Dr. Frederick Gordon Peet passed away on Wednesday morning, February 5, 2014 after an 8-year courageous battle with cancer. He was born on October 3, 1942 in Vancouver, B.C. to parents Doris and Frederick James. As a boy, Fred worked weekends and summers at his father’s welding shop and on the family farm, and later as a swamper and sampler in mining camps in the North West Territories. This latter job involved a number of harrowing experiences as the first person to enter the mine after blasting.
In the fall of 1960, Fred left to study Theoretical Physics at the University of Saskatchewan, and worked summer jobs at the Defence Research Board where he learned computer programming. After his B.Sc., Fred won a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to study at Columbia University in New York. Columbia had no less than 5 Nobel Prize winners in their Physics Department at this time, and Fred was humbled to study in the presence of intellectual giants such as T.D. Lee, Polykarp Kusch and his own advisor Leon Lederman. After completing his M.Sc., he studied mathematics at the University of Saskatchewan and then went on to UBC, where he was awarded a Ph.D. for research into gravitation and particle physics in 1971. During this time he met his future wife, Josephine (Yosefa), whom he married on September 30, 1972.
Fred went on to a Post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Germany. Among his favorite memories was being asked by 1932 Nobel Prize winner Prof. Dr. Werner Heisenberg to pen “a nice 80th birthday greeting in nice English” to 1935 Nobel Prize winner Sir James Chadwick. In 1973 he took a position as Project Leader of Canada’s first international remote sensing application project at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. During this time he developed more accurate methods for the classification of agricultural fields, introduced original methods for the geometric correction of remotely sensed images, and for the first time incorporated geographic information in an imaging system for remotely sensed data. Following this he was employed as a research scientist at the Forest Management Research Institute where he developed the first minicomputer-based image processing system for remotely sensed data. He was subsequently appointed to Chief of Applied Science in the Department of Public Works in Ottawa. Fred and Josephine moved west to Victoria in 1980 where Fred initially worked as Head, Forest Resource Systems at the Pacific Forestry Centre (PFC). He started his own business (EIDETIC Digital Imaging Ltd.) which was eventually connected to the Earth Observation Satellite Company (EOSAT). Most recently he was involved with the Forest Pathology group at the PFC, where he developed a simulation model for predicting the spread of forest tree root diseases.
Despite an extensive scientific career, Fred still found time to visit every province and territory in Canada and drive across the country in both directions as well as to the end of the road at Inuvik on the way to the Arctic Ocean. He loved meeting new people and seeing new places, which led to studies in Latin, Russian, German, and French.
Over the years Fred also worked tirelessly, and succeeded, in re-uniting his mother-in-law with her lost daughter and her family, from which she had been tragically separated by the Iron Curtain following World War II.
In the latter stages of his career, Fred was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer which necessitated periodic trips to Ontario for treatment. Instead of slowing him down, he devoted his time and scientific knowledge to getting the equivalent clinic established in B.C.
Fred leaves behind his devoted wife Josephine and her extended family, siblings Bee (Henry), Bill (Josie), Dorothy and Dave (Laurette), as well as nieces and nephews in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. He will be remembered for his scientific innovations and achievements, his dogged determination to fight injustices, his unwavering friendship, as well as his keen intellect. May he rest in peace.
A memorial service will be held on Monday, February 17th at 11:00 a.m. at McCall’s Downtown, Johnson & Vancouver Streets in Victoria, B.C. Reception and interment to follow. Condolences may be offered to the family below.
McCall Bros. Funeral Home
12 Responses
Fred was a friend and colleague at PFC for many years, and we regularly had morning coffee together there. As a friend, I appreciated his wide-ranging conversation and sense of humour. As a colleague I appreciated the breadth and depth of his scientific background, and his analytical skills contributed significantly to the research on which we collaborated.
My fond memories of him will stay with me.
Josephine:
I am sorry to hear (belatedly) of your loss. It seems like only yesterday that we were young scientists too dumb to know that what we were doing couldn’t be done…but we managed to do it anyway! I must say that the photo of him that was posted certainly showed the smile, sparkle and energy he brought to what he did. I last saw that sparkle when Fred and I had a wonderful conversation some years back at the PFRC. The world has been a better and more interesting place because of Fred.