It is with profound sadness that the family announce the passing of Len Findlay at home surrounded by family and friends on May 25, 2023. Len was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on December 14, 1944, the second child of George and Irene (Black) Findlay. He was predeceased by his brother, George, and is survived by brother, Ian, wife Elaine (Harris), Naomi (Scott Chisholm) and Natalie (Mark Crawford) and families); and sister, Irene (Gauld, husband Ken (deceased), and Jenny (Kevin Kemp) and Martyn). He is also survived by his wife of 54 years, fellow academic Isobel; by sons, Andrew and Nicholas; and by in-laws, Bill and Sandra (Reid) Downie (Bromley) and Ian and Kate (Slessor) Downie (Old Meldrum) and their respective families (Alan (Zoe), Jill (Ross McCallum), and Emma and Alison (David Latto) and Barclay and their families.

A gifted student from the outset and talented soccer and rugby player, Len was Seafield gold medallist at the University of Aberdeen and went on to achieve a D.Phil. on Victorian literature at Jesus College, Oxford. The young family came to Canada in 1974 where Len developed an impressive career at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He was Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, a founding and ongoing member of the Indigenous Humanities Group at the University of Saskatchewan, and the recipient of two USSU teaching awards. He directed the Humanities Research Unit at the U of S from its inception to its demise. He was also a Past President of Academy One (Arts and Humanities) of the Royal Society of Canada, President of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), Vice-President External of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities, a two-term Chair of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, an ongoing Member of the Board of Directors of the Harry Crowe Foundation for Academic Freedom, and an ongoing Senior Fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University's Centre for Free Expression. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at Western's Centre for Theory and Criticism, and the Frye Professor at the University of Toronto. He also served for three years as Senior Policy Analyst in the Universities Branch of the Department of Post-Secondary Education in Regina during a Roy Romanow government.

As an academic activist Len for several decades worked as an outsider/insider understanding organizational and power structures in order to make them more socially inclusive and imaginative in their understanding and fulfilment of their mandates. Known for his quick wit, intellectual range and rigour, fearless critique, generous mentorship, and challenging but constructive questions, in all his endeavours he tried to live by the Enlightenment maxim, "Dare to know."

Trained in nineteenth-century European elite and radical cultural theory and production, Len's more recent Canadianist work engaged with the Indigenous/settler interface, historically and currently, the distinctiveness and endangerment of the humanities in Canada, and with connections and tensions between academic freedom and the decolonizing of Canadian universities. His edition and revised translation of "The Communist Manifesto" is still selling domestically and internationally into its eighth thousand, while his edition of Swinburne sells steadily with Routledge. He also edited or co-edited three essay collections, a special journal issue, and authored more than a hundred book chapters and journal articles, several provincial and national policy papers and reports, and more than 50 academic book reviews. A passionate but critical Canadian, he continued to write about what interested him, and looked forward to reactions to two new chapters exploring Canada as the product of a distinctive interplay between a feral culture and a federal state.

Len was also proud of his family. He loved coaching his sons' soccer teams into their teen years, volunteering at Saskatoon French School, getting to know his sons' friends, cheering from the sidelines at rugby and soccer games, walking our dogs (Abby, Ceilidh, and Nick's Howie), cooking and conversation, and travel. Entertaining friends and family in our home was a special delight, including Burns suppers, summer barbeques, Thanksgiving and New Year's parties, and birthday and other celebrations. He relished fly fishing in northern Saskatchewan, including fabled fly-in trips, publishing and presenting at international conferences with Isobel, and shared vacations with Canadian friends and collaborators and UK family in Canada (from coast to coast), Cuba, Barbados, Cyprus, and across Europe, celebrating family weddings in London, Larne, Limoges, and Aberdeen, as well as glorious family gatherings in Carrbridge in the Cairngorms and Weardale in County Durham.

The family is deeply grateful to Dr. Mark Lees and team at West Winds Primary Health Centre, the medical staff at Royal University Hospital, the palliative care team who supported the family over the last several weeks, and Drs. Thorpe and Campbell for their compassionate care. They and their colleagues deserve the right to help shape the future of health care in Saskatchewan. Solidarity forever! Our sincere thanks also to family, friends, neighbours, and colleagues who gave such amazing support throughout.

True to his wishes, there will be no funeral service but we will host informal celebrations of Len's life both in Saskatoon and in Aberdeen over the summer (dates and locations to be determined). An award has been endowed in Len's name at the Canadian Association of University Teachers: the Len Findlay Award in Critical Race Theory, Decolonization, and Academic Freedom. For those interested, donations may be made by cheque to the Len Findlay Award c/o the Canadian Association of University Teachers, 2705 Queensview Drive, Ottawa ON, K28 8K2. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.hillcrestmemorial.ca.