The chairman of the Irish Times Trust Ltd, Maj Thomas McDowell, is among 14 people chosen to receive an honorary degree from the University of Ulster. He will be conferred with a Doctorate of Letters during a graduation ceremony in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, on July 5th.
Also among the conferees are the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, star of the film Trainspotting; the Portadown born poet Prof Paul Muldoon; the chief executive of Disability Action, Ms Monica Wilson; British Olympic hockey gold medallist Stephen Martin; and US businessman Mr John Cullinane.
Ms Maureen Wheeler, the Belfast-born founder of the Lonely Planet publications, will be conferred with a Doctorate of Letters and the former moderator of the Presbyterian Church, the Very Rev Dr John Dunlop, will receive a Doctor of Law degree.
Others to be conferred are Lady Anne McCollum, chairwoman of the Mater Hospital Trust; Dr Alan Gillespie, chairman of the Industrial Development Board; Lord Jenkin of Roding, formerly the Conservative politician Mr Patrick Jenkin; scientist Sir Brian Fender, the chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council; Prof James Flannery, the Irish-American founder of the Yeats International Theatre Festival, and Queen's University graduate Mr David Forrester Figgins, who served as chief executive officer of Mellon Stuart, one of the largest contracting companies in the United States.
Maj McDowell was born in Northern Ireland and educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University Belfast. He volunteered for the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was commissioned in 1943. After holding a number of industrial appointments, he became chief executive of The Irish Times Ltd in 1962 and remained in that post until he retired in 1997.
In a statement last night, the university said Maj McDowell was being honoured for his work in The Irish Times and its contribution to journalism and reporting in Ireland.
He "played the leading role in ensuring that The Irish Times did not close in the difficult economic periods of the early 1960s and again in the 1970s when closure threatened following the oil crisis".
The statement added: "He provided the resources to successive editors of The Irish Times for them to develop the paper for the whole of Ireland, which they have done with such success that The Irish Times has become a national institution and is internationally renowned for its high journalistic standard.
"Through Major McDowell's establishment of The Irish Times Trust in 1974, the independence of the paper is guaranteed and he has ensured that the trust board represents fairly the differing traditions on this island."
Announcing the conferees, the university vice-chancellor, Prof Gerry McKenna, said: "The university makes a significant contribution to all sections of our community and across all disciplines, in the arts and science and from the business world through to charities, and we reflect this in our choice of honorary graduates.
"We seek to honour those individuals who have had a positive influence on our community and on our young people in Northern Ireland and internationally and we see these people as role models and ambassadors for, and friends of, the university."
The University of Ulster has four campuses around the North, at Belfast city centre, Jordanstown and Coleraine, Co Derry, and Magee College, Derry.