Two of the Sunshine Coast’s most distinguished writers and academics are about to receive even more distinctions, as both have been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Toronto.
J. Edward (Ted) Chamberlin, who was a professor of English and comparative literature at the university, a college principal, and is the author of ten books, including The Banker and the Blackfoot; and his wife, Lorna Goodison, a former English professor at the University of Michigan, writer, and currently Poet Laureate of Jamaica, will receive the degrees at convocation ceremonies in June.
The couple have owned property in Halfmoon Bay for 20 years and retired there full-time about ten years ago.
“I was astonished, just bowled over,” Chamberlin told Coast Reporter when asked his reaction after university president Meric Gertler phoned him at home to deliver the news. “I worked for 40 years at the University of Toronto (U of T). It was an enormous privilege to be there, to have an opportunity to teach students there and have the support of my colleagues. But they don’t often offer honorary degrees to retired faculty.”
He said both he and his wife were phoned separately, and didn’t know the other was being told.
“For a week or two after, Lorna and I – she was down in Jamaica at the time – would call each other and say, ‘Did we really get that phone call?’ We were astonished, and of course, delighted.”
Goodison, who was to return to the Coast in late March from a working visit to Jamaica, was not available for comment.
“We are being honoured at separate convocations,” Chamberlin added. “I’m not sure when this has happened before, when spouses have been offered honorary degrees, certainly not in my memory. Every now and then it happens if they’re involved in philanthropy together, but we’re being honoured for what we do separately.”
In the official announcement, U of T’s Gertler noted that the honorary degrees are the university’s highest honour, and “represent excellence … and outstanding service to the university and society. They are role models for all of us, and their presence at convocation, in particular, will add a special source of inspiration for our graduating students.”
Not all recipients of such honours give a speech to graduates, but Chamberlin said both he and Goodison have been asked to deliver addresses.
“I’ve been scribbling notes,” Chamberlin said about his speech preparations. “You want to give [graduates] confidence; having got their degrees, to then use them to fulfill their lives.”
In addition to the well-received memoir about his grandfather, The Banker and the Blackfoot, Cham-berlin has written about a range of topics from the life of Oscar Wilde to poetry in the West Indies.
Poet Goodison is also an author of both fiction and non-fiction books. Her Collected Poems has been published by the prestigious U.K. literary house, Carcanet Press. Her three-year term as poet laureate ends in May, 2020.
