David MacGregor: ‘A real lover of life’
Photo courtesy of Suilven MacGregor.
David MacGregor first attended UVic at the age of 47. Thirty-four years later, without missing as much as a year of study, he walked out of his final class — unofficially UVic’s longest-attending student. If he had his way, it wouldn’t have ended so soon.
Mr. MacGregor’s reach on campus wasn’t restricted to one or two departments. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1996, but took courses in everything from Italian and gender studies, to calculus and computer science. But compiling credits was not his motivation.
Mr. MacGregor was a life-long artist, and like any good artist, he was drawn to the vibrancy of life — something he found in abundance at UVic.
Originally from Scotland, and a 1967 graduate of the Glasgow School of Art with a focus in painting, Mr. MacGregor emigrated to Canada in ‘71 with his young family.
Here, he discovered a passion for ceramics, and made a living peddling ceramic-ware at markets across the island. Then, in the 1980s, he opened a studio-store in Market Square, called David’s Stoneware. By all accounts, he was living an artist’s dream.
But in 1988, Mr. MacGregor and his wife split ways. He moved out of the family home and into the basement of a house in Vic West owned by three younger roommates. Considering the circumstances, it was a good fit, complete with his own studio and glazing space. By then, his first daughter Suilven was a student at UVic herself. In 1990, Mr. MacGregor enrolled, too.
According to Suilven, her father’s middle-aged return to university wasn’t motivated by a desire to upgrade or earn a degree.
“He had the time, and he just had a lot of energy,” said Suilven, who was grinding through her degree in chemistry at the time that her father enrolled. During long library study sessions, Suilven sometimes caught a glimpse through the second-floor window of her father, casually strolling across the Quad with a group of other students. “He just loved the social aspect,” she said.
Mr. MacGregor found a rhythm that allowed him to remain a perennial UVic student: he’d create a body of ceramics during the winter, which he would sell at markets over the summer. This income, along with sharing rent with roommates, gave him the ability to attend classes each year.
Simon Ting met Mr. MacGregor in the fall of 1991, when their biology class took a weekend trip to the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. The two students were assigned to share a room, and despite the 20-plus-year age gap, Ting and Mr. MacGregor hit it off immediately.
Ting was a physics major and Mr. MacGregor art history, meaning the two never shared another class. But that didn’t matter. Ting and Mr. MacGregor kept in touch anyways, meeting regularly for coffee or to attend films together at Cinecenta.
Ting recalled one instance when Mr. MacGregor couldn’t join him at Cinecenta because he had to sit an exam, so Ting went alone. But when Ting got to the front door, there stood Mr. MacGregor, movie ticket in hand. Mr. MacGregor explained that midway through his exam, he looked at the clock and thought, ‘The movie’s starting!’ and raced across campus, leaving his exam unfinished.
After Ting moved to Vancouver, Mr. MacGregor sent him a yearly Christmas card. The last card Ting received came in mid-January of this year. In the letter, Mr. MacGregor told his longtime friend that he was not well.
In March 2024, just two courses short of a degree in anthropology, Mr. MacGregor was diagnosed with colon cancer. As he underwent surgery and received cancer treatments, the 81-year-old still managed to take one final ANTH class in the fall semester of 2024. David MacGregor passed away on Feb. 26, 2025, at the age of 81.
Before his passing, Suilven visited her father in hospice. Between tears, she recalled something he said that day. “He told me: ‘You know that I love attending classes, painting, and making my pots, and I can’t do those things [right now].’ Those were the things he really loved … imbued with creativity, and [his] connection to community,” said Suilven.
“He fell in love with the courses in the Anthropology department,” said Catherine Harding, a close friend of Mr. MacGregor’s and, at one time, his art history professor.
“I don’t think he was a great student. He always laughed about his shortcomings … but he absolutely loved learning and the people he came into contact with,” said Harding. “He was a real lover of life. And that touched me so deeply.”
Mr. MacGregor’s zest for learning extended, of course, beyond UVic. He taught himself leatherworks and sewing to make his own shoes and clothes. He took dance and yoga classes and learned about Reiki and naturopathic medicine. And to keep everyone guessing, he even became fascinated by cryptocurrency in his later years. People were drawn to how he lived life on his own terms.
“He was always interested in doing and being and meeting and expanding, which is such a cool way of aging,” said Suilven.
