Peacefully, at home in the arms of his wife. Ken passed away on December 13, 2012 just four days before his 75th birthday. Predeceased by his parents, Frank G. Hatt (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and Nancy Donaldson (Enid, Oklahoma) and his sister Eva Anderson. He will be greatly missed by his wife, Susan; his children, Kierstin (Brian Small), Erin Christie (Dean Snell) and Bill Christie (Anika Kelloway); grandchildren, Caius, Jackson, Rowan, Arden, Danae and Eva Mae; his twin sister, Roberta McDonald, and brothers, George (Donna) and Dave (Teal); as well as nieces, nephews, friends, colleagues and thousands of ex-students all over the world.
Ken was born in Terrell, Texas and lived his early years there before moving to Douglas, Arizona for junior high and highschool. Ken was an active member of the Douglas Highschool class of ’56 where he participated in Glee Club, Hi-Y, student council and the Bulldog school newspaper and yearbook. His classmates knew him as a leader both in school and in the Methodist Youth Fellowship. Ken sang harmony in his highschool barbershop quartet which won the Arizona State Championship the year they competed.
He completed his undergraduate degree at Redlands College in California, attended Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, completed a Masters degree at California State University, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Alberta. While a graduate student, he worked full time in the California State prison system and later worked to rehabilitate gang members on the east side of Los Angeles. After teaching briefly at Eastern Oregon College, he entered the faculty of Carleton University in Ottawa in 1970, where he taught Sociology until 1995. While at Carleton, he founded the first undergraduate criminology programme in Canada. He insisted that all students must complete a term of practical experience in a criminal or social justice agency. The programme continues to this day.
In 1995, Ken and Susan moved to Victoria where Ken joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria as an adjunct professor. He taught mostly large undergraduate courses until 2006 when he turned to students doing graduate work. At this time, his academic work concentrated on food, specifically trade liberalization, food governance and the impact of trade liberalization on the ability of peoples around the world to grow their own food. This work became the foundation of a graduate course at the University of Catalonia (Barcelona) which he taught for two years. He completed the second revision of his text book and saw his most recent scholarly article published just weeks before he died.
Ken was an intellectual and an academic fuelled by a strong sense of justice, a well-developed sense of humour and a heart as big as the universe. He was always completely accessible to his family, his many friends and his students. He also wrote poetry, played the ukelele and loved many things: running, soccer, biking, baseball, the Arizona desert, growing organic vegetables, everything Italian (including travel to Italy), good coffee, good wine, good music (who could forget Kenny Bongo?), Monty Python, elephants and chickens to name only a few. His passing will leave a huge hole in the lives of many.
Special thanks to Dr. Jane Papp, Dr. Christine Jones and the Victoria Hospice Palliative Response Team. Donations in Ken’s honour may be made to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust or a charity of your choice.
Funeral Service will be held at 10:30 am on Friday, December 21, 2012 at McCall’s Downtown, Johnson & Vancouver Streets with a reception to follow. Interment at Ross Bay Cemetery. Condolences may be offered below.
McCall Bros. Funeral Home
39 Responses
I was a student in the Criminology program from 1981 to 1984 and completed my placement under the supervision of Ken Hatt. What impressed me most was how he treated me not as a student but as a person I remember one particular moment when the exam schedule came out and he asked me what my schedule was like. I told him that I had three exams and two were on the same day. He told me “If you need more time for your final paper let me know”. I did not need the extension, but the fact he offered it showed how much he knew me as a person and that he was committed to academic success. I know this is a late entry, but I remember Ken still.
I want to express my heartfelt thanks to those of you who have added your condolences to this page – some as recently as this year – 2019. It means a great deal to me to be reminded of Ken’s many lasting contributions to his students and colleagues. Although he has been gone for more than six years, he is still, as many of you have said, a positive presence in my life every day. It’s great to hear that he is in yours.
Fondly, Susan Hatt
I am so sad to read of Ken’s passing. I was thinking of him today and wondering how he was doing and found he passed away. Ken was my honours supervisor at UVIC (2005) and frankly made my education worthwhile! He truly inspired learning and both encouraged me and challenged me. He put so much heart, wonder, and intellectual curiosity into his work, while truly caring about students. He had a true zest for life, love of justice, and deep compassion for the people he met. I wish the best for his family who must truly miss his presence every day!
I was a sociology student of Mr. Hatt’s at Eastern Oregon College in 1970!
The other night my wife and I were recalling teachers who had influenced us positively, and Mr. Hatt came to my mind. I only knew him as Mr. Hatt, and Mr. Hatt he shall remain.
He taught intro sociology. We used literature and non-fiction of the times as our text books. Books like Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and others of those tumultuous times in America. He awakened the minds of a few fortunate students in a small eastern Oregon town to some of the truths of our times and our country……and rumor had it that he was censured and ultimately let go because he would not bend to the administrations pressure to tone it down.
He was only at EOC for that one year, I believe. I took every class that I could take from him. I ultimately chose geography for my major, but I know that what I learned from him has influenced my thinking for every one of the 47 years since I sat in his classrooms.
Thank you Mr. Hatt for the guidance of your mind for that one academic year. You were truly one of the good ones.
Stewart Lundgren
Boise, Idaho
I met Ken in the early 80s when, voluntarily, he worked with me over the summer at National Associations Active in Criminal Justice (NAACJ), in Ottawa. We wrote a paper on restorative justice in those pioneering days. Over the last two years I had emailed Ken and got no reply. I thought he may have decided we had little in common anymore and it really wasn’t worth getting back to me. Just recently I wrote a note on the 40th anniversary of NAACJ and I included Ken among a short list of giants in the field of justice reform. So I thought I’d try one more time to get in touch with him. I had lost his phone number and when I discovered Ken’s Obituary online I was shocked. I couldn’t believe Ken had died in 2012! I was terribly saddened. I wondered how Susan was. Where she was. Strangely, Ken’s old UVic business card popped up and I called Susan. What could I say? So may others had said wonderful things about Ken, spanning years of friendship and collegiality: his easy smile, humility, tenacity in the pursuit of justice. Ken had an exceptional inner light the glow of which I was privileged to feel. It won’t go out in my mind. Warmly, for Susan and family. Ben Hoffman
I first met Ken in the summer of 1979 as an undergraduate at Carleton when he hired me as his Research Assistant for the year. I was immediately impressed by his humanity and dedication to students as well as his interests in First Nations people and others who had unfortunately been incarcerated. I was inspired by his optimism and once he discovered that I was of indigenous heritage and had close family members in maximum security institutions his compassion and generosity helped me finish my undergraduate degree as well as my Master of Arts. Subsequently, I spent over 30 years teaching Sociology and Anthropology retiring this year. Ken shaped the foundation of my career and just as importantly helped me understand how to overcome the effects of living with people who were incarcerated. He opened his heart and his home to me and his generosity will always be remembered. Good bye , good friend.
Rocque Berthiaume
Sadly, I just learned of Ken’s passing… Professor Hatt was my supervisor as an undergraduate student at Carleton in the early 1990s. He was a committed and compassionate man / academic who has shaped my own approach to work / academia. He has left us a positive legacy. My condolences to his family.
Tonio
You would have been 76 today, Kenny. Miss you so much every moment.
I had Ken for a crim course 1981-82 at Carleton. He was one of the few Prof’s that made it easy to go to class and take in a wide range of things on his mind. I am saddened to just now hear about his passing. RIP.