David Christopher Pigot

David sailed away on his final trip, April 29, 2022. Adventurer, teacher and musician, David saw the humour in life - both light and dark - and could be found fixing a boat, teaching Chaucer, canoeing down the Mersey River, or playing his piano.

David Christopher Pigot was born at midnight on Oct 28, 1934, and lived on Spring Garden Road in Halifax, NS with sister Patricia Ann (MacNeil), mother Maria Dolores Hutton (St. John’s, NFLD) and father Hubert Leslie Pigot (Warrington, England). Adventures were to be had in wartime Halifax: learning morse code with flashlights, tracking would-be German spies and spending summers at the water’s edge in Hubbards. He attended College St. School and St Mary’s High excelling in hockey, and track, travelling

to Ottawa with the provincial tennis team. Coming from a family of actors and musicians, he was a natural pianist, studying into his teens at the Conservatory and acting alongside his father in the CBC radio drama, The Gillans.

He graduated from Dalhousie with a BA in Arts (’57) and an MA in Philosophy (’66) developing friendships that would endure a lifetime. In between degrees, he spent five years in Europe, joining his sister Patsy in Paris to study French at the Sorbonne, earning a teachers certificate from the University of London (’61) and getting a rare glimpse of high society as chauffeur and bridge companion to cousin Dame Vera Laughton, head of the WRNS.

He revelled in the concerts and plays of great artists in Paris and London, flamenco in the caves of Spain, and joined a Russian crowd as they celebrated the first astronaut in space in Moscow’s Red Square.

In England he discovered his vocation in teaching; from British school children to teenagers at Halifax West to English majors at Saint Mary’s University. During his 40 years tenure there, he and colleagues developed an innovative computer writing lab, as well as the Atlantic Provinces Book Review, where he acted as reviewer and editor. Sabbatical years were spent in England studying Chaucer in Exeter and Oxford.

While completing his MA, he fell in with the actors at the new Neptune Theatre in Halifax. It was while performing bit parts badly, that he met a vibrant opera singer and actress Mary McMurray from Iowa. They married in 1964 and made a home for their burgeoning family at the Head of St. Margaret’s Bay.

Schooner became a gathering place for family, friends and the neighbourhood kids for games, swimming, sailing and skating. Canoeing down rapids, skiing into the woods, cycling in France - adventure was part of the fabric of life. Music was ever-present with instrumental practice, records bee bopping and singing always in parts.

David’s genteel mother-in-law described him as a man with interesting opinions but questioned his devotion to old boats. David talked back to the TV, was the life of any party and wore very silly hats. Creating an entrance, he jumped off the wharf fully clothed and lost his glasses in the mud. He brought music and theatrics, comedy and argument and always thirst for adventure, for living.

In retirement he enjoyed a full social life engineered by Mary, was an avid golfer and played jazz piano every night. After her death he enjoyed summer visits from grandson William, weekly coffee hour with a friend, basked in the beauty of his beloved St. Margaret’s Bay and fulfilled a long held dream of having a dog, his last adventure.

David was predeceased by his wife Mary and sister Patricia (Peter J MacNeil) and is survived by his son Jason M, (Redmond, OR), daughter Antonia M (Bedford, NS) and grandson William (OR). He is also survived by nieces and nephews Margaret, Malcolm, Maria, Norman, and Donald MacNeil, and many McMurray nieces and nephews south of the border.

The family extends their heartfelt thanks to the staff at Parkland and TotalHomeCare for their care and good humour. Party at Ashburn June 11, 2pm and online stories can be shared at: www.cruikshankhalifaxfuneralhome.com.