June 16, PM - Earle Zeigler

Download or play the mp3 file.

Read the Western News article, "Physical Education guru tells graduates to find a life purpose".

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, Members of the Platform Party, Professors of the Faculties Involved, Graduating Students, Parents, and Friends. I don’t know where to start or where to stop in thanking so many people for this recognition. I never thought I would see this day at Western.
First, I doff my mortar board to Chancellor Arthur, and Ms. Sonia, Labatt for their recent, more than generous gift to the future of Western’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Next, I enthusiastically commend President Paul Davenport, who has led this University so magnificently in this and the previous decade.
Finally, I wish to express my appreciation, also, to members of the honorary-degrees selection committee, as well as to thank most sincerely those people from my Faculty who nominated me earlier and those who did so now for this honor being granted today. I hope I will continue to live up to their expectations in serving our important field of kinesiology and physical education.
The School of Kinesiology, now within the Faculty of Health Sciences led by Dean James Weese, is a far cry from the Department of Physical, Health, and Recreation Education that I headed after my arrival in 1949. It is also distinctly different from the Faculty of Physical Education I had the honor of leading when I returned to Canada for good in the fall of 1971.
As one gets older--and I seem to have been granted that 80-90 decade--there’s a lot of time to think about your mother and grandparents who nurtured me early on and those who accompanied me along the way. My late wife--of 57 years--Bert Bell Zeigler, was a tower of strength and support in my life and that of my son (Don) and daughter (Barbara) who both now teach at university level.
Then for the past seven years I have been so happy and fulfilled with a wonderful, loving person, my spouse (Anne Kathleen Rogers). I’m so very glad to be alive and here today. After 21 years of mandatory retirement, I can be excused for saying “I’m really glad to be anywhere!” Each morning, I insert my hearing aids and realize there are other living creatures on earth. Moving around has become a bit of a problem because of two replacement knees and lower-back arthritis. I find that I have three gaits now: I can progress from totter to stagger to lurch--or vice versa. However, it’s not my gait or the pace of life that worries me anymore. It’s just the thought of that sudden stop at the end -- the one that’s getting closer with each passing day. Moving on from me to you -- today’s graduates!
May I offer a bit of senior wisdom: Do your best to avoid getting old! There are so many pitfalls out there awaiting you. Your genes, your life style, the environment, accidental misfortune, and possible unavailability of quality service from the health and medical professions will each have a greater or lesser influence on your “progress” toward “old age.”
Nevertheless--to the extent that they do--I urge you--strongly!--to keep moving with a planned program of daily physical activity. The backing for this assertion is based on ever-stronger supporting scientific investigation from our field and our related disciplines. This “daily awakening call” coming to us now from the media, also, has gradually but steadily lent great importance to the discipline of kinesiology and the field of physical and health education within the broader area of health sciences!
To all who are graduating today and you are in a sense leaving the shelter of your university experience, I offer a quotation from the late great historian, Will Durant. “No civilization is every conquered from without, unless it has first destroyed itself from within.” I cannot move past this thought lightly when I think of your future in the 21st century.
To the extent that the United States is disintegrating from within, as argued by the insightful analyses of Berman in The Twilight of the American Culture, you graduates face a distinct challenge. Make no mistake about it! We need you to help Canada develop uniquely both within North American society and that of the world society. In addition to maintaining social and economic equality, Canadians must work assiduously to preserve and expand their own identity. While doing what you personally must do to survive, your life experience will be divided roughly into three categories: personal, professional, and societal (or environmental).
As I reflect over my 86-plus years, for a variety of reasons, I believe that each of these aspects is steadily become more complicated. The tempo of life is increasing! Your Quarter-Life Crisis: Finding a Life Purpose In the early 20th century, back in the days when we didn’t “batter” our leaders anywhere nearly like we do today, there was a president of Columbia University by the name of Nicholas Murray Butler. He said:
“There are three kinds of people in the world:
(1) those who make things happen;
(2) a larger number who watch things happen; and
(3) the vast majority who never even know that anything is going on.”
Of course, this is an exaggeration. However, reading this, I said to myself: “Gee, I’d like to be one of those people who make things happen!” This sounds trite, to be sure. However, it is a noble aim. The words are easy to say, of course, but the objective of “making things happen” won’t occur for you unless you find, nurture, and than achieve a life purpose.
That’s why right now you are facing what might be called a quarter-life crisis. My good friend and colleague, Pat Galasso, founding dean of Human Kinetics at the University of Windsor, suggested this term to me. He stressed also what he calls the “say-do” gap in life (i.e., talking a good game but never really backing it up with subsequent, appropriate action!). As is well recognized, the so-called mid-life crisis is another story: it occurs typically further along one’s lifeline.
Regardless of whether one finally achieves the ultimate goal of a life purpose, the necessary striving to achieve immediate objectives looking to a long range aim is basic for you to consider right now.
My suggestion today is that you initially carry out five processes as you move on to face your quarter-life crisis.
(1) review your personal values;
(2) place these values in some hierarchical order;
(3) relate personal values as best possible to the values and norms of Canada within North American culture within the prevailing world culture;
(4) review your many university experiences and reassess your abilities and present interests while assessing the needs and interests of the present
era; and, finally, (5) begin immediately to nurture a deliberately chosen life purpose so that maximum energy for living results.
Note: A word of caution must be added to remind you to be certain not to forget those highly important relations with your family and close friends. In other words, be passionate about pursuing your chosen life purpose--but not
fanatical!
Questions Regarding a Life Purpose A life purpose should be much more than the mere choice of, and efforts to fulfill the demands of, a job or occupation. It involves even more than the choice of, and following through with, a profession. The meaning of the terms “profession” and “trade” seem to have blended into each other in the last half of the 20th century. Serving in the professions earlier (e.g., the law, the military, teaching, medicine) meant service to humanity was placed before personal gain. Granted that selecting a profession or a trade is a means to an end. We must ask what that end, what that goal is. When we talk about a life purpose, the term vocation would be better. A vocation, if we keep the word’s Latin derivation in mind, is a calling.
Using the word “calling” to describe where one’s life purpose can be found, we encounter immediately the idea of accomplishing something of significance for the total movement of life on this planet. I am pragmatic enough to believe that this idea has validity even today despite the turmoil and despair evident all around us. This take-what-you-find-and improve-it approach to life is called philosophical meliorism. It equates nicely with Berelson and Steiner’s “behavioralscience image” of man and woman, the one recommended in the “dark days” of the 1960’s (1964, 662-667).
They equated a human as a creature who is continually and continuously adapting reality to his or her own ends. Within this context a person should inquire as to what kind of striving gives life its greatest meaning. (However, keep in mind that sacrificing oneself for some cause with no thought of finding enjoyment in the effort would not seem to be the best approach. To affect the most fruitful results from your labor, I believe you must be enjoying yourself--even if through vicarious satisfaction.)
In achieving this life purpose I have been describing, the search is for what the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, called “the golden mean.” We shouldn’t become fanatics or egomaniacs; yet, ordinary expenditure of effort and/or lackadaisical apathy won’t bring expected results. A person can’t ignore the conditions that must be met to fulfill a life purpose. Yet, he or she shouldn’t ignore the important interests of humankind. The task--truly a delicate problem involving careful delineation--is to be sufficiently passionate about one’s purpose in life while avoiding the sad and irritating (to others!) pitfall of fanaticism.
Personally, I am convinced that much of the joy should come from “traveling hopefully along the way”! This coincides to a degree with the oft-heard homily: “Enjoy yourself; it’s later than you think.” This, then, is what I believe a person should consider as he/she looks forward to the development of a life purpose in a chosen field of endeavor. At the same time the “prescription” includes ingredients that can well lead to the elusive goals of happiness and success however defined. I repeat that a life purpose should be pursued passionately for maximum effectiveness. For the best type--the highest type—of professional involvement, a person must “lose” himself-herself in service to humanity. Satisfaction, recognition, and other rewards will not come rapidly with this approach. They will come nevertheless toward the end of a long life of service, as well as through the improvement and gratitude of those for whom you expend such energy and effort.
Finally, the words of the late Bertrand Russell, the late, eminent British philosopher, still offer us sound advice as we look to the future: I may have thought the road to a world of free and happy human beings shorter than it is proving to be, but I was not wrong in thinking that such a world is possible, and that it is worthwhile to live with a view to bringing it nearer. I have lived in the pursuit of such a vision, both personal and social . . . These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken (1969, Vol. 3, pp. 318 et ff.)
Although we may all wish that peace, happiness, harmony, and well-being could prevail globally, such has not yet happened. One is inclined to hope that all of the clashing religious opinions and beliefs based on hoary tradition would silently go away. Then maybe prevailing world conditions would somehow improve. But this is wishful thinking unless improved institutions are created to take their place and make the entire world a better place in which to live.
Broadly speaking, you have three broad choices as to your personal philosophic orientation as you proceed. The way things are going on the world, blind optimism (#1) seems unrealistic. However, bleak pessimism (#2) is inherently "self-defeating." This leaves you with the philosophic term I have chosen to call positive “meliorism” (#3).
Adopting this approach means simply: Take what you find out there and do everything that you possibly can to make it better. . . . Your task individually, through full commitment to your chosen life purpose, is to do what you can to contribute to the achievement of a world of free, happy, and healthy human beings. In this way you have the opportunity to join the tradition laid down by those enlightened people who preceded you.
Berman, M. (2000).The twilight of American culture. NY: W. W. Norton Co. Rand, A. (1969). The romantic manifesto. NY: World Publ. Co. Russell, B. (1969) The autobiography of Bertrand Russell (Vol. 3). NY: Simon & Schuster.

*****************************

Zeigler has enjoyed a remarkable career at Western and elsewhere in physical education and kinesiology that has spanned more than 65 years.

 

Download or play the mp3 file.

Read the Western News article, "Physical Education guru tells graduates to find a life purpose".

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, Members of the Platform Party, Professors of the Faculties Involved, Graduating Students, Parents, and Friends. I don’t know where to start or where to stop in thanking so many people for this recognition. I never thought I would see this day at Western.
First, I doff my mortar board to Chancellor Arthur, and Ms. Sonia, Labatt for their recent, more than generous gift to the future of Western’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Next, I enthusiastically commend President Paul Davenport, who has led this University so magnificently in this and the previous decade.
Finally, I wish to express my appreciation, also, to members of the honorary-degrees selection committee, as well as to thank most sincerely those people from my Faculty who nominated me earlier and those who did so now for this honor being granted today. I hope I will continue to live up to their expectations in serving our important field of kinesiology and physical education.
The School of Kinesiology, now within the Faculty of Health Sciences led by Dean James Weese, is a far cry from the Department of Physical, Health, and Recreation Education that I headed after my arrival in 1949. It is also distinctly different from the Faculty of Physical Education I had the honor of leading when I returned to Canada for good in the fall of 1971.
As one gets older--and I seem to have been granted that 80-90 decade--there’s a lot of time to think about your mother and grandparents who nurtured me early on and those who accompanied me along the way. My late wife--of 57 years--Bert Bell Zeigler, was a tower of strength and support in my life and that of my son (Don) and daughter (Barbara) who both now teach at university level.
Then for the past seven years I have been so happy and fulfilled with a wonderful, loving person, my spouse (Anne Kathleen Rogers). I’m so very glad to be alive and here today. After 21 years of mandatory retirement, I can be excused for saying “I’m really glad to be anywhere!” Each morning, I insert my hearing aids and realize there are other living creatures on earth. Moving around has become a bit of a problem because of two replacement knees and lower-back arthritis. I find that I have three gaits now: I can progress from totter to stagger to lurch--or vice versa. However, it’s not my gait or the pace of life that worries me anymore. It’s just the thought of that sudden stop at the end -- the one that’s getting closer with each passing day. Moving on from me to you -- today’s graduates!
May I offer a bit of senior wisdom: Do your best to avoid getting old! There are so many pitfalls out there awaiting you. Your genes, your life style, the environment, accidental misfortune, and possible unavailability of quality service from the health and medical professions will each have a greater or lesser influence on your “progress” toward “old age.”
Nevertheless--to the extent that they do--I urge you--strongly!--to keep moving with a planned program of daily physical activity. The backing for this assertion is based on ever-stronger supporting scientific investigation from our field and our related disciplines. This “daily awakening call” coming to us now from the media, also, has gradually but steadily lent great importance to the discipline of kinesiology and the field of physical and health education within the broader area of health sciences!
To all who are graduating today and you are in a sense leaving the shelter of your university experience, I offer a quotation from the late great historian, Will Durant. “No civilization is every conquered from without, unless it has first destroyed itself from within.” I cannot move past this thought lightly when I think of your future in the 21st century.
To the extent that the United States is disintegrating from within, as argued by the insightful analyses of Berman in The Twilight of the American Culture, you graduates face a distinct challenge. Make no mistake about it! We need you to help Canada develop uniquely both within North American society and that of the world society. In addition to maintaining social and economic equality, Canadians must work assiduously to preserve and expand their own identity. While doing what you personally must do to survive, your life experience will be divided roughly into three categories: personal, professional, and societal (or environmental).
As I reflect over my 86-plus years, for a variety of reasons, I believe that each of these aspects is steadily become more complicated. The tempo of life is increasing! Your Quarter-Life Crisis: Finding a Life Purpose In the early 20th century, back in the days when we didn’t “batter” our leaders anywhere nearly like we do today, there was a president of Columbia University by the name of Nicholas Murray Butler. He said:
“There are three kinds of people in the world:
(1) those who make things happen;
(2) a larger number who watch things happen; and
(3) the vast majority who never even know that anything is going on.”
Of course, this is an exaggeration. However, reading this, I said to myself: “Gee, I’d like to be one of those people who make things happen!” This sounds trite, to be sure. However, it is a noble aim. The words are easy to say, of course, but the objective of “making things happen” won’t occur for you unless you find, nurture, and than achieve a life purpose.
That’s why right now you are facing what might be called a quarter-life crisis. My good friend and colleague, Pat Galasso, founding dean of Human Kinetics at the University of Windsor, suggested this term to me. He stressed also what he calls the “say-do” gap in life (i.e., talking a good game but never really backing it up with subsequent, appropriate action!). As is well recognized, the so-called mid-life crisis is another story: it occurs typically further along one’s lifeline.
Regardless of whether one finally achieves the ultimate goal of a life purpose, the necessary striving to achieve immediate objectives looking to a long range aim is basic for you to consider right now.
My suggestion today is that you initially carry out five processes as you move on to face your quarter-life crisis.
(1) review your personal values;
(2) place these values in some hierarchical order;
(3) relate personal values as best possible to the values and norms of Canada within North American culture within the prevailing world culture;
(4) review your many university experiences and reassess your abilities and present interests while assessing the needs and interests of the present
era; and, finally, (5) begin immediately to nurture a deliberately chosen life purpose so that maximum energy for living results.
Note: A word of caution must be added to remind you to be certain not to forget those highly important relations with your family and close friends. In other words, be passionate about pursuing your chosen life purpose--but not
fanatical!
Questions Regarding a Life Purpose A life purpose should be much more than the mere choice of, and efforts to fulfill the demands of, a job or occupation. It involves even more than the choice of, and following through with, a profession. The meaning of the terms “profession” and “trade” seem to have blended into each other in the last half of the 20th century. Serving in the professions earlier (e.g., the law, the military, teaching, medicine) meant service to humanity was placed before personal gain. Granted that selecting a profession or a trade is a means to an end. We must ask what that end, what that goal is. When we talk about a life purpose, the term vocation would be better. A vocation, if we keep the word’s Latin derivation in mind, is a calling.
Using the word “calling” to describe where one’s life purpose can be found, we encounter immediately the idea of accomplishing something of significance for the total movement of life on this planet. I am pragmatic enough to believe that this idea has validity even today despite the turmoil and despair evident all around us. This take-what-you-find-and improve-it approach to life is called philosophical meliorism. It equates nicely with Berelson and Steiner’s “behavioralscience image” of man and woman, the one recommended in the “dark days” of the 1960’s (1964, 662-667).
They equated a human as a creature who is continually and continuously adapting reality to his or her own ends. Within this context a person should inquire as to what kind of striving gives life its greatest meaning. (However, keep in mind that sacrificing oneself for some cause with no thought of finding enjoyment in the effort would not seem to be the best approach. To affect the most fruitful results from your labor, I believe you must be enjoying yourself--even if through vicarious satisfaction.)
In achieving this life purpose I have been describing, the search is for what the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, called “the golden mean.” We shouldn’t become fanatics or egomaniacs; yet, ordinary expenditure of effort and/or lackadaisical apathy won’t bring expected results. A person can’t ignore the conditions that must be met to fulfill a life purpose. Yet, he or she shouldn’t ignore the important interests of humankind. The task--truly a delicate problem involving careful delineation--is to be sufficiently passionate about one’s purpose in life while avoiding the sad and irritating (to others!) pitfall of fanaticism.
Personally, I am convinced that much of the joy should come from “traveling hopefully along the way”! This coincides to a degree with the oft-heard homily: “Enjoy yourself; it’s later than you think.” This, then, is what I believe a person should consider as he/she looks forward to the development of a life purpose in a chosen field of endeavor. At the same time the “prescription” includes ingredients that can well lead to the elusive goals of happiness and success however defined. I repeat that a life purpose should be pursued passionately for maximum effectiveness. For the best type--the highest type—of professional involvement, a person must “lose” himself-herself in service to humanity. Satisfaction, recognition, and other rewards will not come rapidly with this approach. They will come nevertheless toward the end of a long life of service, as well as through the improvement and gratitude of those for whom you expend such energy and effort.
Finally, the words of the late Bertrand Russell, the late, eminent British philosopher, still offer us sound advice as we look to the future: I may have thought the road to a world of free and happy human beings shorter than it is proving to be, but I was not wrong in thinking that such a world is possible, and that it is worthwhile to live with a view to bringing it nearer. I have lived in the pursuit of such a vision, both personal and social . . . These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken (1969, Vol. 3, pp. 318 et ff.)
Although we may all wish that peace, happiness, harmony, and well-being could prevail globally, such has not yet happened. One is inclined to hope that all of the clashing religious opinions and beliefs based on hoary tradition would silently go away. Then maybe prevailing world conditions would somehow improve. But this is wishful thinking unless improved institutions are created to take their place and make the entire world a better place in which to live.
Broadly speaking, you have three broad choices as to your personal philosophic orientation as you proceed. The way things are going on the world, blind optimism (#1) seems unrealistic. However, bleak pessimism (#2) is inherently "self-defeating." This leaves you with the philosophic term I have chosen to call positive “meliorism” (#3).
Adopting this approach means simply: Take what you find out there and do everything that you possibly can to make it better. . . . Your task individually, through full commitment to your chosen life purpose, is to do what you can to contribute to the achievement of a world of free, happy, and healthy human beings. In this way you have the opportunity to join the tradition laid down by those enlightened people who preceded you.
Berman, M. (2000).The twilight of American culture. NY: W. W. Norton Co. Rand, A. (1969). The romantic manifesto. NY: World Publ. Co. Russell, B. (1969) The autobiography of Bertrand Russell (Vol. 3). NY: Simon & Schuster.

*****************************

Zeigler has enjoyed a remarkable career at Western and elsewhere in physical education and kinesiology that has spanned more than 65 years.

 

 

June 16, AM - Alim-Louis Benabid

Download or play the mp3 file.

Benabid is a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery who has made outstanding contributions to the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's.

Download or play the mp3 file.

Benabid is a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery who has made outstanding contributions to the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's.

Benabid is a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery who has made outstanding contributions to the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's.

June 15, PM - Michael Bancroft

Download or play the mp3 file.

Read the Western News article, "Researcher challenges graduates on environmental concerns".

Bancroft was a leading force in transforming Western into a research-intensive university, namely as a leader in the field of sychrotron radiation and in helping to establish the Canadian Light Source project.

Bancroft was a leading force in transforming Western into a research-intensive university, namely as a leader in the field of sychrotron radiation and in helping to establish the Canadian Light Source project.

June 15, AM - David Peterson

Download or play the mp3 file.

Read the Western News article, "Former Premier tells graduates that 'we all practice politics'".

Peterson was Liberal Premier of Ontario between 1985 and 1990, overseeing an active period of reform and playing a major role in the country's constitutional discussions.

Read the Western News article, "Former Premier tells graduates that 'we all practice politics'".

Peterson was Liberal Premier of Ontario between 1985 and 1990, overseeing an active period of reform and playing a major role in the country's constitutional discussions.

June 14, PM - Donald J. Smith

Download or play the mp3 file.

Read the Western News article, "Smith urges graduates to take chances".

This is indeed a great honour that this fine University has bestowed upon me - I am both humbled and very grateful for it.

I know that if my mother were still alive, she would undoubtedly be very happy to see me receive this degree, but she would also say, “it sure took you an awful long time.”

I have been very worried about making this speech because I am not an academic, nor a philosopher, nor a politician – and I’m definitely not a diplomat.

I thought I should say that before someone else did.  All I really know is what I’ve learned through life – and I’d like to share some of that with you and hope some of you may find it useful.
But before I do that, I want to emphasize that this is your day – your day together with your family and friends to mark this occasion as one that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

You have all worked very hard to get to this day – a day when you walk up on this stage and receive from the Chancellor, tangible evidence that you have earned your degree.

I am sure it wasn’t easy – it meant a lot of sacrifices on your part and perhaps even more on the part of your parents and families who had to help you earn your education.  Nobody doubts how important education is these days.

When I was growing up, if you managed to get through high school, it was quite an achievement.

But now in this complicated world that we live in, a more sophisticated and focused education is required.  As you know what then follows, is the learning that takes place every day as you seek out what you want to do in life.

You know that not one of you is aware today what the future holds for you.  Most of you will have a long life with unpredictable turns and twists.  Some of you will become great engineers who will help design and build great structures (which I happen to know something about).

Some of you will become fine musicians – I went to a wonderful performance of Rigoletto a week or so ago, right here in London – perhaps one of you will compose a Great Canadian Opera.

And I suspect that all of you will succeed because of what your education has given you, the ability to think – the gift of discipline – and the habit of hard and rewarding work.

Now back to me for a few minutes – some of the things I have experienced in my life may be of interest and useful to you.

I was born 82 years ago in the little town of Provost, Alberta, in the centre of the prairies.  My father died when I was 5 years old, my mother came east to Toronto with  three children and took a job at Eatons Department Store as a sales clerk.  She was a great example to us.

After high school I worked in construction.  I married my wife Joan when I was 24 - we have 7 children.

Six of them work for EllisDon and the oldest one is a psychiatric counselor who keeps the other 6 in line.  I am very proud of my wife and my children and they are all here today.

One of the critical decisions you make in life is whether you work for someone else or for yourself.  If you have an entrepreneurial bent of mind, starting your own business is a good idea but you must realize it won’t necessarily be a walk in the park.

When I was 27 I started EllisDon Construction with 3 employees - my wife, Joan,  kept the books.

I started building schools and went on from there.

On building contracts, an Owner has to hold back 15% of the building cost by law, so if you keep expanding, you soon run out of the $15,000 that you started with and then you have no  cash to run the company.

So I went to the bank to get a larger loan than I had.  My loan amount was $15,000 and I wanted $30,000.  I went back the next day to find out if I had the loan, and the Manager said he couldn’t give me the money because I was too young and I worked too hard. 

I told him I would probably go to another bank and he said, that’s your 3rd mistake – you’ll get a bad reputation.

Anyway, I went to another bank and things worked out okay.

Don’t be afraid to trust your own instincts and to take a chance.

As a business grows, sometimes you have to make hard decisions.  I recall when I bought my first large mobile crane, which was a big investment, I was worried about whether I could keep it busy.  I was talking with John Robarts and he said, “you have made a decision,  stop worrying  and make your decision work”.  I have to do that all the time.

Business, like life, is rarely without its own problems and challenges.  Let me illustrate one or two.

In 1979, we built a 1 million, 1 hundred thousand square foot building, which is 25 acres.  Unfortunately, part of the roof collapsed under an abnormal snow load.  The contract was a design/build contract where we were responsible for every facet of the building.

In trying to correct the problem, our lawyer hired the best welding engineer in Canada to check the building out.  In front of the Owners, General Motors, and 4 firms of consulting engineers, he condemned the entire building which contained $70 million worth of parts.

I asked our lawyer and the engineer to step out in the hall for a little chat and I fired both of them.

I was able to find an absolutely clever engineer in Washington, D.C., who helped us solve the problem. If we hadn’t been able to solve it, it would have put EllisDon out of business.  I told them I had found the solution.  We avoided a lawsuit with General Motors and they only lost 3 weeks working time.  I had already built a relationship of trust with them.  We fixed the building and because of that, General Motors gave me over $600 million worth of additional work over the next few years.

The moral of this story, is to be absolutely honest in all your dealings with people.  If I had thought I couldn’t save that building, I would have told General Motors.

With a positive and optimistic attitude, you can generally solve 90% of your problems.  Worrying doesn’t solve any of them.

Perhaps one more little story will be of interest to you.

We built the SkyDome in Toronto.  It was the first stadium ever built in the world with a retractable roof.  At that time I was President of the Ontario Liberal Party.  I was approached by an Architect I knew.  He came into my office at the Liberal Headquarters and said, “Is this office bugged?”  My office was about 10 x 11 and who would bug that.  He showed me the plans for the dome stadium and I thought it was a great challenge, and wondered if we should risk building it.  A lot of people told me if it didn’t work, I would lose the entire company.  I talked with my General Manager, George Davis, and he said, “come on Don, let’s give it a try, let’s go”, and he was largely responsible for getting the Dome built.  It cost us over $500,000 to enter the competition, however, we won, and the building was a great success.

I guess the moral of this story is, in the end you have to make hard decisions in business as you do in life, you have to take those kinds of chances and really it’s kind of fun – and 99 times out of 100, things will work out –  maybe 98 times out of 100.  If not, you can always start over.

I never thought I would be one of the biggest contractors in the country.  I did want the company to grow, and the reason we are a success, is because we regarded our employees as equals.  We put in a good system of profit sharing and up until now, the company has paid out over $100 million in profit sharing.  The present management, which includes my children, has carried on this tradition and EllisDon has three times been voted by its employees as one of the ten best companies to work for in Canada – this is in a survey done by the Globe and Mail Report on Business.

The most important message I can leave you is this.  Have confidence in yourself and don’t be afraid to take chances.  Whatever career you follow, make sure you enjoy your work, so that you not only succeed in life, but enjoy life along the way.

I believe we are blessed to be living in a country that respects individuality, different points of view, and is truly colour blind.  Canada is the finest democracy in the world and people my age count on you to keep it that way.

You know, I get a little excited just talking to wonderful people like you and it makes me wish I was 30 years old again, or even 60.

Thank you very much for listening to me.

*************************************

Smith is the dynamic founder, former C.E.O. and chairman of EllisDon.  He is a Londoner who is a dedicated fundraiser and volunteer leader in the community.

Read the Western News article, "Smith urges graduates to take chances".

This is indeed a great honour that this fine University has bestowed upon me - I am both humbled and very grateful for it.

I know that if my mother were still alive, she would undoubtedly be very happy to see me receive this degree, but she would also say, “it sure took you an awful long time.”

I have been very worried about making this speech because I am not an academic, nor a philosopher, nor a politician – and I’m definitely not a diplomat.

I thought I should say that before someone else did.  All I really know is what I’ve learned through life – and I’d like to share some of that with you and hope some of you may find it useful.
But before I do that, I want to emphasize that this is your day – your day together with your family and friends to mark this occasion as one that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

You have all worked very hard to get to this day – a day when you walk up on this stage and receive from the Chancellor, tangible evidence that you have earned your degree.

I am sure it wasn’t easy – it meant a lot of sacrifices on your part and perhaps even more on the part of your parents and families who had to help you earn your education.  Nobody doubts how important education is these days.

When I was growing up, if you managed to get through high school, it was quite an achievement.

But now in this complicated world that we live in, a more sophisticated and focused education is required.  As you know what then follows, is the learning that takes place every day as you seek out what you want to do in life.

You know that not one of you is aware today what the future holds for you.  Most of you will have a long life with unpredictable turns and twists.  Some of you will become great engineers who will help design and build great structures (which I happen to know something about).

Some of you will become fine musicians – I went to a wonderful performance of Rigoletto a week or so ago, right here in London – perhaps one of you will compose a Great Canadian Opera.

And I suspect that all of you will succeed because of what your education has given you, the ability to think – the gift of discipline – and the habit of hard and rewarding work.

Now back to me for a few minutes – some of the things I have experienced in my life may be of interest and useful to you.

I was born 82 years ago in the little town of Provost, Alberta, in the centre of the prairies.  My father died when I was 5 years old, my mother came east to Toronto with  three children and took a job at Eatons Department Store as a sales clerk.  She was a great example to us.

After high school I worked in construction.  I married my wife Joan when I was 24 - we have 7 children.

Six of them work for EllisDon and the oldest one is a psychiatric counselor who keeps the other 6 in line.  I am very proud of my wife and my children and they are all here today.

One of the critical decisions you make in life is whether you work for someone else or for yourself.  If you have an entrepreneurial bent of mind, starting your own business is a good idea but you must realize it won’t necessarily be a walk in the park.

When I was 27 I started EllisDon Construction with 3 employees - my wife, Joan,  kept the books.

I started building schools and went on from there.

On building contracts, an Owner has to hold back 15% of the building cost by law, so if you keep expanding, you soon run out of the $15,000 that you started with and then you have no  cash to run the company.

So I went to the bank to get a larger loan than I had.  My loan amount was $15,000 and I wanted $30,000.  I went back the next day to find out if I had the loan, and the Manager said he couldn’t give me the money because I was too young and I worked too hard. 

I told him I would probably go to another bank and he said, that’s your 3rd mistake – you’ll get a bad reputation.

Anyway, I went to another bank and things worked out okay.

Don’t be afraid to trust your own instincts and to take a chance.

As a business grows, sometimes you have to make hard decisions.  I recall when I bought my first large mobile crane, which was a big investment, I was worried about whether I could keep it busy.  I was talking with John Robarts and he said, “you have made a decision,  stop worrying  and make your decision work”.  I have to do that all the time.

Business, like life, is rarely without its own problems and challenges.  Let me illustrate one or two.

In 1979, we built a 1 million, 1 hundred thousand square foot building, which is 25 acres.  Unfortunately, part of the roof collapsed under an abnormal snow load.  The contract was a design/build contract where we were responsible for every facet of the building.

In trying to correct the problem, our lawyer hired the best welding engineer in Canada to check the building out.  In front of the Owners, General Motors, and 4 firms of consulting engineers, he condemned the entire building which contained $70 million worth of parts.

I asked our lawyer and the engineer to step out in the hall for a little chat and I fired both of them.

I was able to find an absolutely clever engineer in Washington, D.C., who helped us solve the problem. If we hadn’t been able to solve it, it would have put EllisDon out of business.  I told them I had found the solution.  We avoided a lawsuit with General Motors and they only lost 3 weeks working time.  I had already built a relationship of trust with them.  We fixed the building and because of that, General Motors gave me over $600 million worth of additional work over the next few years.

The moral of this story, is to be absolutely honest in all your dealings with people.  If I had thought I couldn’t save that building, I would have told General Motors.

With a positive and optimistic attitude, you can generally solve 90% of your problems.  Worrying doesn’t solve any of them.

Perhaps one more little story will be of interest to you.

We built the SkyDome in Toronto.  It was the first stadium ever built in the world with a retractable roof.  At that time I was President of the Ontario Liberal Party.  I was approached by an Architect I knew.  He came into my office at the Liberal Headquarters and said, “Is this office bugged?”  My office was about 10 x 11 and who would bug that.  He showed me the plans for the dome stadium and I thought it was a great challenge, and wondered if we should risk building it.  A lot of people told me if it didn’t work, I would lose the entire company.  I talked with my General Manager, George Davis, and he said, “come on Don, let’s give it a try, let’s go”, and he was largely responsible for getting the Dome built.  It cost us over $500,000 to enter the competition, however, we won, and the building was a great success.

I guess the moral of this story is, in the end you have to make hard decisions in business as you do in life, you have to take those kinds of chances and really it’s kind of fun – and 99 times out of 100, things will work out –  maybe 98 times out of 100.  If not, you can always start over.

I never thought I would be one of the biggest contractors in the country.  I did want the company to grow, and the reason we are a success, is because we regarded our employees as equals.  We put in a good system of profit sharing and up until now, the company has paid out over $100 million in profit sharing.  The present management, which includes my children, has carried on this tradition and EllisDon has three times been voted by its employees as one of the ten best companies to work for in Canada – this is in a survey done by the Globe and Mail Report on Business.

The most important message I can leave you is this.  Have confidence in yourself and don’t be afraid to take chances.  Whatever career you follow, make sure you enjoy your work, so that you not only succeed in life, but enjoy life along the way.

I believe we are blessed to be living in a country that respects individuality, different points of view, and is truly colour blind.  Canada is the finest democracy in the world and people my age count on you to keep it that way.

You know, I get a little excited just talking to wonderful people like you and it makes me wish I was 30 years old again, or even 60.

Thank you very much for listening to me.

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Smith is the dynamic founder, former C.E.O. and chairman of EllisDon.  He is a Londoner who is a dedicated fundraiser and volunteer leader in the community.

June 14, AM - Georges Erasmus

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Read the Western News article, "Aboriginal leader urges graduates to consider their legacy".

Erasmus has made a lifelong contribution to the welfare and community of Canada's Aboriginal peoples.

June 13, PM - Deepa Mehta

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Read the Western News article, "Filmmaker urges graduates to remember their humanity".

A Canadian-based filmmaker, Mehta is known for her acclaimed films that challenge gender roles and blind traditions.

June 13, AM - Witold Rybczynski

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Read the Western News article, "Architecture critic reminds grads of importance of place".

Rybczynski has been described as one of the most original, accessible and stimulating writers on architecture.

June 12, PM - Earl Russell

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Read the Western News article, "Russell recalls the joys of learning".

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, Honored Guest, graduates and ladies and gentlemen.

This is truly an exciting and memorable occasion. It is such for students from the faculty’s of Graduate Studies, Law, Richard Ivey School of Business and the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry who receive your degrees today. You represent very important graduates form this University who will now move into essential roles in the community. Our community depends on you.

Do not be alarmed that you have spent several long and important years of your life in learning. Yeates has said that education is not filling a basket, it is building a fire. Abraham Lincoln said essentially the same thing, that is he said that if he was given six hours to chop down a tree he would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. Cherish the time you are spending to sharpen your axe. You will be glad you did.

It has been my good fortune to have been associated with places of education for 80 years. That is from a one-room schoolhouse in rural Saskatchewan, via the University of Saskatchewan to the University of Western Ontario. My family and I spent two years in helping to op[en a medical school in Lagos Nigeria. Dr. Lew Carey, former chairman Dept. of Radiology, has done exciting and basic research in telemedicine. I worked with Lew when a telemedicine link from University Hospital to Moose Factory was established. Our research in telemedicine took us to James Bay, Whitehorse and Novisbursk in Siberia. I feel this has been good fortune as education is what we get when we read the fine print whereas experience is what we get if we don’t. Please remember the joy of learning is as indispensable to effective study as breathing is to running.

In each chosen field there is a principal that we all find important. Never forget that it is not the problem but a person that is your client.

The value of a vision or a goal is absolutely essential. My goal as a 10 year old farm boy was being a doctor and that goal stayed with me. Personally I have seen my route change many times. Little things like WWII, years as a signals officer, interrupted my education but it worked out as I received veterans allowance while going through medical school, a real help in those days. My junior internship was half completed when the Korean War started. But I spend six months in the American 8055 MASH, involved in 1,800 operations a month doing anesthesia and it started me on pain management. I had taken with me the two best text books I had and one was most useful. I developed my skill in anesthesia making it easy to complete my specialty requirement when back in Canada. Pain management, that is treating painful frost-bitten hands introduced me to the necessity of pain management which I still practice three full days a week. In fact I’ve endowed the chair in pain management here at the University of Western Ontario.

Whether in teaching, law, business, medicine or dentistry, you have taken on behalf of the people of the community, an important and essential responsibility. While I do not pretend to talk tot you about the nature of your work, I would remind you that in most areas it is recognized that in the sick room 10 cents worth of human understanding equals $10 worth of science.

Permit me to warmly congratulate you on your well-earned achievement today. As well, I admire what you have done with your life. Your hard work and dedication will vastly enrich the rest of your life.

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Western's professor emeritus and alumnus, Russell is highly respected physician who has dedicated much of his professional life to alleviating human pain and suffering.

June 12, AM - Louise Pitre

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Read the Western News article, "Pitre urges graduates 'not to settle'".

Pitre is a Canadian singer and actor, a Western alumna who has received rave reviews for her performances in musicals such as Mamma Mia! and Piaf in Toronto and on Broadway.