Donal Mckenzie PICKEN

PICKEN, Donal McKenzie (1922-2006) Don passed away quietly at home on August 10th. He was born and raised in Winnipeg, lived most of his working life in Ontario and retired to the good life in Victoria. He served with the Royal Canadian Signals Corps from 1939 to 1945. After the war Don completed a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Manitoba and went on to build a career in the private sector and then the Federal Public Service. A life long sense of curiosity drove him to return to university to earn his Masters in Public Administration from Carleton University at the age of 61. He married the love of his life Betty in 1951 and never stopped saying how lucky he felt to have found such a "cutie". It took a lot of the steam out of life for him when he lost her in 2002. He had many interests. As well as being an electrical engineer, he was a talented woodworker, wood-carver and photographer. In his senior years, he embraced the computer age spending many happy hours creating cards, letters, and enhancing photos. Like a good engineer he actually read all of the manuals and was in constant correspondence with various manufacturers, fighting the good fight against faulty equipment. His love and knowledge of 'turn of the century' music was unsurpassed. He had an innate ability to recite verbatim complete works of poetry and music particularly the works of Gilbert & Sullivan; usually at dinner, between bites - there was no stopping him! His politics leaned to the left and he enjoyed a sound political debate. The editors at the Times Colonist and Globe and Mail often published his opinions on the state of the world as he saw it, as well as understandably overlooking a few others. In addition to enjoying a good glass of red wine, he loved the arts and regularly attended the opera and ballet productions. He was friends with every dog and their master in his neighbourhood and greatly enjoyed his friendship with the other members in the Tillicum 'Idle Rich Coffee Club'. He leaves his daughter Louise (Whetter) and her husband Reid and their children Sara, Jamie and Rebecca; son John and his wife (Kathy Summers) and beloved pooch and companion Benji. The family would especially like to thank Alice and Dennis for their tireless care in his final days. A Memorial Mass and reception will be held at St. Joseph the Worker, 785 Burnside Road, Victoria, BC on Friday, 18 August 2006 at 2 p.m. We will all miss the twitch of his mustache and the twinkle in his eye. Published in the Ottawa Citizen on 8/16/2006