Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, FRAIC, retired architect, educator and urban planner,  received an honorary doctorate in science  from McGill University on May 29.

Among many accomplishments, Ms. Van Ginkel, 90, was the first woman elected as an officer of the RAIC in 1972 and became its first female Fellow in 1973. She was the first woman to head a Canadian architecture school – at the University of Toronto – and is acclaimed for achievements in safeguarding Montreal’s cultural heritage.

Annmarie Adams, MRAIC, who represents the Canadian Council of University Schools of Architecture on the board of the RAIC, read the citation, calling van Ginkel “a visionary, a mentor extraordinaire and a true citizen of the world.”