Macaulay, Althea Adair Warren

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1990
ALTHEA MACAULAY
to be Doctor of Laws

A university draws its vitality, its inspiration, and its very reason for being from its students. And when its graduates turn out to be its supporters, its ambassadors, and its friends for life, the university is doubly blessed. Althea Macaulay has been all of these things to the University of New Brunswick.

After receiving her early education in Moncton, Allie Warren, as her friends knew her, enrolled in the Arts Faculty at UNB where she excelled in Latin, mathematics, and biology; joined the Science Club; and ultimately took her bachelor's degree. Fellow students believed that she would become a teacher, and this she eventually did at the highest level. She prepared by taking a master's degree in biology at Clark University, by working as a research assistant at McGill University and Harvard Medical School, and finally by qualifying for the Ph. D. at the University of Toronto. After a year at the University of London as a Beaverbrook scholar and postdoctoral fellow, she returned to Fredericton to teach animal physiology at her Alma Mater which she continued to do for ten years.

The tiny Biology Department of her day made its home on the top floor of the Old Arts Building and in discarded army huts of World War II vintage, and it was here that she introduced students to the wonders of biology and the idiosyncrasies of the microscope. Her standards were demanding, both for herself and for her students. But apart from her teaching, it was during these years of the 1930s that she became part of that little informal network of University people who, in another context, would be called the diplomatic corps. They are the friends who are always there when needed, there even when somebody forgets to ask, people who see a job that needs doing and do it, whether it is to offer impromptu hospitality to university visitors or to present a friendly face to the world beyond our gates. With Edie MacLeod, UNB's legendary registrar, she entertained with Scottish generosity at their little home, The Sheiling, plying delicious food like their famous Encaenial ham, and topping it off with songs and stories.

Then, already of the University as both student and teacher, she tightened the knot, so to speak, by marrying its one-time business manager and first vice-president (administration), Bev Macaulay. While the focus of her life now shifted to her family, Althea Macaulay determined that she would continue to make time for the University and the organizations which support it. She became active in both the Alumnae and Alumni associations, serving for years on their executives and in due course as president of the Associated Alumnae and secretary of the Associated Alumni. She also served as alumnae representative on the University's Board of Governors and Senate. Beyond the University, she has been equally generous in her support of worthwhile endeavors, including her active leadership role within the Girl Guides of Canada.

For fifty years, Althea Macaulay has given of her time and talents to this University, earning the respect of generations of our students, graduates, and friends, and establishing standards of loyalty and commitment seldom matched. Our purpose here today is to say a simple but deeply felt “Thank You” to one of our own. We do so with this, the University’s highest honour.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2