Patricia Crawford Howitt

It is with deep sadness but profound gratitude for a life well lived that we announce the passing of Pat on May 4 at Guelph General Hospital at the age of 98 after a short illness. Pat was a wonderful, loving and caring mother to daughters Ann (David), Judy (George) and Kit (Paul) and son Charles (Janet). Loving grandmother of Justin, Caitlin (Miles), Sorrel (David), Owen (Alison), Ryan (Melanie), Brennan (Dave) and Garret and great grandmother to Anna, Landon, Millie, Tessa, Bennett and Willem. Pat is also survived by sister-in-law Linda Thompson and nieces Wendy, Kim and Jane and their families.

Pat is pre-deceased by her husband of 58 years Henry Robinson “Hank” Howitt, parents Helen Rogers and Maurice Duthie, stepfathers Stanley Thompson and Jack Rogers and brothers Ted Duthie and Norm Thompson.

Pat (nee Duthie) was born July 30, 1926, in Toronto and spent the first 10 years of her life growing up on Glenrose Avenue near Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue. In 1936, her parents separated and her mother Helen moved Pat and her two brothers to Calgary where her aunt and grandmother were living. Pat spent the next decade or so in Calgary attending Western Canada High School and living in the Anderson Apartments, a three-story brick building still in existence near downtown. Life wasn’t easy for a family living on Helen’s income but Pat developed a strong affection for the prairie city, Alberta and the Calgary Stampeders football team.

In 1945, tragedy struck when Ted, Pat’s elder brother, was killed in action in in Holland at the age of 20 near the end of the Second World War. In 1947, Helen married Stanley Thompson, the famous golf-course architect, whom she had known as a teenager in Toronto. Stanley moved the family to Guelph where he owned the Cutten Fields Golf Club. The new family lived at Dormie House, an old stone structure on the north edge of the golf course, and Pat took up the game of golf, developing a swing that would make Moe Norman proud.

In the late 1940s, Pat landed a job as a legal secretary at the firm of J.R. Howitt on Douglas Street in Guelph. There she met Hank Howitt, a relative of J.R.’s, who practised law in a nearby office. Hank was a Second Word War veteran and a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School. Romance bloomed and the couple married on Oct. 7, 1950, moving into a two-story brick house at the corner of London and Westmount Roads. There, Pat and Hank had three children, including twins, and Pat became a lifelong member of the nearby Barber Avenue gang of parents who met and socialized long after their children had grown up. In 1966, the family moved to the spacious grey “castle” at the top of Eramosa Hill on Queen Street, and Pat welcomed baby daughter Kit into the family. For the next 40 years, Pat dwelled at 100 Queen and toiled happily and diligently as a homemaker, community volunteer, mother to her children and “golf widow” to Hank who retired in 1985 after 28 years as a provincial court judge.

In the 1950s and early ’60s, the young family usually spent a few weeks every summer vacationing at Port Cunnington Lodge on picturesque Lake of Bays in Muskoka. Fond memories of those days spurred Pat to revive the tradition in the 1990s, this time with children, spouses and grandchildren. Some years as many as 20 family members would gather for idyllic Thanksgiving weekends at the refurbished and gentrified Port Cunnington, a tradition that would continue until Pat entered her early 90s. Pat was also a longtime member and volunteer at St. George’s Anglican Church and member of Cutten Fields Golf Club where she enjoyed rounds of golf and social gatherings with friends and family. For many years, Amnesty International and special-needs children benefited from her volunteer labours, and Pat also enjoyed taking philosophy and spiritual-teachings courses to gain a better understanding of the human condition. Many were the times that she would pass on an article or book by Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Leo Buscaglia or other leading practitioners of the self-help profession.

In 2006, with their children grown up and gone, Pat and Hank sold 100 Queen Street and moved to the Elliott Community retirement home on Metcalfe Street. Hank died in 2009, but Pat remained and spent many happy years at the Elliott until falling and breaking her hip early in 2025, requiring a move to Riverside Glen long-term care facility where she resided until her recent hospital stay.

Pat’s family will receive relatives and friends at the Gilbert MacIntyre & Son Funeral Home, Dublin Chapel on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 from 7-9 p.m. A Funeral Service will be held at St. George’s Anglican Church 99 Woolwich St., Guelph on Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 1 p.m. Cremation with interment of ashes at Woodlawn Memorial Park at a later date.

As expressions of sympathy, donations to St. St. George’s Anglican Church or to the Guelph Humane Society would be appreciated by the family. Donation cards are available at the funeral home or online at www.gilbertmacintyreandson.com

The Funeral Service is available to be joined by visiting the following link To the Funeral Service for the late Patricia Howitt on the St. George's Church youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/@st.georgesanglicanchurchgu72/streams