OVC Grad to Receive Inaugural Dean's Award
June 11, 2008 - News Release
The University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) will honour a prominent alumnus this week for his support of OVC and his role in promoting the study of diseases affecting both people and animals.
Blake Graham, a member of the OVC Class of 1951, will receive the inaugural Dean’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the College during convocation ceremonies Thursday.
Most recently, Graham was instrumental in launching a new endowed fellowship, which when fully funded will allow veterinarians to pursue graduate studies in the realm of public health and infectious diseases that affect animals and people.
He also played a pioneering role in promoting comparative cancer research and was an early advocate of OVC’s plans to build a companion animal primary health-care centre, which will create a new model for educating veterinary students, and of the Animal Cancer Centre.
Graham, who was a practising veterinarian until 1975, when he launched a new career in business, said his goal now is to attract additional funding for the endowment to create new opportunities for research and training in public health for the benefit of all species.
OVC dean Elizabeth Stone called Graham "a great friend of the college, both as a donor and as a sounding board for new ideas. I can think of no one else more deserving of this inaugural Dean’s Award in recognition of his contributions.”
For media questions, contact Communications and Public Affairs: Lori Bona Hunt, 519-824-4120, Ext. 53338, or l.hunt@exec.uoguelph.ca, or Deirdre Healey, Ext. 56982 or d.healey@exec.uoguelph.ca.
