Ned Landry among Distinguished Three Honoured by St. Thomas.
Some of the most exciting events in New Brunswick’s long romance with the fiddle are taking place this summer!
And this past weekend folks who flocked to Harvey saw the kick off of it — the 100thAnniversary of Don Messer’s birth in the village of Tweedside near there on May 9, 1909. That event was the first of several to take place celebrating Messer’s life and the integral part he played in popularizing the Down East style of fiddle music through his network radio and television shows, Canada-wide summer tours and performing forays into the US as early as the 1930s.
And last Sunday at St. Thomas University in Fredericton three time North American fiddle champion Ned Landry, who began his long career with Don Messer’s New Brunswick Lumberjacks in 1934, was bestowed with an honorary doctorate by St. Thomas University at their 99th Convocation. Ned, born Frederick Lawrence Landry on February 2, 1921 in Saint John is a recipient of the Order of Canada and has also been honored with lifetime achievement awards by the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championships which named a trophy after him and the East Coast Music Awards. He is an inductee of the North American Fiddling Hall of Fame (in their New York State Shrine), the New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall Of Fame. He has had a biography Master Of The Fiddle published of his life as well as many magazine and newspaper articles. Last year tunes he composed were a subject of a study at fiddle camps throughout Maine.
Ned credits his wife Mildred, who recently suffered a critical heart attack for providing the spark that led to the bestowal of his St. Thomas University doctorate. At a Miramichi concert last summer Mildred seated in the audience beside Professor Shanahan told him of Ned’s many accomplishments and his significant contributions to the world of music, noting that Ned’s cousin Tom Connors — Stompin’ Tom had received two honorary doctorates, the first one from St. Thomas in 1993. That was the stimulus that led to this honor being bestowed on him. As Ned said at the impressive reception and banquet, at the University’s spacious Conference Centre the previous night that although he, an 88 year old veteran of the Second World War, had only a grade five education, he was now a doctor — at least, an honorary one. That statement and his performance of a tune he recently composed, the STU (St. Thomas University) Special, both drew applause from the distinguished audience which included the faculty and the two others receiving honorary degrees at this year’s Convocation: First Nation’s writer, educator and actor Lee Maracle and the president of the Oblate School Of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, Rev. Ron Rolheiser, the author of 15 books of religious insight.