Dr. John North, professor of English, passed away August 10 at the age of 86, leaving a long legacy as a scholar and teaching at the University of Waterloo.
“John was a legendary teacher and researcher at Waterloo, who touched the lives of thousands of students, many of whom stayed in touch with him long after they graduated,” says Dr. Jay Dolmage, Director of the School of Critical and Creative Humanities.
“His courses on connections between the Bible and Literature were extremely important to students at Waterloo over the years. His research legacy, a very impactful one, is best characterized by the Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900, which currently boasts entries for more than 73,000 titles and is an ongoing resource for other researchers and teachers.”
Originally from Vancouver, North joined the Department of English Language & Literature in September 1968 with the intention to return to British Columbia as soon as he could. In 2018, he celebrated 50 years at the University of Waterloo. At the time, he credited his students, colleagues and University administration as influencing his decision to make his home here. His love of Victorian Studies, Shakespeare, Literature and the Bible and Children's Literature was as evident in his scholarship as it was the courses he developed in person and for distance education students.
His impact as a teacher earned him a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003 not just for his passion for the material, but for the personal approach he brought to his classes. He was praised by students because he “showed us not so much how to ask questions of works of literature, but how they ask questions of us. It is our own lives we find dissected, probed, doubted, and spurred on to tackle questions of meaning, purpose and faith when we read literature.”
Beyond the classroom, North was also a founding member of the Pascal Lectures on Christianity and the University at the University of Waterloo and an avid volunteer in the community, including with Grand River Hospital and welcoming refugees arriving in Kitchener-Waterloo (being a second-generation immigrant himself).
Visitation will be held at the Henry Walser Funeral Home from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, August 21 and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 22. The service will follow at 4 p.m. (in person and via livestream). Read the obituary for more details.