Cartoonist Brian Gable awarded honorary degree

College of Arts & Science fine arts alum Brian F. Gable (BA’70) was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Saskatchewan at the 2015 Fall Convocation on Oct. 24.

Brian Gable is an award-winning editorial cartoonist with TheGlobe and Mail. His work has been published in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Prospect Magazine and numerous other publications.

He has been nominated for a National Newspaper Award fifteen times and has won the award six times.

Gable was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1949. He grew up on a farm near Rosthern, SK and moved with his family to Saskatoon in 1960.

Gable was accepted in 1965 into the pre-architecture program in the College of Arts & Science at the University of Saskatchewan. However, classes on painting, design and drawing spoke more strongly to him and Gable soon became a fine arts major.

During a first-year English class a fellow student, after noting Gable’s doodlings in the margins of his notes, mentioned that TheSheaf was looking for a cartoonist. Over the next three years Gable submitted cartoons to the student paper and took his first tentative steps in learning about the craft of satire.

After graduating with his BA from the U of S in 1970 and following it with a BEd from the University of Toronto the next year, Gable taught secondary school art in Ontario for nine years. During this time, he took up his cartoonist’s pen once more and began freelancing editorial cartoons for a local paper, The Brockville Recorder and Times.

In 1980, Gable was hired by the Regina Leader-Post as an editorial cartoonist. He remained with that paper until 1987, when he accepted a position as editorial cartoonist for The Globe and Mail, a position he still holds.

An honorary degree is the highest honour the university can bestow. Honorary degrees are awarded to outstanding individuals who have made a worthy and unique contribution.

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