DENIS SMITH

1932 - 2025

October 3, 1932 - January 31, 2025 "I measured space by the distance between Edmonton and Kapasiwin, 40 miles from home on the dusty road that led to Jasper National Park," Denis Smith wrote in a memoir of boyhood summers spent at the family cottage on Lake Wabamun. It was 1939 and, six years old, he worried that this war he'd heard about was being fought in the Albertan capital. Not so, he was re-assured: the family could make its way safely home. "I measured time the same way that I measured distance. Life moved slowly. The road west to Kapasiwin took one hour. Jasper Highway was being paved, heading west, at four miles each year - but the war was bound to stop that progress. The road to The Lake would remain dusty for six more years." Having ventured far in the intervening years, Denis reached the end of the road on the last day of January. He was 92. He leaves his beloved wife, Dawn, and his children, Alastair (Victor), Stephen (Sarah), Andrea (Andrew), along with grandchildren Zac, Ruairi, Keenan, and Finlay. Born in Edmonton on Monday, October 3, 1932, (Sidney Gerald) Denis traced his ancestry to Elias Smith, one of the Loyalist founders of Port Hope, Ontario. His father, S. Bruce Smith, was a lawyer and judge, Ottawa-born, who served as Chief Justice of Alberta and the Northwest Territories Court of Appeal. His mother, Doris (née Charlesworth), from Medicine Hat, was one of the first women to graduate with a commerce degree from what is today the University of Alberta. With his elder brother, Dave, Denis grew up, happily, busily, in Edmonton's west end, at home (where a Newfoundland pup, Mandy, presided), at school (Fields' kindergarten, Glenora, Oliver, and Westglen), and on the ice (outdoors, on the Glenora rink). Raised a westerner, he went east in 1950 to McGill University in Montreal, and then kept going, across the Atlantic to Oxford. There, from 1953 through 1959, he read Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at University College, before going on to collect an M.A. and a B. Litt. He was an enthusiastic member of the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club, which he captained in 1955-56. Teammates like David Harley, Don Rickerd, Guy MacLean, Ian Macdonald, and Roy Morrison became lifelong friends. Dawn Banks was a student at Oxford while he was there, but it was in Toronto in 1960 that they first coincided. They married in July of 1961, near her home in Hampshire, England. In the summer of 2024, they marked 64 years of happy partnership. As newlyweds, they settled in Toronto. Denis began his academic career at the University of Toronto and went on to York University, where he was a lecturer in Political Science and served as registrar. In 1963, appointed vice-president, he became one of the first employees of Trent University, joining his esteemed colleague and fast friend Tom Symons in the adventure of making real the fresh dream of a thriving, innovative, and (at times) experimental institution on the banks of the Otonabee River. For both Denis and Dawn, who established the university's Spanish Department, Trent was a purpose and a passion in the years that followed, a haven and a home. It was where Denis flourished as a teacher, mentor, and administrator, and where his scholarly work, with its focus on Canadian federalism, took root. From 1983 to 1988, he served as Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Western Ontario. He retired from Western in 1996. His books included Bleeding Hearts, Bleeding Country (1971), Gentle Patriot (1973), and Diplomacy of Fear (1988). Reviewing Rogue Tory, his prize-winning 1995 life of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson deemed it "outstanding:" Here is biography in the grand old style: compendious research, sharp focus, context, careful attention to the public record, judicious judgments about controversial matters and a straightforward, unadorned writing style. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Canadian Studies and, later, steered The Canadian Forum. "In total," Tom Symons wrote in 2010, "[Denis] has made a large, valuable, valued, and distinguished contribution to our country. … [He] is a very great Canadian." Later, as Denis' focus turned to horizons Hispanic, he published The Prisoners of Cabrera: Napoleon's Forgotten Soldiers (2001) and General Miranda's Wars: Turmoil and Revolt in Spanish America (2013). In 2006, he was proud to be inducted as a member of La Real Orden del Mérito Civil by Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Denis and Dawn ranged far in their interests and travels. At home - from Homewood Avenue, Tanglewood, and Farmhill to Augusta Street and Dunbarton Court - they revelled in the succession of gardens they coaxed and curated. Familiar byways in England and Spain often drew them overseas. Wherever he went, Denis was a constant and discerning reader, a keen photographer, an inspired doodler, and an assiduous letter-writer. Music moved and delighted him, often to the point where, hearing Mozart or Handel, he felt the need to raise a notional baton to aid the orchestra. Family and friends remember his wit and curiosity, his sense of justice, and the mischief in his smile. A family memorial is planned for the summer. Sincere thanks to Dr. Ian Nandlall and the nursing staff at Ottawa Civic Hospital for their compassion and care, as well as to the team at Riverpath, and to Danielle Presentey, for her kind encouragement and support. Donations in Denis' memory can be made to Trent University's Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies at www.trentu.ca/DenisSmithMemorial or to Ottawa Chamberfest.