Described as one of seven recipients who are "inspiring and motiving," Trent interim president and vice-chancellor David Smith will be awarded an honorary degree from the University of Western Ontario June 12.

      Smith will receive a doctor of laws, honoris causa (lld) and address Western's graduating class from the Faculty of Social Science. He is being acknowledged "for a lifetime of articulate advocacy of the importance and value of higher education."

      Western describes its honorary degree recipients as "movers, shakers and groundbreakers in education, research, business and the arts."

      Smith began serving as Trent's interim president last July 1 and continues until June 30 this year.

      Smith was Queen's principal and vice-chancellor from 1984 to 1994. In 1996 he chaired the provincial government's advisory panel on postsecondary education in Ontario, which produced a year-end report. He completed another government assignment in the first part of 1997 on research policy recommendations he made in that report.

      Smith joined Queen's faculty in 1960 to teach economics after earning a BA from McMaster, an MA from Oxford and a PhD from Harvard. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Member of the Order of Canada and has previously received honorary degrees from Queen's, McMaster and Queen's University in Belfast.