Thomas Reginald Harding
1944-2025
The family of Thomas Reginald Harding, born October 6, 1944 in Prince Rupert, BC, is sad to announce his death at Nanaimo Regional Hospital on July 5, 2025. Thomas was a man of many talents and passions.
He was a lifelong hunter, fisher, gatherer, and back to the land advocate. Thomas loved life on the water on his beloved sailboat, La Sonrisa II, travelling the BC Coast with his wife Elizabeth and other adventurers. In 2011 they retired to a small property, Commonwealth Cooperative Farm on Gabriola Island to build a small cabin, grow food, and support the local sustainable living community.
In earlier years, Thomas was also an academic, liturgical scholar and minister in The United Church of Canada. He served churches in Andrew AB, Calgary, Beaverlodge AB, Burnaby, Vancouver and southern Ontario over a varied career, eventually completing a Th.D. in the history of worship in The United Church, teaching at theological colleges in Vancouver and Toronto, with a final stretch in the 1990s as Executive Director of The Churches’ Council on Theological Education in Canada. Thomas loved his family – he raised three sons in the 1960s to 1980s, then step-parented two more groups of step-children, the Mangans and the Beales – a wide group of people nurtured in his loving embrace.
Thomas’s last year was palliative at home. He was supported by Gabriola’s Home Care nurses, Jessica and Maureen, and Gabriola trained home care workers. This was a blessed end of life year for him. His wit and memory returned, while being treated with excellent care, respect and love. He appreciated being at home on Gabriola with his wife and connected with extended family. His last message to us all is thank you for our lives together. He will be missed by his many and varied family and friends.
A celebration of Thomas’s life will be on October12 at the Community Hall. RSVP elizabethbeale45@gmail.com
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