Blake T. Hanna ’48 died on April 16, 2016, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

(The following was published in The Gazette from April 26 to April 29, 2016:)

HANNA, Blake Thompson
1927-2016
Died peacefully in Montreal, April 16, at the age of 88. He is survived by his loving wife, Helen Budd, and sons David (Diane), Jonathan (Sunsany) and Arnold, and by his grandchildren Nicholas (Roxane), Jessica and Valerie. Born in Boston, he was raised by his mother Hope Thompson. Graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, he married Helen in Monroe, Connecticut. They came to Montreal in 1950 to pursue their studies. Blake earned his MA from McGill, and PhD from the Université de Montréal. He was an extraordinary teacher and is fondly remembered by his students at Collège Stanislas, in Outremont (1952 to 1961), where he taught English, and the Université de Montréal, where he was a professor in the Linguistics Department from 1957 to 1992. He helped establish their program in translation and phonetics, later teaching translation and précis writing at the Master’s level. He became Secretary of the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the Université de Montréal, and rose to the rank of full professor. Along the way, he worked as a simultaneous interpreter for various enterprises, most notably the Canadian Federation of Mayors and Municipalities and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His passion was researching and publishing articles on the formative years of the 18th Century French Encyclopedist, Denis Diderot. He also edited the translation industry journal Meta. A brilliant mind, an avid traveller and cyclist, he will be missed most by Helen, who he adored and with whom he shared 65 years of happy marriage. He enjoyed the fulfillment of his life’s hopes, and many of his dreams came true. He loved, and was loved, by all who knew him.