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It is with sadness that the family of John Nicholson announce his passing at age 85 on Aug. 15, 2026.

John will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 61 years, Carol Nicholson (Arts'64); his three children, David Nicholson (Sc'92) (Guylaine Fortin), Lynn Nicholson (Artsci'93), Heather Harpell (née Nicholson)  (Artsci'99, Ed'04) (Eric [Sc'95]); his six grandchildren, Carl, Marc, Dawson, Justin (Artsci'27), Trevor, and Craig; his brother Robert Nicholson (Sc'70); and numerous other family members and friends. John was predeceased by his parents, Howard and Elaine; and brother Peter Nicholson (Sc'59).

John was born in Vancouver, and although the family lived in Calgary and Saint John while John was growing up, they often spent time at the Buccaneer Bay family cabin on Thormanby Island on the west coast. John attended ����ֱ��, where he met Carol (née Brown) and graduated from Civil Engineering in 1964. They enjoyed a close group of ����ֱ�� friends who continued to gather together and celebrate ����ֱ�� Homecoming for 60 years.

In 1965, John and Carol were married in Ottawa, and then went to Boston, where John attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a Master of Business degree in 1968. He and Carol then spent over a year travelling around Europe and North Africa in a VW that they had purchased in Germany and outfitted for their extended road trip.

Coming back home, John started working for DuPont Canada, where he spent his entire career in management, with the family eventually settling in Oakville. John was always an avid sportsman and enjoyed track and field, downhill skiing, sailing, squash and hiking over his lifetime.

In retirement, John and Carol travelled the globe, joining group hiking and skiing trips. They also completed the Bruce Trail End-to-End, an 800-plus kilometre hike that follows the Niagara Escarpment. John's retirement passion project was building a cottage at Lake Park, Carleton Place, where the family spent time every summer.

John will be remembered as a kind, hard-working, gentle, and humorous man by all that knew him. A private family gathering will take place in September in Carleton Place, Ont. 

Locksley Edmondson, an influential Jamaican scholar of International Relations whose career spanned over five decades across several countries, died on Aug. 18 in Ithaca, NY. He was 92.

Born in the rural parish of Clarendon to school teachers Stanford and Olga, his parents impressed upon young Locksley that education should be his primary focus. Stanford insisted that Locksley and his sister, Norma, begin their daily Latin lessons at 5 a.m. each morning by the bust of Lord Byron in the living room. Stanford himself was a powerful example of what education could do: He raised himself from poverty in St. Thomas – which, as Locksley would note in later years, was Jamaica’s poorest, Blackest, and most rebellious parish – to become Jamaica’s Superintendent of Schools and, later, an Anglican minister, who composed hymns.

Locksley attended the prestigious Jamaica College in Kingston, which schooled a generation of Jamaican leaders and scholars, including prime ministers Norman and Michael Manley, authors Neville and Kwame Dawes, and cultural theorist Stuart Hall. Even among such company, Stanford’s 5 a.m. lessons paid off handsomely: Locksley carved out a name for himself as an excellent student of Latin, earning the sobriquet Flaccus, after the Roman poet.

After a stint working in Kingston, Locksley moved to England in the late 1950s to complete his undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham, specializing in political Science, economics and sociology, graduating with honours. It was at Birmingham that Locksley met other Commonwealth students from Africa and Asia. He was introduced to the anticolonial political discourses such as Marxism and Pan Africanism that were shaping the independence movements of Jamaica and the rest of the colonial world – discourses that would inform his later scholarship as a professor.

He was also introduced to British-style racism. After suffering numerous rejections, Locksley found one promising advertisement for lodging that specifically requested a Black male tenant: to deter the neighbourhood thieves. During this time, Locksley found common cause with his Irish co-workers in the glass factory where he worked part-time to pay for his education. Their experience of British imperialism mirrored his own. On Locksley’s 70th birthday he finally got to fulfill his boyhood desire to see Ireland, and ever after was fond of listening to the Three Irish Tenors and eating Irish porridge.

Locksley moved to Canada to pursue his doctorate in political science at Queen’s, where he studied under the legendary scholar of Canadian politics, John Meisel. Under Meisel’s tutelage Locksley found his true calling, and upon his retirement, Professor Meisel hailed him as “my soulmate” and “the perfect academic citizen.” He completed his doctoral thesis on the U.S. civil rights movement and accepted an offer from the University of Waterloo to become the first Black professor of the fledgling Department of Political Science there. In 1967 he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship to become a visiting professorship at Makerere University in Uganda, an experience which would transform his life. At Makerere, Locksley became close friends with the luminaries of the Pan Africanist independence movements of Africa and the Caribbean, including C.L.R. James, Ali Mazrui, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

In 1970 Locksley joined the Department of Government at Cornell University, where he became fast friends with James Turner, the founder and director of the newly-formed Africana Studies & Research Center, the first centre of its kind in the United States to centre the African diaspora. His friendship with James would also transform his personal and professional life; in Africana Studies he recognized his life’s work, and in his second tenure at Cornell in 1983 he joined the department, where he would remain until he retired in 2016, himself becoming its director from 1991 to 1996.

Despite his ascent in the American academy, Locksley still longed to be a part of the nation-building movements of the post-independence societies of the Caribbean. So, in 1973 he returned to Jamaica to join the faculty of the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies at Mona, where he stayed until 1981, lecturing and building innovative programs during his tenure as Dean of Social Sciences. He was a member of a cohort of UWI intellectuals who advised prime minister Michael Manley during the turbulent yet heady nationalism of the 1970s.

A Pan Africanist firmly committed to the freedom of Black societies worldwide, Locksley was expansive by nature. He read voraciously, and loved to quote from a wide range of intellectuals, from iconic African American scholars like W.E.B. DuBois to the groundbreaking Jewish scholar of totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt. But he was not an intellectual snob: He also liked to read The National Enquirer. Read everything, he would counsel his children, before you make a judgement.

A Jamaican to his bones, he loved big Jamaican breakfasts, cricket, Usain Bolt, Shakespeare soliloquies, and belting out Anglican hymns. He was a great orator, a sought-after speaker for professional events and for every single family wedding. He loved jazz, particularly Billy Eckstine and “sassy” Sarah Vaughn. Locksley was a profoundly tolerant man who disliked intolerant people. He was a legendary teacher who trained generations of scholars after him. He was a ferocious debater, a loving father, a doting grandfather, and a great friend. He will be missed by everyone who knew him.

My wife, Stacy Leanne Grieve (née Visser), lived a remarkable life before her sudden passing at the age of 44.

A survivor of childhood Leukemia, she went on to complete a PhD from Queen’s in pathology and molecular cancer medicine. In 2006 I was so fortunate to meet Stacy in Kingston, and we married in 2010.

Stacy was an accomplished scientist and had a very successful academic research career before making a wonderfully fruitful and extremely successful transition to industry. Outside of her life-long fascination with cancer research, Stacy was an accomplished fibre artist and fine arts enthusiast. Of course, not only will I miss Stacy dearly but so also will the countless others whom she touched and inspired throughout her incredible life.

Madaleine “Maddy” Brookes passed away April 19, 2023, at 42. She is survived by her mother, Janice; brother Philip (Miriam); niece, Sophie; nephew, William; and family of Queen’s alumni: her father, Allan Brookes (Sc’72); step-mother, Sarah Brookes (née Frost) (Artsci’80); and step-grandfather, Harry Frost (Arts’57).

Madaleine was a very active child. She was involved in swimming and gymnastics before she started school. She started figure skating and skiing at the age of six. She spent her first year of university in the International Student Program at Herstmonceux Castle, an historic 15th-century castle in the U.K. donated to Queen’s by Drs. Alfred and Isabel Bader. Her other activities included: kayaking, rollerblading, yoga, belly dancing, salsa, bachata, learning Arabic, and travelling to old European cities to see the history. A wine lover at heart, she was on her way to being a sommelier. She and her dad would spend a week each year skiing in Europe and then tour the classical history of the cities in Europe.

She worked at Davies, Ward, Phillips and Vineberg as manager, professional development.

At her celebration of life, a friend said: “The best thing about Maddy was her kindness and compassion. She taught me to be more empathetic and to give people second chances…. She always saw the best in people, and gently encouraged others to do the same.”

April 25, 1939 – April 21, 2026

A Golden Gael to the end, Pat passed away in peace, surrounded by his adoring wife and four daughters on April 21, 2026.

Cherished best friend and loving husband of Nancy, whom he met at a dance at Grant Hall in 1959. Devoted father to Beth (Artsci’86; Tom), Linda, Colleen (Artsci’93; Victor) and Heather (Kyle).

Luvin’ Gramps to Colleen (Artsci/PHE’16, MPA’18; Jonah), Patrick (Artsci’18, Ed’22), Carlo, Helen (Sc’29), Michelle, Lily and Rose. Great-Gramps to Finn.

Pat grew up in Odessa. After a fulfilling career at IBM that afforded him the opportunity to live in several provinces and then at ATI, he returned to Kingston and was rewarded with 25 golden years of retirement at Loon Lane with Nancy.

Pat played on the Queen’s Comets football team. He was a proud alumnus and dedicated Golden Gaels season ticket holder. He was a multi-year donor to the Richardson Stadium Revitalization Project. And a regular alumni donor. He volunteered in the Standardized Patient Program Training for Health Sciences. He organized many Homecoming Weekends for his classes.

Pat was devoted to his family, his faith, his work, and his community, contributing himself generously to causes close to his heart. He was a lifelong volunteer.

With Pat we received a gift from God, and we will honour this blessing with our lives.