• Participated in three varsity sports: hockey, football, and track (1917-18).
• Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1919; went to Oxford, where he excelled in track and rowing.
• Member of the Ontario Legislature and a cabinet minister in the 1940s.
• Elected to the House of Commons in 1953 and Speaker of the House for two Parliaments.
• Made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967. Served as Governor-General of Canada (1967-74).
• Served as Chancellor of Queens University (1974-80).

In a lifetime of exemplary service to Canadians, indeed to many people beyond our borders, Roland Michener has epitomized the unselfish blending of professional and public life guided by the humanitarian principles from which democratic societies draw their strength.

Roland Michener was born in April, 1900 in Lacombe, Alberta but grew up in Red Deer before entering the University of Alberta in 1917. Two years later he was awarded a Rhodes' Scholarship to attend Hertford College, Oxford University. It was from Oxford that he received a Bachelor of Arts degree (1922), a Bachelor of Civil Law degree (1923) and a Master of Arts degree (1929). In addition to the Honourary Doctorate of Laws degree awarded by this University in 1967, he has received 18 additional Honourary Doctorate degrees from Canadian and other universities including an Honourary Doctorate of Civil Law from Oxford University in 1971.

During his two year tenure at the University of Alberta, Roland Michener led a very active existence. While maintaining a high standard of scholarship, he managed to play coronet in the U of A band, hold office in the Rifle Club and YMCA Club as well as hold the office of Secretary of the Students' Union. In the summer of 1918 he enlisted in the Royal Air Force but returned to the University shortly after the armistice in November of that year.

Concurrent with maintaining grades high enough to win a Rhodes' Scholarship, Mr. Michener was involved in track and field, football and hockey, for which he won a "large A" at this University. He later excelled in the pole vault, rowing and hockey while attending Oxford.

Throughout his life, he has lived by the creed "Mens sana in corpore sano." Aside from the substantial benefits in enjoyment, vigour and good health this has brought to him personally, his example over decades, particularly as a role model in the Participaction Program, has been an inspiration to tens of thousands of Canadians. At age 90, he played "a fair game" of doubles tennis and it was not until that year that he decided to retire from his daily regimen of jogging.

Mr. Michener practised law in Toronto from 1924 to 1957. He entered politics in 1945 as a member and later a cabinet minister in the Ontario Legislature. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1953 and was Speaker of the House for two Parliaments in 1957 and 1958. In 1967, Roland Michener was appointed Governor-General of Canada and served in that position until 1974.

From 1974 to 1980, he was the Chancellor of Queen's University, and has been elected an Honourary Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, received the International Freedom Award and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada among other prestigious honours.

Throughout his active career Roland Michener has served on as many as 26 boards of companies and is still an honourary director of a mining company as well as insurance and trust companies. He has been the High Commissioner for Canada in India (1964-1967), was the first Canadian Ambassador to Nepal (1964-1967) and has been a member of the Privy Council.

To recognize Roland Michener as a distinguished Canadian understates the case. The University of Alberta is enhanced by such an outstanding, prolific and enduring graduate.