Robin Brooks Leckie: Math Enthusiast. Mentor. Unassuming Hero. Wit. Born June 30, 1931, in Vancouver; died July 19, 2018, in Toronto, from a stroke; aged 87.
Robin Leckie.The Globe and Mail
While Robin lay in palliative care, one of his sons placed tiny wildflowers on Robin’s white bedcover. It was symbolic for a man who loved the natural world, to have nature’s gift of beauty, dying there with him.
Eighty seven years earlier, his mother gave birth to fraternal twins, Robin and Peter. Growing up, they shared a room and before falling asleep would talk about their days, their ideas and their dreams. Robin loved the special bond of being a twin. Both twins had brilliant minds – they could discuss any subject with interest, knowledge and curiosity.
To save money for university, Robin was able to work for a year by skipping Grade 11 and still graduate with his schoolmates. While perusing the curriculum at University of British Columbia, he came across actuarial science, and he knew in an instant this was the career he wanted.
After graduation, Robin moved to Toronto for work, and once he became accustomed to the city’s humid summers and freezing winters, he loved the city – especially enjoying the ravines and parks, and taking the ferry to the Toronto Islands.
Growing up, Robin’s family had never owned a car, but now he had the funds to go a little car crazy. When I met him, he was driving an aquamarine Austin Healey, the same car that James Bond drove in the movies. I must admit it added a little pizzazz. We were married in 1959.
Robin spent his whole career at Manulife Financial, retiring as senior vice-president. He loved his work and was admired by many. A colleague once wrote, "Robin has a quality that even a poet could not describe. It commands the respect not only of the other guy’s mind but of his heart as well.” Robin would become president of both the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries.
At home, Robin filled his family’s lives with possibilities and encouraged their passions and plans. Every Saturday he took his four children on day-long hikes, instilling in them a love of the outdoors. When they were young teenagers, he took each one on a solo trip, visiting Vancouver, Vermont, Japan and the Arctic.
Robin chose early retirement after experiencing two frightening occasions of memory loss. We moved back to Vancouver, where he was invited to become an adjunct professor at UBC. Robin felt he could no longer live up to the demands of being a senior executive in an international company, but teaching commerce part-time was something he loved. He wrote a textbook on risk management and, in the first year out west, he often flew back to Toronto to work on special projects for Manulife.
One year after both Robin and Peter had retired, we were holidaying together on the Oregon Coast when Peter and his wife, Bettyann, were killed in a car collision. The sadness of this loss never left Robin. The twins were together at birth and then at death.
Robin shared his developing journey with dementia in an essay printed in The Globe and Mail in 2012. In his last years, Robin did not always know his family’s names or where he lived, but he still embraced life with enthusiasm and gratitude.
As any family loving one with Alzheimer’s would understand, we saw the good in goodbye.
Rosemary Leckie is Robin’s wife.
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