John (Jack) Urie

John (Jack) Urie (BCom) died Feb. 25, aged 95, just three days after the death of his beloved wife of 68 years, Dorothy (James). Jack was born in Guelph, but raised in Ottawa. Following a family tradition (father George, Meds’13; uncle Percy, Meds’19, and, later, his brother Norman, Meds’51), he chose Queen’s, and studied Commerce. After graduating at the height of WWII, he enlisted in the Cameron Highlanders and was shipped overseas. He landed in Normandy on June 8, 1944—D-Day plus 2— and the following day was hit by shrapnel and broke his leg when his motorcycle drove over a mine near Caen. For his D-Day service, he was awarded France’s Legion of Honour less than a month before his death. He was proud of his regiment and served for a time as Honorary Colonel of the Camerons. While back home recuperating from these wounds in hospital, Jack met Dorothy, a friend of his brother Norman. The couple married in 1946, then moved to Toronto, where Jack studied law at Osgoode Hall. After returning to Ottawa, he became a founding partner of the firm Burke- Robertson, Urie, Butler & Chadwick. Some of his accomplishments in a distinguished legal career captured headlines. He was an assistant counsel to the inquiry into the Gerda Munsinger affair, a 1966 sex scandal involving a federal cabinet minister and Munsinger, an East German spy. Three years later, he was on the legal team for St. Louis Blues rookie Wayne Maki, who was charged with assault after a fight with Boston enforcer Ted Green left Green with a shattered skull. Maki was acquitted when the court agreed that the attack was an involuntary reaction to Green’s provocation. The case is considered a landmark in the field of sports law. Jack, a lifelong sports fan, travelled to Russia with the Canadian delegation for the 1972 Summit Series. In 1979 he authored the federal Canadian Hockey Review, which examined hockey violence and the decline in skills that had eroded Canada’s standing as the No. 1 hockey nation. In 1973, he was appointed a federal court judge, a position that took him and Dorothy around the country. He remained on the Court as a supernumerary, retiring only in 2005. Jack cared for Dorothy at a retirement residence following her 2009 stroke. When she died on Feb. 22 of unexpected kidney failure, Jack was in the final stages of colon cancer. The couple’s three children, Jan Snell, Alison Banbury and David Urie, had all spent time alone with him just minutes before he died. The couple’s life together was celebrated on March 26 at a memorial service that included a Cameron Highlanders piper and honour guard.