Jim Babcock

On November 1st, 2024, at the age of 83, Jim Babcock passed away from the effects of advanced Parkinson’s disease at the Garry J. Armstrong long term care facility in Ottawa, having lived relatively well with it for about fifteen years. 

He is survived by his wife, Claire Haas, his first wife Dianne and their children David Babcock (Stephanie Laett) and Ruth Whelan (Ken) grandchildren Lauren and Ben, Sadie and Alison

His stepson, Olaf Roberts (Rheanne) and grandchildren Cameron and Kaleb.

Jim grew up in Toronto, Ontario, serving as an altar boy at St George’s Anglican Church and was involved in Scouting and camping. A very special time in his life during the 1950’s was the start of his lifelong love of being connected to nature and being out in the wild. He spent time each summer at the rustic fishing lodge run by his beloved aunts Kay and Ruth on Lake Farquar in the Haliburton, Ontario area just below Algonquin Park. As a teenager, he was also a camp counsellor at a children’s camp in northern Ontario.

After graduating from grade 13 high school, he married Dianne Powell, also of Toronto. They had two children, David and Ruth, and they moved to Ottawa.  He attended Carleton University, got a job with Spartan Air, an aerial photography and mapping company, which began his career with coding and programming, which then lead to a position as a Federal civil servant, with the Canada Land Inventory, working on developing and producing maps.

In Ottawa, he became much more involved in some of his favourite activities- canoe camping, whitewater canoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking, and visiting Gatineau Park summer and winter.  He knew its trails by heart, from Lac Lapeche to Mackenzie-King Estate, to Lusk Falls’ firetower —the wilder, the better.  As a whitewater canoeist, he enjoyed running rivers in spring flood like the Madawaska River and the Petawawa in Algonquin Park.

Later, after a period of being single, he met Claire Haas and in 1984 they bought a house together in Ottawa. Jim attended Kemptville College to study Food Service Management and began a whole new career in cooking and food. He worked as a cook in a nursing home, and for a rafting company on the Ottawa River, serving breakfast and dinner in camp, and packing lunches to be served on the river. He was working for Marriott when he had an accident which required to a more sedentary way of life. He developed his famous food processor banana bread.  Another memorable dish was lasagne. He once delivered a lasagne dinner to Claire when she had to stay at school in the evening for parent-teacher interviews, making the rest of the school staff clamour for the same treatment.  For the next interviews at school, he delivered the entire dinner for all staff.

This began his volunteer career, as cooking class teacher for people with Schizophrenia.  Working at Carlington Community Health Centre, he developed the idea of a weekly community kitchen program (“The Lunch Bunch”) for his group in which he would review the food flyers with the group and suggest things they could cook together. They would meet once a week, cook two or three main courses, have a dinner together and everyone could take a couple of meals home.  He would shop for most of the ingredients, but also suggested that the group could shop and make simple meals for themselves at home.  He began to find that community kitchens never remained neat and tidy, causing a lot of wasted time searching for pots and equipment, so he began packing up his own utensil kit which occupied several giant tote bags.

The next development was to register garden plots at the Centre, so the cooking group could grow their own food.  They were able to harvest green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, Swiss chard, potatoes and all manner of vegetables with which to cook.  The participants would be encouraged to help plant, weed, and water as needed.  Jim was instrumental in helping establish and maintaining infrastructure for the garden such as tools, fencing, and a watering system.  

He made a real difference in the lives of the participants with this program throughout the years.

Jim’s journey with Parkinson Disease began around fifteen years ago and progressed to the point that he needed around-the-clock care and unfortunately could not remain at home. He accepted this unfortunate loss of autonomy stoically and rarely complained about his situation, despite the reality of a declining condition and what must have been extremely frustrating.

Until the end, even on the last day of his life, he continued to enjoy the simple things in life, being outside on the banks of the Rideau River on an unusually warm October 31st, petting an animal and smiling at the Halloween haunted house set up at his residence. We are all very grateful that the end happened very quickly.

We must also add how much it meant to all of us how his wife, Claire, visited him every day to help with his supper, and for the last months, going in for breakfast as well. A huge commitment of time and emotional energy by her that added to Jim’s quality of life during this final period. 

We are all forever grateful to her.

A very special thanks to all of the staff at Garry J Armstrong Long Term Care Home in Ottawa for their professional, caring work and especially their patience with Jim for the last two years of his life.  Another thank you to the caregivers that enriched Jim’s life during this period— Margo, Moe and finally Kathleen. We appreciate the time and effort you put into bringing as much pleasure and joy to Jim as possible, and we know he appreciated it greatly.

In lieu donations can be made in Jim’s name to Parkinson Canada for important research in finding better ways to treat and prevent Parkinson Disease.

Family and friends are invited to celebrate Jim’s life at Beechwood Cemetery, 280 Beechwood Ave., Ottawa on Saturday, November 23, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. to 4:00pm

Celebration of Life Livestream link 1:00pm - 2:00pm  https://v2api.foveo.app/v1/str/stream/jim-babcock/embed/