September 15, 1935 – April 23, 2025
Ian Glaisby Wright, Ph.D. - Born in 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick; died April 23, 2025, in Garden Bay, BC. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Fay; their three sons Graham, Bruce, and Christopher; niece Heather; nephew Kevin, his 11-years younger sister Jennifer, and her children and grandchildren. Ian also grew up in Vancouver, BC, after 1946 and earned a BA in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1965. A Sea Scout in youth, Ian worked for Eli Lilly in land-locked Indianapolis for over 28 years, most notably on the development of cephaclor. He took to wind-surfing on the Indiana reservoirs and represented Canada well in the Perry Park rink's hockey league despite not knowing how to skate until he got there. Sister Jen says he was the best big brother ever and remembers epic bike rides, playing blocks and battleship and Monopoly, and Ian building a wooden horse, a rowboat, and a terrarium for her snake. We three sons are grateful to Fay and Ian for all they did for us growing up, taking us to caves, canyons, parks, mountaintops, museums, planetariums, arboretums, and on epic camping trips - to say nothing of the rescues, and pa ying for college. Ian was a man of science - but the hands-on kind, working at the lab bench his whole career. He used his chemist's glass-blowing skills to make figurines we still have. He made numerous wooden toys, furniture, tree houses and the like. We're in awe of his handyman skills to this day. He volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and continued that after moving back to Canada, in retirement i n 1999, here to the Sunshine Coast. By the ocean again, at last, he volunteered for the Coast Guard Auxiliary, aka Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) and served nearly 20 years. Fay remembers that Scout motto as "a scout's duty is to make himself useful and help others," and he lived that as his creed. One of the things he often said to his sons was, "Why don't you find something constructive to do?" (Second only to "If you want to fight, go outside," probably.) Ian aimed to make himself useful even to the last, donating his body to science at UBC. If you're so inclined, donations in his honour can be made to RCMSAR post 61 at this link: https://www.rcmsar61.ca.
