadian never has to worry about is the complex process that puts his favorite programs on the air. In part that process is technical; but even more fundamental than the technical side is the organization of capital and resources without which nothing else could happen. Broadcasting in the private sector is a business. It must be efficient, it must be productive, it must recover its costs, and it must be profitable. When all is said and done, it needs direction by someone with a sharp pencil. Douglas Bassett is one of Canada’s most successful private sector broadcasters; he has a very sharp pencil.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Baton Broadcasting Incorporated, Douglas Bassett oversees a broadcasting empire which includes CFTO-TV, Toronto, the cornerstone of the CTV network. The business journalists call him a "media mogul." But whatever the accuracy of that description, there can be no denying the fact that under his leadership, Baton Broadcasting has been a dynamic and successful enterprise. Nor is there any doubt about where credit is due: his friends, associates, and competitors alike agree that since he became its president in 1979, he has been the man in charge. They describe a man who is both daring -- willing to take risks and to explore new ways of doing things -- yet supremely organized and methodical in his thinking and behavior. His closest friends tease him about it. Amused by his determination always to keep things neat and tidy, they have nicknamed him after a certain television character. They call him Felix. They tease him for his habits, but they never question his business skill.

Douglas Bassett’s impressive achievements in business are equally matched by his community and humanitarian service. Especially noteworthy has been his work for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto as a trustee, fundraiser, promoter, and donor. He is chairman of the World Wildlife Fund (Canada) and also of the Olympic Trust of Canada. He has been a trustee of Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific, governor of the National Ballet of Canada, and director of several organizations committed to brotherhood and the betterment of humanity including the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. For his work in bringing people of different faiths together, he has received the highest award given by the Roman Catholic Church to a non-Catholic. For his commitment to breaking down barriers of race, color, and creed, he received the 1987 Beth Shalom Brotherhood Humanitarian Award. People who have met him say that Douglas Bassett is genuinely warm and friendly. What they observe is clearly but the outward and visible sign of a deep and abiding interest in people and commitment to bettering the human condition.

It must also be obvious that whatever his friends teasing implies, the Felix trait –- the orderly and methodical approach to everything -– is precisely what permits Douglas Bassett to do so many things, and to do them so well. He has time for things that matter. Luckily for the University of New Brunswick, this has included serving as principal canvasser in Ontario for UNB’s Third Century Fund and as the first and current Chairman of the President’s Council on Fundraising. Remarkably, this commitment to UNB grows out of his short two years here.

In fact, it was thirty years ago this fall when a youthful Doug Bassett arrived in Fredericton and moved into the LBR. It was 1958 -- Happy Days –- when boys wore crew cuts and bright red jackets with University of New Brunswick printed all over the back. There were only 1200 students then and men outnumbered women nine to one. Art students, of whom Doug was one, still took classes in the Old Arts Building, crowding into suffocating little rooms like the old chapel where even the most scintillating lecturer struggled to keep his listeners awake. The chimes in the clock tower on LBR worked in those days, grinding out "The Jones Boys," Lord Beaverbrook’s favorite Miramichi ditty, every hour on the hour. Doug Bassett stayed at UNB two years before leaving to make his way in the world.

What must be added, of course, is that Douglas Bassett graduated long ago from the school of experience. He learned in life what many university graduates never learn, and his community and indeed his country are better places for it. It is fitting, therefore, that after these many years, he should return to his Alma Mater to receive a degree which is, in the most special way, on that is both honoris causa and decidedly earned.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2