Vintner, astrophysicist, Aboriginal teacher to be honoured by UBCO
3 honorary degrees to be handed out at spring convocations
A wine visionary, Aboriginal teacher and astrophysicist will receive honorary degrees from UBC Okanagan at upcoming spring convocations. Anthony von Mandl, who owns West Kelowna’s Mission Hill Winery, Kelowna’s CedarCreek Winery Oliver’s CheckMate Winery, will be recognized for helping put the Okanagan on the map as a wine region after he purchased Mission Hill in 1981 and turned it into a world-class, awardwinning showpiece.
He also has a massive wine-importing business under his Mark Anthony Brands parent company.
And he received the Order of British Columbia in 2006 and the Order of Canada in 2016.
Rosalind Williams is an elder in the Splatsin First Nation in Enderby. She was the first woman to be elected chief of the community, in 1972.
She also is an advocate for preserving the Splatsin culture and and language, and in 2000 created the Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn school and daycare centre.
While she’s not from the Valley, astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi does have an Okanagan connection.
The professor from Montreal’s McGill University is working on instrumentation for the new Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Okanagan Falls.
Pentictonbased Grand Chief Stewart Phillip will pick up his honorary degree at UBC Vancouver.
Phillip was chief of the Penticton Indian Band before becoming chairman of the Okanagan Nation Alliance and president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
The title of grand chief was bestowed on him by the Okanagan Nation for his lifetime commitment to Indigenous causes.