Voices of Acadia
so I don’t get too emotional about the place. It really means something to me – strongly. I don’t want to say anything bad about Toronto, but Toronto was the place where I got my PhD. It doesn’t have any hold on me. I became who I am because of Acadia. I met my wife in Toronto and got my PhD there, but I don’t have that same strong feeling that I have about Acadia. “What you find when you’re in those basic sciences like chemistry and biology and physics – especially physics – is that there are only so many ways to teach Physics 101, to get that basic physics grounding. I got that experience with a class size of only five or six people. “I got just as good a background at Acadia and they instilled in me that sense of hard work. I never considered myself terribly bright, but I must have brought some of the work ethic with me, being a farm boy. I have 250 people who work for me now and the majority of them are much brighter than I am, but I still work hard and there’s something about Acadia that allowed that. When I went to the University of Toronto I felt fully equipped, so all the preparation I had at Acadia served me well in terms of my confidence and abilities. When people say, ‘Where did you go to school?’ I always say ‘Acadia.’ Toronto doesn’t come into my head until they say, ‘Well where did you get your PhD?’ and then I say, ‘Oh, Toronto.’ So I identify myself first and foremost as an Acadia grad.”
Shirley MacLaine Actress Shirley MacLaine (Hon. ’85) did not attend Acadia University, but her connections extend well beyond the honorary degree that she was given in 1985. MacLaine’s mother, Kathlyn McLean Beaty, graduated in 1928 and while a student was awarded an ‘A’ for her campus involvement in dramatics and athletics. Two of MacLaine’s aunts, Alexandra Eaton (’28) and Virginia MacLeod (’29), also attended Acadia, and her grandmother, Mrs. Blanche MacLean, was Dean of Women and taught elocution. MacLaine, whose brother is actor Warren Beatty, grew up in Wolfville until the age of 12 when the family moved to the United States.
Following the presentation of her honorary degree, she told the audience of graduating students about her mother’s oft-repeated love for the “institution that sat near the windswept shores of the Atlantic.” Apparently the verbal indoctrination was effective because MacLaine admitted she came to believe that “Acadia was the seat of knowledge in the western world. “From this university sprang the dreams and theatrical human expressions that so influenced me when I was growing up,” said the woman who has received multiple Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar for Terms of Endearment. She has also won an Emmy and five Golden Globe awards. She has written several books about her career and her spiritual beliefs.
Ted Upshaw On the basketball court, Ted Upshaw (’80) was always a leader. The 6’6”, 225-pound star of the Acadia Axemen teams of the late 1970s was an enforcer, and the Three Mile Plains, N.S. native led Acadia to the nationals four times. In 1976–77, they captured the Canadian university championship under coach Dick Hunt. “Winning with several Nova Scotians 18