In Memory of

Louis

James

"Jim"

Byrne

Obituary for Louis James "Jim" Byrne

Louis James (Jim) Byrne 1924-2020


Louis James (Jim) Byrne died peacefully, of natural causes, on May 13, 2020 in the Ottawa Heart Institute.
He is survived by his second wife, Anne Crossley, and his five children, Andrew (Mary), Christopher (Laura), Kathleen (Allan), Robert (Catriona), and Michael, as well as his granddaughter Celia. He was predeceased by his first wife, June Byrne (née Taylor).

He was born in Scranton, PA, on Aug. 16, 1924, and grew up in New Rochelle, NY. He was educated at Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, and the University of Toronto, graduating from U of T with a BA (1949) and MA (1952) in Mathematics. He immigrated to Canada in 1942 and served for the remainder of WW II with the RCAF. After completing his university education, he returned to active service with the Canadian Army, serving during the Korean War with the Royal Canadian Artillery. Upon leaving the military in 1958, he worked for the remainder of his career in various departments of the Canadian federal civil service, including the Defense Research Board, External Affairs, the Treasury Board, and the Privy Council Office. After retiring from the federal civil service, he worked as a private consultant, most recently with the Orbita Group in Ottawa. Perhaps because he grew up near Manhattan, he developed a life-long fondness for Broadway show tunes, which he would regularly inflict on his family. He was also for many years an active parishioner at the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, on Ogilvie Road, Ottawa. Those wishing to make a memorial donation may do so to the Church of the Epiphany or to a charity of their choice.


Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.