Irene Harris

September 15, 1934 to September 21, 2025

Irene was born as Lois Margaret Irene Young on September 15, 1934 in Victoria BC to Robert and Mavis Young. She had an elder brother, Dr Robert Young. She attended Willows Elementary school and Oak Bay High School where she developed her love of sports, including ballet, basketball and high jumping. She loved going to baseball games with her father and remained an enthusiastic sports fan her entire life following many sports: Olympics, tennis, figure skating and hockey.  She was just as enthusiastic about watching her children playing sports.

She attended university at UBC for a physical education degree where she met her future husband Peter. Despite being from England, Peter had decided to pursue his B.Sc. in Canada in large part because his Latin was not good enough for a British University. More importantly, Peter was a running star on the UBC track team where he won Canadian University Athlete of the year in 1956.  This is probably why Irene agreed to go out with him when he approached her out of the blue after a track meet.

After graduating, they moved to England where they were married. Peter completed his PhD in forestry and Irene taught Physical Education in a British school.  After receiving his PhD, Peter got a job in Belleville Ontario as a research entomologist working on biological control of weeds. This is where their children Tim, Carolyn and Kate were born. Outside of raising her children, Irene volunteered at the YMCA teaching women’s exercise classes and was an active member of the University Women’s club. Irene played badminton and bridge and the whole family took up downhill skiing, sailing and canoeing. 

In 1970, Irene and Peter built their dream house on the Bay of Quinte just outside of Belleville. They cleared the land of rocks, landscaped, and built a boat dock all by their own hand. In the same year, Peter was named acting director of the Agriculture Research Facility, affectionately known in town as “the bug house”.  A couple of months later, Peter was called to Ottawa and was instructed to shut down the facility. It was a stressful time, with Irene and Peter preparing to move as well as supporting friends who had also had their lives upended. 

The family moved to Regina in 1972. Irene and Peter joined the Regina Newcomers Club where they met most of the friends who formed their dinner club, including Roger and Lois Fry. Irene enjoyed hosting parties and founded the tradition of the “Progressive New Year’s Eve Supper”, where each course was served at a different friend’s home, the group walking together from house to house. It was both beloved and infamous, as the tradition continued regardless of blizzards or minus forty-degree weather. It was also in Regina that the tradition of Christmas day exercise began. All family members including infant grandchildren were expected to participate, also regardless of the weather. 

In Regina, Irene started giving exercise classes to the retired women that lived on their street. This ultimately resulted in her developing senior’s exercise programs for the Saskatchewan government and giving workshops across the province. 

Irene and Peter, were instrumental in founding of the Regina Masters Swim club. When Tim, and later Carolyn, began swimming competitively they joined a car pool to get us to 5:30 a.m. practices. They waited through the two hours of practice and then drove the swimmers home.  To pass the time, another parent, Deanna Toews, began swimming in the unused diving pool; Peter and other parents following suit. From this beginning, the parents turned lemons to lemonade and created the Regina Masters Swim club. The club’s first meet gave many senior swimmers from across Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba their first opportunity to compete. The levels of nerves and anticipation would have been at home at the Olympics. Ever the host, Irene held the post-meet party with around 80 in attendance. After swimming like fish at the meet, they drank like fish at the party.  

In addition to swimming, the family started cross country skiing, backpacking in the mountains and cycle touring. Regina is geographically isolated from most good outdoor recreation venues (ie mountains, lakes and forests.) Because of this isolation, it has great clubs for recreational traveling. Many friendship were formed on these trips.

In 1992, Irene and Peter moved to Lethbridge following the closure of the research station in Regina. They immediately joined the local Masters swim club, the Chinook hiking club and the Headwinds cycle club and continued to immerse themselves in a variety of athletics. Irene became an avid table tennis player. They enjoyed the day trips, the multi-day excursions and coffee at Penny’s after swimming on Saturday mornings. Irene loved holding parties at her house for these clubs, including the infamous wacky gift parties where the best (worst) gifts were re-gifted year after year.  After just one ski tour to Waterton Park they upgraded to telemark skis as they weren’t competitive on their track skis. There were several more equipment upgrades before they retired from ski touring. Irene competed for many years in the Alberta Seniors games, winning numerous medals in tables tennis, swimming and cross-country skiing. 

Both Irene and Peter participated in the Moonlight run for years both as runners and volunteers.  As Irene got older, Tim would run/walk holding her hand to help her keep her balance. She was 80 years old when she last competed, winning her age category for the first time. The legitimacy of this win was somewhat questionable however, as after completing his 10km race, her grandson Marshall ran back and together with Tim pulled Irene up the hill to complete her 6km race. Irene was competitive and liked to win, and she wasn’t going to let old age change that. 

As grandparents, Irene and Peter established a tradition of inviting each grandchild for a solo visit to Lethbridge when they turned ten years old. They put them in day camps in Lethbridge and took them camping and hiking in the mountains.

After Peter’s death in 2014, Irene’s memory and physical abilities began to decline but she was determined to stay in the home that she loved. It was due to the help of her beloved friends that she was able to do so. Many thanks to all the friends that gave her the support and company she needed to stay in her home. 

Irene’s 80th birthday was celebrated with a stay at the Banff Springs Hotel with all her children and grandchildren.  A few things had changed since she had been a chamber maid at the hotel in 1954 when Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum were filming “The River of No Return”.  As well as luxurious accommodation, the birthday included a hike to the Plains of Six Glaciers tea house (5.8 km one way, 385 m elevation gain) where Irene out-walked her granddaughter Andrea who had not thought proper shoes or clothing would be necessary for a walk with her 80-year-old grandmother. 

In 2020, just before the pandemic, a fall and a sore rib cage caused Carolyn to bring Irene to live with her and Brian in Sherwood Park.  Brian and Carolyn managed to strengthen her core muscles enough so that she could get up by herself from the ground.

Tim’s wife Elizabeth had reviewed Irene’s medical history with her doctor in 2019 and found through an MRI that Irene had Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (water on the brain) – the only form of dementia that doctors can treat effectively. A test at the Foothills Hospital was arranged where they released some fluid to see if the memory issues and balance would improve. Tim and Irene practiced the MoCA test and walking. The doctor couldn’t believe the improvement in the second MoCA test. As a result, she had a surgically implanted shunt that bought us almost 3 good years. During this time, Irene was able to visit Kate in Ottawa, Tim in Calgary, attend grandchildren’s weddings, and take many walks with Carolyn and her bouvier dogs in Sherwood Park. Week-end were often spent at Carolyn acreage or visit her home and friends in Lethbridge. 

In 2022, Irene had a stroke that sent her to hospital for 6 weeks. The family managed to get her walking again, but it was no longer possible for her to live with Carolyn and Brian. She went to live at St Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital, a nursing home in Edmonton where Carolyn is the Recreational Therapist. The nursing home was not an easy place for Irene to be. She was very aware that she was losing her mental and physical abilities and had very little good to say about growing old. She didn’t like being told what to do when she was young and that didn’t change as she aged.

Irene turned 91 on September 15, 2025. Kate managed to get out for a visit from Ottawa in time to celebrate Irene’s birthday at a local pub for a meal with the family. Irene was all smiles as she indulged in some onion rings and a cold mug of beer. Irene had rallied, as she always up for a good party, but declined quickly afterwards.  She died peacefully on Sunday September 21, 2025 with Tim and Carolyn holding her hands.

Irene is survived by:

Three children; Tim Harris (Elizabeth), Carolyn Rein (Brian) and Kate Harris (Ed Kowalski)

Seven grandchildren; Michaela Stoyel (Quentin), Marshall Harris (Kaisa), 

Matthew Rein (Rachel), Trevor Rein (Taylor), Jennifer Kowalski (Cole), Andrea Kowalski and Ryan Kowalski

Three great grandchildren: Carter Rein, Ethan Rein and Weston Rein

In summary, physical activity, family and friends were very important to Peter and Irene.  But what they liked best was physical activity with family and friend.