Peter Smollett

Peter Smollett February 26, 1930-February 19, 2017

Peter Smollett died on February 19, 2017 in Toronto, a week before his 87th birthday.



Peter was born on February 26, 1930 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and grew up in Far Rockaway, N.Y. He was the son of David Smollett and Dawley Smollett (née Levy), both from Eastern European Jewish immigrant families.



At 19 years old, in New York City, he apprenticed as a film editor. He continued work in the New York film industry during the 1950's and early 1960's, interrupted by some years working in Pennsylvania as an industrial worker and union organizer. During that period, he was married to Molly Smollett (née Hirschenson), and had two sons, Jeff and Joel.



In 1966, in New York, he married Eleanor Wenkart Smollett, a cultural anthropologist. They moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, where both went to work at the University of Regina. There they raised their daughter Rebecca.

For nearly two decades at the University of Regina, Peter taught innovative courses on the politics of the mass media, especially film, and on the evolution of the role of artists in society.

In the 1990's, Peter and Eleanor retired to Toronto. There they welcomed a son-in-law and two grandchildren into their lives.



Peter was a lifelong radical, a trade unionist, civil rights activist, self-educated person, reader and polemicist.



Peter leaves his immediate family in Toronto: his wife, Eleanor Wenkart Smollett, and his daughter, Rebecca Smollett, son-in-law David Ley, and their children, Abraham Ley and Yohanna Ley. As well, he is survived by his son from his first marriage, Jeff Smollett; the six adult children of his late son, Joel Smollett, and their children; his sister, Norma Goldwyn, nephew, Craig Goldwyn with wife Lou, and niece Ann Goldwyn with husband Peter.