Bob Rae

TRIBUTE TO H. NORTIlROP FRYE 3 sense of loss. Yet we are also joined together to celebrate his life and his work. Northrop Frye dedicated virtually his entire life to Victoria University and to the University of Toronto. He was born in Quebec in 1912. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts in 1933. He graduated from Emmanuel College in Theology in 1936. He was ordained with the ministry of the United Church of Canada and from 1939 onwards he served as lecturer and professor at Victoria College until the time of his death. He served as Chairman of the English Department and as Principal of the College. He was a University Professor. He was Chancellor of Victoria University. He was honoured throughout the academic world and received thirty-eight honorary degrees. His teaching influenced the lives of thousands of students. His scholarship influenced the lives of millions. He was Canada's most distinguished humanist. He was recogni2ed around the world for changing our understanding of his discipline and changing our understanding of much of what we read and write. He was also recogni2ed everywhere as a symbol of our university's aspirations, its standards and its goals. To celebrate such an extraordinary life, we have asked Northrop Frye's classmates, his students, his colleagues, and his friends to offer words of tribute and remembrance. BOB RAE I suppose I might be expected to speak very formally on behalf of the government and people of the Province of Ontario, but I would much prefer to speak a little more personally. In my very first years as a student at Oxford University, Northrop Frye was also at Oxford on sabbatical leave. I had never met him; I wasn't lucky enough either to get into or to go to Victoria College. But he was giving his lectures right across the street from where Ilived, so it was very easy for me to go and listen to Northrop Frye - Oxford had a system where anybody could go to any lecture anywhere at any time - and for me it was a truly marvellous experience. He was lecturing on Blake, and I always thought there was this wonderful incongruity ofsomeone who looked (I don'tmean to cause offence to anyone) very much like an accountant, giving his reflections on the most wild and romantic of poets, and doing itin the most marvellously clear, self-effacing but extraordinarily evocative way. I can remember Sitting next to a student from the United States. After about the firstten minutes he said, 'Man, this guy is really something.' And there was a certain incongruity to that as well. Soon after that, I received a note from Mr Frye saying he was there and that he'd like to go out for a beer, so I said 'Fine, we'll go out for a beer.' We had an extraordinary evening, where we talked about everything from his 4 TRIBUTE TO H. NORTHROP FRYE studentdays to my student days, to literature, to what I was doing, to what he was doing. It was an evening I will cherish. We repeated it on a couple of occasions since that time. I want to leave you with the impression, not of my feelings today, not of loss, but of celebration. His scholarship has changed the way we have come to understand each otherand the world in which we live, and the literature and tradition and the words we use to describe our condition. His modesty belied the extent of his contribution. His personal presence affected all who met him becauseabove all he was a teacher who loved the word, who loved to teach, who loved to joke and listen, to learn and to impart what he learned. We have lost a friend, the family has lost someone they dearly loved, but what a life we have all gained, simply by his being among us these seventyeight years. THE HONOURABLE PA ULINE Me GIBBON This afternoon I am speaking on behalf of the class of 1933, Victoria College. Northrop Frye (we called him Norrie) was a member of this year. He was one of us. We all have...