1963 Fredericton Encaenia

Creelman, Lyle Morrison

Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)

Orator: Cattley, Robert E.D.

Image
Image Caption
L to R: Colin B. Mackay, Lyle Morrison Creelman
Second Image Caption
Source: UA PC-4 no.11j; Photo by Harvey Studios

Citation:

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1963
LYLE MORRISON CREELMAN
to be Doctor of Laws

The School of Nursing can be proud that this, its first graduating class, will be receiving their degrees in the presence of so admirable a member of their profession. Let these young women mark well the career of Lyle Creelman.

She was born on a Nova Scotia farm, went to the local school, and by three years teaching financed her first Nursing degree. A post-graduate fellowship equipped her to specialize in her chosen field, the supervision and administration of public health. Today she is in her fifteenth year with the World Health Organization and in her
tenth as Head of its Nursing Services.

What are the qualities that fit her for this terrifyingly responsible position?

First comes abundant good health. This (will our young nurses please note!) she maintains by walking, cycling and (her headquarters being Geneva), report goes, by mountaineering. An automobile is not mentioned in the close-printed listing of her career.

Second comes the sharp, incisive mind -- she can make decisions quickly, weighing both sides of a problem with sound judgment.

She has, thirdly, an inquisitive spirit and a retentive memory for names, faces and factual data. To supplement this remarkable organ she has made herself into an expert photographer.

But God has blessed his servant with a greater blessing -- the love of people, without which her other gifts would avail nothing.

Such as she are the human instruments wherewith a Fulbright would shape the purpose of his country's foreign policy; which is, in the noble Senator's own words, "the very gradual improvement of human life on earth" -- with no "consuming Messianism".

There is nothing Messianic about Lyle Creelman. But she is a leader in an organization which is struggling to fulfill that most urgent of all injunctions: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils."

May she, from this day forth, lack not for Canadian followers!

From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.

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