Elizabeth Dowdeswell, honourary Doctor of Laws degree recipient, stands in academic gown with George Ivany, University President, E.K. (Ted) Turner, University Chancellor, and an unidentified man during Spring Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Bio/Historical Note: Violet Elizabeth (Patton) Dowdeswell was born in 1944 in the County of Antrim in Northern Ireland and brought up in an Ulster Scot tradition that puts great emphasis on scholastic achievement. Her family, father emigrated to Canada when she was five, settling in southern Saskatchewan and her childhood influences were those common to the smaller towns (Sceptre. Young, Strasbourg and Briercrest). Dowdeswell worked for the Extension Division, as a 4-H specialist each May to September when she was completing a degree in Home Economics degree and teaching certificate at the U of S. Upon graduation she became a teacher and counsellor at Swift Current Comprehensive School, finding time as well to upgrade and to complete an MSc in behavioural science at Utah State University by 1972. Following a year as a lecturer in economics and marketing at the University of Alberta. Dowdeswell returned to the Saskatchewan Department of Education as a consumer education consultant and later as the Human Rights Ombudsman before being put in charge of federal/provincial education matters. She moved to Ottawa in 1982 to work first with the Treasury Board and then with Environment Canada. After directing the Ontario office of Environment Canada, she became Assistant Deputy Minister of the Atmospheric Environment Service. Her job required community involvement and an understanding of the socioeconomic aspects of global change as she helped develop public services such as the Ozone Watch and the UV-B Index. Dowdeswell was Canada's representative to the World Meteorological Organization and in 1992 again represented Canada as principal delegate to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the Earth Summit Conference in Rio de Janeiro. At Rio, as co-chair of a working group on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, her leadership helped confirm Canada's position in the forefront of world sustainable development. She was appointed Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in late 1992, and was asked to combine this with the position of Executive Director of the United Nations HABITAT Programme. Elizabeth Dowdeswell was the highest-ranking Canadian and the most senior of a handful of women to top UN positions (2012). She was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in 2014.

Head and shoulders image of James Balfour Kirkpatrick, Dean of Education, 1956-1976. Possibly taken at the time of presentation of an Honourary Degree from the University in 1990.

Bio/Historical Note: James Balfour Kirkpatrick was born on a farm near Saskatoon in 1909, the same year in which the College Building was constructed. He completed his BA, BEd, and MEd degrees at the University of Saskatchewan, and his doctorate in physical education at Columbia University. From 1944-1948 he served as Director of the Physical Fitness Division for Saskatchewan. In 1948 he accepted the appointment as Director and Professor of Physical Education at McGill University. From 1956 to 1976, Kirkpatrick was Dean of Education at the U of S. In the field of physical education, as Director of the Physical Fitness Division of the Province of Saskatchewan, Kirkpatrick was insistent that its mandate be much wider than a concern for physical fitness only. As Dean of Education and through cooperation with a variety of agencies and individuals, he established many innovative practices and programs. In order to address the needs in Aboriginal education, he established the Indian and Northern Education Program in 1963, the Indian Teacher Education Program in 1973, and the North West Territory Teacher Education Program in 1975; and set the groundwork for the Northern Teacher Education Program in 1976. On 22 September 1975, Kirkpatrick suspended Doug Wilson's work as a supervisor of practice teaching in public schools, on the grounds of Wilson's open admission of his homosexuality and his public involvement in the gay liberation movement. A Committee to Defend Doug Wilson was formed to fight the university's action, and Wilson placed a formal complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. The inquiry was never held, as the Court of Queen's Bench ruled that sexuality was not covered by The Fair Employment Practices Act. Kirkpatrick played a prominent role in the amalgamation of the Teachers' Colleges into the University. The program reforms engineered by Kirkpatrick redirected the course content away from a purely academic orientation to one that considered the needs of children in a complex contemporary society. An innovative venture that has been widely copied and has become the core of teacher education programs today, the extended practicum or internship, was established by Kirkpatrick in 1963. Kirkpatrick was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws degree in 1990 by the U of S. He died in Saskatoon in 1998.

Group photo of dignitaries present at the unveiling ceremony of the 10-foot high bronze statue of Lesya Ukrainka, the celebrated Ukrainian poet. Back row from l to r: Tom Gauley, Chairman, Board of Governors; R.W. Begg, University President; V.O. Buyniak, Head, Department of Slavic Studies; and Nina Okhatrina, Ukrainian representative. Front row (l to r): Ukrainian representatives Volodymr F. Skofenko, Mikhalio Stelmakh, and Mikola Manoiolo.

Bio/Historical Note: Lesya Ukrainka (Larysa Kosach-Kvitka) (1871-1913), the celebrated Ukrainian poet, made her mark on Ukrainian and world literature through her diverse writing talents. Her profound knowledge of world history and languages enabled her to write extensively across genres on a variety of subjects. In her lyrical works and dramatic poems, she vividly developed the themes of patriotism, human dignity, and personal integrity. Ukrainka’s work is timeless in its powerful assertion of human rights and freedoms. In 1976, a bronze statue of Lesya Ukrainka, made in Kyiv, Ukraine (USSR) by sculptor Halyna Kal’chenko and architect Anatoliy Ihnashchenko, was unveiled at the University of Saskatchewan. Commissioned by the Association for Cultural Relations with Ukrainians Abroad, the statue was at the time seen by some merely as Soviet propaganda designed to rehabilitate their international reputation tarnished, in part, by injustices perpetrated against the people of Ukraine. The gift was initially declined by both the Province of Saskatchewan and the City of Saskatoon before being accepted by the University of Saskatchewan and installed on campus in a grove south of the Arts Tower. Through a generous donation by Dr. Victor O. Buyniak, as well as through the support of alumni and the wider Ukrainian community, the statue was refurbished and unveiled in its present location on 1 August 2013, the centenary of the death of Lesya Ukrainka.

Bio/historical note: A statue of Lesya Ukrainka, the celebrated Ukrainian poet, was presented to the U of S in 1976 by the Association for Cultural Relations with Ukrainians Abroad of the USSR as a gift of friendship from the people of Ukraine to the people of Canada.

V.O. Buyniak, Head, Department of Slavic Studies, speaks at the unveiling ceremony of the 10-foot high bronze statue of Lesya Ukrainka, the celebrated Ukrainian poet.

Bio/Historical Note: Lesya Ukrainka (Larysa Kosach-Kvitka) (1871-1913), the celebrated Ukrainian poet, made her mark on Ukrainian and world literature through her diverse writing talents. Her profound knowledge of world history and languages enabled her to write extensively across genres on a variety of subjects. In her lyrical works and dramatic poems, she vividly developed the themes of patriotism, human dignity, and personal integrity. Ukrainka’s work is timeless in its powerful assertion of human rights and freedoms. In 1976, a bronze statue of Lesya Ukrainka, made in Kyiv, Ukraine (USSR) by sculptor Halyna Kal’chenko and architect Anatoliy Ihnashchenko, was unveiled at the University of Saskatchewan. Commissioned by the Association for Cultural Relations with Ukrainians Abroad, the statue was at the time seen by some merely as Soviet propaganda designed to rehabilitate their international reputation tarnished, in part, by injustices perpetrated against the people of Ukraine. The gift was initially declined by both the Province of Saskatchewan and the City of Saskatoon before being accepted by the University of Saskatchewan and installed on campus in a grove south of the Arts Tower. Through a generous donation by Dr. Victor O. Buyniak, as well as through the support of alumni and the wider Ukrainian community, the statue was refurbished and unveiled in its present location on 1 August 2013, the centenary of the death of Lesya Ukrainka.

Head and shoulders of Justice Walter Surma Tarnopolsky.

Bio/historical note: Justice Walter Surma Tarnopolsky (1932-1993) was a Canadian judge, legal scholar, and pioneer in the development of human rights law and civil liberties in Canada. He was born at Gronlid, Saskatchewan, to parents of Ukrainian descent. He was educated at the University of Saskatchewan, receiving his B.A. in 1953 and his LLB in 1957. After completing his undergraduate education, he attended Columbia University, receiving his M.A. in 1955. He subsequently received his L.L.M. from the London School of Economics. Tarnopolsky taught law at several Canadian universities, specialized in the field of human rights and civil liberties. He was a professor of law with the University of Saskatchewan in 1959-1960 and 1963-1967, the University of Ottawa in 1962-1963 and 1979-1983, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in 1967-1968 and 1972-1979, and the University of Windsor 1968-1972, where he was also Dean of Law. He briefly served as the Vice-President (Academic) of York University in 1972. From 1977 to 1983 he was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and in 1985, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. He served on the Court of Appeal until his death in 1993.