1996 Fredericton Convocation
Crowell, Ivan
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1996
IVAN H. CROWELL
to be Doctor of Letters
"Bill" Crowell, as his friends call him, is a man who has refused to retire. Faced with the prospect on several occasions during his 92-year lifetime, he has simply switched careers and started all over again, and in at least four of these careers he has been an outstanding success.
He was born in Caledonia, Nova Scotia, in 1904, and grew up in Truro where he eventually went to Normal School expecting to become a teacher of what in those days was called manual training. After a brief teaching experience, he came to UNB to study forestry, and he graduated in 1929. Still interested in teaching, he pursued graduate studies in the United States, taking master's degrees and eventually a Ph.D. at Harvard University. It was while he was teaching botany at McGill University in Montreal that he began to drift back to his first love: he had always loved working with his hands, and more than this he loved showing others how to make crafts. His preoccupation of the moment was woodturning, and surrounded as he was by impecunious students, he soon began showing them how to make wooden bowls, plates, and salt and peppers -- eye catching pieces with functional and commercial value — which he encouraged them to sell.
It was with this already varied background that he came to New Brunswick at the end of the War and went to work developing the province's first handicraft school. In an old converted army hut on the grounds of the present-day Fredericton Exhibition, he brought in instructors in cabinetry, weaving, leather, metal crafts, and woodturning, and together they carried his ideas of practical craftsmanship into the larger community. Students flocked to the school, and New Brunswick's budding craft tradition was born. Bill Crowell's work dovetailed with the growing fame of Erica and Kjeld Deichmann, and New Brunswick's crafts began to acquire an international reputation for excellence. The work which Dr. Crowell began, and from which he retired in 1969, today manifests itself as the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, unique in Canada in its mandate and in many ways the foundation upon which New Brunswick's craft industry has been built.
But with his second career behind him, he started afresh studying a craft that had long intrigued him but in which he had no experience. This was pewtering, and the more he learned the more determined he was to master the craft. Before he was finished, he had established a full-time professional pewtering studio, unique in Canada in its time, in which he trained upwards of forty pewterers from all over the continent. Martin Aitken was one of the many who went on to establish successful businesses and to gain international recognition.
Bill Crowell finally made a concession to the advancing years. He decided to give up pewtering, not because he had tired of it, but because it required long hours of standing at one machine or other. But as before, he had no intention of giving up crafts. Back in the 1950s, he had learned how to weave from one of the expert weavers he had hired for the Handicraft School. Adele Ilvis had taught him the rudiments, and now in the 1970s, anticipating an occupation in which he could sit and work for hours at a time, he built himself his own loom and started to weave. No longer interested in making money from his crafts, he found his niche in tapestries, especially ones which might be displayed in public buildings and from which a large public might derive pleasure. Relying on others for the designs, he learned how to transform their suggestions into brightly coloured images woven in wool, and within a short time, the fruits of his labours began appearing in museums and galleries, in city halls and schools, and in churches, hospitals and universities, UNB and St. Thomas among them. Many of the tapestries are collaborative efforts, based on drawing or paintings by notable artists such as Bruno Bobak, Tom Forrestall, and Marjorie Donaldson. His most recent collaboration with Gertrude Duffie not only carries on this tradition, but establishes a unique philanthropy in that all proceeds from their work goes into a trust in aid of students and the medically disabled.
Bill Crowell is obviously a phenomenally gifted and generous human being. He has been recognized for his achievements with the Order of Canada, the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal, Fredericton's Distinguished Citizen Award, and awards of honour from institutions he has served in his long and distinguished lifetime. The University of New Brunswick is proud to claim him as an alumnus, and is honored today to celebrate his many careers, his vital example, and his touching humanity.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
IVAN H. CROWELL
to be Doctor of Letters
"Bill" Crowell, as his friends call him, is a man who has refused to retire. Faced with the prospect on several occasions during his 92-year lifetime, he has simply switched careers and started all over again, and in at least four of these careers he has been an outstanding success.
He was born in Caledonia, Nova Scotia, in 1904, and grew up in Truro where he eventually went to Normal School expecting to become a teacher of what in those days was called manual training. After a brief teaching experience, he came to UNB to study forestry, and he graduated in 1929. Still interested in teaching, he pursued graduate studies in the United States, taking master's degrees and eventually a Ph.D. at Harvard University. It was while he was teaching botany at McGill University in Montreal that he began to drift back to his first love: he had always loved working with his hands, and more than this he loved showing others how to make crafts. His preoccupation of the moment was woodturning, and surrounded as he was by impecunious students, he soon began showing them how to make wooden bowls, plates, and salt and peppers -- eye catching pieces with functional and commercial value — which he encouraged them to sell.
It was with this already varied background that he came to New Brunswick at the end of the War and went to work developing the province's first handicraft school. In an old converted army hut on the grounds of the present-day Fredericton Exhibition, he brought in instructors in cabinetry, weaving, leather, metal crafts, and woodturning, and together they carried his ideas of practical craftsmanship into the larger community. Students flocked to the school, and New Brunswick's budding craft tradition was born. Bill Crowell's work dovetailed with the growing fame of Erica and Kjeld Deichmann, and New Brunswick's crafts began to acquire an international reputation for excellence. The work which Dr. Crowell began, and from which he retired in 1969, today manifests itself as the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, unique in Canada in its mandate and in many ways the foundation upon which New Brunswick's craft industry has been built.
But with his second career behind him, he started afresh studying a craft that had long intrigued him but in which he had no experience. This was pewtering, and the more he learned the more determined he was to master the craft. Before he was finished, he had established a full-time professional pewtering studio, unique in Canada in its time, in which he trained upwards of forty pewterers from all over the continent. Martin Aitken was one of the many who went on to establish successful businesses and to gain international recognition.
Bill Crowell finally made a concession to the advancing years. He decided to give up pewtering, not because he had tired of it, but because it required long hours of standing at one machine or other. But as before, he had no intention of giving up crafts. Back in the 1950s, he had learned how to weave from one of the expert weavers he had hired for the Handicraft School. Adele Ilvis had taught him the rudiments, and now in the 1970s, anticipating an occupation in which he could sit and work for hours at a time, he built himself his own loom and started to weave. No longer interested in making money from his crafts, he found his niche in tapestries, especially ones which might be displayed in public buildings and from which a large public might derive pleasure. Relying on others for the designs, he learned how to transform their suggestions into brightly coloured images woven in wool, and within a short time, the fruits of his labours began appearing in museums and galleries, in city halls and schools, and in churches, hospitals and universities, UNB and St. Thomas among them. Many of the tapestries are collaborative efforts, based on drawing or paintings by notable artists such as Bruno Bobak, Tom Forrestall, and Marjorie Donaldson. His most recent collaboration with Gertrude Duffie not only carries on this tradition, but establishes a unique philanthropy in that all proceeds from their work goes into a trust in aid of students and the medically disabled.
Bill Crowell is obviously a phenomenally gifted and generous human being. He has been recognized for his achievements with the Order of Canada, the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal, Fredericton's Distinguished Citizen Award, and awards of honour from institutions he has served in his long and distinguished lifetime. The University of New Brunswick is proud to claim him as an alumnus, and is honored today to celebrate his many careers, his vital example, and his touching humanity.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
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