Professor Bill Freedman advised anyone with influence over children to encourage them to serve as stewards of nature.Mike Dembeck/The Canadian Press
While conducting field research in the Arctic, ecologist Bill Freedman realized he and a fellow researcher were directly in the path of a thundering herd of caribou. The two men lay down behind a mound of tundra and hoped for the best.
Recounting the experience, Dr. Freedman later wrote, "Incredibly, the herd came straight at us, paused briefly when confronted by our low crouched silhouettes, and then leisurely parted into two groups that slowly moved around us. I can still recall the sounds of the caribou grunting and farting, and the clicking sounds made by their foot bones as they walked."
Dr. Freedman, who died of cancer on Sept. 26 at his home in Halifax, had a bond with nature that remained constant throughout his life. His love of plants and wildlife led to a distinguished career as a scientist, author, and consultant to governments and industry. As a professor of environmental science and chair of the biology department at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Dr. Freedman inspired thousands of students and, despite being a hunt-and-peck typist, was a prolific writer. His knowledge of Canadian flora and fauna, including their Latin names, was encyclopedic.
In 1989, he completed his first Canadian environmental science textbook, Environmental Ecology. He then went on to author Environmental Science: A Canadian Perspective, soon to be published in its sixth edition. He wrote a book about the ecology of Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia; contributed to two encyclopedias; and wrote or co-wrote more than 100 scientific papers as well as a book on the 50-year history of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a charitable organization dedicated to sustaining Canada's plants and wildlife.
Dr. Freedman volunteered on the board of the NCC for 26 years, serving two terms as regional chairman and then as national chairman from 2008 to 2009. Using his vast knowledge to assess the ecology of land for rare species, he made recommendations about whether land should be purchased by the NCC
Elizabeth May, leader of Canada's Green Party, tweeted that his death was "a terrible loss." As a tribute, the NCC is renaming 150 hectares of popular coastal reserve southwest of Halifax as the Dr. Bill Freedman Nature Reserve. The charitable organization is also creating an internship in Dr. Freedman's name. It will be awarded annually to a Dalhousie student to work with Nature Conservancy senior staff.
Dr. Freedman was fearless in his pursuit of knowledge and loved birding in exotic locations under difficult conditions, but there was one activity with the NCC that he tried to avoid at all costs.
"He had an extreme fear of fundraising," said Linda Stephenson, Atlantic Canada's regional vice-president of the NCC.
"He'd say to me, 'I bring science to the organization, but I'm not a fundraiser.' I'd say, 'Yes Bill you're a brilliant scientist and great at conservation planning, so will you just come to this meeting?' He was so passionate about our work that he didn't realize he was giving a sales pitch. I couldn't tell him that or he'd stop. He was always amazed when someone handed over a large cheque."
Bill (not William) Freedman was born in Toronto on Jan. 20, 1950. He was the youngest of three, and the only son of Sarah and Ely Freedman, immigrants who came from Eastern Europe. They were an ethnically Jewish couple who leaned toward atheistic socialism.
For a time, Ely Freedman worked in a glove factory before he and his wife purchased, and ran, a small convenience store. The Freedman family lived in Toronto's Annex area. Dr. Freedman later wrote that his interest in nature began to develop around the age of 8, when he and a friend would explore the city's ravines and river mouths. A menagerie of creatures, from garter snakes to salamanders to a bullfrog, and even a baby raccoon, began to occupy the basement of the Freedman home on Brunswick Avenue. Keeping them alive required many visits to the public library to find out what food and habitat were needed.
One source of nourishment for his creatures was earthworms, which also became a source of income. After dark, while his parents slept, Bill sneaked out of the house to pluck worms from neighbourhood lawns to sell as fishing bait. On a good night he could make as much as $12.
The enterprise lasted until, as he wrote, "I got lazy and tired of missing so much daytime fun because of compensatory oversleeping into the late morning." It didn't help that a policeman reprimanded him when a homeowner reported a potential intruder lurking on the lawn.
During summer visits to an aunt's cottage on the Severn River, near Washago in northern Ontario, the adolescent scientist learned to snorkel so he could observe fish, crawdads and snapping turtles. Once, wading out of shallow water holding two turtles to show his sister, he was surprised to hear her shriek, "Billy … your legs!" They were covered in leeches. The bloodsuckers were quickly dispatched with salt. Bill's legs remained itchy for a month, although he noted that leeches transmit anesthetic in their bite. He hadn't felt a thing.
Freedman completed high school at Harbord Collegiate in 1969 before entering U of T's botany program. He wrote, "I had an intensifying devotion to learning deeply about natural history." His particular interest lay in humanity's impact on the environment. For his MSc research, he examined oil spills in the western Arctic. His later PhD thesis, awarded in 1978, involved studying ecological changes along transects running from a metal smelter near Sudbury.
In his early 20s, Dr. Freedman married his high school sweetheart, with whom he had two children: Jonathan, in 1981, and Rachael, in 1984. The marriage dissolved, however, while the children were still young. By then, he had begun teaching at Dalhousie, and his wife moved back to Toronto.
Dr. Freedman rarely discussed the difficulties he faced. "He had a big heart, but he never wore it on his sleeve," said Chris Harvey-Clark, veterinarian for Dalhousie, who was a long-time friend. "The only time I ever saw tears in his eyes was when a forest had to be decimated because of a gypsy moth infestation. He knew it had to be done. But he was someone who chose to look forward, not back."
Left alone with two young children, Dr. Freedman enrolled them at Chestnut Street Pre-school Centre, where George-Anne Merrill worked. She recalls she couldn't help but be attracted to the single dad with the mischievous twinkly eyes. He was physically fit from ferocious games of squash and practising karate, in which he earned a black belt.
"He'd show up every day with Rachael dressed in her brother's hand-me-down clothes. Finally I said to him 'Gee, Bill, she's a little girl. Why don't you try buying Rachael some dresses?' 'Oh,' he said. He'd never thought of it. So off he went and bought two of the most hideously pink ruffled dresses I'd ever seen in my life. But she loved them," Ms. Merrill said.
Dr. Freedman was oblivious to Ms. Merrill's interest in him. Then, one day before Christmas, she mentioned it would be her first Christmas alone since her divorce, and he invited her over.
Ms. Merrill accepted. "Once he saw me away from the school setting, he realized I was more than just his children's teacher," she said.
It was Dr. Freedman's daughter, Rachael, who pushed them into marriage. She wailed to Ms. Merrill: "We can't be a real family if you and Daddy aren't married."
The wedding took place on Feb. 13, 1993, in the midst of a Halifax snowstorm.
Ms. Merrill good-naturedly indulged her husband's passion for collecting interesting objects, including ginger beer bottles, cannon balls and duck decoys. An avowed vegetarian and a defender of animal rights, Dr. Freedman took in rescue greyhounds. In the front garden of his Victorian house, he replaced grass with colourful native species and was delighted to discover that the garden attracted the interest of local schools.
He lamented the trend toward reductionism in science and believed all children could benefit from exposure to "the wonderful domain of naturalism." Dr. Freedman felt it was vital to resolving key aspects of the worsening environmental crisis.
His leaves his wife, Ms. Merrill; his children, Jonathan and Rachael; infant granddaughter, Luthien; sisters, Doris and Rita; and many nieces and nephews.
In words of advice to anyone with influence over children, Dr. Fredman encouraged environmental exploration: "This will make your own life more beautiful and worthwhile, and will encourage the kids to take care of nature as they grow into the responsibilities of their own adulthood."
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