Obituary of Thomas Clarkson Wakeling

The Honorable Thomas Clarkson Wakeling, Q.C. The Honorable Thomas Clarkson Wakeling, Q. C. passed away in Regina, on November 19, 2005. He was born in Saskatoon, on May 19, 1924. He graduated from Saskatoons Nutana Collegiate Institute in 1942. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1943 to 1945 as a flying officer. After hostilities ceased, he enrolled in the University of Saskatchewan law school and graduated with distinction in 1949. Like his father, Bertram Melville Thomas Clarkson Wakeling, Q.C., he had a distinguished legal career, both as a lawyer and as a judge. For over twenty years he was a name partner of McDougall, Ready, Wakeling. In 1984 he became a judge of the Court of Appeal of Saskatchewan, a position he held until he reached the retirement age of 75 in May 1999. His judgments appealed to both those who had legal training and those who did not and earned him the enviable reputation as the common sense judge from Saskatchewan. He firmly believed that a lawyer had a duty to use his skills to benefit the community which allowed him or her to prosper. He served as the president of the Law Society of Saskatchewan, president of the Canadian Bar Association (Saskatchewan Branch), president of the Canadian Red Cross Society (Saskatchewan Division), president of the Regina Kiwanis Club, president of the Lloydminster Rotary Club and chair of the Saskatchewan Police Commission. His family and extraordinarily large circle of friends were his first love. He married his high school sweetheart, Margaret Louise Munro, and this remarkable couple raised three children, Thomas William Wakeling, Q.C., Robbie Munro Wakeling and Margaret Elizabeth Keith Wakeling (now Lockwood). He was a proud member of the picturesque Wascana Country Club for close to fifty years. He was its President in 1964. Tom inherited the love of golf from his father. Again like his father, he also recognized the significant benefits physical fitness offered. He was a member of the Saskatoon and Regina YMCAs for most of half a century and logged his fair share of running miles in the beautiful Wascana Centre. This much-loved husband, father, grandfather, brother, brother-in-law and friend, accomplished barrister, and plain spoken judge will be sorely missed. He leaves behind the love of his life and wife of almost sixty years, his three children and their spouses, Audrey, Virginia and Eric, and his pride and joy, his eight grandchildren (Emily, Andrew, Christine, Byron, Jennifer, Daniel, Kathleen and Elaine), his younger sister Phyllis Bowness (Ernie) and a circle of friends populated by people of diverse interests and ages. A Celebration of Life will be held Wednesday, November 23, 2005 at 3:00 p.m. at the Wascana Country Club.