Windsorites will have a chance to say goodbye to a trailblazing politician.
Funeral services are set for Dr Howard McCurdy, a former Windsor-Essex MP and a former Windsor city councillor.
McCurdy died Tuesday at the age of 85.
Visitation will take place on Friday from 2pm to 5pm, then 7pm to 9pm at Families First Funeral Home on Dougall Ave in Windsor.
There will also be visitation at 2pm Saturday before the memorial service, scheduled for 3pm.
According to his obituary, McCurdy is survived by his wife of 41 years, Dr Brenda Lee Wright McCurdy, along with four children, 11 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a great-great-granddaughter. He is also survived by a sister and a large extended family.
McCurdy was a London native who moved to Amherstburg as a child. He taught biology at Assumption College, later the University of Windsor, from 1959 to 1979, becoming the first black professor to achieve tenure at a Canadian university.
He was elected to Windsor City Council as an alderman in 1979 and served two terms. He was elected in 1984 as an NDP MP from Windsor-Walkerville, then Windsor-St. Clair before being defeated in 1993 by Shaughnessy Cohen. Upon election, he was Canada's second black Member of Parliament and the first from the NDP.
