1964 Fredericton Encaenia
Kelsey, Frances Kathleen Oldham
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)
Orator: Cattley, Robert E.D.
Citation:
ENCAENIA, MAY, 1964
FRANCES KATHLEEN OLDHAM KELSEY
to be Doctor of Science
The mothers of America, the mothers of the world, will long bless Frances Kelsey, who banned from sale the deadly drug thalidomide -- the miracle woman who lifted from their pregnancies the nightmare of paralysis, stunted growth and deformity. For this in 1962 the late President Kennedy bestowed on her his nation's highest award for Federal Civilian Service. For this and for her "steadfast confidence in her professional decision" she received last October at McGill the Gold Medal of the Graduates' Society of her Alma Mater.
In paying our own tribute we have in mind not only her scientist's clear-sighted caution, not only the courageous and lonely stand of a newly appointed civil servant against the sinister pressures of bureaucracy and commerce, but also the woman, human, lovable, and endowed with all the contradictions of her sex.
First we see Frances Oldham the undergraduate, harumscarum and disorganized in all but her work. We see next Frances Kelsey, the wife and working mother, happily interspersing bottles and diapers with her medical training. Next the interne, who could a tale (hilarious) unfold of emergencies in the delivery room. Then the family cook, long on science in the lab. but short, to the point of indigestion, in the kitchen; the housewife despising housework and admitting with disarming candour that she would far rather read and play tennis. Next the all-feminine Kelsey, hater of hats (which she is prone to leave on 'planes) and as low-heeled, straight-haired, tweedy, dog-loving, and British as her native province -- in fact, a shatterer of the "feminine mystique" who would delight the heart of a
Betty Friedan.
Finally, confronting us we see the mature Frances Kelsey, soignée and incomparable, young in spirit and old only in wisdom, whose sense of humour is ever rich but whose way with fools is hard, a Frances Kelsey who (to quote an old friend) "remains, in spite of all the honours showered upon her, the same modest and unaffected creature who came from Cobble Hill, B.C. to enter McGill".
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
FRANCES KATHLEEN OLDHAM KELSEY
to be Doctor of Science
The mothers of America, the mothers of the world, will long bless Frances Kelsey, who banned from sale the deadly drug thalidomide -- the miracle woman who lifted from their pregnancies the nightmare of paralysis, stunted growth and deformity. For this in 1962 the late President Kennedy bestowed on her his nation's highest award for Federal Civilian Service. For this and for her "steadfast confidence in her professional decision" she received last October at McGill the Gold Medal of the Graduates' Society of her Alma Mater.
In paying our own tribute we have in mind not only her scientist's clear-sighted caution, not only the courageous and lonely stand of a newly appointed civil servant against the sinister pressures of bureaucracy and commerce, but also the woman, human, lovable, and endowed with all the contradictions of her sex.
First we see Frances Oldham the undergraduate, harumscarum and disorganized in all but her work. We see next Frances Kelsey, the wife and working mother, happily interspersing bottles and diapers with her medical training. Next the interne, who could a tale (hilarious) unfold of emergencies in the delivery room. Then the family cook, long on science in the lab. but short, to the point of indigestion, in the kitchen; the housewife despising housework and admitting with disarming candour that she would far rather read and play tennis. Next the all-feminine Kelsey, hater of hats (which she is prone to leave on 'planes) and as low-heeled, straight-haired, tweedy, dog-loving, and British as her native province -- in fact, a shatterer of the "feminine mystique" who would delight the heart of a
Betty Friedan.
Finally, confronting us we see the mature Frances Kelsey, soignée and incomparable, young in spirit and old only in wisdom, whose sense of humour is ever rich but whose way with fools is hard, a Frances Kelsey who (to quote an old friend) "remains, in spite of all the honours showered upon her, the same modest and unaffected creature who came from Cobble Hill, B.C. to enter McGill".
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
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