Frederick Gilbert
1941-2020
Dr. Frederick Franklin Gilbert was born in Toronto, Ontario,
on August 5, 1941, and died by assisted death at home in Midville
Branch, Nova Scotia, on November 2, 2020. He had terminal metastatic
pancreatic cancer together with lymphoma. Fred never did things by
halves.
Fred was a fairly brilliant kid. He went to U of T two years
earlier than normal, having skipped two grades in public school. From
U of T he was “rusticated,” having spent his time playing
chess, sports, and other non-academic but exciting pursuits. He
completed his degree at Acadia University, which institution earned
his life-long gratitude for having given him his second chance. He
married Shirley and, with a young family (children Gaius and Cheryl),
completed his Master’s and PhD degrees at Guelph, where he is credited
with helping to name the “Guelph Gryphons.” He then became
Big Game Leader for the state of Maine, with a joint appointment in
Forest Resources at the University of Maine, Orono. And there, he was
instrumental in starting the university’s hockey team.
Back at Guelph, as an Assistant and subsequently Associate
Professor, he became involved with Humane Trap Research, which is
where he met Dan (Diana) who was later to become his second wife, and
who brought along his stepsons, Nicholas and Tobyn. The research was
part of a Canada-wide effort to identify and produce humane animal
traps for furbearers. It culminated with the provision of Humane Trap
standards, which standards incidentally allowed Canada to continue to
trade in furs with the EU. Later, in the US, Dan and Fred worked on
both US and International Humane Traps Standards-setting
committees.
In 1981, Fred moved to Idaho with Gaius and Cheryl (who is
still there!), where he was hired as full professor and head of the
Wildlife Biology Program at Washington State University in Pullman,
WA, just over the Idaho border. There, he also did two productive
stints as Chair of the Faculty Senate, and served as Interim Chair of
Natural Resources. While at WSU he co-authored a
textbook, The Philosophy and Practice of Wildlife
Management, which went to three editions. He has also
written or co-authored over 60 refereed publications, articles, and
book chapters.
From WSU, in 1992, he, Dan, and daughter Alyssa left for
British Columbia, where Fred joined the fledgling University of
Northern BC to become its founding Dean of the Faculty of Natural
Resources and Environmental Studies. Having provided a good groundwork
for the Faculty, and done significant things like working with the
Tl’azt’en Nation to set up a research forest, he returned to the US,
to Colorado, to take up the position of Vice Provost Academic at
Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He, Dan, and Alyssa arrived
the day of the mammoth Fort Collins flash flood in 1997. Fred was
immediately charged with the remediation of the university’s library,
which had been inundated. They lived in Loveland, Colorado, at the top
of a canyon. It was beautiful to Fred and Alyssa. Dan hated it, and so
was happy to get back to Canada a year later, to Thunder Bay, where
Fred had been hired for the position of President of Lakehead
University. There, through many battles and vicissitudes, he and his
staff and associates were able to accomplish much—for Fred
always valued assists as much as he did personal goals.
Among the achievements under his and the administrative
team’s aegis were:
-careful budgeting, to allow for things like maintenance and
beautification of the university’s footprint, and infrastructure and
equipment renewal
-a revived university hockey team, the Thunderwolves, based
on a community support model unusual in Canada at the
time
-building the ATAC facility for additional classsroom and
research space with state-of-the-art technology, and to set the stage
for additional research
-installation of a Cray computer to facilitate existing
research and to encourage future research
-supporting the student-led building of a sports facility,
“The Hangar”
-supporting a now internationally-known DNA
lab
-finalising the establishment of a medical school, the
Northern Ontario School of Medicine, together with Laurentian
University in Sudbury, which is now recognised as a model for
others
-establishment of the Orillia Campus of Lakehead University,
on a beautiful piece of land with LEED-certified
buildings
-acquiring an historic Thunder Bay high school building and
setting the stage for the establishment of a Law School for the
university
-increasing research by enough for the university to become
#1 in Canada in its category.
He served on the Advisory Committee for the Nuclear Waste
Management Organization, chaired the Northern Ontario School of
Medicine’s board of directors, and throughout his career was involved
with many other organizations, boards, and institutes.
Retiring in 2010, he ran for Provincial Parliament as a Red
Tory—the Conservatives being the party which always put
money to funding Lakehead projects. He lost. Good thing, said Dan,
full of admiration for the effort, but sorry for the province for not
getting a politician with personal integrity.
Then, he started a new career and fulfilled an old dream by
establishing an organic farm in Nova Scotia, where he also joined the
NS Liberal Party (we should perhaps note that he had been an NDP and
Tommy Douglas supporter when he had last lived there as a student…).
On the farm, he installed deer-fenced plots, built bridges over
streams for the farm machinery, put in a vineyard, etc. After all, he
was only 71 years old at the time. He sold the produce he grew at
farmers’ markets in Lunenburg and Bridgewater. He became involved in
the Alumni Association at Acadia, which has recently named a lecture
series in his honour, and met up with long-lost friends and colleagues
here.
An obituary of Fred would not be complete without reference
to a life-long involvement in sports, hockey being his first love. He
was playing until March of this year (aged 78). He also played
basketball. At Colorado State (where there was no hockey), the other
basketball players said he was the only person who should have been
penalised for high-sticking. He pitched in a softball tournament in
his last season in Thunder Bay, which the team won (of
course).
Fred wanted to thank all those he knew and spent great times
with during his life, and he appreciated all the wonderful
correspondence and phone calls he received before his death. He is
survived by his immediate family in Nova Scotia, Dan, wife of 39
years, daughter Alyssa, and yellow Lab Yogi; and, scattered across
North America, his children, Cheryl and Gaius, and grandchildren
Kinsey and Spencer; stepsons Nicholas and Tobyn and their families;
and his siblings Virginia, Merilynn, and Ross.
There will be no service at this time. On-line condolences
may be made by visiting www.corkumfuneralhome.ca

Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Frederick Gilbert 19412020..

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Death notice for the town of: Wileville, Province: Nova Scotia

death notice Frederick Gilbert 19412020

mortuary notice Frederick Gilbert 19412020