September 19, 2023
One of OsgoodePD’s most beloved staff members, Paul Wye, died tragically on August 4, at the age of 41. A celebration of Paul’s life was held on August 11 in the Osgoode Hall Law School Moot Court.
Paul started at OsgoodePD in 2002 as a work study student and began full-time in an AV Support role 2007. His most recent role was Manager of IT & Innovation.
Paul was a talented and exceptional staff member and an exemplary human being. Over the years, he was awarded both the Osgoode staff awards – the Wendy Rambo Award for Outstanding Service, and the Louella Sturdy Award for Leadership. But in truth, there were not enough awards to reflect how important Paul was to OsgoodePD.
Paul put everyone else’s needs ahead of his own and routinely took extraordinary measures to ensure the comfort and safety of others. For example, he delighted in personally delivering IT equipment and doing IT home set-ups long after his job description required those tasks. Many of our instructors and students got to know Paul in this way.
There seemed to be nothing in the IT and AV spheres that Paul couldn’t make happen or fix. When we recently renovated our downtown space at 1 Dundas, Paul worked closely with the electricians and IT/AV consultants, often coming up with novel and creative solutions and pushing them for better results. Paul had a B.A. in Political Science from York University but it seemed apparent that he could also have been a successful engineer had he chosen that route.
Paul was a terrific manager who led both by example and coaching that there was nothing his team could not do. He absolutely revelled in doing what could not be done. He loved to save the day when systems failed but he was mainly concerned that they did not fail, and OsgoodePD owes a tremendous debt to him for our success, particularly in the early days of remote learning in the 00’s.
Paul had a tremendous gift for friendship and established many close relationships characterized by daily contact and many thoughtful gestures. By nature of his work, and by virtue of his generous, empathetic, and outgoing personality, he touched everyone in OsgoodePD’s domain, and for the better. As you may be aware, in late May of this year, we lost another dear staff member, Heather Gore-Liddell. Paul immediately sprang into action to help in that situation, and among other things, was instrumental in the execution of a wonderful Celebration of Life, taking personal pride in making the complicated AV presentations just perfect.
Paul leaves his spouse, Ruthann Drummond, and his sons, Quinn (8), Davin (6) and Ashton (3); his parents, Lockie and Judi Wye; his sister Lindsay Wye-Palmer and her family; his parents-in-law; and a large extended family.
Paul’s sister Lindsay has set up a Go-Fund-Me for the benefit of Paul’s family. Here is the link should you wish to remember Paul in this way.
There is nothing he would have wanted more.