Hicks, Roy Leon

Roy Leon Hicks, age 89, died peacefully Tuesday December 16th, at the Reactivation Care Center in Toronto, Ontario, from complications of kidney failure.

Roy Leon Hicks was born April 9th, 1936, in Sackville, New Brunswick. The family moved to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, in 1945. Roy attended Shelburne High School, playing on the basketball team. After the death of the school’s mathematics teacher, Roy first taught himself calculus and then taught the rest of his class. In Shelburne’s harbour, he developed his love of sailing with his little dog, Blackie. He worked various part-time jobs and was well on his way to becoming a telegraph operator when his mother suggested he become an engineer instead.

He attended Mount Allison University (‘57), studying math and physics, and then Queen’s University (‘59), studying electrical engineering. After graduation, he moved to Ottawa for employment at the Department of National Defence. There, he met his future wife, Ruth, through the young adult group at Chalmers United Church. They married in 1962, moved to Toronto, and were blessed with four daughters over the next ten years.

From the home that Roy and Ruth eventually purchased in Mississauga, he commuted to his work at Ontario Hydro Research Division in Etobicoke, where he designed tools for locating breaks in electrical heating cables and methods to manage electrical interference on the instrumentation wiring in generating stations. He routinely walked the 6.5km home from the lab, amazing the neighbours as he strolled past their cars stopped on the Bloor Street bridge.

From 1983 to 1999, Roy was the Chief Electrical Inspector for Ontario Hydro, in charge of enforcement and revision of the provincial electrical safety code. Part of this position included attending an annual conference that moved between provinces. Roy and Ruth would drive to the conference from Toronto, seeing much of Canada along the way. This included a drive to Whitehorse and two drives to Yellowknife.

Roy believed in the importance of community. He and Ruth were members of Bethesda United Church, followed by Applewood United Church, with both taking on church leadership roles. Roy also served on a City of Mississauga advisory committee, giving input into the city’s initial bus system. He was active in the ratepayers association, including putting in time flooding the ice rink in a local park. He was active in Probus and numerous book clubs.

Roy enjoyed sailing his Mirror dinghy on Lake Ontario, cycling, walking, gardening, and long car trips. Family vacations were car trips with camping along the way, both back to the Maritimes and one memorable trip to Victoria and back. Roy taught his daughters to enjoy living in the city with trips to the Science Centre, museums, and Blue Jays games – always using the TTC, of course. Post-retirement, Roy taught courses on the local electrical code to people in the film industry. Roy and Ruth continued exploring Canada and the USA by car, sometimes for months at a time.

He went for daily walks up until he became too weak earlier this year.

Roy is predeceased by his wife, Ruth (2018); two daughters, Elizabeth (1972) and Heather (2017); and his older brother, Ed (2019). He is survived by two daughters, Shirley (Mark) and Barbara (Dave), as well as two nieces and two great-nephews.

A celebration of life will be held at a location and date to be determined.

If you wish to honour Roy’s memory through donations, the following are organizations he supported:

The Kidney Foundation

The United Church

St Joseph’s Hospital

Mississauga Food Bank

Trillium Hospital

If you wish to honour Roy’s memory in another way, if you can, go for a walk. Choose to run an errand on foot, replace a car trip, walk in the woods. Just go for a walk.