Two long-time advocates of Wells Gray Provincial Park are to receive honorary doctorate degrees from Thompson-Rivers University during the school’s on-campus spring convocation.
Anne and Roland Neave will be awarded Doctor of Letters for their advocacy to preserve nature through philanthropy and education.
Roland, a TRU alumni, spent his summers organizing bus tours of Wells Gray Park. These tours eventually became the largest outbound tour company in B.C. Wells Gray Tours is celebrating its 50th year this May and June. He has also published three books, one of which is the popular Exploring Wells Gray Park, a road and trail guide to the province’s fourth-largest provincial park.
Anne graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Home Economics and taught in Kamloops for 19 years. For over 35 years she has volunteered with environmental and social justice groups, and in 2014 received the Community and Environmental Activism Award from the Council of Canadians.
Endowments supporting 13 TRU scholarships and bursaries have been created from donations from the Roland and Anne Neave. They also donated 160 acres of land near Clearwater to the university in 2014 for education purposes. The land has allowed students to study a complex wetlands ecosystem.
“An honorary degree is the highest form of recognition offered by TRU and awarded for demonstrated excellence in the fields of public affairs, the sciences, arts, humanities, business, law and philanthropy,” reads a statement from TRU.
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