1991 Alumnus of the Year
Alumnus of the YearDr. Harold Lundrigan, Dip.Eng.'49
Prominent businessman Harold Lundrigan became the recipient of the 1991 Alumnus of the Year Award at a dinner held in his honor at the Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook, on November 2. He is the first Memorial University College alumnus to be so honored. The award is given in recognition of outstanding contribution made by an alumnus or alumna to the private of public life of the community.
Dr. Ross Peters, dean, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, introduced Mr. Lundrigan and spoke of his many accomplishments. After leaving Memorial, he earned an engineering degree from Nova Scotia Technological College (now the Technical University of Nova Scotia) in 1952 and returned to the family firm in Corner Brook.
Becoming successively the firm’s managing director, senior vice-president, and, by 1983, president and CEO, he was involved in large projects including the hydro developments at Churchill Falls and Bay d’Espoir. He oversaw his company’s rapid expansion with the acquisition of Comstock International. Apart form his engineering and business accomplishments, Dr. Peters said, “Harold has been and is a creative advisor on the province’s economic development. He’s past executive member of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, the first chairman of the Economic Recovery Commission Advisory Board and its successor, the Advisory Council on the Economy. He has also served on Memorial’s Board of Regents and those of C-CORE and Seabright.”
In accepting the award, Mr. Lundrigan said, “I swell with great pride and I’m touched at the honor the alumni have bestowed upon me.” He continued by talking about Memorial University’s past and present and its potential to help shape the future of Newfoundland.
“In 1949, when I received my engineering diploma, there were about 300 students on campus, and my engineering class was just under 30. Most of those who later graduated in engineering went to work on the mainland and they made their contribution, no doubt about that. Those who chose to come home, I fee, had an impact on the province’s development, and the province has been much better because of that contribution. Today, 42 years later, we have a full-fledged university the more that 17,000 students.”
He mentioned the formation of the faculty of business administration and P.J. Gardiner Institute saying that he suspects today a large number of graduates, understandably, have gone elsewhere to find employment but “the probability is that not enough of them will fuel the ranks of small business [in the province].”
He queried whether the now much larger institution with its greater resources is making the best contribution it can toward the solution of the province’s many social and economic problems, emphasizing that Memorial is “the biggest single asset outside the resourcefulness of the people of the province.” He admitted the task facing the province “is somewhere between tremendous and impossible” as he outlined the downturn in the traditional resource industries, mentioning that, for the first time in almost 100 years, there is no mine operating on the island, the two mines in Labrador are operating in great difficulty, forestry is struggling, the fishery failing.
Drawing attention to the business community, he said in 1987 there ware some 15,000 businesses in the province with 14,200 of them employing between one and 20 people. Considering the provincial unemployment level of some 50,000, “If we assume the average number of employees per business in 10, we will need 5,000 more of these small businesses just to take up the backlog, to say nothing of those who enter the work force in the interim.
“I’m quite aware to set up business requires many things, but a desire to get into business is one of the key elements.” He pointed out that this is where Memorial can help. “Memorial University is a great institution, a storehouse of knowledge, and a teacher of virtually all our teachers. It is in a position to produce for our society professions we need to make our province better and to reach our objective of self-dependence, or less dependence and more self-reliance.
“To accomplish this, we need a new attitude, an attitude that realizes it is the creation of wealth that gives us our standard of living and quality of social services, and not the generosity of governments, either the provincial or federal.” He said Memorial can help bring about his attitudinal change.
He concluded by saying, “In my long association with Memorial, particularly with the Board of Regents, I have observed much growth, considerable achievement and also, sometimes, the shortcomings when Memorial has not reached its full potential. In all of this, I want to assure the alumni members and the friends of the alumni of my esteem for our university, and I quote from an old ditty, ‘With all your faults, I love you still.’”
Among Mr. Lundrigan’s many awards are the Association of Professional Engineers award of merit, an honorary doctorate form TUNS, and most recently, this fall, the Order of Canada. He has participated in a volunteer capacity with the Boy Scouts, the Salvation Army, Junior Achievement and Joseph R. Smallwood Heritage Foundation, and he is a charter member of the Lieutenant-Governor’s Foundation on Family Life. He is chairman of the Newfoundland and Labrador Business Hall of Fame.
Previous alumnus of the year award winners are: Harry Steele, 1982; Dr. Arthur May, 1983; Gwynne Dyer, 1984; Victor Young, 1985; Grace Sparkes, 1986; Gerald Tilley, 1987; Dr. Linda Inkpen, 1988; William Rompkey, 1989; and Clyde Wells, 1990.
Also at the dinner, Ferriss Hodgett, vice-principal of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, was inducted into the Eaton Society for his continuing support of the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and the Corner Brook alumni chapter. The society was crated to recognize alumni who have made significant contributions to the community, the university, the alumni association and/or a particular field of endeavor, usually on a continuing basis. Other 1991 members are: Jim Butler, for his contributions and continuing support of the alumni association; Ern Condon, for his contributions to the community, the university and continuing support of the Labrador West alumni chapter; and Olga Broomfield, for her contributions to the academic community and the Halifax and area alumni chapter.