This colourful and controversial politician was probably one of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ highest-profile alumni throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. A native of St. John's, Newfoundland, he entered ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ in 1949 and graduated with the university's gold medal for politics in 1953.
Crosbie practised law in St. John's in the late 1950s and the 1960s and served in the municipal and provincial governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Elected to the House of Commons in 1976, he was Minister of Finance in Joe Clark's short-lived minority government of 1979, which was defeated in a vote of no confidence over Crosbie's budget. In 1983, he contested the party leadership, finishing third behind Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark.
After the Conservatives were elected in 1984, he served in several senior cabinet posts under Prime Minister Mulroney, most notably as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Crosbie did not run for re-election in 1993.
From 1994 until 2008, he served as Chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
In 1998, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
On February 4, 2008, he was appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador.