Enders, Thomas Ostrum

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1987
THOMAS OSTRUM ENDERS
to be Doctor of Laws

Relations between Canada and our great neighbor to the South are always what an ancient Chinese proverb would describe as “interesting.” But this a particularly “interesting” time in our mutual affairs, and it is thus a particularly propitious time for us to honour an American who has described himself “as an old and committed friend of things Canadian.”

In 1970 Thomas Enders received the Arthur S. Fleming award as one of the ten outstanding young men in the federal government of the United State. His career since then has amply fulfilled such great expectations. A brilliant student, he graduated in 1953, first in his class from Yale University, and his future academic progress has been marked by master’s degrees from the University of Paris and Harvard University.

In 968 he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State from Internal Monetary Affairs. He next served as Chief of Mission in Cambodia before returning to the State Department in 1974 as Assistant Secretary of State for Economics and Business Affairs. From 1976 to 1979 he was the distinguished Ambassador of the United States to Canada, and from 1979 to 1981 he was U.S. Ambassador to the European Communities. He next served as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, and ended – for the time being – his diplomatic career as Ambassador to Spain from 1983-1986. He is now a Managing Director of Salomon Brothers in the field of International Corporate Finance. I have ventured upon this roll call of posts and responsibilities as a testimonial to the high merit of this man, who has dedicated so much of his life to the service of his country and the international community.

It is right and proper that we honour this eminent public servant today, for he himself has said that his period as Ambassador to Canada was one of great personal gratification. He has gone on to say that often affairs of state are abstract and seem to have little to do with real human beings, but that during his embassy to us he dealt with questions of water and environment, energy and emigration, money and the military, trade, tariffs, and education, and a thousand other matters which directly affected the lives of enormous numbers of people on both sides of our famous border. In helping to solve these myriad problems, which touch so many of our citizens, he found a deep and enduring satisfaction.

Thomas Enders is a man with an excellent education and a remarkably perspicacious mind who was excited and challenged by the fact that he often found in Canada “a set of different solutions to similar and familiar problems.” This situation greatly interested him and it is such men as he who are needed at this crucial juncture in the economic affairs of our countries – intelligent and dispassionate men of unbiased vision and unquestionable integrity and expertise who will seek for and find a just and equitable balance of the legitimate, but sometimes conflicting, aims and aspirations of our two sovereign states. In Thomas Enders we have such a man, and today we signal our respect and admiration for his past achievements and his present eminence, n the sure and certain hope that he will continue as Canada’s friend in high places.

Insignissime Praeses, amplissima Cancellaria, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Thomas Ostrum Enders ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Utroque Jure in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box