{"id":9451,"date":"2007-11-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-14T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfiledev.uit.yorku.ca\/2007\/11\/14\/york-professor-emeritus-donald-clair-summerhayes-dies-of-cancer\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T14:49:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T18:49:40","slug":"york-professor-emeritus-donald-clair-summerhayes-dies-of-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2007\/11\/14\/york-professor-emeritus-donald-clair-summerhayes-dies-of-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"York Professor Emeritus Donald Clair Summerhayes dies of cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Clair Summerhayes, professor emeritus of English,&nbsp;Faculty of Arts, died of cancer Nov. 8. He was 75.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Summerhayes taught at York from 1966 to 1997. He was a teacher, an author, a poet, a critic and a photographer. The author of five collections of poetry, he was&nbsp;the 1995 winner of the Stephen&nbsp;Leacock Prize for Poetry. He also wrote <em>mystory<\/em>, a collection of anecdotes and reflections based on his experiences growing up in a small town in Ontario. <\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"8\" width=\"150\" align=\"left\" vspace=\"8\" src=\"http:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/photos\/20071114\/donsummerhayesWEB.jpg\" \/>Left: Professor Donald Clair Summerhayes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Several members of his family were with him at St. Joseph&rsquo;s Health Centre in Toronto when he died shortly before 11pm. He was loved as a parent, a grandparent, a partner and a friend. He leaves behind his wife Merlin Homer and four children from a previous marriage:&nbsp;Siobhan, Christopher, Jonathan and Jennifer Hall along with his sister Anne MacFarlane. He also leaves his grandchildren Caitlin and Alicia Hall, Devin and Polly Summerhayes, and John Hall and Deborah Girvin.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Don will be remembered as a beloved and inspiring teacher of poetry and American literature by a great many students,&quot; said Rose Crawford, assistant to the Chair, Department of English.<font face=\"Helv\" size=\"2\"><\/font> &quot;To his students, Don was always generous, kind and open, earning their affection and friendship.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He was a respected member of the York faculty with a deep commitment to the teaching profession. He was also active in departmental affairs throughout his career, said Crawford.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Summerhayes regularly contributed to St. Joseph&rsquo;s Health Centre, The AIDS Committee of Toronto, the Scott Mission, the Toronto Symphony and an education fund for his grandchildren. Contributions can be made to any of these charities&nbsp;in&nbsp;memory of Prof. Summerhayes.<\/p>\n<p>A cremation has already taken place. A memorial service will&nbsp;be held&nbsp;on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 2pm at G.H. Hogle Funeral Homes, 63 Mimico Ave., Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>Online condolences may be made at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hoglefuneralhomes.com\" rel=\"noopener\">www.hoglefuneralhomes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prof. Summerhayes was an award-winning poet, a photographer and a critic who was loved as a parent, grandparent, partner and friend...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yfileauthor":[],"qualifier":[],"yfile-author":[],"tags-to-show":[],"workflow":[],"class_list":["post-9451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"acf":{"internal_publish_date":null,"original_image":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>York Professor Emeritus Donald Clair Summerhayes dies of cancer - YFile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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