McKelvey, Edward Neil

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1980
EDWARD NEIL MCKELVEY
to be Doctor of Civil Laws

Neil McKelvey is a character and a man of character. In fact, on meeting him, one might well be tempted to cry, like the fool in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, " ’Tis a spirit; sometime't appears like a lord sometime like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher," and, one is further tempted to add, "like a sailor."

It is as a lawyer, of course, that he has made his professional mark, for, having been born in Saint John, and having attended Saint John High School, he made his way to Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1949. After that he returned to Saint John and began his long and effective career in law -- a career which saw him as Queen’s Counsel in 1960, Treasurer, Vice-President and President of the Canadian Bar Association and, this year, the distinction of being the first Canadian to be President of the International Bar Association. His interests extend beyond purely legal considerations, however, for he holds directorships in a number of businesses, including Bell Canada, and he is a member of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University.

Outgoing, flamboyant, liberal -- in all senses of the word -- Neil McKelvey loves to talk and to entertain and, we are told, at meetings of various bar associations, the oratory in his suite far overshadows that of the official proceedings. His love of language is, perhaps, reflected in the alliterative title of his firm -- McKelvey, Macaulay, and Machum. He loves to hold court and the large ship's bell which adorns his front porch is rung constantly to summon people to his presence. In fact, had he lived two hundred years ago, he may well have been captain of a three-masted schooner, for he loves to sail and takes great joy in being Commodore of the Kennebecasis Yacht Club -- the only member of the club, we understand, who set sail in the Kennebecasis in a pea-soup fog and, when the fog cleared, found himself in the middle of the Mackay Highway.

In spite of the somewhat parochial nature of this episode, Neil McKelvey is a much-travelled man, but perhaps we must return to the everyday affairs of the court house to find the home of his greatest talents. Here, he is a lawyer who respects the humanity of those who come before the judges -- be they his own or those of an adversary; here, his innate kindliness is most apparent; here he shows that respect for the law without which courts cannot function with honour, and, here, and most important, he shows that respect for justice, without which they cannot truly function at all.

Insignissime Praeses, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Eduardum Neil McKelvey ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Jure Civili in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2