U of G Awards Honorary Doctorate to Longtime Volunteer Fundraiser and Humanitarian – Roland Browning Watt

The University of Guelph and the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) were proud to award Roland (Roly) Browning Watt, K.C., a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, during OVC’s Summer Convocation Ceremony on June 9, 2025. The honour recognized nearly five decades of volunteer leadership in fundraising at OVC, and myriad other places.

Roly was inspired by the care that his adored cat Annie received at OVC to begin volunteering with the OVC Pet Trust Advisory Board in 2007. Roly has held the appointment of Chair of the OVC Pet Trust Board of Patrons ever since, making him the longest serving member of the Executive Committee of the Board. For four years (2010 – 2014), Roly also served as a member of the Campaign Cabinet for the University of Guelph’s Better Planet Project.

An invaluable volunteer source of legal, estate, and fundraising expertise, Roly initiated and then served on the organizing committees for what would become a series of four OVC Pet Trust Galas (2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018). Roly co-chaired the committee for the fourth and final Gala with Emmanuelle Gattuso which raised nearly five of the combined $6 million total for all four galas. The funds supported the development of OVC’s world-class Mona Campbell Animal Cancer Centre, the James Slaight Advanced Surgical Complex and the Catherine Bergeron Centre for Urgent and Critical Care where more than 10,000 family pets are treated each year. These centres have helped enable the highest standards of care, secure OVC’s global leadership in veterinary medical research, and offer best-in-class educational opportunities to Ontario’s student veterinarians.

In the 1980s, while acting as caregiver for his father, Roly became painfully aware of the elderly in his community who were alone and without assistance. His first non-profit leadership roles were as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Don Mills Foundation for Seniors. Twenty years later, he helped rebrand and re-incorporate the charity as the Better Living Charitable Foundation, in a second term as Chair. This thriving organization provides meals and other essential services to frail seniors and vulnerable adults in the North York region.

A graduate of Upper Canada College (UCC), Roly was enticed to volunteer for and eventually chair the UCC Foundation where his fundraising focus was on the need for student aid. This mission led him to visit alumni around the world. Traveling at his own expense, he visited 15-18 cities per year in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Hong Kong, and China. To this day, UCC graduates approach Roly and thank him for the life-changing experience their scholarship afforded them. Roly continues to serve on the U.K. and U.S. foundation boards.

Also, during his tenure at the UCC Foundation, Roly helped to steward the largest gift to that point in UCC’s history, for a program that provided teaching expertise and accommodations for students with divergent learning styles. Roly championed this big change from its inception, and 25 years later, this supportive engagement has become central to the life of the school. UCC’s success with this program would go on to inspire the use of more inclusive teaching strategies throughout the independent school system.

While Roly was striving to make UCC better, he was also working to improve the services available at his local general hospital, North York General Hospital (NYGH). Roly worked on the Foundation Board to build a governance structure and recruit members and Chairpersons who would move the organization forward.

Roly was a key part of the success of two fundraising campaigns at NYGH, serving in the first as a foundation board member, and in the second, as fundraising co-chair. As a result of these efforts, the hospital was able to establish specialized units to radically reduce wait times for cancer diagnoses. The BMO Breast Diagnostic Clinic opened in 1997 and today serves 1,500 patients a year. Ten years later, in 2007, the Gale and Graham Wright Prostate Centre began operations and became the first such unit to be housed in a community hospital in the province. This Centre continues to serve more than 2,500 patients a year.

During his Convocation Address to OVC’s Class of 2025, Roly said, "Your career may be how you get there, but it isn't who you are or who you'll become. Your personal values determine how you think and care about others ... About what's most important to you? What makes you laugh? What fills your soul?”

“I’ve enjoyed a long career in the practice of law, but it is my volunteer work that has given me greater satisfaction… It fills me with joy and gratitude that I played a small part in all of this wonderful work.”