Mr. Scott Chandler

Scott Chandler died at home on July 17, 2015 at the age of 43, after living with cancer for over ten years. Scott was born in Oakville, in 1971, the second child of Norman and Janet Chandler. He and his sister Kim had a quintessential suburban childhood participating in a myriad of activities including competitive figure skating, softball, skiing and swimming. He attended Linbrook PS, New Central P.S and Oakville Trafalgar H.S., graduating in 1989. In 1995, Scott graduated from The University of Waterloo with a BASc Mechanical Engineering. During his time in Waterloo, Scott, was the editor of the engineering newspaper The Iron Warrior and hosted “The Tasty Pastry Show” on the campus radio station. He is deeply grateful for all of the lifelong friends made during his years at Waterloo. Scott met his partner of twenty-four years, Andrea Sykes in their first weeks of school at Waterloo. He could not imagine a life as separate individuals and they were complete partners in friendship, travel, raising their family and careers. Parenting was central to Scott’s life and it was with love, joy, pride and delight that he encouraged, supported and guided Astrid and Nigel. His sense of adventure, keen interest in the world, love of music and commitment to kindness are among the many gifts he worked to give them. Astrid and Nigel, now and forever, have his deep love, friendship and admiration. Scott always kept his firstborn, Emma in his heart and has requested that his ashes be mixed with hers. Scott loved to travel, explore the world and experience the rich possibilities of life. As a child he spent two months travelling across Canada (including a dip in the Arctic Ocean) with his family and from this experience gained a deep appreciation for the land and people of our country. At ten years of age he travelled to Peru with his grandmother, June Lang, climbing Machu Picchu and travelling by boat from Puerto Maldanado up a tributary of the Amazon. With Andrea and later Astrid and Nigel he continued to explore Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe, taking great joy in the planning process, thus ensuring incredible experiences for all. Scott read widely about world geography and politics and always surprised new acquaintances with his ability to discuss their particular piece of the world. A long time resident of Toronto’s Niagara/Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood, Scott enjoyed city walks, good urban planning and exploring great food but most especially a wonderful community of neighbourhood friends. He spent many evenings on the curling rink, participating in the Toronto Pub Quiz league and was a life long Blue Jays fan. As an accomplished skier, he loved downhill skiing and a great joy in his life was teaching the sport to his children. From childhood, an essential part of summer was spending time on the West Arm of Lake Nipissing with family and friends. Some of Scott’s favourite simple pleasures in life were warm waters for swimming and pleasant evenings for relaxing and playing board games. Scott worked as IT consultant for his entire career at Coopers & Lybrand, Price Waterhouse Coopers and IBM Canada. He found the most reward and satisfaction from working to provide solutions to improve public services in Ontario. Scott and his family will be forever grateful to the thousands of people in the medical community who were part of his care team but special thanks goes to Drs. Swallow, Krzyzanowska, and Kim for making the past ten years possible and to Drs. Whelan and Steinberg, nurse Tatianna and Larissa at the Toronto Central CCAC for making the past few months as best as could possibly be. Scott never let cancer or the significant effects of surgery and treatment define him. In the face of enormous challenges he always found ways to live on his own terms, ensuring that his life was filled with love, laughter, family, friendship, fun and great experiences. In Scott’s memory please spend extra time with family and friends, donate blood or continue to support publicly funded health care, in the knowledge that our system was vital in allowing Scott to pursue a rich and fulfilling life. If wished, memorial donations may be made to Friends of Mashkinonje, the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care or contribute to the Faces of Health Care campaign. A celebration of Scott’s life will be held later this summer. Details will be posted on scfamilynews.wordpress.com. We would love it if you would share great stories or photos of Scott. I will compile these for Astrid and Nigel to have. Short stories may be shared in the comments section of this blog. Longer stories and photos may be emailed or shared via Google Drive to family@sykeschandler.ca.