NORMAN WALSH TAYLOR

NORMAN WALSH TAYLOR Passed away peacefully at home on August 7, 2016. Norman Taylor was an Educator, Writer and lifelong Social Activist. He was born to working class parents and graduated from high school in New Liskeard before doing a BA at Carleton University and a MFA at Yale University, followed by a Rockefeller grant to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He authored magazine articles as well as a one act play which won the Canadian playwriting contest, a script that was bought and produced by ABC TV. He did a two man expedition down the Amazon River which sparked his lifelong interest in Aboriginal communities in Canada and resulted in a documentary about the deadly mercury pollution at Grassy Narrows in Ontario. As a Professor of English literature at the State University at New York City, he developed courses in Peace and Non Violence that took him to work on a project in Mississippi sponsored by Philadelphia Quakers, where over 80 black churches had been burned for registering black voters to vote. He became a Quaker himself in 1964, a step which led him to membership in the Toronto Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers). He continued studies in non violence which led him to research violence in mammals and did volunteer work at Fauna Sanctuary near Montreal where Gloria Grow had rescued 15 chimps from the lab at New York University School of Medicine. As a proud gay man, he was at the forefront of gay liberation along with good friends, including the late courageous and loving, David Kelley. He leaves his partner, Leo Molczadski, his good friends, Heather, Sandra, Judy, Ben, Pam and Brian and all the sentient chimpanzees at the Fauna Sanctuary. Gratitude to Dr. Philip Berger, Norman's General Practitioner for over 30 years, who genuinely listened to him with much love and Marge Howell (410 Sherbourne Health Centre), Jean Jackson (Wellspring Toronto), Drs. Mark Bernstein and Paolo Mazzotta (Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care), Fiona Martins (Toronto Central CCAC), Personal Support Worker Alina Shchupak (ParaMed Home Health Care), Dr. Maria Wolfs and Henry Halapy (St. Michael's Diabetes Centre), Dr. Irene Ying (St. Michael's Palliative Care Unit) and Dr. Robert Beecroft (Princess Margaret Hospital). Those he shared his love, insights, radiant smile and laughter with will carry his glorious spirit forward. Donations in memory of this loving soul may be sent to the Fauna Foundation, 3802 Chemin Bellerive, Carignan, Quebec J3L 3P9, 450-658-1844. Details of a Memorial to honour and celebrate Norman's life will be announced at a later date.