HARVEY Alistair

December 8, 1928 – February 24, 2014 ALISTAIR MCLENNAN “MAC” HARVEY passed away at the Fairmont Extendicare in Lethbridge on Monday, February 24th, 2014 at the age of 85 years.

Mac was born in Glasgow, Scotland and moved with his family to Blackburn, England where he attended primary and grammar school. On leaving school, he became a “farmer’s boy” for five years before attending King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne where he received a B.Sc (Hon.) in Animal Science and Agricultural Economics. He was first employed in a government advisory service, and later by the agricultural division of ICI mainly in northern England and southern Scotland. In 1969, he moved to eastern Canada with the agricultural division of CIL, the Canadian division of ICI. After four years, to be closer to the mountains he loved, Mac resigned from ICI and gained further experience in farm business and management in Edmonton and Olds, then moved to Lethbridge in 1978 as Regional Economist with Alberta Agriculture at the Lethbridge Research Centre. He took early retirement in 1985 to “become better acquainted with how the 90% of the less fortunate of the world manage to survive”, becoming a consultant with CESO International (Canadian Executive Service Overseas) travelling to many parts of the Third World in this capacity. Mac was an avid outdoorsman and world traveller. From early expeditions with the Barnsley Mountaineering Club in Yorkshire, England, he continued his adventures in North America and around the world from the Rockies to the Himalayas, the Alps to the Andes, the High Arctic to Antarctica, and to Australia, New Zealand and parts of Africa. In Lethbridge, he joined the Chinook Outdoor Club and continued with his hobbies of hiking, mountaineering, skiing and cycling, as well as photography and stamp collecting. Mac always exuded an aura of positive cheer and optimism, and made friends wherever he went. Mac was predeceased by his parents John and Jessie Harvey, and his sister Muriel Smurthwaite of Queensland, Australia. Mac never married. His closest relatives are a nieces and nephews in Australia, and a cousin in England. He will be missed by his friends Becky, Norman and Geoff, by the staff at Extendicare, and his main care giver, Gilbert, of We Care. A Celebration of Life for Mac will be arranged at a future date. Donations in Mac’s name may be made to a charity of your choice, or to Meals on Wheels or MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders), two of his favourite charities.