Bird, Wallace Samuel

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1968
WALLACE SAMUEL BIRD
to be Doctor of Laws

The elevation of a citizen to the high office of representative of the Crown is always of major interest to all the people of New Brunswick, but to the University community of Fredericton it is of special consequence. Preserving a usage of over a century, our recent University Act of 1967 constitutes the lieutenant-governor as Visitor on behalf of Her Majesty. We are of no private foundation for we boast an official connection with the government and people of this province from the beginning years of its history. The Visitatorial Power, which is of late medieval origin, entitles the holder to enquire into abuses and irregularities in the management of the University. In our welcome to His Honour we trust that he will be careful in his observations but tolerant in his conclusions.

Wallace Samuel Bird is a man who has risen to the highest post in the province by virtue of his own exertions and enterprise, the youngest man since Confederation to fill the gubernatorial office. Up from the ranks of industry, he entered the executive branch of the construction business in 1946, displaying the flair and zest for expansion and development that five years later made him the executive vice-president of a great national organization. We know him best for an armament of brightly coloured juggernauts that have modernized our roads and swept them clean in the winter season. Yet this major role he has played in our provincial life has been but incidental to the whole scope of his activities. He has been called to national and international councils. As a former chairman of the New Brunswick Development Corporation he has served on the topmost rung of the planning structure by which, we all hope, the prosperity of the province can be made the equivalent of the nation's. His native abilities have more and more projected him into the mysterious but increasingly important area of liaison between industry and government.

His Honour is widely known for his recreations as well as for his business activities. Like many native New Brunswickers he hunts and fishes, golfs and curls. Less widely known is his recent development of an ancestral retreat near Birdton in the back reaches of the parish of Douglas where his forbears settled generations ago to evade the floods of the St. John River. There he cultivates a tree farm and nourishes a pheasant reserve. These are the vocations of a retired man but retirement is not yet for him. A novel industrial enterprise is in the making. A pond, converted to a lake, supports a numerous trout population. To keep the trout alive through the hard New Brunswick winter he pumps air into the lake by the power of a windmill. If all else fails we may yet see the piscine population of our rivers revived by the renovation of this ancient device, much to the mortification of all atomic and electrical authorities. A line of windmills along the St. John could be more spectacular than Mactaquac or Beechwood, a sure allure for tourists.

It is our very great privilege today to honour this man of Marysville, one who has lived and worked among us to the great well-being of the entire New Brunswick community.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 1