Michael Howard Buchanan

May 25, 1955 – November 9, 2010

Michael, or “Mike” as most people called him, was born and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia. He was the fourth of six children born to Benjamin and Erline Buchanan and in 1973 graduated from Nanaimo District High School.

After high school, Mike decided to go straight to the University of British Columbia to take a Bachelor of Arts program. After completing his first year, he got a summer job, bought a new sports car and decided to move back to Nanaimo. He married in July of 1976 and his only child, Melissa, was born the following summer in 1977.

By the spring of 1982, Mike had graduated from Malaspina College (now Victoria Island University) with a Diploma in Energy Systems Technology. Recently separated from his wife, Kathy, Mike accepted a position back in Vancouver and spent the next two years travelling throughout the province conducting energy audits.

The provincial government discontinued the program he was working under in 1984, so he took a job in Yellowknife coordinating energy management programs for the Government of the Northwest Territories. His daughter, Melissa, moved to Yellowknife with him and for the next 11 years he raised her as a single father.

Mike lived in Yellowknife for the remainder of his life. Mike joined the Arctic Energy Alliance in May 1999 and was the AEA's Senior Energy Management Specialist.

He loved the North. Like many others, he only planned to stay in Yellowknife for “a few years” but fell in love with the beauty of the North and the amenities it offers. He enjoyed spending his free time playing the piano, relaxing at his cabin, and socializing with friends. When the winters were too long, he would escape to the beaches of Jamaica!

Mike was a wonderful father to Melissa and an even more wonderful grandfather to his grandchildren, Jayda-Lee and Kieran. “He meant the world to me,” said Kieran when he learned that his “Pappa” had passed away.

In 2006, Melissa moved back to Nanaimo with her husband, Riel, and two children. Mike often travelled back to the Island to visit his family and had hopes of retiring there within the next five years.

When Mike was diagnosed with Cancer in October of 2009 he decided to fight the battle with all that he had – and he did. After recovering from extensive surgery and radiation therapy, he was given a clean bill of health in July. Unfortunately, by September the cancer had returned and this time it was a battle that could not be won.

Although from the moment he was diagnosed with a reoccurrence of cancer Mike was too ill to reside outside of the hospital, he did enjoy day passes when he felt well enough to sneak away for a few hours. When he wasn’t well enough, his family and friends sat by his side.

Mike passed away peacefully on the morning of November 9th in the Palliative Care Unit of the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

He understood that those who loved him would need to grieve his death but his one wish was that his friends and family would remember with joy how he lived – not shed tears of sadness for how he died. A Celebration of Life was held for Mike at the Black Knight Pub on Saturday, November 27 – and friends and family shed tears and laughed as they gathered to remember Mike.

A one-time Scholarship Memorial Award in Mike’s name is being established with the Vancouver Island University. If you would like contribute to this fund, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.