Media Releases

UofT holds ceremony in honour of 80th birthdays of Presidents Emeriti George Connell and John Evans

May 27, 2010

TORONTO, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is hold­ing a cer­e­mo­ny on Tues­day, June 1 2010 to ded­i­cate two park bench­es in hon­our of the 80th birth­days of UofT Pres­i­dents Emer­i­ti George Con­nell and John Evans. The park bench­es will be installed on cam­pus grounds south of Hart House/east of Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege. 

EVENT DETAILS: 

WHAT:  Park Bench ded­i­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny in hon­our of the 80th birth­days of Pres­i­dents  Emer­i­ti George Con­nell and John Evans 

WHO:  Pres­i­dent Emer­i­ti George Con­nell, Pres­i­dent Emer­i­ti John Evans, UofT Pres­i­dent David Nay­lor 

WHERE: UofT cam­pus, south of Hart House and east of Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege 

WHEN: Tues­day, June 1, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

UofT Media Rela­tions
416–978-0100

BIOS 

George Edward Con­nell, OC, FRSC (born June 20, 1930) is a Cana­di­an aca­d­e­m­ic. Born in Saska­toon, Saskatchewan, Con­nell stud­ied at Upper Cana­da Col­lege in Toron­to and grad­u­at­ed in 1947. He then attend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, earn­ing an Hon­ours B.A. in bio­chem­istry in 1951 and a PhD in 1955.

Con­nell worked at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to for the next 22 years, first as a pro­fes­sor of bio­chem­istry and then as the chair­man of the depart­ment of bio­chem­istry. His research includ­ed the study of plas­ma cholinesterase. He left to serve as Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of West­ern Ontario from 1977 to 1984, before return­ing to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to to become its twelfth Pres­i­dent from 1984 to 1990.

In 1987, Con­nel was made an Offi­cer of the Order of Cana­da. He served as a prin­ci­pal advi­sor to the Roy­al Com­mis­sion of Inquiry on the Blood Sys­tem in Cana­da (known as the Krev­er Inquiry) estab­lished in 1993.

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Dr. John Evans (born Octo­ber 1, 1929) has been engaged in med­ical edu­ca­tion, aca­d­e­m­ic admin­is­tra­tion, gov­ern­ment ser­vice, char­i­ta­ble foun­da­tions and busi­ness. He is com­mit­ted to the growth of Cana­di­an com­pa­nies and to shar­ing knowl­edge with the devel­op­ing world. 

Dr. Evans received his under­grad­u­ate med­ical train­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and spe­cial­ty train­ing in inter­nal med­i­cine and car­di­ol­o­gy in Lon­don, Eng­land, Boston and Toron­to. Dr. Evans was found­ing Dean of the McMas­ter Uni­ver­si­ty, Temer­ty Temer­ty Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine in Hamil­ton, Ontario, served as Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and was found­ing Direc­tor of the Pop­u­la­tion, Health and Nutri­tion Depart­ment of the World Bank in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. He cur­rent­ly serves as a direc­tor of sev­er­al Cana­di­an cor­po­ra­tions and insti­tu­tions. Dr. Evans pre­vi­ous­ly served as Chair­man of Torstar Cor­po­ra­tion, Chair­man of Alcan Inc. and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rock­e­feller Foun­da­tion. 

Dr. Evans is a Com­pan­ion of the Order of Cana­da, mem­ber of the Order of Ontario, Fel­low of the Roy­al Col­lege of Physi­cians of Cana­da, Fel­low of the Roy­al Col­lege of Physi­cians, (Lon­don), Mas­ter of the Amer­i­can Col­lege of Physi­cians and Fel­low of the Roy­al Soci­ety of Cana­da.