UTS VALUES FLORISH IN ONE MAN'S LEGACY

Remembering Tom Symons C.C., O Ont, FRSC ’47 (1929–2021)

Tom Symons C.C., O Ont, FRSC ’47, the founding president and vice‐chancellor of Trent University, takes part in Trent University’s 50th Anniversary parade procession in 2014. Photo credit: Trent University

By Karen Sumner

How is it that Tom Symons graduated over 70 years ago yet his principles and his legacy so well exemplify the values embodied by University of Toronto Schools today? The simple answer is the school has always instilled its students with a love of learning, a desire to take initiative, and a sense of social and global responsibility, all hallmarks of Tom’s life and career as a scholar, innovator, champion of human rights, and the revered founding president and vice-chancellor of Trent University.

But that doesn’t seem like an adequate explanation. Time passes. People and institutions change. The 1940s are not the 2020s. Tom’s classmates wouldn’t recognize the UTS of today: co-educational, culturally diverse, technologically advanced, physically revitalized and expanded. Yet at the heart of the school beats a constant theme: the talent and spirit of its staff. Even though he earned degrees from the University of Toronto, Oxford, and Harvard, Tom said UTS had the greatest impact on him, of all the schools he attended. He also said that his UTS History Teacher, Andy Lockhart, was better than any university professor he ever had.

When people talk about Tom, they invariably reference his humanity. “He was a leader, but he was a leader in a very interesting way,” says UTS alumnus Dr . Stephen Stohn ’66, now chancellor of Trent University. “He was a gentleman. He was very reserved and quiet. But he had this vision for Trent University. And we all got imbued with that vision. So we followed him like a leader… Like a Beatle. Like a rock star.”

Tom knew how to bring the levity to life. “I was there on the shores of Champlain College when Tom was addressing the students,” Stephen says, “and suddenly decided to dive into the Otonabee River fully clothed in his suit, still smoking his pipe and wearing his watch and wallet.”

When Tom was offered a high-profile federal appointment in the sixties, he was so revered at Trent that “nearly half of the university marched to Tom’s offices to plead with him to stay on as president of the University,” recalls Stephen. In true UTS fashion, Stephen was one of the ringleaders of the protest, which achieved its goal.

At UTS, Tom Symons served on the Twig Editorial Board.

One of Tom’s former students, Owen Kane, who graduated from Trent in 2015, said that Tom embodied the broadminded public virtue defined by Aristotle as “highness of soul” and by Cicero as “the will to do a kind service, even though nothing happens to come of it.” Tom inspired people to do more and be more, says former Trent colleague and UTS alumnus Tony Storey ’71, while Owen puts it like this: “Leaving a meeting at Tom’s house, you felt, for a time, that you could make anything happen, so long as you put your mind to it.” It’s precisely that impact on others that connects Tom’s UTS of the 1940s to Stephen and Tony’s of the 1960s and 1970s to the UTS of today. “The tone he struck and culture he shaped was one of civility and collegiality,” says Tony, who was a graduate of Trent before he became its alumni affairs director. “Also intimacy and community. All of that strikes me as very UTS. Tom always said, ‘Education is inescapably an individual experience.’ Meaning, personal relationships, knowing the students as individuals, are critical for the best possible education. He learned that at UTS, as did I. And that’s what he brought to Trent.”

Tony Storey ’71, retired Trent University alumni affairs director.

The story goes that every year, Tom memorized the names, photographs, and key information for every new Trent student. “He knew all of our names,” recalls Stephen. “I’ve never been able to figure out how he was able to do that.”

A DEPARTURE FROM THE TREND

Speaking to CBC Radio in 1969, Tom said, “The organization of the university and its general character is a pretty pronounced departure from the current trend in higher education in Canada and still more in the United States.”

Tom called on UTS classmates and friends Dick Sadlier ’47 and John Leishman ’47 to join him in founding a university he intended to be unlike any other in Canada. Dick served as dean of men, head of the English department, and vice president. John served as controller, then vice president of finance, then executive vice-president of external relations and financial affairs.

Tony recalls how Tom described the university’s strategic goals from the beginning. “He wanted there to be no class, race, or culture barriers to attending Trent. He felt Trent belonged to the community and ought to be accessible to all. His position was that everyone is an equal and has the same right to education. He established unique programs at the university to build a culture of understanding and inclusion.”

Trent was the first university in the country to establish a Canadian Studies program and has been home to the Journal of Canadian Studies since 1966. It was also the first to offer an Indigenous Studies program, partly founded by one of Trent’s first Indigenous students, Harvey McCue, an Anishinabe from Georgina Island First Nation who was in the Class of 1966. In addition to a PhD option in Indigenous Studies, it now also offers a program in Indigenous Environmental Studies, and a specialized Diploma in Foundations of Indigenous Learning that provides access for people of Indigenous heritage. It also houses Nozhem: First Peoples’ Performance Space.

Today, a historic plaque hangs in Trent’s Bata Library to mark the site of the inaugural meeting of what would become the Inuit Tapirisat, now known as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national representational organization for Inuit in Canada. In 1971, Inuit organizer Tagak Curley arranged for Inuit leaders to meet to discuss mounting threats to their culture and livelihood, and Tom offered them a space to gather. Among many things, he was a connector and catalyst for change.

The 2016 ceremony in Trent University’s Bata Library to mark the inaugural meeting of what would become the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Left to right: Tom Symons; Trent University President and Vice‑Chancellor Leo Groarke; Peter Ittinuar, the first Inuk in Canada elected as an MP; and former Trent University Chancellor Mary May Simon C.M.

Photo credit: Trent University

Makeda Daley, the first director of outreach programs and community engagement at UTS, attended Trent in the late 1990s and says she felt Tom’s penchant for community building as a student.

Makeda Daley, the first director of outreach programs and community engagement at UTS, who attended Trent in the late 1990s.

“The university continues to emphasize both Canadian and global citizenship,” she says. “As a Black student, I never felt anything other than a sense of connection to the school, and there were more Black and international students there than

I expected. And though I studied English literature and women’s studies, I learned more about Canadian history at Trent than anywhere else. I also read Indigenous authors for the first time. And I remember how the campus was a positive space for LGBT students and a place where we were all encouraged to learn about each other.”

Looking back, Makeda sees parallels between Trent and UTS culture. “It’s about the conversations at all levels, including between teachers and students. The open-mindedness, the multiple perspectives, the close relationships. If Tom learned that at UTS, I can say that it was firmly planted at Trent and flourished well beyond his term as university president.”

BUILDING A BETTER WORLD

The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell O.C., O Ont, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, presented Tom Symons with the Gabrielle Léger medal and certificate for Lifetime Achievement in Heritage Conservation, in 2016.

Photo credit: Trent University

After leaving Trent’s leadership in the capable hands of others, Tom embarked on a multifaceted career that balanced and connected his passions for teaching, global education, human rights, environmental and historical conservation, and service to his country.

He served as chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 1975 to 1978, where he helped lead major advancements, particularly for the LGBTQ2SI+ community. He served two terms as chair of the board of United World Colleges, which brings young students from all backgrounds together to engage in social change. Aligning with Tom’s belief that education should be independent of socioeconomic means, the vast majority of United World Colleges students receive financial assistance according to their needs.

He also served as the chair or founding chair of the Association for Commonwealth Studies, the Canadian Association in Support of Native Peoples, the Commission of French Language Education in Ontario, the National Library and Advisory Board, the Ontario Heritage Trust, and many other organizations.

In addition to humility and humanity, “Tom was always smiling and had an infectious joy of life,” says Tony. “People felt that energy when he stopped to talk to them about anything at all. He made everyone feel important, which of course they are. But a person doesn’t walk around feeling that way. He had great instincts for what people need in order to be at their best and also for what our country needed so it could be better.”

Over his lifetime, Tom earned 13 honorary degrees from Canadian universities and colleges and played a role in founding more than a dozen other colleges and universities. In 2019, when Martha Drake, UTS Executive Director, Advancement, visited him in his home (which he purchased from Robertson Davies), Tom talked about his current work helping to establish Canada’s first Arctic university.

“One of the purposes of my visit was to present Tom with his Hall of Fame award for his contribution and commitment to education in Canada,” says Martha. “We talked about his continued involvement at UTS and his memories of some of his favourite teachers – called ‘Masters’ then. It was touching to hear how much he cherished his time at the school seven decades later.”

om Symons C.C., O Ont, FRSC ’47 (second from right) at the UTS Groundbreaking Ceremony for our renewed building on December 12, 2018.

If anyone embodies the maxim to leave the world a better place than they found it, it’s Tom Symons. He did so by creating communities and opportunities that did not previously exist. Bob Rae P ’02, now Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, said of Tom, “He just built things.” He did, with his characteristic openness to life. He also knocked things down, like prejudice and barriers to equality. All while holding UTS in his heart. ■