R. HENRY KILBORN

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R. HENRY KILBORN On Saturday, June 2, 2007 Henry passed away at Victoria General Hospital, at the age of 79, after a very brief battle with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Henry was born in Virden, MB in 1927 where he grew up, until moving to Winnipeg in his teens. His first job was at the war-time prices and trade board, before starting his career with the Canadian Grain Commission in 1946, also known as the Board of Grain Commissioners for Canada. His career would span 44 years, and included some extraordinary milestones, which, to this day, continue to impact the way in which Canada's wheat quality is evaluated. Creativity and inventiveness would be good choices to describe some of his myriad attributes, and as the remarkable, self taught man that he was, his inventive genius was, in so many ways, amazing. As the head of baking research for the C.G.C. he was co-author of some 62 research papers that appeared in scientific and technical journals. Henry developed reliable procedures for evaluation of wheat baking quality that instilled confidence in Canadian Wheat, as it allowed for the predicting of the quality of the wheat that would address the specific needs of the market it was being sold to. In 1978, Henry was a co-recipient of the prestigious Carl Wilhelm Brabender Award, which honours outstanding contributions to the application of rheology (the study of the flow properties of matter), in the milling and baking industries. Throughout his career, he travelled the world extensively, from China to Korea, Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Europe, always thankful to be able to travel on a diplomatic passport, which made these highly stressful trips somewhat more palatable. After he retired in 1988, he continued to consult for C.G.C. for another 10 years, in addition to fielding calls from stressed students at the Faculty of Agriculture, at the University of Manitoba, in need of a little study help. As he would tell everyone, if you want to know all about me, type in grl/gc/ca/kilborn, on the web, and you shall see. When it came time to relax, Henry's two favourite pastimes were the cottage at Ottermere, just west of Minaki, ON and his music. As a composer of far too many songs to begin to mention, from religious to light-hearted, Henry's music appears in numerous hymn books, although his favourite composition was called Cast Off Maties , a song about pirates on a ship when he was involved with the Beavers / Boy Scouts movements in the 1970s through Donnelly United Church. In spite of being stricken with rheumatoid arthritis in his later years, he put his inventive genius to work trying to find solutions to the loss of dexterity that arthritis brings. His last, but yet to be finished project was the design of a circuit board that would allow someone who had never played the guitar, or found it a challenge to do so, to turn themselves into an overnight musician by pressing certain sequences on the circuit board which reproduced the chords needed on the guitar. Replicating the talents this man possessed will be hard shoes to fill. At this time, Henry's family would like to give special mention, and thanks, to Dr. Fletcher Baragar, personal friend of Henry and his first Rheumatologist. Fletcher and Henry both attended Donnelly United where they sang in the choir up until the church closed last year, and Fletcher never hesitated to offer whatever help he could, where the progression of Henry's arthritis was concerned, long after he had retired. As well, special thanks goes out to Marilyn Sanderson, as well as Joann Reitmeier, both of Henry's nieces, who went above and beyond in trying to help at this unexpected and most difficult time. The family also like to extend their thanks to Dr. Keith Tipples and his wife Mo, and Michael and Lillian Boulger, all of whom helped to make Henry's transition to Eternity as peaceful, and comfortable as could be. As some of us said, Henry passed away on Saturday evening, because God wanted the man with the dulcet tones in Heaven's choir loft for Sunday morning service. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Kilborn (nee Balaban), and one son Clayton. A service to celebrate Henry's life will be held on Friday, June 8 at 2:00 p.m. in Thomson In the Park Funeral Home, 1291 McGillivray Blvd. In lieu of flowers, if friends so desire, donations may be made to the Arthritis Society 105 386 Broadway, Winnipeg, MB R3C 3R6. THOMSON IN THE PARK Funeral Home Cemetery www.thomsoninthepark.com 925-1120

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jun 07, 2007