Frederick Patrick Healey

Frederick Patrick Healey

May 19, 1942 – October 29, 2023

Frederick Patrick (Pat) Healey, son of Frederick Robert Healey and Ethel Delia (Almgren) Healey, was born in Abbotsford, B.C., and lived there until he left to attend UBC.  He received a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from the University of British Columbia, which he attended from 1960 to 1964. He moved to California where he was in a doctoral program in algal physiology at the University of California (San Diego) and worked at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla. His PhD thesis, completed in 1969, was entitled "The mechanism of hydrogen evolution by algae". 

He did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin until 1971 when he moved to Winnipeg to join the scientific staff of the newly opened Freshwater Institute of the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans.  He worked at the Freshwater Institute until about 1988, before purchasing and moving to a farm near Belmont, Manitoba.

Pat was an avid and superlative gardener who spent years making his property into a large garden and forested haven for many birds and animals.  He created a business selling iris plants by catalogue while developing new varieties.  His gardens covered many acres and provided him with both food and beauty. 

Pat was a very independent person.  He grew, canned, and froze most of what he needed to eat.  He even made his own catsup!  He worked hard on his beloved lands, moving trees, digging watering trenches, and planting many different flowers and shrubs.  He would have chosen nothing better than to pass away while out in his garden, doing what he loved best.

Pat will be much missed by his sister Jacqueline Jensen and his brother Dennis Healey, and his many nieces, nephews, their children, and his friends in Belmont.  His friends from the Institute in Winnipeg and his neighbors around his area were also close to his heart.

Pat was a caring, intelligent, and warm man with a genuine love of nature.  The donation of part of his large farm property to Ducks Unlimited and part to the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation to be a wildlife habitat for the public to enjoy just emphasizes his deep feelings about nature and preserving it for the future.

No service by request.  There will be a gathering to spread his ashes in his garden in the spring when the plants are flowering. 

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