Two individuals who left lasting legacies at UBC died this past month.
Former UBC chancellor and B.C. Appeal Court chief justice Nathan T. Nemetz
died Oct. 21. He was 84.
Dorothy Lam, philanthropist and wife of former lieutenant-governor David Lam
died Oct. 16. She was 67.
Nemetz was chancellor of UBC from 1972 to 1975 and chaired the Board of Governors
from 1965 to 1968. He maintained a lifelong association with the university
after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 1934. In 1969 he received
the Great Trekker Award and in 1975 received an honorary Doctor of Laws.
The Nathan T. Nemetz Chair in Legal History in the Faculty of Law is a lasting
tribute to his contribution to UBC and the field of legal history.
Nemetz was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1963.
He was made chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1973, and chief justice
of the Appeal Court, the top judicial post in the province, in 1978.
Through the David and Dorothy Lam Foundation, Dorothy Lam with her husband
David, made significant endowments to many charities and educational institutions,
including UBC.
Their gifts to UBC include the David Lam Asian Garden, the David Lam Management
Research Centre, the David See Chai Lam Management Research Library and the
Dorothy C. Lam Chair in Special Education.
The Dorothy C. Lam Chair, held by Prof. Linda Siegel, allows the Faculty of
Education to pursue studies of individuals with special needs, analyse how they
can best be educated, and address the effects on their intellectual and social
development of including them in regular classrooms.
Both Dorothy and David Lam were recipients of of the Alumni Association’s
Honorary Alumni Award earlier this year.
