Henry Michael Reiswig

Henry "Mike" Reiswig, 83, of Saanichton, B.C., died peacefully on July 4, 2020, doing something he loved: working in his lab, doing his science.
He was born July 8, 1936, to parents Alex and Lenore Reiswig in St. Paul, Minnesota, but grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with his sister Alessandra. He is pre-deceased by his loving wife of 55 years, Ann (Latusek) Reiswig, and is survived by their three daughters Jennifer, Penelope, and Amy.
Henry was a gifted scientist, an expert on glass sponges -- an unusual and fragile type of marine sponge about which there is still much to be understood. He completed his early studies at the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD at Yale University. He served as a professor of Biology at McGill University in Montreal from 1972 until his (official) retirement in 2001. After relocating to Victoria, B.C., he continued his work, with voluntary appointments at the University of Victoria and the Royal B.C. Museum. As his work changed from the diving suit to the bench and focused more on taxonomy, he moved much of his work to his home laboratory where he still collaborated with researchers and students around the world on identifying new specimens and describing new species. His striking electron microscopy images of the tiniest elements of unique glass sponges from British Columbia were featured at the Royal B.C. Museum, and he leaves a scholarly legacy of over 100 publications including journal articles, book chapters and conference presentations. He has had several species and even a sponge-derived chemical named after him. He was well-loved as a professor, maintaining long-standing friendships with many former students, and his historical work in piecing together the origin of many specimens from their original collecting ships' logs made him well known - if slightly feared - by the librarians at his universities.
Henry enjoyed sharing his love of the natural world. When our family would go to driftwood- strewn beaches, we didn't build forts, we built labs. He brought the family along on numerous research trips to locations like Barbados, Friday Harbor WA, and Prince Edward Island, where he would show us the inner workings of the fish we caught and shellfish we prepared.
Henry never really retired, but he did make time to enjoy his life in British Columbia, taking road trips with Ann and taking full advantage of the local berry patches. He was a rascal, a scholar, a deeply moral man, and will be profoundly missed.