Mary Louise Lynch graduated from UNB with a Law degree in 1933 and was called to the New Brunswick bar the following year. After working in the Saint John firm Gilbert McGloan Gillis for a number of years, she was hired by Lord Beaverbrook in 1948 to handle his legal affairs in Canada. That same year Lynch resumed her association with UNB by becoming Secretary and Registrar of the UNB Law School in Saint John. Her ties with the university did not end there--from 1954 to 1984 she was a member of the Board of Governors and for a number of years she was heavily involved with the selection committee for the Beaverbrook Undergraduate and Overseas Scholarships. In 1960, Lynch became the first woman appointed to the National Parole Board in Ottawa, a position she retained until her retirement in 1975.
At Fall Convocation in 1981 UNB recognized her achievement and contributions by awarding her an honorary DCL. Lynch was again honoured by her alma mater in 1984 when she was named Governor Emerita, the first in UNB's history. Lynch has funded a number of prizes in memory of family and friends that are available to UNB students, and in 2008 Lynch was honoured again by the university with the naming of a lecture theatre in Ludlow Hall as the Mary Louise Lynch Room.
Source(s):
- Alumni News, vol. 14, no. 3, October 1960, p. 4.
- University Perspectives, vol. 11, no. 1, August 1984, p. 2.
- UA Case 123; Section 3, Box 1; Ludlow Hall.
- UNB Honorary Degrees Database