WISEMAN, Henry

We sadly announce the passing of Henry Wiseman at Hospice Wellington in Guelph, Ontario. Henry will be missed by his wife, Janet Wood, his daughters Suzanne and Catherine, their mother Janice Wiseman and his grandchildren Sam, Nicholas, Andrew and Hannah. Henry’s parents, Samuel Wiseman and Caroline Shmilovitch, met in Montreal after arriving separately from Eastern Europe. Born in 1923, Henry was brother to the late Lynn Sobcuff, Marcus Wiseman and Beatrice Stulbaum, and uncle to Cynthia Mayoff, Leanne Marcus, Alan Sobcuff, Joey Kravitz, Ira Stulbaum, and the late Sharon Stulbaum. He was an important friend to many and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. 

Henry completed his BA (’47, Queen’s University), then joined his father’s award winning fur business on St Paul St in old Montreal, and joined a partner in the building business, constructing houses on the south shore of the St Lawrence. Next he completed the first academic study of United Nations Peacekeeping while earning his PhD ('67, Queen’s University). He taught undergraduates as a Professor of Political Studies at the University of Guelph while monitoring the first elections as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, and teaching military and non-military personnel the principles and practice of peacekeeping under the auspices of the United Nations, the International Peace Academy (New York) and the Lester B Pearson International Peacekeeping Training Centre (Cornwallis, Nova Scotia). He was well known for organizing conferences, including “Strategies for Peace & Security in a Nuclear Age” (1983, addressed by Pierre Elliot Trudeau). Henry’s retirement was spent keeping up with family and friends, making documentary films (for example, “Life and the Machines”), donating his collection of first edition books on Canadian Arctic explorations to the Art Gallery of Ontario, taking University courses on art, art history and philosophy, following global political affairs and traveling with Janet. 

We thank friends and family for their support. If you wish, please consider making donations in Henry’s name to Project Ploughshares, to Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, to the Canadian Red Cross or to the Stratford Festival. A celebration of Henry's life will be announced at a later date.