Donald James McAlpine

Donald (Don) James McAlpine died at his apartment in Aurora on January 2, 2019, age 69. He said many times that he had never expected to live past age 30. As a child, he was adopted by Kenneth Lorne McAlpine and his first wife, Grace Christina McRae. They also adopted two other children, (Robert) Neil McAlpine and Mary Grace Gladwin. His adoptive mother, Grace, died in 1955 and Kenneth later remarried. Both his sister and brother survive Don. Don was skilled in many areas: • as a real estate agent; • designing, building and maintaining computers, servers and LANs, including being able to work with sometimes arcane pieces of equipment and accounting software and having the patience to solve customer's problems; • never throwing things out until forced to (although he needed some equipment to fix ancient computers that customers couldn't bear to part with, some of it was clearly never going to be used again e.g. in November we threw out his set of floppy disks for Windows 95); • generously helping his friends with their computer issues; • giving advice even when not requested; • not being boring; • ignoring or simply not following medical advice (despite giving advice on being a diabetic, he didn't necessarily follow his physician's advice or practise what he (Don) preached) • raising a torch for a perceived injustice (e.g. investigating the structure, governance and transparency of the Non-Profit Retirement Residences of Elliott Lake Inc. or sitting on a panel regarding transportation for disabled persons); • procrastination (the list is too long to start—perhaps his procrastination is catching); • being an all round self-proclaimed PITA* especially as his health deteriorated. His friends thank York Housing and all his medical staff and support personnel (both Toronto and York Regions) for their patience with him—if he didn't thank you personally, we are doing so publicly. Speaking of publicly, Don wasn't religious and detested trappings, so there will be no viewing, ceremony, burial or formal memorial. * PITA = Pain In The Ass.