Two distinguished Canadians will receive honorary degrees from Lakehead University on Saturday, May 29, at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium.

Austin Clarke, a distinguished author, will be receiving a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, and will address the morning Convocation beginning at 9 a.m. Frank Dottori, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tembec Corporation, will be receiving a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, and will address the afternoon Convocation at 2:30 p.m.

As well, Dusty Miller will be made a Fellow of Lakehead University in the morning and Robert Mace will receive the Alumni Honour Award in the afternoon.

Approximately 1,500 students will be graduating this spring.

Austin Clarke, Doctor of Letters, honoris causa

Born in the Barbados in 1934, Austin Clarke emigrated to Canada to attend the University of Toronto in 1955. He earned a reputation as a leader in the civil rights movement while in Toronto. From 1965 to 1973, Clarke worked as a journalist covering social issues and civil rights. From 1968 to 1974, he was a visiting professor at various universities, including Yale, Williams, Wellesley, and Duke. Clarke was instrumental in setting up Black Studies programs at Yale and Harvard. From 1973 to 1976, Clarke served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Barbados, and from 1989 to 1994, he was a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Since 1964, he has published nine novels and five short-story collections. His latest novel, The Polished Hoe, won the 2003 Commonwealth Writers Prize, the 2003 Trillium Award, and the 2002 Giller Prize. In 1999, Clarke won the W.O. Mitchell Prize, which is awarded each year to a Canadian writer who has produced an outstanding body of work and served as a mentor for other writers.

Frank Dottori, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa
Frank Dottori, born in Timmins in 1939, graduated from the University of Toronto in 1963 with a BASc in Chemical Engineering and Applied Science. In 1973, he and three other executives founded Tembec Inc., reviving a pulp mill in Temiscaming, Quebec. Since 1979, Dottori has been Tembec’s President and CEO.

Dottori  is currently Chair of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN) and Chair of the Free Trade Lumber Council. He is former Chair of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association (CPPA) as well as the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) and former Co-chair of the Forest Sector Advisory Committee of the Canadian government (FSAC). He has also served as a Governor of the Montreal Stock Exchange (MSE), Director of the Canadian Labour Market Productivity Centre (CLMPC), Trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts and Governor for the Council of Canadian Unity. He has served on the Board of Directors of several organizations and corporations and is currently a Director of Bell Nordique and Saputo. He is a member of the Club des entrepreneurs of the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ).

He actively promotes recreational, educational, and cultural community activities and is a founder of the Contact, the weekly Temiscaming community newspaper.
In recognition of his diverse achievements in business and community service, Dottori has received numerous awards with the most notable being his appointment as Member of the Order of Canada in 1989.

Dusty Miller, Fellow, Lakehead University
Dusty Miller is a familiar name to the community of Thunder Bay. Miller graduated from Lakehead University in 1969 with a BA in Philosophy. She was Mayor of the City of Thunder Bay from 1978 to 1980, and served many years on City Council. She is dedicated to the cultural and political development of the area, and served as the first Chair of the Arts and Heritage Committee of Thunder Bay. She is a member of the Order of Ontario, has received the Maggie Bassett Award for Outstanding Contributions to Theatre in Ontario, and has been a member of many boards and committees.

Along with her late husband, Dr. Tom Miller, a former Lakehead University Professor of History, Dusty Miller was part of the group of citizens of Port Arthur and Fort William who advocated successfully for the establishment of a full-degree course university here in the early 1960s. Since then she has been involved with Lakehead in a variety of roles − as a student, a member of the Alumni Association, and a member of the Board of Governors.

In 1990, she was given Lakehead University’s Alumni Honour Award.

Robert Mace, Alumni Honour Award
Robert Mace, President and CEO of Thunder Bay Hydro, is a graduate of Lakehead University’s Faculty of Business Administration (1983) with majors in Accounting and Management Information Systems. He also holds an MBA from Laurentian University (2002).

He is the Northwestern Ontario representative on the Board of Directors of the Electricity Distribution Association (EDA), and a member of the Board of Directors of the MEARIE Group, the reciprocal insurance company serving the needs of electrical distribution utilities in Ontario. Mace has been with Thunder Bay Hydro for 12 years in various roles, most recently as Senior Manager, Customer and Information Services, and Assistant General Manager.