Michael Vegh, 70
Partner, father, teacher, observer of life. Born Sept. 19, 1941, in Budapest. Died June 2, 2011, in Bracebridge, Ont., of complications from diabetes, aged 69.
Michael Vegh and his family escaped Hungary toward the end of the Second World War. He settled in Toronto with his parents, Michael and Hedi, and beloved sister, Agnes.
As a young man, Mike experienced two more significant events: living at Everdale, a commune located in Hillsburgh, Ont., and travelling to Africa on his own. These moments fed Mike's desire to establish connections with others as part of a community and his everlasting fascination with the rawness of pure nature.
Such circumstances most certainly contributed to Mike's social DNA; he was a lifelong teacher, contrarian and philosopher.
Mike attended McMaster University in Hamilton. An English and media literacy teacher at Earl Haig Secondary School in Toronto for 20 years, he retired in 2008. His repertoire included literature, Neil Postman and Noam Chomsky. His Achilles heel, however, was anything involving a computer. He probably sent one e-mail to each friend before returning to his pen-on-a-rope and notebooks.
His dedication to young people went beyond his classroom. Mike enjoyed a loving relationship with the children of his partner of 31 years, Carol Quinn. Her kids, Elizabeth and Peter, considered him a father as much as he adored them as his own. Mike was "Nudgie" to their children, a grandfather who muted his disdain for child-targeted consumerism to buy the toys they wanted.
Mike was a fervent debater, shattering the calm during lunch as he argued about the Middle East. His interest, though, was in the sharing of ideas, not in acrimony or animosity – unless you happened to be a certain ex-prime minister. At a book signing several years ago, Brian Mulroney's promotional tour encountered Mike's wall of vitriol as he shouted: "You ruined this country!" RCMP officers hurried Mike and his friend out.
Mike was also a voracious filmgoer, enthralled by darkly themed movies that made you ponder why life wasn't always fair or equitable.
For Mike, the most personal lesson of inequity came from his separation from his daughter, Joni Krzycki, who had been adopted at birth. Joni's reunion with her father when she was 26 truly completed the last 17 years of his life. Finally, he was able to be the ultimate teacher to the daughter that he almost lost.
Mike's health declined over the past year as years of dialysis took its toll. Two days before his death, he called his friends to bid them farewell and to sum up how much he valued them.
Mike's greatest legacy was to teach us all about life's essentials: Living had to be meaningful, desserts were a food group and people could not be apolitical.
By Jse-Che Lam, Mike's friend and colleague.