1988 Saint John Convocation
Graduation Address
Delivered by: Logan, Rodman Emmason
Content
"UNBSJ graduates told to face up to challenges of the world" Telegraph-Journal (22 October 1988). (UA Case 69, Box 3)
The challenges faced by today’s graduates are more complex and greater than he faced as a graduate in the 1950s, Mr. Justice Rodman Emmason Logan said at the seventh fall convocation of the University of New Brunswick in Saint John.
Logan told the 30 new graduates of the challenges he had faced, from those of education and athletic competition during his scholastic career to those he had faced in his first career in the military. When he graduated, the Second World War was in progress and Logan joined the Carleton and York Regiment.
"The first challenge I had to face in the war was fear," he told the graduates. He told of the first time he had to lead his men into battle, and of the challenge later when he was put in charge of the flame throwers.
After the war, he faced challenges as a lawyer and then, having become a politician, the challenges of 20 years in the provincial legislature, both as a government minister and as an opposition member.
The challenges he faces today are those of making decisions that effect others, he said. Logan is currently a Justice in the Court of Queen’s Bench, assigned to the family court division in Saint John.
"Today," he told the graduates, "you face other challenges. The world itself is a challenge."
He advised them to be prepared to face the challenges all around them and to "face up to the responsibility to solve today’s myriad problems."
Some of the challenges they and those around them must face, he said, are drugs and alcohol, problems of the environment and illiteracy. "Could it be," he said of the latter, "that the educational system bored young people, inspires them to drop out of school? We must make them want to learn.
"It is now your responsibility," he told the new graduates, "to do what is right and just and proper. If you do things that are honest, right, proper, just and true, you will never go astray," he said.
He advised them to get involved in volunteer organizations to help their fellow man. "Government can’t do everything for everybody all the time," he said, commenting that recently "volunteerism has fallen by the wayside and that is a sad reflection on our society."
As new graduates, he said, "you are now better equipped to overcome these challenges than ever before."
The challenges faced by today’s graduates are more complex and greater than he faced as a graduate in the 1950s, Mr. Justice Rodman Emmason Logan said at the seventh fall convocation of the University of New Brunswick in Saint John.
Logan told the 30 new graduates of the challenges he had faced, from those of education and athletic competition during his scholastic career to those he had faced in his first career in the military. When he graduated, the Second World War was in progress and Logan joined the Carleton and York Regiment.
"The first challenge I had to face in the war was fear," he told the graduates. He told of the first time he had to lead his men into battle, and of the challenge later when he was put in charge of the flame throwers.
After the war, he faced challenges as a lawyer and then, having become a politician, the challenges of 20 years in the provincial legislature, both as a government minister and as an opposition member.
The challenges he faces today are those of making decisions that effect others, he said. Logan is currently a Justice in the Court of Queen’s Bench, assigned to the family court division in Saint John.
"Today," he told the graduates, "you face other challenges. The world itself is a challenge."
He advised them to be prepared to face the challenges all around them and to "face up to the responsibility to solve today’s myriad problems."
Some of the challenges they and those around them must face, he said, are drugs and alcohol, problems of the environment and illiteracy. "Could it be," he said of the latter, "that the educational system bored young people, inspires them to drop out of school? We must make them want to learn.
"It is now your responsibility," he told the new graduates, "to do what is right and just and proper. If you do things that are honest, right, proper, just and true, you will never go astray," he said.
He advised them to get involved in volunteer organizations to help their fellow man. "Government can’t do everything for everybody all the time," he said, commenting that recently "volunteerism has fallen by the wayside and that is a sad reflection on our society."
As new graduates, he said, "you are now better equipped to overcome these challenges than ever before."
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