1964 Fredericton Convocation
Cragg, Laurence Harold
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)
Orator: Cattley, Robert E.D.
Citation:
CONVOCATON, OCTOBER, 1964
LAURENCE HAROLD CRAGG
to be Doctor of Science
It is an act of chivalry, in which we rejoice, to salute our old rival at Sackville by enrolling among our Honorary Doctors of Science the new President of Mount Allison University.
A man in whom each of six remarkable talents blends with and lends its lustre to the others is above analysis; to analyze, indeed, is a mean way to attempt the portrait of one whom Isaak Walton would write down as a "Compleat" man. As begin we must somewhere, permit me the advice, which Cragg has himself borrowed for his own purposes from The King of Hearts, to "Begin at the beginning".
Basically, then, he is a chemist. But the expert in polymeric research is already numbered among the elder statesmen of Canadian science, as befits a Past President of the Chemical Institute of Canada. Himself a perennial student, he delights in teaching students; and to class after class he has bequeathed not only his zest for physical chemistry but that more precious legacy, precision of expression as a concomitant of precision of thought. Going to the nub of the matter, he has focussed a burning light on the education of science teachers, and in his television lectures at McMaster won, as much by his relaxed and lucid exposition as by his patent learning, the enthusiasm of very large audiences.
At home equally in the Arts as in Science, he champions their alliance, not their schism. In the text-book An Introduction to the Principles of Chemistry of which he is co-author, Omar Khayyam, Sherlock Holmes, and Alice in Wonderland jostle for quotation with Newton, Dalton, Bernoulli, Mendeleef and the modern giants.
A mind so broad and vigorous will doubtless prove as salutary to the high counsels of Mount Allison as they were to those of McMaster and Alberta -- brisk winds are already blowing across the Tantramar Marshes.
But other virtues are required by that foundation of the United Church, and with these in abundant measure Heaven has blessed Laurence Cragg. Coming from a family rich in ministers, he has long been a leader, authoritative, revered and far-travelled, in his Church's work and organization. An apostolic zeal, backed by a superb theological library (almost as extensive, rumour goes, as his collection of gramophone records) has made him better informed than many a minister. He is the first layman to be appointed President of Mount Allison University.
To Laurence Cragg and with him to Mrs. Cragg, his tireless and enthusiastic helpmeet, you would, I know, have me wish a tenure as fruitful as it is likely to be strenuous of his new office.
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
LAURENCE HAROLD CRAGG
to be Doctor of Science
It is an act of chivalry, in which we rejoice, to salute our old rival at Sackville by enrolling among our Honorary Doctors of Science the new President of Mount Allison University.
A man in whom each of six remarkable talents blends with and lends its lustre to the others is above analysis; to analyze, indeed, is a mean way to attempt the portrait of one whom Isaak Walton would write down as a "Compleat" man. As begin we must somewhere, permit me the advice, which Cragg has himself borrowed for his own purposes from The King of Hearts, to "Begin at the beginning".
Basically, then, he is a chemist. But the expert in polymeric research is already numbered among the elder statesmen of Canadian science, as befits a Past President of the Chemical Institute of Canada. Himself a perennial student, he delights in teaching students; and to class after class he has bequeathed not only his zest for physical chemistry but that more precious legacy, precision of expression as a concomitant of precision of thought. Going to the nub of the matter, he has focussed a burning light on the education of science teachers, and in his television lectures at McMaster won, as much by his relaxed and lucid exposition as by his patent learning, the enthusiasm of very large audiences.
At home equally in the Arts as in Science, he champions their alliance, not their schism. In the text-book An Introduction to the Principles of Chemistry of which he is co-author, Omar Khayyam, Sherlock Holmes, and Alice in Wonderland jostle for quotation with Newton, Dalton, Bernoulli, Mendeleef and the modern giants.
A mind so broad and vigorous will doubtless prove as salutary to the high counsels of Mount Allison as they were to those of McMaster and Alberta -- brisk winds are already blowing across the Tantramar Marshes.
But other virtues are required by that foundation of the United Church, and with these in abundant measure Heaven has blessed Laurence Cragg. Coming from a family rich in ministers, he has long been a leader, authoritative, revered and far-travelled, in his Church's work and organization. An apostolic zeal, backed by a superb theological library (almost as extensive, rumour goes, as his collection of gramophone records) has made him better informed than many a minister. He is the first layman to be appointed President of Mount Allison University.
To Laurence Cragg and with him to Mrs. Cragg, his tireless and enthusiastic helpmeet, you would, I know, have me wish a tenure as fruitful as it is likely to be strenuous of his new office.
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
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