Byron Joseph Fordyce
elevated Kair1 October 27, 1947 ~ June 30, 2021
elevated Kair1 It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of Byron Joseph Fordyce. Byron was born in Hamilton, Ontario to the late Mary Patricia Hanrahan and Norman Byron Fordyce. He was a devoted husband to Doris (née Sin), loving father to Christopher (Bronwen) and Erin (David), and was a caring (and silly) Yeh Yeh/Gung Gung to his grandchildren, Aila, Finlay, Grayson, Evelyn and Jacob.
elevated Kair1 Proud Hamiltonian and lover of languages, travel and sports, Byron possessed a unique combination of “brains and brawn”. He graduated as an Ontario Scholar in 1965 from Delta Secondary School, completed his Bachelor of Arts at McMaster University in 1969 (Honours French and German), and obtained his Master’s Degree at Queen’s University in 1972 (German Language and Literature). During this time, he played five years of varsity football, where he was a regular starter on the offensive line (centre). He then pursued an accomplished career for 46 years in International and Commercial Banking with The Toronto-Dominion Bank, which saw postings in Toronto, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Montreal.
elevated Kair1 Above all, Byron was most proud of his family, who were undoubtedly his number one priority. Doris will miss planning and enjoying many trips and cruises together, especially to Europe. Chris and Erin will miss his constant cheerleading, through thoughtful texts, newspaper clippings, and frequent visits. His grandchildren will miss his sound advice on life and school (“Grandparents’ U”), their shared snacktime, the countless FaceTimes, and his funny jokes.
elevated Kair1 We are grateful to the staff at Princess Margaret and North York General Hospitals for their care and compassion. In lieu of flowers, please hug your family members more often and for a little longer. For those desiring, please consider a donation to the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation https://thepmcf.ca/ or North York General Foundation https://www.nygh.on.ca/
elevated Kair1 Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there will be a private family funeral mass and burial service on Wednesday, July 7th, 2021, at 10:30 am. To view the service, please click on the link below.
elevated Kair1 View Service
elevated Kair1
Dear Doris, Chris and Erin and all the grandkids,
Our sincere condolence to the loss of your beloved husband, father and gtandfather. May he rest in peace in God’s arms.
Please take care.
We are all mourning the loss of Bryon at such an early time in his life. I will always remember his dry wit and the fun times we all had on Prince Street. I hope that eventually you will be able to remember him without sadness, but with joy that you were able to all be together. Rest in peace, dear Bryon
Byron will be missed dearly as a true and kind long time friend. Such a nice person, a sweet husband, and a devoted father and grandfather. Our heart and love go out to you Doris, and Chris and Erin and families. May the fun and fond memories with Byron support and comfort you at this time of grief. May Byron rest in peace.
What a beautiful life he lived. You and your family are in our thoughts as you grieve this loss. May he rest in peace. Please take care!
Dear Doris,
We are so shocked to hear the bad news. I was under the impression that Byron was getting better everyday.
We still talked about our trip together. He’s such a gentleman and kind person. It must be difficult for you and hopefully the children and grand children will bring you peace. Remember all the fun you enjoyed in traveling and with grand children.
Byron is in God’s palace. Take care!
Byron was certainly proud of his family and we are sorry for your loss. We send all of our love and grace to you all at this difficult time. xox Love Tegan, Dave, Ashley, Maria & Charlotte
Dear Doris and family,
I just can’t believe this! Byron kept telling me that he was getting better and better. I was thinking to invite him to visit us in Vancouver again soon as Covid 19 is finally under control.
He was the best boss I have ever met. I will always remember those good old days we worked together in Taipei.
Please accept my sincere condolence meanwhile please take good care of your self.
Always a gentleman with a smile for all and so much love for Doris, Chris and Erin and their families.
We feel so fortunate having known you. We loved you Byron. We will miss you so much.
Dear Doris & family,
Chung and I were shocked to hear about Byron’s passing, we thought that the special treatment Christopher came up with was working well. We are certainly that he is resting happily in Jesus’ arms now, no more sadness, sickness, toil, worries and suffering.
We want to express our deepest sympathy to you and your family. Someday you will all be re-united in heaven, we hope the thought will give you tremendous
comfort.
Please take care of yourselves. We will pray specially for Byron, may he rest in peace! Amen
Dear Doris,
We are so sorry for your loss. We will always remember the shared experiences of the Prince Street gang. They have been a highlight of our lives in Montreal.
Byron was a wonderful friend and companion. Our hearts are with you and the family.
love, Penny and Chris
Dear Doris, Chris, Erin & families,
We are saddened to have received the news of Byron’s passing.
We offer our sincere condolences to you all. The loss is shared.
May Byron Rest In Peace.
Doris, Erin and Chris:
What a beautiful tribute to Byron. He will be missed by so many.
I will always remember how proud (so proud!) Byron was of Chris and Erin’s many achievements over the years and his devotion to his beautiful grandchildren.
Whenever our paths crossed, Byron always seemed genuinely interested in the going-ons of my own life, asking many questions and sharing his own life experiences. I have fond memories chatting with him about travel, food, and Queen’s.
I’m thinking of you during this tough time and sending lots of love your way.
Lisa
Doris, Carolyn and I are very sorry to hear of Byron’s passing. I recall our times together in HK both at work with TD and on the squash court where his ability to play right and left handed on the same rally was amazing. He was a luvly lad in many ways.
Dear Doris,
Dear Doris, My deep condolences. I hope you will find comfort in happy memories. Having been overseas with you and Byron was a wonderful experience. When Ed died, I came across a phrase that was so appropriate: “The experience of losing a spouse is singular.” It is so true, such a complicated and ongoing situation, and so difficult to reconcile oneself with. Please consider coming to Los Angeles for a visit. You will always be welcome.
Dear Doris,
Very sad to have received this message with great grief. you have our deepest condolences in this regard.
Dear Doris,
On behalf of all Good Hope schoolmates I like to send you our deep condolence to you and your family for the great loss of your beloved husband Byron. May he rest in eternal happiness with our loving God! From the eulogy I can see that he was such a loving person, well appreciated by his family and all those who know him! May he rest in eternal peace! May God comfort and bless you all!
Dear Doris,
This is Sally. I am so shocked to hear this sad news of your loss. I would like to let you know that my heart is with you in this time of sorrow though we have been separated by the distance.
You are not alone, and you will be not alone. We are all with you. Byron is in God’s garden looking down on you with his love.
Please take good care.
Liebe Doris,
unsere herzlichsten Kondulenzgrüße. Es tut uns sehr leid, daß Byron so eine schwere Krankheit hatte und sterben musste. Wir sind sehr betroffen und schockiert. Wir haben ihn als sehr netten und freundlichen Menschen in Montréal, in Beaconsfield, kennengelernt. Es ist nun sehr schwer für Dich und Deine Familie ,den Verlust zu akzeptieren. Er wird Euch sehr fehlen. Diese schlechte Nachricht hat auch uns sehr überrascht und traurig gestimmt.
Wir wünschen Dir, liebe Doris, alles Gute und viel Kraft in der Zeit der Trauer. Herzliche Grüße aus Deutschland, aus Berlin, Béate und Jan
Alice and I are so grateful we were able to connect with Byron and Doris after so many years apart. He was such a fine man and true gentleman. We will miss him greatly.
Cousin Mike and Alice Fordyce
Doris, Lance and I are so sorry for your loss. Our sincere condolences. You know we are here for you. Anything we can help with, we will. Please reach out. Our prayers for you and your family. May Bryon Rest in Peace.
Lorrayne & Lance
Byron was my sister’s better half. He was my parents’ son-in-law who did not speak the language but tried learning to say tongue twisters to entertain us. He eventually speak Cantonese with flair.
Byron was a dedicated father to Chris and Erin, loving grandpa to his 5
grandchildren, easy going uncle to his many nephews and nieces.
He is sorely missed but forever in our hearts.
May he rest in the embrace of Our merciful Lord.
Sharing your loss.
Grace and Chan family
Dear Doris, Erin, Chris and family,
I was very sorry to hear about Byron’s passing and offer my heartfelt condolences to all of you. I won’t forget the time Byron and I worked together at TD and all the stories he shared about his family. The cruises he loved to take with his beloved Doris. How he fell in love with Doris after they met over a botched International visa credit card, his football playing, his travels across the world for work and how proud he was of both Erin and Chris! There are so many stories he shared but in all of them was the love for you all and how proud he was of both Erin and Chris. He loved you all so dearly and was such a beautiful person. Hugs to you all.
Dear Doris, No words can describe the pain that you are going through now. I share your pain.
Vivid memories remain of our our first encounter with Byron and you on the Princess in 2013 on our Canary Islands and trans-Atlantic cruises.
Our prayers are with You. Our Hope is in the Lord.
Dear Doris, Christ, Erin and Family,
We were saddened to learn of Byron’s passing. Our thoughts, prayers and support are with you all during this difficult time.
With heartfelt sympathy,
Marina & Hu family
Dear Doris, Chris, Erin and Family,
Our hearts, prayers and thoughts are with you.
Byron was such a wonderful person, devoted in his love of his family.
We are so saddened by Byron’s passing.
We are sending all of our love and our deepest condolences,
Brenda and Michael xoxoxo
Dear Doris and family,
Our condolences to you and your family. We still remember your visit with Byron to New York City and also with Erin. Now we got a glimpse of the rest of your family. Byron and you sure raised them well with loving care.
Parting at this time is sad, but remember that we will all meet again in our heavenly home eventually. Please find comfort in each other and in your fond memories.
Hope to talk to you in a couple of weeks.
Love,
Shew and Lulu
Byron was a school mate at Delta Secondary in Hamilton Ontario. Also a neighbor three blocks over. We both played on the Junior and Senior football teams winning the Senior City Championship in 1965. Chris and I sat beside each other on a Vancouver to Toronto flight last week by pure chance both on the way home for family funerals.What are the chances of that? We talked and discovered our history for the entire 5 hours. Old school friends that I visited also knew Byron. A great guy that we shared both public and high school with and now especially will never be forgotten.
RIP Byron
Byron was a kind and dear friend during the year we were both exchange students in Tübingen, Germany –1970-71. I never saw him after that — fifty years, but from time to time something would remind me of our wide-ranging conversations and the fun times we had with a group of exuberant friends. Though I am sad at his loss, reading about his full and meaningful life brings me a sense of peace and joy. God bless all of you who knew and loved him.
Dear Doris, I was shocked and extremely saddened to learn, only today and quite by chance, of Byron’s death. You will remember, I am sure, even after such a long time, that he was my student at Queen’s University and that I was the supervisor of his fine M.A. thesis on Heinrich Böll in 1971, which still occupies a prominent position on my bookshelf. The last time I saw Byron was on a visit to Frankfurt am Main, when Christopher was still a baby. After leaving Queen’s I taught for three years at Middlesex University in London, then 15 years at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and finally 15 more years at the Universities of Metz and Nancy-Lorraine in France, at both of which I held the Chair of German Language and Literature. I took early retirement in 2003 and have since been living in the United Kingdom (near Belfast in Northern Ireland). After my retirement I became the U.K. Representative of the world-famous Vienna Boys’ Choir, and I still regularly visit Vienna. I have played the piano in concerts for some of their soloists. I would have loved to see Byron again. You and your family would be welcome as my guests when travel restrictions are finally lifted after this dreadful pandemic is finally over. Apparently email addresses (mine is below) will not be published in any comments, but you could ask the website to reveal it to you as it would be nice to be in touch again. My deepest condolences to you and your family. I will always remember Byron as an outstanding student with an excellent knowledge of German and as a very practical researcher. Despite my having been, so to speak, ‘on the other side of the table’, I always considered him to be a good friend. It was a privilege to know him.
Dear Doris,
I learned only today, and quite by chance, that Byron had died. I am deeply sorry and I offer you and your family my condolences. I previously posted a more lengthy tribute to Byron on this website but it has not appeared yet, presumably because it is still awaiting moderation.
Byron was an outstanding student of mine at Queen’s and I was the supervisor of his fine thesis on Heinrich Böll in 1971, which still occupies a prominent place on my bookshelf. The last time I saw Byron was in Frankfurt am Main when Christopher was a baby in arms. When I left Canada I taught in England, Australia and France and held the Chair of German Language and Literature at the Universities of Metz and Nancy-Lorraine for fifteen years. I retired in 2003 and have since been living again in the U.K., near Belfast in Northern Ireland
I never forgot Byron: he was an exceptional person in every respect, and although he and I were, so to speak, ‘on opposite sides of the table’, I always considered him as a friend and not just another student.
The website does not publish email addresses, but I will try to find your address and contact you. It would be nice to be in touch again after more than 50 years.
Again, my heartfelt sympathy, and do please try to contact me too.
Thank you so much for your kind and heartfelt note Professor Noble. My email is erin.fordyce@gmail.com. If you happen to see this , please get in touch and I can pass along my Mom’s contact information. We were recently reading through his Thesis. He spoke so fondly of his time studying Boll at Queen’s. Thank you again for the kind note.
Dear Erin (if I may be informal),
I am so glad that you saw my two messages. The website did not post the first one immediately, which made me think that comments and tributes had been closed. That’s why I added a second, shorter message. Now that they have both been posted, I can recall what I had written in the first one (which I hadn’t saved).
It is good that they did not delete your email address from your reply. I will send a text of this reply to your email address as well. Meanwhile, my own email address (which I hope they won’t delete), is noble340@btinternet.com. I will send you my postal address and telephone number by email for passing on to your Mom.
I read your Dad’s fine thesis again the other day and it brought back a lot of cherished memories of the time we were both at Queen’s. I left Kingston in 1973. I will be 81 next month (January 2022).
I look forward to hearing from your Mom in due course.
Kind regards,
Arthur (Noble)