E.M. (Ted) Culliton, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Jon Vickers at fall Convocation held in Physical Education gymnasium. Norman K. Cram, University Secretary, visible at left.

Bio/Historical Note: Jonathan Stewart Vickers, known professionally as Jon Vickers, was born in 1926 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and as a youth sang in church. He was a long-time friend of John Diefenbaker, who attended the same Baptist church in Prince Albert, and performed at the prime minister's funeral in 1979. Vickers worked on a neighbour's farm and acquired the muscular stature that characterized him. He held jobs as a butcher, a Woolworth's store manager and a tool salesman before auditioning with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He was awarded a scholarship to the RCT in 1950. In 1957 Vickers joined London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden company. In 1960 he joined the Metropolitan Opera. Vickers became world-famous for a wide range of German, French and Italian roles. Vickers' huge, powerful voice and solid technique met the demands of many French, German and Italian roles. In 1968 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1998 Vickers retired from singing. Vickers received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, in 1998. Vickers died in 2015 in Ontario at age 88.