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Poet, bank governor to receive honorary degrees

Victoria poet and writer Patrick Lane will receive an honorary degree from the University of Victoria and former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge will receive one from Royal Roads University at their fall convocations.

Victoria poet and writer Patrick Lane will receive an honorary degree from the University of Victoria and former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge will receive one from Royal Roads University at their fall convocations.

Almost 1,300 students will be granted degrees, diplomas and certificates during UVic’s convocation Nov. 12 and 13 in Farquhar Auditorium. Lane and Harvard University chemist George Whitesides will receive honorary degrees.

Lane, who won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 1978, will be recognized for his gritty, honest writing in poetry and prose. Whitesides is an influential chemist whose research journal articles have been cited close to 92,000 times.

In another ceremony, professor Jamie Cassels will be installed as UVic’s seventh president, taking over from David Turpin.

RRU will host its convocation at the Royal Theatre on Nov. 6, awarding degrees and certificates to 898 students. Honorary degrees will go to Dodge, CEO of GE Canada Elyse Allan and representatives of Butchart Gardens, who will receive the Chancellor’s Community Recognition Award.

Dodge, an economist and chancellor of Queen’s University, steered Canada’s central bank through the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and the dot-com bust. Allan is the former president and CEO of the Toronto Board of Trade and has been named one of the 25 most powerful people in Canada by Canadian Business Magazine.

Butchart Gardens, a national historic site founded in 1904, will be honoured as a symbol of sustainable entrepreneurship. — Times Colonist