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Gary Lee Pace
Born: 10/20/1940
Died: 1/26/2024
Age: 83
Community: Davison, MI
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GARY LEE PACE, Biology Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan-Flint. "To Teach is to be Twice Taught." Born in Pontiac, Michigan, October 20, 1940, died January 26, 2024, at his residence in Davison. Gary was raised an only child, attending fourteen different schools before his sophomore year of high school. His one constant was the Boy Scouts of America, where he earned the rank of Eagle. He completed his B.S in Biology at Eastern Michigan University and his Ph.D.; in zoology at the University of Michigan while married with three young children. Gary often said he could not have accomplished these goals without the physical, emotional, and secretarial support of his wife Margie (Pace) Sumner, mother Charlene and second mother Marge. His children share memories of traveling with their dad on his malacological research collection trips out west. During his forty-three years at the UM-Flint campus, Dr. Pace offered courses in Biological Illustration, Human Reproduction, Invertebrate Biology, Limnology, Michigan Spring Flora, and Parasitology. He especially enjoyed teaching the introductory biology course for non-majors because, over the years, so many students chose a career in the biological sciences as a result. For decades, with colleague and friend, Ernie Szuch, he taught Caribbean Reef Ecology, taking students to the University of the Bahama's Field Research Station on San Salvadore Island. He and Professor Szuch also taught Michigan Field Biology, housing students at Marge Curtis's Sno-Shu Inn and Hulbert Lake Lodge in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Hundreds of college students took their first ride over the Mackinaw Bridge with him. They studied at Lake Superior Provincial Park, White Fish Point, Tahquamenon Falls, Hulbert Lake, Seney Wildlife Refuge, Sable Falls, and the infamous UM-Flint decorated outhouse at Dr. Bob Heywood and Irene Roach's most perfect U.P. bog. His on-campus teaching laboratory served as the base for the Flint River Watershed Coalition's semi-annual water quality studies, which continue under younger colleagues today. In his private life, he and his wife Colleen traveled multiple times to Hawaii and to Anthony's Key on the island of Roatan; often taking their children and other family members along. Colleen owes her love of the ocean to him. She is forever grateful for his including her on his student trips, and for the friendships and memories that came from them. In their retirement, they traveled to the Galapagos Islands, Belize, Peru, Alaska, the great out-west Circle Tour, and more national parks than can be included here. In late life, using two microscopes planted in his living room, he identified and catalogued essentially every plant and living creature on his ten acres in Richfield Township. Gary was preceded in death by his father, Earl Pace and wife Marge, and his mother Janie Charlene (Brantley) Collins and her husband Harry. He had no siblings. He is survived by his wife, Colleen (McAlinden) Pace, who will miss their daily Scrabble games, playing 500- Rummy, and finishing the 230th book she has read aloud to him. He leaves four good children, Mindie Malone, who will remember long, nightly telephone conversations, and husband Jeff; Steven Pace, who will continue walking the same woodland trails as his dad, and wife Leah; Douglas Pace, who will remember sharing the love of sports, and wife Melissa; and Andrew Jaskiewicz, who learned to love inland lakes and open oceans from his second dad, and wife Amy. Also, granddaughters Crystal Pace, Reagan Jaskiewicz, and Taylor Jaskiewicz; grandsons Joseph Malone and wife Joanne, Zen Pace and partner Doug Harrison, Dustin Pace; two great-grandchildren; a huge extended family gifted him by Colleen; close friends Annie and Ernie Szuch, Sarah Weber, Kara Travis Pattison, and Luke Redmond; and dozens of student-friends who kept in touch after his retirement. He does not leave behind his closest friend, Richfield County Park on the banks of the Flint River because, surely, he will forever be walking off her trails, checking for spring wildflowers. Gary and his family thank special friend Mark Holmes for his constant and unwavering support during his illness. Friends and colleagues are welcome to offer a contribution in Gary's memory to For-Mar Nature Preserve & Arboretum, 2142 N. Genesee Rd., Burton, MI 48509, and/or the Flint River Watershed Coalition, www.flintriver.org. Gary's motto was: "Trust science, never stop learning, and love our little place in the universe." |
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1/30/2024 |
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| Funeral Service |
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