In Memoriam: Donald Rickerd

Message from Dr. Jack Cunningham, Trinity Fellow and Assistant Professor, Program Coordinator at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, and colleague of Don Rickerd

Dear Members of the Trinity College Community:

Don Rickerd with his granddaughter in 2024 (left) and son Christopher in 1982/83 (right). (Photos courtesy of the family)

We are saddened to announce the death of longtime member of Trinity’s Senior Common Room Don Rickerd (1931 – 2025) on Saturday, September 6, at the age of 93.

Don studied history and economics at Queen’s, and modern history at Oxford, followed by legal training at Osgoode Hall. He practiced law with the firm of Faskens, served as a faculty member and administrator at York University in its early years, and was President of the William H. Donner Foundation and the Donner Canadian Foundation. Don was involved in numerous civic and charitable activities, and served as one of the Commissioners of the McDonald Commission on RCMP activities related to Quebec separatism and national security. In 1976 he and his wife Julie bought two small islands in the Thousand Islands archipelago, the pair officially named “Zavikon Island” in 1988 in honour of Julie’s Hungarian heritage. Don was a genial host at Zavikon Island, inviting friends to join him and experience the beauties of the location as well as his own hospitality. Late in his life, his wide and sometimes surprising range of interests and activities grew to include early efforts to promote contact between Canadian academics and counterparts in the “hermit kingdom” of North Korea.

Most recently at Trinity, Don was a Senior Research Associate of the College from 2019 to 2022. Even when he no longer had a formal role at Trinity, Don was an active and enthusiastic member of the Senior Common Room, a regular fixture at afternoon coffee, bringing in eminent friends like David Collenette and David Crombie to give informal talks. He came to his office in the Munk building every day and was always available to students, occasionally employing them to help with his own projects. When his Trinity colleague the historian Bob Bothwell was talking with a grad student about the McDonald Commission, Bob went to the office next door and brought in Don himself to share his insights, to the student’s surprise and amusement.

As a raconteur, Don drew upon a seemingly inexhaustible store of often hilarious anecdotes, surprising those around him with his memories of and connections to significant people and events. At Oxford his friends had included two future US Senators, Paul Sarbanes and Richard Lugar, one from each party. Also at Oxford, he had seen a formal academic procession turn unexpectedly amusing with the sight of the remarkably tall peer and politician Lord Halifax slowly walking side by side with the diminutive Ethiopian monarch Haile Selassie. On a visit to New York for the Donner Foundation, Don had lunch scheduled with the journalist William F. Buckley, Jr. Arriving early at the restaurant, Don took a seat at the table that Buckley had reserved, only for the waiter to icily tell him he had to move to the other chair, since he was in “Mister Buckley’s chair.”

Don regularly had lunch in Strachan Hall, but when it was closed for the summers, he took part in the weekly lunches in the Quad, always with his trademark good humour. At one lunch, we both sat on the same side of a rather fragile plastic picnic table, which promptly tipped over on its side, depositing us both on the ground. Thankfully unhurt, Don wryly remarked: “I think we landed pretty gracefully under the circumstances.”

As pronounced as Don’s good humour and gifts as a raconteur was his quiet generosity. He befriended students and faculty in fields far from his own, taking them to lunch and sometimes offering discreet help in moments of personal difficulty. Don donated wine to High Table dinners and one Christmas gave a bottle of wine to the server in Strachan Hall who would carry his tray to his table when he had difficulty doing so, a kindness he noticed and appreciated. Not long before his death, he had been working with then Trinity Archivist Sylvia Lassam to acquire a promising collection of papers for the archives, a collection he had discovered through his remarkable network of friends.

Don was devoted to Trinity as he was to much else in his eventful life, and his lively presence will be missed. We extend our condolences to his wife Julie and son Christopher. At Don’s request, there will be no funeral.

Categories: In Memoriam