Retired Senator, D. Ross Fitzpatrick is going back to school.

Fitzpatrick, who graduated from UBC with a commerce and business administration degree, will be presented with an honourary doctoral degree during Convocation ceremonies Thursday at the Okanagan campus of UBC.

Upon graduation, Fitzpatrick was a researcher for the Royal Commission into the Tree Fruit Industry in BC.

He later embarked on an entrepreneurial career founding businesses in the aerospace, oil, gas and mining industries in Canada and the U.S.

Upon returning to the Okanagan in the 1980s, Fitzpatrick founded Cedar Creek Estate Winery and pioneered the planting of vinifera grapes.

Fitzpatrick served in the Canadian Senate from 1998 until he retired in 2008.

Awarded the Freedom of the City of Oliver, B.C. 1998 for a lifetime commitment to the community.

Ross Fitzpatrick, Canadian Senator (Okanagan-Similkameen), graduate of SOHS

Files: Thanks to Castanet