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Randy died suddenly on Sept. 24, 2020, in La Quinta, California. He is survived by his wife, Joan (aka Jo) nee Steven (Artsci’77); their son, Darren; and his wife, Heather; and son, Andrew (Andy).

Jo returned to Canada from California in 2024 and is living in Vancouver.

Linda passed away on Dec. 23, 2024, from glioblastoma cancer. She is survived by her husband, Greg (MBA’74), and her children, Jim and David (Com’12) (Meghan Moore, Com’13).

Linda and her husband were the original donors for the Venture Management Program at the School of Business. She loved the Queen’s family and organized her MBA reunions for over 40 years. 

With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of Peter Campbell, who left us on Jan. 30, shortly after being diagnosed with ALS and experiencing a rapid decline. Peter is survived by his wife, Barbara Campbell (née Kelly); his children, Kimberley, Andrew (Kyoko), Owen (Stephanie); his brothers, Douglas and Robert; and sister, Elspeth; his grandchildren, Amelia, Kian and Veronika; along with several nephews, nieces and extended family. 

Born on May 4, 1943, Peter was not just a devoted husband, father, grandfather and uncle, he was a trailblazer in his scientific field. He graduated from Queen’s in ‘68 with his PhD in chemistry. An internationally renowned pioneer in biogeochemistry and ecotoxicology of metals in aquatic environments, Peter made a lasting impact through his research and mentorship. He guided many PhD and MSc students, was a prolific author, served as a consultant and collaborated with a wide range of scientists sharing similar interests around the globe. His expertise was highly sought after by government agencies, international mining companies and Indigenous communities in Quebec. 

As a professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (Université du Québec), INRS ETE, his contributions to science were recognized when he was nominated to the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002 and received the Founders Award from the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in 2019 – the highest distinction awarded to an individual for their outstanding contribution to environmental sciences. 

Beyond his impressive professional accomplishments, Peter was an avid athlete (tennis, golf, basketball and an enthusiastic walker among others), always with a touch of competitive spirit! He instilled his values in his children and grandchildren, encouraging them to travel and to be curious about the world around them. 

Known for his kindness, integrity and compassion, Peter had a brilliant mind and a kind soul that touched many lives. He also possessed a disarming sense of humour, often playfully honking at fellow drivers of the same car model. 

A little-known fact about Peter is that he was a “grammarian” of sorts (just like his mother), always attentive to the nuances of language and communication. His discipline and organization were apparent in all that he did, and his legacy will be remembered fondly by those who had the privilege of knowing him. His life mattered, inspired and elevated those around him. He will be deeply missed but fondly remembered by all who knew him.

Kenneth Robert “Ken” Battle died on Nov. 18, 2024 after a long illness. He was born in Calgary on July 29, 1947, the son of Robert and Lois (née Morrison) Battle. He grew up in Calgary and Edmonton before moving with his family as a teenager to Ottawa, where he attended Bell High School. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts at Queen’s, then was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, which took him to Nuffield College, Oxford, for an MPhil. He later recalled the influence of his studies in sociology there as having given him a pragmatic approach to goals of social justice. Perhaps this is why he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps, joining the civil service in Ottawa rather than pursuing an academic career. 

He spent several years with the National Council of Welfare, eventually becoming the Council’s director. In 1992, Ken was invited to co-found a social policy think tank by fellow Queen’s alumnus Alan Broadbent, chair of Maytree, a non-profit dedicated to finding and advancing solutions to poverty in Canada. 

Ken became president of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, a position he held until 2017, when the Institute’s operations were wound down. During those 25 years, Caledon’s research and writing focussed on practical ways that public policy could lift people out of poverty. 

In 2000, Ken was named Member of the Order of Canada. He received the award, according to the citation, in recognition of his “significant role in the area of Canadian welfare legislation, including the development of the National Child Benefit Program.” The citation concludes: “His contributions have helped to forge and to shape Canadian social policy.” Since then, the Child Benefit Program and its successors have been credited with lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. 

After a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia in 2019, Ken moved from his Kanata home to a retirement residence, where he bravely faced the loss of his health with patience, generosity, and good humour. He continued to demonstrate his commitment to social justice in his personal life. In spite of his declining health, he never failed to express appreciation for the people whose work made his life pleasant and to show concern for their well-being. He remained the sociologist observing and analyzing human behaviour in the society around him. 

Ken is survived by his beloved daughter, Erin (Sc’19) (Austin, Texas); his brother, Murray, (Montreal); his sister Ellen (Victoria); and his nephews, Tyler and Curtis. Married three times, he was predeceased by Laurie McIntyre; and is survived by former wives, Ruth Jamieson (Arts’70) and Melanie Hess. He will be fondly remembered by his many former colleagues and collaborators as well as by the friends with whom he shared canoe trips, cross-country skiing, and foreign travels over the years. Broadbent has written that Ken “wanted to have influence that would improve people’s lives, particularly those without sufficient resources to live with dignity.” Thousands of families, without knowing his name, can attest that he was successful.

Douglas C. Webb, an innovator in oceanographic research technology, and pioneer in the development of transistorized computers, died peacefully on Nov. 11, 2024.

Doug was born in Hamilton, Ont., on Nov. 25, 1929, to Bess (Gilpin) and William Webb. As a child, he spent summers on his grandparent’s farm in Hagersville, where he gained a lifelong appreciation for pragmatism, hard work, and love of family. During summers in high school, he worked as a waiter and engine room oiler on coal-fired steam ships plying Lake Huron.

He received his degree in electrical engineering from Queen’s in 1952. 

To pursue his interest in the nascent field of computer science, Doug moved to Manchester, U.K., to work for Ferranti Ltd. and to pursue graduate study at the University of Manchester, where he obtained his MSEE in 1954. There, Doug and doctoral student Dick Grimsdale, built and demonstrated the world’s first transistorized digital computer in November 1953. This experimental machine went on to become the Metrovick 950, the first commercial, transistorized computer built from 1959 onwards by Metropolitan Vickers. (Doug would occasionally chat with Professor Alan Turing, who had a nearby office.)

While in England, Doug and his roommate pooled their money to purchase a 1924, Type 23 Brescia Bugatti, which he raced with other vintage car aficionados. In the summer of 1956, Doug drove another vintage car (a primitive 1926 British Trojan, with a top speed of 35 mph) from England to Greece and back, with many roadside repairs and adventures along the way.

Doug was married in 1957 to Shirley (Lyons) Webb, an artist and kindergarten teacher, who shared his love of adventure. They had been high school classmates in Owen Sound, Ont. The couple moved to Ivrea, Italy, where Doug was employed by Olivetti in the early development of computers for business applications. They became fluent in Italian and fell in love with Italian culture and food, a far cry from small-town Canadian life. They traveled around Europe on a single-cylinder motorcycle and sailed the Mediterranean on their wooden sailboat Meg. 

In 1962, they returned to North America, crossing the Atlantic on a cargo ship (during the Cuban missile crisis) with their baby daughter, Becca, their Siamese cat, Mimo, the Bugatti, the sailboat, and seven trunks of Shirley’s paintings. They moved to Woods Hole, where Doug was employed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Their son, Dan, was born in Falmouth.  

During four decades at WHOI, Doug created and developed numerous technologies used in oceanographic research and participated in dozens of long research cruises. His work involved inventing and building instruments to remotely measure the properties and motion of water in the deep ocean. Webb’s expertise in the technology of long-range, undersea, acoustic signaling contributed to the development of Ocean Acoustic Tomography, a technique used for large-scale, remote sensing of the interior of the ocean.

In 1966, Doug and Shirley purchased a century-old farmhouse on Old Palmer Avenue from his friend and colleague Dr. Henry Stommel, who moved across the street. This transaction was covered in the Falmouth Enterprise on Nov. 18, 1966. They raised their young family there, and it was their home for decades.

In 1971, Doug and Dr. Roger Payne published a seminal paper postulating that the songs of fin whales could be heard across vast distances and suggested that noise from commercial shipping might interfere with whale communication. The idea seemed far-fetched at the time, but is now widely accepted. 

In 1982, Doug left WHOI to form his own company, Webb Research Corporation (WRC), which invented and manufactured instruments for physical oceanography and naval research. The company developed a family of products, which used neutral and variable buoyancy to control the depth of instruments in the ocean, as well as long-range, low-frequency, acoustic sources.   Their products were used by laboratories in 20 nations and are central to the international ARGO program, a global array of thousands of autonomous ocean sensor platforms.         

Doug conceived and developed the undersea glider, a long-endurance, winged, undersea autonomous vehicle, propelled by buoyancy changes rather than a propeller. In 1994, he was granted a patent for a unique, thermal engine, which used energy harvested from oceanic temperature differences to propel the glider. 

In 2009, Rutgers University deployed a battery-powered version of the glider for the first-ever trans-Atlantic crossing of an autonomous underwater vehicle, which arrived in Baiona, Spain, where, 516 years earlier, the first of Christopher Columbus’ ships returned from the New World. The glider was subsequently displayed in the Smithsonian Museum. Another glider, owned by the U.S. Navy, gained international notoriety when it was briefly seized by China in 2016. This technology is now a staple of ocean research and monitoring.

Webb Research Corporation was sold to Teledyne in 2008 and became Teledyne Webb Research, for which Doug continued to consult until recently.

The author of over 60 publications, and with 15 U.S. patents to his name, Doug, along with Dr. Thomas Rossby of the University of Rhode Island, received the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Bigelow Medal in 1988, and he received the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society's 2005 Distinguished Technical Achievement Award. He was also the recipient of the American Geophysical Union's Ocean Science Award in 2017. In 2021, he was appointed Oceanographer Emeritus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for work that “crossed and merged the boundaries of science and technology in elegant fashion.”

Oceanographic technologies pioneered by Webb are in use today all over the world, and have contributed to an exponential increase in the amount of data extracted from the oceans, for oceanography, meteorology, climate change research, and naval applications. His work was characterized by a tenacious and painstaking pursuit of optimization in design.

Doug was an avid reader, a sailor, a lover of family, cats, travel, mystery novels, puns, and Italian food. Adept with a sextant, slide rule, or oscilloscope, his dress code was as informal as his engineering was meticulous. 

He was proud of his Canadian heritage and drove his family 12 hours to Canada each Christmas, to keep close ties with their relatives. As an octogenarian, Doug fully restored and drove his beloved Bugatti that he had raced 60 years earlier in England.

He was predeceased by his wife of 58 years, Shirley, in 2015, and is survived by his daughter, Rebecca Webb, of Rochester, NY, and his son, Daniel Webb, and wife, Mary of Falmouth, MA, and their children, Harrison and Avery.