Currie, Richard James

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1987
RICHARD JAMES CURRIE
to Be Doctor Of Laws

"Convocation" is the formal calling together of all members of the University. It is both a solemn and festive occasion during which we mark the achievements of those who have won distinction within our walls by the granting of "degrees in course" and the conferring of the high rank of "Professor Emeritus." It is also right and proper that at such a time we should look outside our walls for those who have done great things in the larger world, or those whose high spirits have been matched only by their generosity to this University.

Just as the University must always look "outwards", as well as inwards, Richard Currie is a man who has always looked "outwards." Born in Saint John some fifty years ago he has said that to him one special importance of his birthplace has been the fact that it is a seaport and "that kept me always looking outwards. Never feeling outwardly constrained I believe keeps one not feeling inwardly constrained."

A recent photograph of Mr. Currie identifies him as an "engineering businessman" and his early training as an engineer was begun at this University as a Lord Beaverbrook Scholar. Following the call of the sea he moved across the Bay of Fundy and graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia.

He spent the next six years as an engineer, particularly expert in food processing plant design and operation, before moving outwards once again through a Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard University. Fifteen short years ago he entered the business world as a Vice-President of Loblaws, and five years later in 1976 he was appointed President of a company which then found itself destitute -- in fact, unable to raise funds from any commercial source. Today it is the largest and most profitable food distribution business in Canada, employing over 30,000 people, and with a "world-class" reputation for its stores, its products and its computer systems for merchandising and control. In short the raising of this company from near-bankruptcy to preeminence in its field is the achievement of which Mr. Currie is, justly and rightly, most proud.

Still looking outwards this man is now the Vice-Chairman of the Food Marketing Institute based in Washington -- he is thus the first non-American to be an officer of the largest food association of the world. He is as well a Governor of the Olympic Trust of Canada and a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Western Ontario's outstanding School of Business Administration. In 1986 he was selected by the Financial Times as one the top ten executives in Canada.

Such extraordinary and remarkable successes mark a man who has not been afraid to face seemingly overwhelming challenges, and I believe today he is going to urge his fellow graduates to look outwards with the same confidence and determination.

Insignissime Praeses, amplissima Cancellaria, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Ricardum Jacobum Currie ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradem Doctoris in Utroque Jure in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2