Alan William SCARTH

1922 - 2021

ALAN WILLIAM SCARTH Alan William Scarth, C.M., Q.C. died on August 13, 2021. He had hoped that he would live to see a solution to the existential threat of global warming. But climate change is a multigenerational challenge. Alan was born March 9, 1922, in Winnipeg to Winnifred Lillian Scarth (née Coulson) and H. St. Clair Scarth, K.C. from Virden, Manitoba. Alan was larger-than-life eldest brother to Catherine Maclean (John) and twin brothers, David (Sandra) and Richard (Jilian) Scarth, and fond uncle to his many nieces and nephews. After graduating from the University of Manitoba with his BComm in 1942, Alan joined the RCAF and served from 1942-1945 as a Flight Lieutenant (navigator) with 547 Squadron, RAF. Their nine-person crew flew a Liberator from the airbase at Leuchars, Scotland. Their D-Day mission was to intercept U-Boats seeking to disrupt the Allied invasion of occupied Europe. His comfort during that time, far from home in a war-weary nation, was a poetry collection called Other Men's Flowers. In 2019, he gave each of his grandchildren a copy of that collection, hoping it would be a comfort to them too. Alan was introduced to Helen Isabel Dundee when she delivered legal documents to his father's law office. He immediately recognized her beautiful red hair and recalled her winning tennis style from the courts of the Winnipeg Lawn Tennis Club. They were married in Winnipeg in February, 1953. They raised four children while living in the house they loved on the Red River, at 409 North Drive: Rachael (Peter Watson), Shelagh (Mark Andrews), Jonathan St. Clair (Shelley Matkowski) and Sarah Jennifer (Nelson Svorkdal). He considered the next generation, his thirteen grandchildren, his true legacy and he kept close tabs on each of them: Tom, Alec and Maryann Watson, Robin, Claire, Jonathan and Will Andrews, Kate and Alan Scarth, Josef, Annika, Bjorn and Jakob Svorkdal, plus his great-grandson, Grayson Scarth Jensen Andrews. They and their partners were all grateful recipients of his love, which he expressed through sharing stories and humour, making notes about them in his DayTimer, asking them penetrating questions and by calling them "my friend". Alan and Helen cherished 62 years together and were never without a plan or a project. They collaborated to create opportunities for the education, fun and enrichment of the family, and the wider community. Many tennis players from Winnipeg have fond memories of Tennis 70s, a youth team and coaching opportunity which was novel at the time. The Scarths took advantage of living on the river in every season - clearing the ice for skating rinks, cross-country skiing, observing the spring ice break-up and creating habitat to bring wood ducks to the river bank. The big flood years were notable events, with hot dogs and a hearty welcome for all who came to heave sandbags in the battle to save North Drive from the rising water. The family enjoyed travel, both overseas and all over the prairies. In the 1930s, on a fishing trip with his father, Alan had set his sights on building a cabin in the Whiteshell. He started construction in the 1960s and, as with every building project he ever launched, many fine folks were called on to participate. He had sixty years to enjoy it with family, friends and the ever-present springer spaniels. The lake connected us to each other as we disconnected from the larger world and came to know the freedom and self-sufficiency that comes from being "a long way from help, don't ever forget it." After his call to the Bar in Manitoba in 1948, Alan's practice involved litigation, corporate, cooperative and environmental law. He acted as counsel to the provincial Minister of Natural Resources (Dutch Elm Disease) and to the Premier (The Garrison Diversion project). His legal work for Harold and Ed Tetzlaff in the Rafferty Alameda Dam case moved through the courts to the Supreme Court of Canada, providing constitutional protection for environmental assessments. Alan received the Order of Canada (2001) and the Manitoba Bar Association Distinguished Service Award (2014) in recognition of these and other accomplishments. Alan was counsel and communicator extraordinaire, who enjoyed every detail of any subject, and while the practice of law was his profession, he always had energy to spare for his other pursuits. He was provincial squash racquets champion and played until his knees wouldn't allow it anymore. He played hockey growing up, like any Canadian kid, and leapt at the chance to play for Oxford in 1949, including at The Spengler Cup. Alan continued and expanded on his father's project of developing The Manitoba Game and Fish Association (now the Manitoba Wildlife Federation) to promote fish and wildlife conservation. Long before smartphones, Alan felt that coming generations of urban kids were at risk of increasing detachment from the land that supported them. The Fort Whyte Centre (now FortWhyte Alive) was created through many years of legal skill and tenacity, with a group of like-minded friends. A reclaimed clay mine and cement factory became a 660-acre educational centre, with the aim of providing a sense of the connectedness of all life and emphasizing our responsibility to solve the climate change crisis. Alan had an instinct for occasion and delighted in gathering collections of friends and family - including at annual spring fishing and fall hunting trips - to explore topics ranging from the ecological to the mechanical. He had an insatiable curiosity about people, and schedules would fall by the wayside for impromptu explorations of lineage and careers, always concluding with words of advice. He was blessed with a keen sense of humour and invested in elaborate gags. One April Fool's joke involved painstaking preparation and display of a City of Winnipeg Notice of Development, which showed the neighbourhood golf course giving way to intense residential development. He was an assiduous diarist of time at home and afield, leaving our family volumes of journals and bird guides replete with notes of spring arrivals. Alan had almost 100 years of living long, wide and deep, and he wasted little time. His longevity he acknowledged as good fortune; the depth and breadth of his life he saw as a responsibility. He will be remembered as a man of intellect and consequence. He had that rare ability to pierce the everyday, to leave an enduring impression on the many people with whom he spoke, even in a brief encounter. He lived with urgency and vigour; he was contemplative and impatient, creative and driven, thoughtful and direct. He had a firm belief in the continuum of life, that the lessons we learn and gains we make should be passed on in the fullness of time. He was dedicated to knowing and honouring his elders and forebears and, equally, creating opportunities and expectations for future generations. Alan directed that there be no memorial service. Donations may be made in his memory to the Alan Scarth Climate Change Endowment Fund at FortWhyte Alive: www.fortwhyte.org/donate.