1995 Fredericton Convocation
Dickson, David M.
Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1995
DAVID M. DICKSON
to be Doctor of Laws
David M. Dickson belongs in that group of accomplished persons whose achievements are to found in several fields. Best known as a longtime justice of the New Brunswick Supreme Court, he has also been a soldier, lawyer, politician, conservationist, and humanitarian. Yet a common thread runs through them all, and this is a set of liberal principles, tenaciously held, that have shaped his life and his work.
He was born in Fredericton, the son of a judge and great grandson of one of the famed builders of the province, Boss Gibson. He attended Fredericton High School and spent two years at UNB before enlisting in the Canadian Army in March 1940. He served in Europe for five years, participated in the D-Day invasion and the subsequent advance of the allied forces, until he was wounded in the Rhine crossing of late March 1945.
In the war's aftermath, he took up the law. He graduated from UNB's Law School in Saint John in 1947, studied for a year at the London School of Economics as a Beaverbrook Overseas Scholar, and then joined the Fredericton firm that soon bore his name, Winslow, Hughes, and Dickson. He built himself a house close to his old family homestead on Waterloo Row, and here he and his young English bride Lorna raised their two sons.
He also found time to pursue an interest in politics. He served for fifteen years as the secretary of the New Brunswick Liberal Association, and on three occasions he ran for the Liberals in the York-Sunbury constituency - the Liberal candidate who followed Milton Gregg. These were the Diefenbaker years, however, and slim pickings for a Liberal in central New Brunswick.
In December 1964, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, serving in the Trial Division until the court's reorganization, and then in the new Trial Division of the Court of Queen's Bench. He retired last year after nearly 30 years of service. Known and praised for his fairness and his strict adherence to principle, he won the respect of trial lawyers and the admiration of his fellow citizens. Fellow judges praised him not only for his decisions, but also for the lucidity and style with which he expressed them. Among his many notable accomplishments on the bench, he might justifiably be proudest of his stand on capital punishment; he forced Parliament to deal with the issue by refusing to let the politicians hide behind the courts rather than face their responsibility to resolve the issue once and for all. In another notable decision, he struck a blow against film censorship in New Brunswick.
Despite all of his many responsibilities to the Court and the numerous commissions and other judicial or semi-judicial bodies that have demanded his attention, he continued to have time for UNB and its law school. He served for three years on Senate, the pre-cursor of the Board of Governors, lectured in the bar admission course, and regularly judged the moot court competition. It is difficult to sum up a rich and varied career in a few words. Yet even the few should include a word about his love of the Atlantic salmon and even, perhaps, his less amorous adventure — indeed his dangerous encounter — with a camel in India. He planned to ride the camel, but the camel had other ideas. More seriously, the necessary few words that describe him must include the term courage. David Dickson shared the courage of those who volunteered to fight in the Second World War. More recently, it took similar courage for him to remind his comrades of the principles for which they fought, and of the need for toleration and accommodation in our changing Canadian society. His is the courage of civic consciousness, a concern for the public well-being that embraces things as widely separated as salmon conservation, human dignity, and justice.
David Dickson's life and work corresponded with a time in our history of rapid change and sweeping shifts in public attitudes. Through his work on the bench and in the larger community, he has helped us adjust our thinking while reminding us of what is fundamentally fair and just. The world is a better place because of people like him, and it is fitting that we at UNB recognize him for fulfilling the promise he showed as a young graduate of this institution.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
DAVID M. DICKSON
to be Doctor of Laws
David M. Dickson belongs in that group of accomplished persons whose achievements are to found in several fields. Best known as a longtime justice of the New Brunswick Supreme Court, he has also been a soldier, lawyer, politician, conservationist, and humanitarian. Yet a common thread runs through them all, and this is a set of liberal principles, tenaciously held, that have shaped his life and his work.
He was born in Fredericton, the son of a judge and great grandson of one of the famed builders of the province, Boss Gibson. He attended Fredericton High School and spent two years at UNB before enlisting in the Canadian Army in March 1940. He served in Europe for five years, participated in the D-Day invasion and the subsequent advance of the allied forces, until he was wounded in the Rhine crossing of late March 1945.
In the war's aftermath, he took up the law. He graduated from UNB's Law School in Saint John in 1947, studied for a year at the London School of Economics as a Beaverbrook Overseas Scholar, and then joined the Fredericton firm that soon bore his name, Winslow, Hughes, and Dickson. He built himself a house close to his old family homestead on Waterloo Row, and here he and his young English bride Lorna raised their two sons.
He also found time to pursue an interest in politics. He served for fifteen years as the secretary of the New Brunswick Liberal Association, and on three occasions he ran for the Liberals in the York-Sunbury constituency - the Liberal candidate who followed Milton Gregg. These were the Diefenbaker years, however, and slim pickings for a Liberal in central New Brunswick.
In December 1964, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, serving in the Trial Division until the court's reorganization, and then in the new Trial Division of the Court of Queen's Bench. He retired last year after nearly 30 years of service. Known and praised for his fairness and his strict adherence to principle, he won the respect of trial lawyers and the admiration of his fellow citizens. Fellow judges praised him not only for his decisions, but also for the lucidity and style with which he expressed them. Among his many notable accomplishments on the bench, he might justifiably be proudest of his stand on capital punishment; he forced Parliament to deal with the issue by refusing to let the politicians hide behind the courts rather than face their responsibility to resolve the issue once and for all. In another notable decision, he struck a blow against film censorship in New Brunswick.
Despite all of his many responsibilities to the Court and the numerous commissions and other judicial or semi-judicial bodies that have demanded his attention, he continued to have time for UNB and its law school. He served for three years on Senate, the pre-cursor of the Board of Governors, lectured in the bar admission course, and regularly judged the moot court competition. It is difficult to sum up a rich and varied career in a few words. Yet even the few should include a word about his love of the Atlantic salmon and even, perhaps, his less amorous adventure — indeed his dangerous encounter — with a camel in India. He planned to ride the camel, but the camel had other ideas. More seriously, the necessary few words that describe him must include the term courage. David Dickson shared the courage of those who volunteered to fight in the Second World War. More recently, it took similar courage for him to remind his comrades of the principles for which they fought, and of the need for toleration and accommodation in our changing Canadian society. His is the courage of civic consciousness, a concern for the public well-being that embraces things as widely separated as salmon conservation, human dignity, and justice.
David Dickson's life and work corresponded with a time in our history of rapid change and sweeping shifts in public attitudes. Through his work on the bench and in the larger community, he has helped us adjust our thinking while reminding us of what is fundamentally fair and just. The world is a better place because of people like him, and it is fitting that we at UNB recognize him for fulfilling the promise he showed as a young graduate of this institution.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
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