Hal Mills
A musical celebration of the life of Hal Mills will be held at Hal’s home, The Dunk, (3864 Dixon Road, Breadalbane) at 2pm Saturday October 10th. Please join us for this full day/evening of performances, stories, laughter and tears (plus pot-luck dinner, of course) as we honour this special man and his immeasurable contributions to the environment and PEI’s music community. Hal died unexpectedly at his beloved home on September 8, 2015 at the age of 76.
Born and raised in Elmsdale, NS, Hal left home as a young man to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, serving as a flying officer/flight navigator and navigation instructor. Hal moved on to study at the University of Western Ontario, graduating with a BA, MA in Geography and all but his dissertation for a PhD in Political Geography. This led him to work his way across many parts of Canada, including Lennoxville, London, Regina, Charlottetown, Halifax, Ottawa and Yellowknife. An Assistant Professor at Bishop’s University, director/head of many provincial, territorial and federal government departments (including Environment Canada, DFO, PEI’s Dept of Tourism, Parks & Conservation and NWT’s Northern Land Use Planning Program), Hal also pursued careers as a freelance environment, marine and land-use policy consultant. Always quietly passionate about the environment, Hal was a founding member and past-President of the Island Nature Trust and VP of the Canadian Nature Federation.
However, it was upon his return to PEI in 2005 that Hal found his true calling as a passionate supporter of musicians and host-extraordinaire. A life-long music-lover, Hal began hosting weekly house concerts after it was inadvertently discovered by a musician friend that his home had near perfect acoustics. A concert venue was born and The Dunk quickly became one of PEI’s best-loved music destinations. His annual Funk the Dunk, Fiddlehead Social, Pie-Off and Summer & Winter Solstice musical celebrations (to name but a few) became legendary and The Dunk became a home-away-from-home to many traveling musicians. All without taking a penny of profit for himself. His contributions to the music community were formally recognized in 2012 when he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Hal’s friendship, open-minded acceptance of others, coffee, awful(ly good) waffles, reliable weather forecasts, crab cakes, cookie jar and always-open-home will be dearly missed by many.
Hal is survived by his daughters Melanie Mills-Reid and Marisa Mills (Michael Kelly) and their mother, Donna Loft. Much-loved grandfather to Skylar, Jake & Alexa Reid and Ethan & Maia Kelly; brother to Glenda Hansen (Brian), Scott Mills (Patricia) and Lynn Bundy (Wendell). Father-in-Spirit to many including Catherine MacLellan, Sheldon White and Sylvie Reaney. Predeceased by his parents Phyllis & Evan Mills and sister Marlene Keyes (Ron). Hal will be sadly missed by his many nieces and nephews, his Dixon Road family, and countless musicians across PEI and Canada. For more information on Hal’s Celebration of Life please visit The Dunk’s page on Facebook. In lieu of flowers or donations, please go out and listen to a live musician in Hal’s honour – and maybe even buy a CD or two.