Graduation Address

"Mr. Winters' Remarks to UNB Graduating Class" Daily Gleaner (15 May 1954). (UA Case 67, Box 2)

President Mackay, distinguished guests, fellow engineers and other members of the graduating class:

It’s a privilege to be with you here today. I am deeply appreciative of the honor that has been conferred upon me by the University of New Brunswick this afternoon. It is a humbling, but deeply satisfying experience to serve one’s fellow citizens; and the knowledge that the Board of Governors, or at any rate a majority of them, considered that such service merits this expression of approval, tempers one’s whole attitude towards the administration of public affairs.

I presume, Mr. President, that when you and your Board consider candidates for honorary degrees, there is a full and frank discussion of qualifications. It must have been necessary to mention at some stage that I attended Mount Allison University, rather than the University of New Brunswick; and that being the case, I wish to commend you and your colleagues for your broadmindedness and tolerance, in accepting me amongst you today.

Although it didn’t fall to my lot to attend this outstanding seat of learning as a student, I have been familiar with your activities for many years. It took me a long time to remove from my mind the memory of your bone-crushing athletic teams. But once I did, I was able to appreciate your finer side.

This University, just as all others, is composed of human beings – men and women – and you have the distinction here of having had associated with your long and honorable history, some of the finest people in Canada.

I know there are many prominent names passing through your minds at this very moment, but I will mention only two, who happen to be former presidents, and with whom I have had close and enriching association. One is my colleague, the Honorable Milton Gregg, VC, a man who has given great and varied public service to Canada as a soldier, educationalist and statesman. He now represents New Brunswick in the Government of Canada. The other is Dr. Albert Trueman, who came to Ottawa on my invitation to be Government Film Commissioner. In addition to your people, I have had an opportunity of experiencing some of your splendid work. For example, when I was Minister of Resources and Development, and responsible for the administration of the Canada Forestry Act, I developed the highest regard for your work in forestry. In this field alone, you have developed some of the Continent’s most outstanding experts and have made a substantial contribution to the welfare of Canada.

This is a day when our thought dwell more with you – the members of the graduating class – that they do, perhaps, with the institution from which you graduated. But I do wish to say a word about the role of the university, particularly here in the Maritimes, where it has not been an easy one.

It is common practice, you know, for students to say that they graduated from such-and-such a university. There are campuses where it is customary to use a more passive term, and say – I was graduated. In many ways this has much to commend it; for implied in that expression is the hard work and heartaches of your president, the faculty, and all those others responsible for putting this institution at your disposal. I know that in the days that lie ahead, you will reflect more and more in your minds upon the sacrifices made here on your behalf.

The administration of a university here in the Atlantic Provinces is difficult. There are a multitude of problems. For example the fees you have paid, while they may seem high to you or those who had to earn them for you, are not large enough to cover the expenses of operation. Most universities must seek outside financial assistance. That’s why the Provincial Government has found it necessary to make grants; and that’s why, too, Parliament authorized the Federal Government to contribute to universities across Canada an amount equal to fifty cents for every man, woman and child in the country. I say this to indicate the importance attached to education and the sacrifices made on all sides to enable us to attain it.

For the graduating class these university problems seem already to be a long way back in memory. For all of you this is a time for different thoughts and emotions. But for some of us here today this is a special occasion indeed. It is the centenary year of the Faculty of Engineering at UNB. That’s why we engineers are smiling a little more boastfully than the rest of you, and carrying our chins just a little bit higher.

I was once an electrical engineer, but even in the spirit of the moment, Mr. President, I’m sure it would be a mistake for me to interpret as more than just coincidence the fact that UNB conferred its first degree in Electrical Engineering in 1910 – the year in which I was born. I can’t believe there was a conscious effort to commemorate that event.

I hope that the rest of you will bear with us if we engineers commune together from time to time during my brief remarks. But before proceeding further, I wish to congratulate particularly your Faculty of Engineering, and those of you who today, are graduating as engineers. When UNB started teaching engineering it was, I believe, the first university in Canada to do so. In fact there were very few – not more that six in the United States at the time. You, therefore, carry with you today the benefit of a fine record and a proud tradition that has made UNB engineers sought after and respected across the country.

Now I don’t want to have anyone think that I have any great amount of wisdom to impart here today. It’s not so long, Mr. President, since you and I were sitting with student bodies…You have succeeded I know, but its unreasonable to expect a politician to accumulate sufficient knowledge in such a short period of time to be able to impart it, with confidence, to other people.

But in my shot life in business, in the army, and in public service, I have learned this: a degree received upon graduation is not the end of education.

It is inevitable that college students, with four years of hard work behind you and a degree in your hands, should say to yourselves, “I am now educated and ready to face the world.” Well, it’s a great thing to have that confidence. That’s as it should be, and I commend you for it. But I do want to impress upon you today the realization that you are only now embarking upon a more arduous, exacting, difficult and prolonged period of study and education than the one you have passed through. And what’s more, the tests are tougher. This will no longer be a matter of sitting at an examination desk and trying to put on paper how much you have been able to retain in your own mind or perhaps on occasion read over the shoulder of your neighbor. The examinations from now on will be the tests of life itself: the tests of whether you can support yourselves and your families, get along amicably with your friends and neighbors, contribute to the betterment of society, and generally conduct yourselves in such a manner that when inevitably, the final day of Judgment comes, people will say – "This was a better Canada, because he or she lived in it."

Now you may say – "Those words present a challenge – what do I do to prepare myself for that challenge." You may add that "I’m a competent mathematician," or perhaps a dietitian – and will ask how a mathematician or dietitian fits into this picture. These are just examples. One could take as many as there are fields of education. The point I wish to make is that simply because you studied to be a mathematician or a dietitian, is no reason why you should rigidly close your mind to the thought of being anything else but a mathematician or a dietitian.

It is unreasonable to expect that people as young as you could have sufficient association with enough phases of life to satisfy yourselves in all instances as to what your proper role is to be. The answer then, is to remain flexible. Don’t be too rigid in your approach to the future. This is a changing world. At not time in our history has change been more rapid and if we are to play our part we must change with it. The whole tempo of life has increased and will continue to increase. Development’s are crowding upon developments; rates of obsolescene have quickened; the atomic age is upon is; the A-bomb, the H-bomb, and others are still to come, with their tremendous implications, have called for us to make a complete re-appraisal of our thinking as individuals and as a nation.

Canada – probably more than any other country – has reason to look forward to a bright future of continued growth and progress, based upon our vast store of natural resources, to be developed for the benefit of Canadians and mankind generally. You have heard about the tremendous projects in this country – Kitimat – Seven Inlands – Lynn Lake – Yellowknife – Steep Rock – our enormous iron ore reserves and base metal deposits – and many others. You are the people who will develop these and many more will derive the benefits from them. But the wealth and well-being, such as ours today, carry with them the responsibility of our having concern for others less fortunate.

Canada’s growth to the full stature of a sovereign nation has been a development in which the members of the engineering profession have played and important part. We engineers can boast of a proud record in the service of Canada. We have attained the position we hold because of the full partnership and cooperation of every branch of education – the arts, humanities, social sciences, education itself, the legal and medical professions, science and the studies dealing with the techniques and procedures of business, commerce and industry.

The role of the engineer is completely integrated with the whole picture of Canadian development and utilization of our resources. It would not be amiss, therefore, to say that past accomplishments leading up to our present state of development are due, in very large measure to engineering genius for bridging the gap between the scientist’s discoveries and our citizen’s material needs. If the major projects that have been planned or will become necessary within the next 15 or 20 years are completed – then we may look back upon what will surely be an even more impressive picture of the role of the engineer in the development of Canada’s natural resources.

I naturally feel kinship with those of you whose slide-rules, T-squares and transits are soon to be applied to practical problems in the laboratory or in the field. It is the natural pride in my profession that makes me recognize particularly the attainments of the 19 civil engineers, 11 electrical and eight mechanical engineers, who are graduating today. I know the men won’t mind if I single out for special congratulations to the young lady who becomes a civil engineer, Miss Noreen Donahue. I understand that she is the third woman engineer to graduate from this university. This in itself marks UNB as a fearless and progressive educational institution.

In the Maritimes we enjoy a fine reputation because of our universities and the people they have produced. It is a common saying that our chief export is brains. I hope that statement won’t be used against those of us who still dwell here in the Maritimes. I hope, too, that as time goes on, more and more of our Maritime talent will be able to find rewarding and satisfying careers here at home. At the same time we must not allow our vision to be clouded by parochialism. That is not the traditional Maritime way. Were it not for the contributions Maritimers have made to the cultural and economic life of Canada in all provinces, this wouldn’t be the great country it is today.

But what of the future of the Maritimes and the prospect for employment here? Well, I for one, have always been optimistic on that subject, and continue to be so.

In my opinion the future of this Province of New Brunswick is brighter than it’s ever been. We have here in the Atlantic area a million and a half people and a wide variety of resources of sea, land, and forest. Recent ore discoveries in New Brunswick have caught the imagination of the nation, and have pointed up the merits of exploring our potentialities. We have here the greatest fisheries in the world – and in some phases of agriculture we are unsurpassed. Our forests are abundant. In the production of coal and the manufacture of steel, we are one of the important areas of Canada. Close by there is presently under construction an army training camp that will be the largest in Canada. From the point of tourist attractions we are unsurpassed – And for the brains and ability to develop all these assets, we, of course, excel. We Maritimers know that, although we’re too modest to mention it elsewhere.

Now you will perhaps say – "With all these ingredients, why isn’t the pudding more appealing to the taste?" Well, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be. We here in the Maritimes were known for our initiative and endeavor long before many other parts of Canada, as we know it today, were settled. Yet how often do we hear it said today that the trouble in the Maritimes is "so and so" and that somebody should do something about it. Well, you people here today are those "some-bodies" to do something about it.

You have now received your basic education, passed your examinations and received your degrees. Your advanced education and the test of life are before you. The ingredients are here in the Atlantic area to test your skills and to give you an opportunity to prove your mettle.

The next time somebody speaks to me about a problem in the Maritimes – and asks why doesn’t someone do something about it – I want to be able to reply – "there’s a class which just graduated from the University of New Brunswick – the Class of ’54 – they can and will do something about it." If you go out from this hall with that as your aim you will not only have the best wishes of those of us here today, but you will have the blessing of the entire nation.

Now members of the graduating class – the class of ’54 – I congratulate you, and wish you well.

And in closing, Mr. President I wish also to congratulate you, your faculty, your Board of Governors, and all those associated with you in the hard work of running a successful university. Particularly I wish to congratulate again the Faculty of Engineering on their 100th anniversary and express the wish that UNB will continue to graduate engineers for many centuries to come.