Obituary of Angus Burnett

David Angus Burnett was born on March 30, 1972, in Pointe Claire QC. At the age of six he moved to Sackville, with his family. He quickly found kindred spirits among his classmates at Salem Elementary School, a tightly knit group that would stay together until graduation from Tantramar Regional High School. Highly creative, he was a keen actor and delighted in drawing illustrations of fantasy worlds and creatures. At the same time, he excelled in mathematics and sciences, winning admission to the highly selective Engineering Physics program at the University of Toronto. Unfortunately, it was about this time that he was diagnosed with the first of an ongoing series of autoimmune disorders that would severely disrupt his academic progress. Despite these setbacks, he succeeded in becoming a dedicated and much beloved teacher at the Oxford Learning Centre in Toronto’s Beaches district, and a cherished member of a wide circle of friends, both in New Brunswick and in Ontario. The past year saw a serious recurrence of challenges to his health, forcing him to return to Sackville. In his last weeks, Angus received outstanding care from medical and nursing staff at the Moncton Hospital, the Liver Transplant Unit at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, and at the Sackville Memorial Hospital, where he died on the morning of Tuesday, February 23rd. He leaves his parents, Wendy and Sandy Burnett, his brother Colin, his grandmother Shirley Wilson in Toronto, and an extended network of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends throughout New Brunswick and across Canada. There will be no funeral ceremony, but celebratory gatherings of friends will take place in the coming months in Sackville, Toronto, and at the family’s summer home in Burnt Church NB. Donations in his memory may be made to the Sackville Memorial Hospital Foundation. The family of will welcome friends for a time of visitation at Open Sky Cooperative,12 Folkins Drive,on Wednesday, March 30th from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. A private family memorial celebration of his life will follow at 4:00. In the words of a friend, “Angus was a kind man, an intelligent man, an elegant man, a man with an old soul.” He will be sorely missed.