RUDY, Robert Jarrett - November 14, 1970 – April 4, 2020
Born in Stratford and raised in Tavistock, Ontario.
He died at home from complications following heart surgery, at 49 years of age.
His early passing is deeply mourned by his wife, Cynthia Kelly, father and mother, Bob and Joan (Korgaard) Rudy, brother and sister-in-law, Jensen and Heidi (Janzen) Rudy, their two children, Daniel and Kate Rudy and Heidi's father, Peter Janzen.
Beloved brother- and sister-in-law, Peter and Donna (Del Net) Kelly, nieces and nephews, Garret and Kristi (Benger) Gauthier, Stephen and Stephanie (Racher) Benger, Tosha Kelly and Craig Vamos, Cody and Denys (Kelly) Elliott, Richard Kelly and Tessa Rankin, Greg and Ally (Benger) Fleming, four great-nieces and nephews, Mackenzie and Olivia Benger, Glen Gauthier and Elena Fleming; brother- and sister-in-law, John and Janice (Carruthers) Kelly, nephews and nieces, Benjamin Kelly and Kristyn Nowers, Christopher and Megan (Baird) Kelly, Nick and Mary (Reddecopp) Kelly, Jake and Lyndsay (Kelly) Deming, his four great-nieces and nephews, Tatiana Lampkin, Brennan and Sebastian Kelly and Everett Deming and his two godparents, Ann Kadey (and husband Danny) and John Rudy (and wife Sylvia), all share in their grief.
Jarrett loved Montreal, where he lived and worked as an Associate Professor in McGill University's Department of History and Classical Studies.
His passion for history inspired and attracted undergraduate and graduate students from far and wide. He was the Director of McGill's Quebec Studies Program, co-editor of the McGill-Queen's University Press series, Studies on the History of Quebec, a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence in Canadian Studies at SUNY-Plattsburgh and President of the James McGill Society.
He authored the acclaimed book, The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco Consumption and Identity (McGill-Queen's University Press), co-edited the anthology, Quebec Questions (Oxford University Press) and won the 2013 Canadian Historical Review Prize for his article, "Do you have the time?".
As an expert witness in a successful $17 billion, class-action lawsuit in 2015 for damages against 4 multinational tobacco companies, Jarrett directed a historical research team and went on to pioneer a related course on the history of tobacco at McGill University.
His most recent manuscript, a cultural materialist history of the standardization of time in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Quebec, remains a work in progress.
Jarrett was an internationally renowned cultural historian of Montreal, Quebec and Canada and a key member of the Montreal History Group (a pan-Canadian feminist, socialist research collective). His sense of humour, enthusiasm and knack for fostering friendly consensus made him an ideal colleague.
In his public activism, professional research and teaching, he strove to bridge cultural, linguistic and regional differences, promoting decolonization and reconciliation, anti-racist, feminist and labour analyses, social justice and community building.
Jarrett was devotedly loved by friends, students and colleagues, the world over. Proud of his roots in Tavistock, Ontario, he actively supported the preservation of its local history throughout his life.
A memorial will be held when it is safe to do so.
Donations may be sent to the Tavistock and District Historical Society (www.tavistockhistory.ca), the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (www.crarr.org) or Doctors without Borders (www.doctorswithoutborders.ca).
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