Mackay, Kate Hazen

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1962
KATE HAZEN MACKAY
to be Doctor of Laws

Attempting to do her justice, an Orator is defeated at the outset, and on two counts. He finds himself presenting no fewer than six women, not one of whom has benefited, or suffered from, a university education.

Wife, mother, hostess, traveller, organizer, benefactress and Society belle -- most of her sex would deem one such life a job well done, two such a satisfaction, three a glory, and four an impossibility.

Kate Mackay has managed all six (or, depending on the grouping, all seven) with zest. Daughter of Sir Douglas Hazen, wife of the late Hugh Mackay, she is the mother of four children and already the grandmother of thirteen. Her house in Rothesay has always been famous for its open-handed but seemingly effortless hospitality. There is
hardly an organization in Greater Saint John which she has not founded, joined, or presided over. Her travels have ranged from Scandinavia to the Holy Land, and London is her other capital. Her charm is as patent as her energy. Only her giving, sustained as it is bountiful, is apt to be less open, many a recipient knowing not whence it comes. The Salvation Army has blessed her support no less than has her own church.

She is all, and more, that is typical of public-spirited Canadian womanhood, and I could wish that we had six (or is it seven?) degrees to bestow on each of her.

From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.