(1943-2024)
We are very sad to share the news that our dear friend and colleague Ken MacKenzie passed away on April 9, 2024.
Ken was born in Saint John, New Brunswick and attended Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax before continuing his studies at Dalhousie University. He started his teaching career in Toronto but came to Montreal to play the bagpipes at the Canadian Pavilion during Expo 67, and to start graduate studies in mathematics at McGill. To our great fortune, he stayed in Montreal and for over 50 years as Faculty Lecture at McGill, he taught a large variety of courses to countless generations of students in several faculties. His pedagogic abilities were legendary and in recognition of his contribution to McGill, he was awarded both the prestigious Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the H. Noel Fieldhouse Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2012.
Ken was Pipe Major for two Highland bands, and his Scottish folk group played in innumerable concerts and ceilidhs or traditional Scottish social gatherings. He was one of the organizers of the annual Montreal Highland Games and initiated and hosted the yearly ‘Robbie Burns’ night at McGill’s Faculty Club, complete with highland dancers, bagpipe and fiddle playing, kilts and sporrans galore and, of course, the piping in of The Haggis!
Ken will be missed by us all.
This tribute draws on an affectionate text written by our colleague Paul Dickinson from the Department of Economics at McGill, and on the obituary produced by Mount Royal Commemorative Services.