Silversides, Charles Ross

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1983
CHARLES ROSS SILVERSIDES
to be Doctor of Science

Although I speak for the University as a whole today, I speak in response to the strong and single voice of our Department of Forest Engineering who have declared you worthy to be clasped to our hearts and honoured with our highest academic title. For over a decade you have been providing guidance and encouragement to this young department as a Member and Chairman of its External Advisory Board. Some have been so bold as to call you "the grand old man of the department" but all have judged you truly distinguished as scholar, scientist, educator and public servant, one who has worked for well over four decades for the betterment of our forest industries and of our forest.

Both of the foresters, whom we distinguish today, are remarkable for the fact that although they have maintained the closest ties with the groves of academe their most telling blows have been struck in the real forests of our country. It is fitting that such men should represent today an academic discipline and a professional calling which demands the marriage of theory and practice.

Ross -- for so he is called by his friends, and we wish to be so counted –- Ross’s achievements have been many. He has served as a Captain in the Canadian Forestry Corps and as a Chief in the Canadian Forestry Service, and for over twenty years as Forest Engineer and Woodlands Development Engineer for two of our great paper companies. His on-going production of scientific and professional articles and books provides the context for his last appointment in the Renewable Energy Branch of the National Research Council. Linking all these varied careers has been the logging chain of a deep and abiding interest in all aspects of woodlands operations and harvesting. His reputation in this field is world wide, and he has worked tirelessly to promote scientific collaboration in forestry between all the nations of the world. "He has made major contributions in fields as diverse as appropriate technology applications of blacksmith logging to the forestry needs of developing countries and high technology applications of air cushion vehicles to silviculture."

In recognition of these international achievements he was in 1976 the first Canadian to be elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Silviculture; in 1981 he was awarded an Honourary Doctorate by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He is, in short, a distinguished Dean of an international but invisible college of Forestry, and all of this has been achieved with the invaluable help of his dear partner, Bess.

It is perhaps paradoxical that one so devoted to chopping down trees should be honoured as a silviculturist, but Dr. Silversides has a ready answer: You must first clear away the mess of past generations so that a fresh start can be made. This Province and Canada are now committed to making just such a fresh start, to taking care of our forests so that they can take care of our future generations, and it is appropriate and fitting that we should honour such a caring forester. Perhaps a people and a civilization can best be judged by the care they take of their natural heritage, of their rivers, their lands and their forests. Shakespeare’s Touchstone has a wry view of the inhabitants of another forest –- the Forest of Arden; he listens to the public words of such a one as the University Orator and observes: "You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge."

Insignissime Praeses, amplissima Cancellaria, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Carolum Ross Silversides ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradem Doctoris in Scientia in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2