To many, Jeffrey Hutchings was known as a well-respected ecologist, scientist and professor recognized around the world for his work on fisheries.
To a group of his childhood friends from Orillia, he was known as Jeff, the guy with a bright mind, a sharp wit and an unwavering loyalty to those close to him.
“I knew regular Jeff,” said Rob Town. “He was a really fun-loving guy.”
Town and Hutchings went to school together from kindergarten until graduating high school — Hillcrest Public School, and then Orillia District Collegiate and Vocational Institute.
In 1982, Hutchings was Town’s best man at his wedding. His sense of humour was on display around that time.
Ahead of rehearsal, Hutchings said he was planning to decorate Town’s car in typical wedding day fashion. Town wasn’t feeling it, so he said he was going for a run. Instead, he drove his car two miles away and parked it so his friend couldn’t get at it.
Hutchings wasn’t done.
During the wedding, laughter came from the crowd when Town and his bride knelt for part of the service. Hutchings had written “Why me?” on the bottom of his friend’s shoes.
“That was his kind of humour,” Town said.
It’s one of the many qualities Town and other friends are remembering about Hutchings, a Dalhousie University professor who died Jan. 29 at his home in Halifax. He was 63.
“He’ll be remembered as someone you could always count on. He’d be there for anybody if they were in need, for sure,” Town said, recalling Hutchings’s “passion for life and his passion for his friends.”
That’s how Nancy Bradd is remembering him, too.
“We were all buddies. We were neighbourhood kids who would go to the park, play basketball, ride our bikes,” she recalled. “High school was the best five years with those guys.”
The group kept in touch over the years, but when they got together, the conversation was unlikely to focus on Hutchings’s career and accomplishments.
“I don’t think we realized how brilliant he was because he didn’t talk about himself a lot. He was a listener; he wasn’t a blabber,” Bradd said. “He was the real deal, just a really nice guy.”
While Hutchings wasn’t one to brag, his far-reaching influence wasn’t easily ignored.
Jim Bottomley, another member of that circle of childhood friends, recalled the time he and his wife were hiking in Jasper, Alta. They crossed paths with a fish biologist. Bottomley took a shot in the dark and asked if the man knew of Hutchings.
“He’s the Wayne Gretzky of fish biology,” the man replied.
“He really was a rock star in the fish biology world. He was trailblazing. He saw early on that the fisheries were failing and he sounded the alarm bells,” Bottomley said. “Many people would challenge him on that. He showed really strong integrity.”
Hutchings’s work included his role as chair of a 2012 Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on Marine Biodiversity, member of a 2001 Expert Panel on genetically modified foods and chair of Canada's national science body, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, responsible for advising the feds on species at risk of extinction.
Bottomley said Hutchings was pressured to declare the polar bear an endangered species, but, “despite the international pressure and his personal interests — recognizing an endangered declaration could help support safeguarding climate — he had to base any declaration strictly on the science. Jeff believed in following facts, not personal interests, to make the world better.”
Hutchings was past president and co-founder of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution. He was also elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) in 2015.
Two years later, he earned the international A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences.
Despite all of those achievements and accolades, they didn’t affect Hutchings as much as his 2018 induction to the Orillia Hall of Fame.
“Of all the honours I’ve received … you know, honestly, this means more than all of those things,” Hutchings told OrilliaMatters at the time. “(The) other rewards don’t link you to your community, they don’t link you to where you grew up, to your friends and family — this does. It’s almost one of those things one can’t really put into words very adequately.”
A memorial service for Hutchings will take place at 11 a.m. Monday at Mundell Funeral Home in Orillia. Seating is limited because of COVID-19 restrictions, so those wanting to attend are asked to register at mundellfuneralhome.com or by calling 705-325-2231. Proof of vaccination is required to attend.
The service will also be live streamed here.
— With files from Dave Dawson
