Michael William Gray

Mike was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta in 1943. Always intellectually curious, his interest in science led him to the University of Alberta in 1962 where he met his beloved Jean. Following completion of his PhD in biochemistry and postdoctoral work at Stanford University in California, Jean and Mike made Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Dalhousie University their home in 1970, where they continued making happy memories for nearly 58 years of marriage.

In addition to being a devoted partner and cheerleader to Jean, Mike was the very best dad to Jen (Geoff) and Meg (Omar). He revelled in being a papa, and his character readings of classic children's literature and dancing in the living room to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass will never be forgotten. Although Mike survived happily for many years being outnumbered by women, he was secretly thrilled to finally have some sons-in-law to exchange knowing glances with.

An ardent lover of art, literature, and music, Mike left performance of these crafts to others. His talents lay in baking, word games, political debate, and gardening. He was most at peace in his gardening clothes and Tilley hat, spending hours on end in his beautiful flower and vegetable beds. He was never able to lure a dependable owl to his garden to keep him company, so made up for it by maintaining one of the largest collections of owl paraphernalia in Atlantic Canada.

Mike’s love of the natural world imbued his whole career as a molecular biologist. He considered himself first and foremost a detective and took joy in unravelling the mysteries of the origins of life itself through the study of cellular evolution, in particular, mitochondria and ribosomes. He was proud to be an academic scientist, collaborator, professor, and mentor throughout an internationally recognised 38-year career at Dalhousie. He nurtured warm relationships with collaborators (and friends) that spanned decades as well as international borders.

Among the numerous honours for his prolific and meticulous research (work that continued long after his official retirement from Dalhousie in 2008), Mike was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also a Fellow in the evolutionary biology program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and was the Canada Research Chair in Genomics and Genome Evolution from 2001 to 2008. In 2024, he received an honorary doctorate from Dalhousie. 

Mike’s greatest joy in life was being Grandpa to Isla and Callum (and his grand-pup Zoe). He adored his grandchildren even more than he loved chocolate, which says all you need to know. No journey made him happier than travelling to see Meg, Omar, and the grandkids.

Mike also loved, and is survived by: his brother Jim (Judy), brothers-in-law Rob and Pat (Erela), and many nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his parents (Rose and Bill), his beloved sister (Bonnie), and sister-in-law (Caroline).

The Gray family is deeply grateful to the many people who loved and cared for Mike during his illness, especially the many friends (old and new) who emailed, texted, called, and visited Mike and Jean, and who expressed their love through music, food, flowers, and scientific exchanges. Each one of you provided our family with such comfort. We will never forget your many kindnesses. 

A special thank you to the staff at Parkland at the Gardens, who allowed Mike and Jean a temporary place to be together and provided both of them with care, compassion, and peace in Mike's challenging final months. We would also like to thank the staff at the QEII who cared for Mike in various capacities since his prostate cancer diagnosis in 2018. Finally, we are grateful to those research scientists around the globe whose hard work and advances in this field gave us eight more years with him. 

Mike's family and friends will miss his patience, his kindness, and his wise counsel on a wide range of topics. His family will also miss his grammatically perfect daily texts (with emojis), his hilariously quirky laugh, and most importantly, his Grandpa hugs. Mike lived his life fully in the face of his diagnosis. His resiliency was incredible and he continued to look after his family, as he has always done, until the very end.  

Interment will occur privately and a small celebration of life will be held at a later date. Our family would be grateful if Mike could be memorialized through donations to the Prostate Cure Foundation (cureprostatecancer.ca) or the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada (braintumour.ca).

“To have done work which is widely recognized, to have gained the sincere esteem of many and the real love of even a few, surely these are sufficient reasons to look on life as well worth the living.” [Solon Bailey]