F.H. Auld, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Vivian Morton during convocation held in Physical Education gymnasium. N.K. Cram, University Registrar, prepares to hood the recipient.
Bio/Historical Note: Vivian Williams Brown was born 10 September 1896 in Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario, to Ida and Charles Brown, a Methodist minister. By 1906, the family had moved west to Regina. Although little is known of her childhood, the “Tribute” to her in the Journal of 1990 records that she was educated in schools in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in the spring of 1917 having earned a B.A. Earlier that same year, she had become a founding member of the Historical Association of the University of Saskatchewan along with six other students of Professor Arthur Silver Morton, whom she would later marry. She served as President of the University of Saskatchewan’s Alumni Association, President of the University Women’s Club of Saskatoon, and was a Charter Member of the Saskatoon Branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. During the 1940s and 50s she also served in various positions with the National CFUW Board. The Saskatchewan Arts and Crafts Society created a joint scholarship in their names at the University of Saskatchewan. The Vivian Williams Morton and Arthur Silver Morton Memorial Travel Scholarship, designated for travel relating to research, is still presented annually to a fourth-year undergraduate or graduate student studying History, Anthropology, Political Studies, or Native Studies. A year after her term as CFUW President, in 1962, the University of Saskatchewan presented Morton with an honourary Doctor of Laws for her contribution to arts and culture. Vivian Morton died in 1990 in Ontario at the age of 94.