Obituary of Donald Treen

Donald B. TreenOn Monday, September 28th, we said goodbye to an indomitable spirit, an insatiable intellect and a gentle soul. Donald Treen's three-year battle with cancer came to an end peacefully in his home as he was surrounded by loved ones, less than a month short of his 73rd birthday.Don loved to build and fix things for those he cared about. The family cottage at Sharbot Lake was a never-ending project that consumed most of his summer weekends for over three decades, and a true labour of love. He would drop everything to help his three adult children whenever they needed his handyman skills or got themselves into car trouble: a superhero on call with a fully-stocked tool belt and a hand-held tire compressor.Born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, he graduated from the Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto in 1969, then completed his Master's at Carleton University in Ottawa in 1971. With his freshly-minted degree in then-fledgling CMOS technology, he headed to Munich, where he spent two years working at Siemens AG while playing semi-pro hockey. Upon returning to Ottawa in 1973, Don enrolled in the PhD program at Carleton and started working at Bell Northern Research in 1976. He finished his doctorate in 1980 and continued what would become a long career at BNR - later Nortel Networks — where he worked until 2003. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a leader with a calm, steady demeanor and unimpeachable integrity. In lean times, he would work tirelessly to find work for newly laid-off employees. He ultimately rose to the level of Director of Optical Networking IC Design and received the Nortel Award for Excellence in Technology in 1998. Don worked five more years in ASIC design senior management before retiring in 2008. In his post-retirement years, Don was instrumental in helping the Nortel pensioners recoup the best possible deal from the Nortel estate.A standout athlete as a young man, Don loved hockey especially and played until the last few months of his life. The Potato Cup Hockey League, a Thursday pickup group made up primarily of former Nortel co-workers, was one of the joys of Don's life over the three decades he played with them. His physical toughness and on-ice intelligence kept him racking up goals even after his game slowed down. Don will be missed by his many friends and former colleagues, but most of all by Nancy, his beloved wife of 48 years, his children Geoffrey, Alex and Carley, his daughter-in-law Shannon and his grandchildren Alice, Kaya, Hugo and Oscar, who knew him as Gramps. His Boykin Spaniel, Ollie, held a special place in his heart and provided him with much joy in the last year of his life.Thank you, Don, for making the world a better place for all of us, for your kindness, your wisdom and your example. You will be with us in spirit, always. A celebration of Don's life will be held at a later date.