Dr. Gervan Fearon portrait unveiled at Brock University
October 11, 2022
Commissioned portraits of Brock University Presidents adorn the Senate Chamber walls.
Added to the wall of honour is an oil painting of Dr. Gervan Fearon that was unveiled on September 23.
After becoming Canada’s first Black university President at Brandon University nine years ago, he went on to serve in a similar role at Brock from August 2017 to June 2021.
The university set enrolment records, grew research funding and enhanced community partnerships during Fearon’s tenure.
He played a pivotal role in developing Brock’s strategic plan and worked behind the scenes to bring together the Board of Trustees and the Senate. During the pandemic, he helped guide the university in pivoting and adapting to the changing landscape.
Under Brock’s sixth President, the university undertook capital projects, including a new student residence and the revamped and expanded Zone Fitness Centre.
The Horizon Graduate Student Scholarships, that will provide $1 million over the next decade to high-achieving graduate students from Black, Indigenous, People of Colour and other under-represented groups, was introduced.
The university established an engineering department, announced it was setting up academic programming at a new Burlington campus and collaborated with the Canada Games Host Society, Niagara Region, St. Catharines and Thorold that successfully resulted in the Niagara 2022 Canada Games legacy facilities being established at Brock.
The Niagara Region university extended its reach to the Caribbean under Fearon’s distinguished leadership.
He and University of the West Indies Vice-Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles conceptualized the idea for the establishment of the Canada-Caribbean Institute dedicated to connecting scholars from across Canada and the Caribbean to collaborate on vital economic, environmental and social issues that contribute to the shared prosperity of both regions.
Brock also became the first Canadian university to implement a scholarship agreement with Curacao that enables students from the Caribbean island to use their country’s national educational plan to pay for an international education at Brock. The students have full access to the university’s scholarship programs.
Fearon and then University of Technology in Jamaica President Stephen Vasciannie signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support the exploration of opportunities related to student and faculty exchange, joint degrees and research collaborations.
In addition, he unveiled the Caribbean International Scholarship that is awarded annually to two regional students who choose to pursue post-secondary studies at Brock.
“The university doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” said Fearon who is the President of George Brown College. “It exists in a global context and the degree to which it has a voice at an international and national level is another form of inclusion that we can solve problems here at the university that becomes an example for what is possible across the world.”
Brother Alwin Fearon (l) & his wife Marie Fearon, children Stephanie, Danielle & Michael Fearon, wife Dr. Kathy Moscou , nephew Julius Tapper and sisters Maureen Fearon-Tapper and Marlene Fearon joined Dr. Gervan Fearon at the portrait unveiling at Brock University (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Brock University Chancellor Hilary Pearson acknowledged the university’s vast accomplishments with Fearon at the steering wheel.
“In doing all this, you were not a remote figure on campus,” she added. “You have been approachable, curious, open and you have paid close attention to personal details and established close connections with students, staff and faculty alike. And, you certainly made me feel welcomed and engaged from the moment that we first spoke about me becoming Chancellor of Brock. I always value our conversations and your wide-ranging curiosity and interests in so many issues that we discussed together.”
Mark Arthur, the Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, said Brock was well served by Fearon’s dedicated leadership and passion for students and education.
“Your thoughtful and collaborative approach to leadership was highly valued by the team here at Brock,” he said. “I hope you will accept this portrait as a sincere thank you from the Brock community and, as we memorialize your time spent leading this great university, on behalf of the Board of Trustees.”
In thanking the university for the honour, Fearon said he felt good to be back on the campus.
“You get to come back and admire what has been accomplished and all the possibilities,” said the former Dean of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Raymond Chang School of Continuing Learning. “In that, one of the amazing things for me about post-secondary institutions is that, yes, it’s about the students. It is also about the community and when we think about the residences we end up putting on campus here and the ones that were renovated, they came about because of the community. What we realized is that as we were growing as an institution, our increase in student population was going to be taking away from affordable housing within the city unless we also had residences.”
Retired Brock University clinical neuropsychologist Jane Dywan painted the portrait.
Brock University Interim President & Vice Chancellor Lynne Wells (r) and painter Jane Dywall unveiled the portrait of Dr. Gervan Fearon (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“We did a couple photo shoots of Gervan and had him look at the other paintings in the Senate Chamber,” she said. “I asked him what he liked about each one to get a sense of his preferences and how he saw himself in his role. We saw him as a person who is very inviting. We wanted to have him look as if he just stood up from his chair to greet someone entering his office. It has an openness and a freshness to it.”
Fearon’s portrait hangs in the Senate Chamber alongside former Presidents James Gibson, Alan Earp who was the University of Guyana’s second Vice-Chancellor, Terry White, David Atkinson and Jack Lightstone.
