JACK IVAN WILLIAMS

July 1, 1939-December 6, 2024 Jack Ivan Williams died, for the second time, the evening of December 6, 2024, on the palliative care unit of Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. He had died the first time almost seven years earlier after a cardiac arrest in Soby's restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina. The expert CPR of the executive chef and prompt arrival of the ambulance crew who checked his pulse, declared him to be deceased, but, because protocol required it, defibrillated him. The first shock restarted his heart. Superb nursing and medical care and five hours of open heart surgery positioned him to return by air ambulance to the Toronto General Hospital where he recovered and returned to a remarkably normal version of life. Jack's early dance with death was consistent with his whole life experience. He was born in Holyoke, Colorado to Faye and Ivan Williams. His dad had Welsh roots, while his mother's family were Pennsylvania Dutch who after crossing the plains by covered wagon settled in eastern Colorado. Jack's dad had difficulty finding work, so the family moved frequently, settling for short periods in most of the states of the US northwest. Their two years stay in Star Idaho when he was eight, gave him his first real chance to make friends and become part of a group of kids. This idyll ended when his father summoned the family to Girdwood, Alaska, a tiny community built to support the construction of the road from Seward to Anchorage. Home in Girdwood was a wooden structure with no electricity or running water. Jack's education was as exceptional as his earlier life. He spent four years as the oldest student in a one room school with eight desks. He did his lessons for the first hour and then helped their teacher assist the four younger children with theirs. High school entailed living with relatives in Alaska, Texas and Colorado until grade 12 which he completed by correspondence with a professor at the University of Nebraska who ran the program. Some of the schools Jack attended in Texas were segregated requiring him to learn the rules of discrimination and turning him into a committed abolitionist. With funding provided by the Methodist Church of Alaska, he was able to complete his undergraduate degree in sociology at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, NB. Religion played a big part in his life and he entered Boston University with the intention of becoming a minister. After two years, with his faith diminished, he left BU for the University of New Hampshire where he received his MA in Sociology and then his PhD, also in Sociology at Florida State University. As a Conscientious Objector, Jack was not required to join the American Armed Forces and his compensatory service took place in a mental hospital. It changed his life and introduced him to the intersection of health services and health care. He realized that one did not necessarily serve the other. During his years in Nebraska, Jack met his first wife, a student teacher, at a summer church camp and they married immediately after graduation. While they lived in Florida, they adopted two children, David and Debra. Since many children were available for adoption at that time, they were able to specify the eye and hair colours they preferred. Jack applied for positions in the USA and Canada when he finished his PhD and chose the Sociology Department at the University of Western Ontario for both the opportunities the department offered and as a place to raise their children. Moves to the University of Toronto and McGill University followed. Clinical epidemiology and health services research were emerging as critical fields of research to underpin effective health care. Jack was a important participant in this evolution. Jack would certainly be among the record holders for membership on peer review committees that adjudicated research proposal for funding. He was a tough reviewer (BlackJack) with high expectations, but he was prepared to argue forcefully for applicants whom he felt were deserving. Jack was an accomplished health services researcher. He derived great satisfaction from working with graduate students and was known to be a demanding but very supportive supervisor. He took great pride in his students' accomplishments and stayed in touch with many for years after their graduation. Jack had a wonderful dry sense of humour. He loved to entertain and was a great chef. He was a very thoughtful man who cherished his family and friends. Although he wrestled with hearing loss requiring a cochlear implant, he was very articulate and loved to engage in conversations sometimes leading to vigorous debates. Jack died for the second time on the palliative care unit of Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. The cause was a recurrence of melanoma. Jack is survived by his wife, Dorothy Pringle (Dot); his son, David and his wife, Christine of Greenville SC; his daughter, Debra and her husband, Bruce Burrows of Cambridge, ON; two grandchildren, Taylor and Etienne and four great-grandchildren, Emilia, Olivia, Madeleine and Austin. Jack was a most interesting, complex, warm and loving husband, father, teacher, researcher and colleague. He lived a long and interesting life, and his death is felt deeply by his family and friends.