1992 Fredericton Convocation
Ryan, William F.
Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1992
WILLIAM F. RYAN
to be Doctor of Civil Law
On the occasion of this, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the UNB Faculty of Law, there is no person living today more deserving of recognition for his contribution to its development than the Honourable William F. Ryan. He cannot be considered a founder, strictly speaking, since the institution originated in 1892, and for the better part of 60 years, it was a professional school located in the City of Saint John staffed on a part-time basis by practicing lawyers. Then in the 1950s, following the lead of law schools elsewhere in Canada, it underwent the most sweeping change in its history. It became fully integrated into the University, staffed by full-time professional teachers, committed to collegiate responsibilities in pedagogy, administration, and scholarship. William Ryan was part of this sea-change, and while he himself would reject any suggestion that it was he who brought it about, it must be said that with George MacAllister and Gerard La Forest, the other first full-time professors in the school, he was both a dynamic contributor to and a driving force behind the transition. His objective was to make the UNB Law School a significant if middle-sized player among the emerging law schools of the country. The testimony of others across the land attests to the full realization of this goal.
He was born in Saint John with a proud Irish heritage. Here he graduated from St. Vincent's Boys High School before setting off to Fredericton to take his B.A. in political science and history at UNB, where he won the Governor General's Gold Medal as the class leader in Arts. He then studied law, taking his BCL at the UNB school in Saint John and his Master's degree at the Columbia University School of Law in New York City. He was appointed to teach in the UNB Law School in 1950, and by 1956 he became the first dean of what by then was a small but growing faculty. It was in the 15 critical years of his deanship that the great transformation occurred. The school moved from building to building and from Saint John to Fredericton where it finally found a new home in a new structure on the Fredericton campus. Ludlow Hall was Bill Ryan's project; its construction, one of proudest achievements.
But while what we may describe here in physical terms - the growth, the construction, the moves - may symbolize the dynamic coming of age of UNB's Law Faculty, the more fundamental, the more strikingly meaningful, change was occurring simultaneously in the classroom. For it was here that the Law was becoming an academic discipline. It was a practical discipline, to be sure, but it now possessed the structure and the rigor of a formal method of inquiry and of learning. Truths were there not simply to be memorized but to be questioned and analysed. And if anyone epitomized this pedagogical metamorphosis, it was surely Dean Ryan. According to his students, the classroom transformed him. Habitually a quiet, modest, rather retiring man, in the classroom he became a giant: dynamic, challenging, often entertaining, and always dedicated to the proposition that if it is worth telling at all, it is worth telling well. Asked about this in later years by one of his students, he confessed: "I'd like to be remembered as a teacher." Many of Dean Ryan's former students are here today and they indeed remember him not only as a teacher but as one of their favourite teachers.
There was, of course, another brilliant career awaiting William Ryan after his deanship. For three years a member of the Law Reform Commission of Canada, he was ultimately appointed a Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada where he served with distinction until his retirement.
Today's honorary degree is only one among many honours bestowed upon this quiet yet remarkable New Brunswicker. But for us at UNB, this 100th anniversary of UNB's Law Faculty presents us with an opportunity not to be missed to salute one of the Faculty's great teachers, a colleague, and friend.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
WILLIAM F. RYAN
to be Doctor of Civil Law
On the occasion of this, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the UNB Faculty of Law, there is no person living today more deserving of recognition for his contribution to its development than the Honourable William F. Ryan. He cannot be considered a founder, strictly speaking, since the institution originated in 1892, and for the better part of 60 years, it was a professional school located in the City of Saint John staffed on a part-time basis by practicing lawyers. Then in the 1950s, following the lead of law schools elsewhere in Canada, it underwent the most sweeping change in its history. It became fully integrated into the University, staffed by full-time professional teachers, committed to collegiate responsibilities in pedagogy, administration, and scholarship. William Ryan was part of this sea-change, and while he himself would reject any suggestion that it was he who brought it about, it must be said that with George MacAllister and Gerard La Forest, the other first full-time professors in the school, he was both a dynamic contributor to and a driving force behind the transition. His objective was to make the UNB Law School a significant if middle-sized player among the emerging law schools of the country. The testimony of others across the land attests to the full realization of this goal.
He was born in Saint John with a proud Irish heritage. Here he graduated from St. Vincent's Boys High School before setting off to Fredericton to take his B.A. in political science and history at UNB, where he won the Governor General's Gold Medal as the class leader in Arts. He then studied law, taking his BCL at the UNB school in Saint John and his Master's degree at the Columbia University School of Law in New York City. He was appointed to teach in the UNB Law School in 1950, and by 1956 he became the first dean of what by then was a small but growing faculty. It was in the 15 critical years of his deanship that the great transformation occurred. The school moved from building to building and from Saint John to Fredericton where it finally found a new home in a new structure on the Fredericton campus. Ludlow Hall was Bill Ryan's project; its construction, one of proudest achievements.
But while what we may describe here in physical terms - the growth, the construction, the moves - may symbolize the dynamic coming of age of UNB's Law Faculty, the more fundamental, the more strikingly meaningful, change was occurring simultaneously in the classroom. For it was here that the Law was becoming an academic discipline. It was a practical discipline, to be sure, but it now possessed the structure and the rigor of a formal method of inquiry and of learning. Truths were there not simply to be memorized but to be questioned and analysed. And if anyone epitomized this pedagogical metamorphosis, it was surely Dean Ryan. According to his students, the classroom transformed him. Habitually a quiet, modest, rather retiring man, in the classroom he became a giant: dynamic, challenging, often entertaining, and always dedicated to the proposition that if it is worth telling at all, it is worth telling well. Asked about this in later years by one of his students, he confessed: "I'd like to be remembered as a teacher." Many of Dean Ryan's former students are here today and they indeed remember him not only as a teacher but as one of their favourite teachers.
There was, of course, another brilliant career awaiting William Ryan after his deanship. For three years a member of the Law Reform Commission of Canada, he was ultimately appointed a Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada where he served with distinction until his retirement.
Today's honorary degree is only one among many honours bestowed upon this quiet yet remarkable New Brunswicker. But for us at UNB, this 100th anniversary of UNB's Law Faculty presents us with an opportunity not to be missed to salute one of the Faculty's great teachers, a colleague, and friend.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
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