Elizabeth Patricia Tsurumi

TSURUMI, Paddy (Elizabeth Patricia), scholar, friend, mentor, activist, teacher, sister, mother and grandmother, died in her home on Hornby Island, BC on May 3, 2016. A remarkable woman who led a remarkable life. Born in 1938 in North Vancouver, after graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1959, Paddy crossed the Pacific in a steamship and survived the Isewan Typhoon to land in Japan. After working in Japan for a few years, she completed a Ph.D. in 1971 at Harvard in Japanese history, which involved a solo trek on foot across Taiwan interviewing survivors of Japanese colonialism. Paddy was a formidable scholar and dedicated teacher. In 1972, after brief stints at Queens Univ. and the Univ. of Western Ontario, she joined the History Dept. at the Univ. of Victoria. She was also a founding member of the Women Studies Dept. Victoria (and periodically Japan) were her home until 1997, when she retired to Hornby Island. Paddy was an activist. Whether storming Parliament to demand access to abortion or quietly giving money to a stranger or friend in need, she always worked to improve this world because she cared about people so much. Paddy lived life to its fullest, even when she was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. Her family are inexpressibly grateful to her incredible Home Support workers for making her last few years as comfortable and happy as they could be and for making her wish of dying at home possible.