University of Victoria awards honorary degrees to nine outstanding achievers

University of Victoria Chancellor Dr. Norma Mickelson will confer nine honorary degrees during Convocation ceremonies June 4-6. The honorary degree recipients are outstanding achievers in diverse fields. They are:

¥Flemming Jorgensen (Doctor of Fine Arts), painter and teacher and esteemed member of the Victoria artistic community, whose works are in galleries around the world. He is co-founder of the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts.

¥Dr. Graham Odgers (Doctor of Science), distinguished astronomer who supervised the Canadian contribution to, and was associate director of, the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope project on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

¥Elsie Stapleford (Doctor of Law), a foremost pioneer in child care who has helped bring the principles of child development to practical settings and influenced the positive development of child care across Canada.

¥Eric Charman ( Doctor of Laws), philanthropist and arts fundraiser whose name is synonymous with support for the arts in the Victoria area. He is a benefactor of the Victoria Symphony, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Pacific Opera.

¥Trichy Sankaran (Doctor of Music), director of Indian music studies at York University, and composer and virtuoso percussionist, whose mastery on the South Indian double-headed barrel drum (mrdangam) is acclaimed worldwide.

¥Daisy Sewid-Smith (Doctor of Laws), First Nations educator, a member of the Mamaliliqala tribe of Village Island, she is a sought after and internationally recognized speaker at schools and colleges for her special knowledge of her language, culture and history.

¥John B. Cobb Jr. (Doctor of Letters), philosopher-theologian whose book For the Common Good: redirecting the Economy toward Community, Environment and a Sustainable Future (co-authored with Herman Daly) marks a turning point in thinking about economics and society.

¥Dr. Vimla L. Patel (Doctor of Science) professor, director of the Centre for Medical Education in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University and one of the most influential Canadian researchers in health informatics, she has inspired a prolific production of sophisticated research methods.

¥Dr. John I. Goodlad (Doctor of Education), professor emeritus of education and co-director of the Center for Educational Renewal at the University of Washington, Seattle, whose most recent book In Praise of Education argues that education is an inalienable right in a democratic society.

-- 30 --