1961 Fredericton Encaenia
Fisher, Kenneth Clarke
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)
Orator: Cattley, Robert E.D.
Image
Image Caption
L to R: Colin B. Mackay, Kenneth Clarke Fisher
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Source: UA PC-4 no.9(35); Photo by Joe Stone
Citation:
ENCAENIA, MAY, 1961
KENNETH CLARKE FISHER
to be Doctor of Science
Kenneth Clarke Fisher, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is one of two leading scientists whom we are this afternoon to honour.
We are proud that he is a Maritimer, prouder of course, that he hails from Saint John. But, to placate Nemesis, the superlative must be resolutely deferred until our own University hood is duly and firmly about his neck and he joins the U.N.B. Class of '61.
Dr. Fisher heads the Department of Zoology in Toronto University. Of all the sciences Biology would seem to make the greatest demands on her devotees, for she deals with problems containing (like the Queen of Hearts' croquet match) a host of variables. As a zoologist Dr. Fisher has contributed widely to the study of animal behaviour in
seals and lemmings, and his researches range from hibernation to the metabolic properties of fish eggs. He should, therefore, be amply equipped to deal with those nonscientific problems of life which literally bristle with variables. Three such are outstanding and are, in ascending order of perplexity, Administration, Ice cream, and Marriage.
I can dismiss the first two summarily: Dr. Fisher would not be head of a great department in a great University if he could not administer. With regard to ice cream I have it on inside authority that he is capable of negotiating the 28 famous varieties, his only regret being that he cannot negotiate all twenty-eight at once.
Marriage presents the sterner challenge; but that, too, he is negotiating with a zoologist's aplomb. Woman, as is generally admitted, is a biological problem and her variables are past computing. What results, then, from the mating of a Biologist (male) with a Biochemist (female)? The answer (which could doubtless be stated in a scientific formula) is happiness and children. But Mother Nature, who is apt to transcend formulae, would indicate that they were simply two splendid specimens made for one another. If Mother Nature is right -- and one glance at the male component of the union tends to confirm her -- his partner must be, in the Poet's unscientific formula, "a lass unparalleled" and neither Custom nor Chemistry "can stale her infinite variety".
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
KENNETH CLARKE FISHER
to be Doctor of Science
Kenneth Clarke Fisher, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is one of two leading scientists whom we are this afternoon to honour.
We are proud that he is a Maritimer, prouder of course, that he hails from Saint John. But, to placate Nemesis, the superlative must be resolutely deferred until our own University hood is duly and firmly about his neck and he joins the U.N.B. Class of '61.
Dr. Fisher heads the Department of Zoology in Toronto University. Of all the sciences Biology would seem to make the greatest demands on her devotees, for she deals with problems containing (like the Queen of Hearts' croquet match) a host of variables. As a zoologist Dr. Fisher has contributed widely to the study of animal behaviour in
seals and lemmings, and his researches range from hibernation to the metabolic properties of fish eggs. He should, therefore, be amply equipped to deal with those nonscientific problems of life which literally bristle with variables. Three such are outstanding and are, in ascending order of perplexity, Administration, Ice cream, and Marriage.
I can dismiss the first two summarily: Dr. Fisher would not be head of a great department in a great University if he could not administer. With regard to ice cream I have it on inside authority that he is capable of negotiating the 28 famous varieties, his only regret being that he cannot negotiate all twenty-eight at once.
Marriage presents the sterner challenge; but that, too, he is negotiating with a zoologist's aplomb. Woman, as is generally admitted, is a biological problem and her variables are past computing. What results, then, from the mating of a Biologist (male) with a Biochemist (female)? The answer (which could doubtless be stated in a scientific formula) is happiness and children. But Mother Nature, who is apt to transcend formulae, would indicate that they were simply two splendid specimens made for one another. If Mother Nature is right -- and one glance at the male component of the union tends to confirm her -- his partner must be, in the Poet's unscientific formula, "a lass unparalleled" and neither Custom nor Chemistry "can stale her infinite variety".
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
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