Mulherin, James Kenneth Conrad

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1982
JAMES KENNETH CONRAD MULHERIN
to be Doctor of Science

As Dr. Johnson once said, "Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place." It is not in the character of James Kenneth Conrad Mulherin to boast about his exploits, but we hope that he takes some pride in being here today, just as we take pride in honouring him.

Born in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Connie Mulherin came to the University of New Brunswick to study forestry, but switched to engineering in his second year, and graduated with a B.Sc. degree in 1945. The yearbook for that year tells us that he was Vice-President of the Newman Club, President of the Bowling Club, Captain of the '45 interclass hockey team, and was in the ranks of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps. His contemporaries remember him as a popular, likeable, even-tempered, efficient, modest person, but, unfortunately for orators who write citations, no youthful scandals or misdeeds appear to darken his university days. Perhaps the self-discipline which he has shown after leaving university does not entirely stem from his training in the Officers' Training Corps, nor from his subsequent service in the Royal Canadian Engineers, because I understand that he lived in a boarding house in Fredericton run by an iron-handed landlady. If breakfast was at 7:30 a.m. and he arrived at 7:31, he didn't get any.

After his brief service in the Canadian army, Mr. Mulherin joined Montreal Engineering which, at that time, was developing its business in Latin America. With that abundant foresight for which he is well-known, he went out and bought a tropical suit, only to find that he was immediately posted to Yellowknife.

For five years he was Field Engineer for various hydro-electric projects in the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Alberta and Labrador. He then returned to Montreal where he made steady and spectacular progress -- Supervising Engineer, Chief Construction Engineer, Manager General Engineering Division, Vice-President and General Manager, and, in 1974, President and General Manager of Montreal Engineering, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Monenco Limited, which includes forty engineering companies and supervises the construction of hydro-electric and thermal power projects in various parts of the world, including Canada, South and Central America, the West Indies, India and Sri Lanka. In 1980 he received the Julian Smith award for outstanding achievement in Canadian development.

If one were to list Mr. Mulherin's professional memberships, his presidencies, his chairmanships, his directorships, one might be tempted to cry, with Macbeth, "What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?" and I am sure that he himself would not wish it.

Outgoing and friendly, Connie Mulherin o'er steps "not the modesty of nature," and few people realize the amount of time and money which he has put into worthy causes and civic affairs.

It would have been helpful to an orator if he could have said, with Hamlet, "'tis sport to have the engineer / Hoist with his own petar," but Mr. Mulherin is too skillful an engineer for that. We honour him today for that skill, for what he has done for his profession and his country, and assure him that he does appear considerable in his native university.

Insignissime Praeses, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Jacobum Kenneth Conrad Mulherin ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2