Obituary of Richard Grant

GRANT, RICHARD HOPE CELEBRATION OF LIFE Dick Grant of Fredericton, NB,1931-2016, died on Monday, August 29, 2016. A celebration of his life will take place on Saturday, October 15, 2016, in Fredericton, beginning with an organ recital at 2:30 PM in Christ Church Cathedral followed by a reception in the Church Hall at 115 Church St. Remembrances in Dick’s name may be made to the Conservation Council of New Brunswick or Science East. Personal condolences may be offered through www.yorkfh.com Dick Grant was a delightful, adventurous man who appreciated the absurd and took his responsibilities seriously. A trusted, loving husband to Brigid for fifty-two years, he adored his daughter Hannah. The second son of Mac and Laura Grant, Dick grew up in Rothesay, NB, in a lively household with sister Peggy, brothers Rory and Charlie, housekeeper Pearl, cats and dogs, a white rat, a horse, once a flying squirrel, and his own chickens and ducks. With the river close by, the Grants swam, sailed, canoed, skated and skied. Dick had fond memories of making camps in the woods, and building an ice boat on the dining room table. He felt fortunate to have been among those included on canoe trips organized by Dr. McIntosh of the New Brunswick Museum. Mac Grant was away during WW2, and Dick taught himself the basics of carpentry, plumbing, and electricity by trial and error. His saying, ‘fix one, break two’, probably began then. His childhood included painting lessons from Jack Humphrey, gardening, dancing, music and warm gatherings of friends and family, the foundation for life-long interests and pleasures. He went on to play violin, accordion, harmonica, penny whistle and bagpipes when the fancy took him. At fourteen Dick and his older brother Rory sailed with their father from Nova Scotia to Saint John in the newly-purchased ‘Gannet’, navigating by compass and charts, without a motor. After a period of clear sailing fog closed in, a gale blew up, each wave filled the cockpit, the tender was torn away, and at the end of a terrifying night they found themselves not heading into Saint John as they thought, but sailing over shoals off Gannet Rock, finally tying up in Seal Cove on Grand Manan Island, where, for one time only, Dick enjoyed smoked herring. Dick attended Rothesay Collegiate School, graduated as a midshipman from Royal Roads Naval College in Victoria, and earned a degree in Engineering Geology from Queens University. He continued to sail, attended classical music concerts, and joined the pipe band. He made lifelong friends among his contemporaries and also with Mrs Oliver, the elderly widow with whom he boarded, keeping in touch until her death years later. Dick was entirely without sexism, ageism, classism or any other ‘ism’, and simply liked people. Dick returned to New Brunswick and began course work towards a Masters Degree in Geology at UNB. He soon found the Art Centre and its Director Lucy Jarvis, with whom he shared an enthusiasm for marionettes. With other students and faculty they created puppets and a theatre, putting on plays for the University community. Much later in life he got people together to restage ‘The Night Before Christmas’ and ‘Peter and the Wolf’. Having completed his course work, Dick worked his way to South Africa on a freighter and taught for a year at a private school. He took senior boys to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, where Dick and the boys unaffected by altitude sickness made it to the summit. On his way back to Canada, he visited Egypt, crossed Europe on a scooter, and briefly taught school in England to earn his steamer fare home. Back at UNB, Dick became Proctor (Don) of Jones House, and Dean of Mens Residences, while continuing to instruct labs in Geology. At that time students in residence were required to eat together in the dining hall, and Dick took the opportunity to bring them new experiences. He hung paintings borrowed from the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and arranged visitors from many disciplines and all political stripes to speak during dinner, himself being particularly struck by Tommy Douglas. He informed the students about the Art Centre, the resident musicians and any concerts given on campus. During summers, Dick also found time for a pilot’s license, field work in Cape Breton, and surveying off Newfoundland in a canoe with an outboard. In 1964 Dick married Brigid Toole, surprising her after the reception with a hidden canoe for crossing the river. The Irving pulp drive had just started, so they had to paddle pretty smartly to avoid being struck by logs. In 1967 Dick earned a Masters Degree in Mineral Exploration at Imperial College in London, England, returning to UNB to teach geology. He became the only Tenured Lecturer in UNB’s history. He knew and loved his home province; his fall field schools were especially memorable. He always liked the students he taught. He retired in 1996 with a Scottish country dance party in his honour. Shortly after his marriage, Dick brought home a cat, Mr Nitty, and when Hannah was old enough to ask, a succession of cats, dogs, rabbits and various animals, including a raven and a racoon, became part of the household. When Dick noticed a large communal roost of chimney swifts on campus, he arranged for the chimney to be legally preserved in perpetuity for their use. He and architect John Oliver made a display illustrating the life of the birds, and at dusk in the late spring Dick would hand out pamphlets to the crowd watching the swifts pour into the chimney. In 1972 the Grants bought a property on Grand Manan, and for years Dick took his three weeks of holiday to work on the little house. He hired kids to shingle, and those grown kids still remember Dick with affection. Dick loved Grand Manan: the sea; the varied and complex geology; the birds, seals and flowers; and, in the early days, being able to hear through a window at night the sound of whales breathing. He felt at home with the islanders, who were kind, enjoyed a joke, and had his own off-hand practical competence. Going to Grand Manan allowed Dick to pick up hitch hikers, pushing wet dogs to the back of a series of second hand VW vans, engaging travellers in conversation and sometimes bringing them home. For all the years he drove after getting his driver’s license at sixteen, as long as he was able, Dick stopped to help stranded drivers. For over thirty years, he climbed ladders up three stories of his Fredericton home to secure a lighted Christmas tree to the top of the turret. He often met people who told him how as children they had waited for the tree to appear. Dick served on the Boards of the Preschool Centre, The Direct Charge Co-op, The Conservation Council and Science East; drove science exhibits to schools all over the province; volunteered at the Community Kitchen; collected for Heart and Stroke and Cancer; ran for the NDP provincially in Fredericton and the Fundy Isles. He enjoyed so much working with others to make the world a little better for all creatures. He is missed. Written by Brigid and Hannah