“George Alexandrowicz was at the heart of the Queen’s Law community for 52 years and made an invaluable contribution to our school,” says Dean Mark Walters, Law’89. “We have lost a kind, thoughtful, and generous friend, colleague and teacher.” Alexandrowicz passed away at Kingston General Hospital on December 4 following a brief illness. He was 77.
Born in 1942 as a war refugee in Tehran, Iran, his family struggled but eventually found their way to Canada, where he grew up, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (summers of 1962-1964) and earned an MA and an LLB from the University of Toronto. After receiving an LLM from Harvard Law and being called to the Ontario Bar in 1966, he joined Queen’s Law in 1967, among the first wave of scholars attracted by then-Dean Bill Lederman.
Alexandrowicz was a teacher, practitioner and scholar of property law, wills and trusts – and even more notably – international law. Joining him on the faculty in that area in the early 1970s was John Claydon, Law’70, who recalls, “That decade was the most critical for the development of international law in this country’s history, and George was at the centre of it all. His specialties of international environmental law and the law of the sea were the main focus of Canadian and global policy-makers. He advised the Canadian government on these issues, participated in international scholarly projects dealing with them and delighted in passing on to colleagues and students his wisdom in this area.”
Indeed, Alexandrowicz was at the forefront of the early environmental law movement. He was involved with the federal Department of Environment’s preparations for the UN’s first major conference on international environmental issues (1971), the Stockholm Conference (1972), and the first preparations for the Law of the Sea Convention negotiations (1973-1982). Later, he was involved in developing a dispute resolution regime within the context of a cooperative project of the American, Canadian and Mexican Bar Associations.
“Even with all this activity going on,” says longtime collaborator Claydon who is now a professional legal education consultant in Toronto, “George still had time up to the early 2000s to compile, with me and other colleagues, a set of teaching materials (International Law: A Canadian Dimension) and to mentor students participating in international moot court competitions.”
Under his guidance, Queen’s won the Niagara International Moot Cup in 1998 and 1999, and his students won a number of team and individual awards for that moot, as well as for the Jessup and Fasken Martineau competitions.
Alexandrowicz, who retired in 2012, was known by Queen’s Law community members for his dedication to his wife Toni and sons John-Paul and Thomas, for his commitment to ensuring the vitality of the Polish community in Canada – and, as Professor Art Cockfield, Law’93, puts it – for being “a kind and generous teacher and colleague. He always went the extra mile to help graduate law students, especially those from foreign countries, including hosting dinners for them with his wife Toni.”
One of those students was Evis Alimehmeti, LLM’01, an Eastern European native. “All of us non-Canadian students made it through the program because of the father-like support of Professor Alexandrowicz,” she recalls. “Every week, he would stop by our grad room (located at that time in the basement of the Law Library), to ask how we were doing and how he could be of help. It was amazing how he could understand our worries and obstacles with no words being spoken. He and his dearest wife Toni opened the doors of their home to us. I chose to conduct more of my research at Queen’s because it had people like him.”
Alexandrowicz also went the extra mile for his LLB and JD students and mooters like Sunita Doobay, Law’92, now a partner with Blaney McMurtry LLP. “At Thanksgiving in each of my three years at Queen’s, he would dash into the library insisting that I join him and his family for dinner,” she recalls. “It was Professor Alexandrowicz who fueled my love for moot courts so much so that 27 years after graduating, I still participate as a judge in law school moots. This winter when I am once more a Canadian Bowman Tax Moot judge, as usual, I will thank him in my thoughts.”
Doobay also has a special memory regarding her former professor lecturing on international law at universities in the U.S., England, France, Poland, India – and China. “During my time at Queen’s, there were many LLM students from China. They came here because of him.”
Another former student Alexandrowicz encouraged and inspired was former LSS President Bob Fenton, Law’92, now legal counsel with the Calgary Police Service’s Office of the Chief Division. “Professor Alexandrowicz was a major contributor to my positive experience at Queen's Law,” says Fenton. “When I was missing a prerequisite course needed to take a class he offered, he provided me with the reading materials for the other course and made ample time available to me to answer my questions. I enjoyed his contributions on the Faculty Board, where he asked important questions, no matter how unpopular they may have been. I found him to be kind, patient and wise.”
As a professor, he was also well known for regaling students with funny stories in class and at social events. As recalled by former student Brandon Hodge, Law’01, now a partner and business advisor with MNP’s Tax Services group in Markham: “Professor Alexandrowicz had a deep sense of humour and it was reflected in how he taught and how he connected with students. George would always have an amusing anecdote based on his experience as a lawyer to go along with the lesson he was teaching. These stories connected the abstract idea of the law with the real-life law practice that awaited students. His jokes and stories were the best parts of his class, and are remembered even 20 years later.”
Students weren’t the only ones who saw that side of Alexandrowicz. “George was a lively colleague with a keen sense of humour,” says Professor Don Stuart. “He also always showed concern for, and wanted to help, anyone in trouble. For many years he gave his all to hours of moot court supervision. He is sorely missed.”
Professor Emeritus and former Dean Don Carter, Law’66, says, “George was a longtime colleague and good friend who combined a brilliant intellect with a warm sense of humour.”
“George was a beloved teacher with a sly sense of humour and an always-inquisitive mind,” says Dean Walters. “He was brimming with ideas and arguments – just as his office was brimming (indeed overflowing) with books, papers, and notes.”
Professor Martha Bailey, LLM’88, agrees. “A kind and generous colleague, George never failed to amaze me by his astonishing ability to find any document needed among the impressive array of papers in his office.
“In his steady encouragement and support of students and staff,” adds Bailey, “George provided a role model to us all.”
A Mass of Christian Burial, with many Queen’s Law community members in attendance, was held for Professor Emeritus George Alexandrowicz at St. Mary’s Cathedral on December 7.
By Lisa Graham