Mr. William Hawke Magney

Obituary

William (Bill) Hawke Magney

October 7, 1940 – September 26, 2021

Bill died peacefully on Sunday September 26, 2021 in Toronto, Canada at age 80, after a brief battle with cancer.

He is survived by brothers John (Andrea) and Jim, his ex-wife Judy, sons Aaron (Judith) and Kurt (Kim), granddaughters Tegan and Kaiya, and many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews.

Bill was born in Ionia, Michigan. He attended Ionia High School, University of Michigan for his B.A. in History, University of California, Berkley for his M.A. in History, and University of Toronto to work on a Ph.D. in History that he began but did not complete.

Bill led a complicated life with many highs and lows. He was a social justice idealist, father, teacher, deep thinker, historian, postal worker, democratic and human rights activist, library and community volunteer, and lover of dogs, politics, music, puns, books, and action/adventure spy and detective movies and stories. He was very open and accepting of people of all cultures, backgrounds, and walks of life, and was often involved with organizations that promoted those ideals. During the later stages of his life he attended a number of different churches and congregations. In his last years, he developed a strong and intensely personal spirituality, inspired largely by Anglican and Unitarian faiths.

We wish to thank the staff at Humber River Hospital for their caring support through his final days.

A visitation will be held at 5-7pm on his birthday, Thursday October 7, 2021, followed by a celebration of Bill’s life at 7pm. Due to covid restrictions, space is limited. For those who are not able to attend in person, the service will be available through a livestream and the link will be available on Bill’s memorial page. Online condolences may be made through www.cardinalfuneralhomes.com.

In lieu of flowers, for those who wish to, donations can be made to the Toronto Public Library, Amnesty International, Facing History and Ourselves Canada, or Canadian Cancer Society.

You can view a livestream of the funeral service on Thursday, October 7 at: https://youtu.be/lQas_amvVRI

Beginning July 16, 2021 the Bereavement Authority of Ontario is once again permitting visitations and services to take place that are open to the public. We must continue to maintain physical distancing, the wearing of masks and may not allow more than 40 guests at any one time. Once the maximum limit has been reached, we will ask any additional guests to kindly wait outside in a physically-distanced line until there is room to enter safely.

Visitation

Service

Cremation