Mr. Chancellor:
I have the honour to present to you Vernon F. McAdam, distinguished servant of Canadian youth and pioneering social worker.
Mr. McAdam was born in Nova Scotia and in that province developed his interest in work with boys.
He came to Montreal in 1917 as Assistant Director of Weredale House the Boys' Home of Montreal. Three years later he became its Executive Director and held this post until he retired in 1967.
He studied for three years at McGill in what was to become the University's School of Social Work. He is a charter member of the Canadian Association of Social Workers and a member of the Corporation of Professional Social Workers of the Province of Quebec.
When the Boys' Club of Canada was founded in 1924 Mr. McAdam became National Secretary. Later he became its National Director and was responsible for forming a great many of the local Boys' Clubs in Canada.
In addition to his responsibilities at Weredale House, Mr. McAdam served as Executive Director of the Shawbridge Boys' Farm and Training School during the last great war and commuted daily between the two institutions.
Even in times of great austerity Mr. McAdam has been an exceptionally effective advocate of the needs of the boys he has served. He has also been unyielding in his insistence on quality in all aspects of his own work and in the work of those associated with him.
When the Order of Canada was founded, Mr. McAdam received its Medal of Service.
Mr. Chancellor, I am honoured to present to you, on behalf of University Council, and by the authority of the Board of Governors, Mr. Vernon F. McAdam, that you may confer on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
* deceased
