15-Mar-1931 - 29-Jun-2024
Dr. William (Bill) Hughes, longtime resident of Newmarket, Ontario and most recently of Sunrise of Unionville, passed away in the early hours of June 29th at the age of 93. He passed peacefully with his beloved wife of 68 years, Philomena, by his side and surrounded by his children.
Bill is remembered in love by many and particularly by his immediate family in North America: his wife and heart’s desire, Philomena Anne Hughes, and his five children Brigid McDermott (John), Philomena Mary Hughes (Paul Muir), William Patrick Hughes, Bernadette Conant (Brewster) and Mark Hughes. Also in this circle of love are grandchildren Patricia McDermott (Alex Cushing), Rebecca McDermott (Marek Gruca), Garrett and Teagan Muir, Christine and Marie Hughes and their mother Jula Hughes, and Gwendolyn, Amory and Colin Conant. Bill was the proud great-grandfather to Emelia and Theo Gruca and Maggie McDermott-Cushing.
That same love connects him to the UK and particularly the Sheffield, Yorkshire area where Bill was born. There, Bill's memory will continue to be cherished by family and friends, especially his beloved brother Denis Hughes. The bond between Bill and Denis and their (now deceased) brother John Samuel Hughes is very close, loving and eternal. Bill and Philomena’s visits to the UK included treasured time spent with Denis and his (now deceased) wife Margaret (nee Wright), John Sam and his (also deceased) wife Julia (nee Preen), their nieces and nephews as well as Bill’s “nephews and nieces in name” through a lifelong friendship with their father (now deceased) Vincent Hale.
Bill grew up in Sheffield where he enjoyed his first 25 years in strong friend and family
relationships. The Youth Club at St. Vincent’s Church provided the core connection for Bill and his circle, including his brothers Denis and John, Vincent and his future wife Pat (nee Froggatt) and the girl Bill declared to himself he would marry the first time he saw her, Philomena Bage. Taking advantage of the opportunities afforded many when advanced schooling became more accessible in England after WW2, Bill was educated at De La Salle College and the University of Sheffield where he graduated from the School of Medicine in 1954. On July 9th, 1956, Bill perfectly punctuated these halcyon days with what he would name his greatest achievement, his marriage to Philomena.
After a year of required military service in Hamburg Germany where his oldest daughter, Brigid, was born, Bill returned to Sheffield where he and Philomena (Phil) made the courageous decision to find more opportunities for their new family (including second daughter Philomena Mary) and emigrate to Canada. Beginning in Brandon, Manitoba, they adjusted to the cold Canadian winter and welcomed their first son, William Patrick. Stretches in Vancouver and Kingston (where third daughter Bernadette Mary was born and where they were joined by Bill’s mother-in-law Marion Bage) preceded their landing in Newmarket, Ontario (birthplace of second son Mark Vincent) where Bill and Phil settled for an amazing 58 years!
Bill specialized in psychiatry during his medical training and worked in this field in the UK at Crichton Royal Infirmary in Dumfries, Scotland and later in the professorial psychiatric unit at the University of Sheffield. In Canada, Bill registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) in 1962. By 1963 he had been issued psychiatric specialty registration by the CPSO and began work at York County Hospital (now Southlake Regional Health Centre) in Newmarket in 1964 having been specifically hired to develop their new psychiatric unit. Bill enjoyed a very successful 30-year career as head of psychiatry at York County and he is still remembered as having made a significant impact on the practice of psychiatry in York Region by colleagues, staff and patients alike. Beginning in 1965 Bill also offered his expertise in the role of consulting psychiatrist at Southdown, an independent, non-profit registered charity, which at that time served ordained clergy and vowed religious in need of preventative and restorative mental health care. He continued his work with Southdown for several years after he retired from York County Hospital in 1994 and finally resigned his CPSO registration in 2008.
Always looking for new opportunities for himself and his family as well as new challenges, Bill decided to take on the role of gentleman farmer with the purchase of 100 acres of land on the southern edge of Newmarket in 1967 and the whole family (including Marion!) moved from their Millard Avenue home in town to take on the farm lifestyle in 1972. Many family memories were made, from the unimaginable to the uproarious, as Bill bravely took to learning how to grow crops and raise livestock (particularly beef cattle) with his ever-faithful and talented wife Phil as farm manager and his children as (sometimes willing) farmhands. Yet Bill could still move easily in the social world of his medical peers, often enjoying an evening of drinks, chess and conversation hosted by good friends John and Richie Denison.
In 1990 the family home moved to a large condominium on Main St. N. which made it easier for Bill and Phil to enjoy Bill’s retirement years. Travelling Europe with his brothers and their wives and visiting with and sailing the Caribbean and the Mediterranean with close friends John and Monica Cocker were a fitting reward. When some of the children landed in faraway locales like Germany, Grenada or Kenya that was even more of an excuse to travel!
Bill and Phil’s later years in Newmarket were filled with frequent trips to visit grandchildren, especially at the Conant family home conveniently a couple of hours car ride away in Waterloo. Who of his children or grandchildren can forget his invented stories of the little mice Blackie and Whitey or his greatest Canadian impression, the famous “moose call”! Summer family reunions at various cottage country locations enabled Bill to engage in a little fishing, a lot of reading, fireside singing, and napping! Bill’s love and care for his family extended to his participation in the care of mother-in-law Marion who lived with them for 38 years until her death in 2002. In the final years of his own life, Parkinson’s Disease limited his activities and in 2022 Bill and Phil moved to Sunrise of Unionville where his increasing care needs could be addressed. We are very thankful to the team at Sunrise that treated him as carefully and lovingly as family would.
Can eight or nine paragraphs sum up a life? Hardly. Memories are a fraction of the brushstrokes that Bill added to this wondrous artistic creation, the world and universe we inhabit. We remember a man who, though imperfect as we all are, was intelligent and curious, witty as only a lad from Yorkshire could be, firm in his opinions yet open to learning, an outstanding clinician and a leader and mentor in his career in psychiatry and at his core, sensitive, loving and grateful.
A Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, July 5, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at St. John Chrysostom Parish, 432 Ontario Street Newmarket.
Please share with us your own memories of Bill in the online guestbook. Please click on the "Guestbook" tab on funeral home website.
In place of flowers or other tangible expressions of sympathy, the family would appreciate your donation to further research about Parkinson’s Disease such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Please click on the "Donations" tab on funeral home website.
Arrangements entrusted to Taylor Funeral Home