Dr. Peter Wilfred Zetner

Dr. Peter Wilfred Zetner

(December 15, 1956 – February 8, 2023)

With profound sorrow, we announce the death of our beloved husband, father and brother, Peter Zetner. Surrounded by love, Peter left the earth far too soon after a valiant battle with sepsis.

Peter was born in Windsor, ON to Wilfred and Helga Zetner. He grew up in Windsor and the surrounding area, alongside his younger sister, Kristin, attending St. Andrew’s and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and graduating from Assumption College Catholic High School. As a boy, he loved his rock collection, microscope, astronomy, crystal radio, and pursuing dangerous and sometimes injurious electrical experiments in his basement. Following a lifelong passion for physics, he pursued his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the University of Windsor while working as a janitor at N & D Supermarket of which he had such fond memories. After a brief stint at the Ford Motor Company in the engineering office, he returned to the university to attain his Ph.D. in the field of atomic physics. During this time, he met and married Ruth BZ Thomson (n. Bauer), the mother of his sons: Mark and Adrian. He completed a three-year post-doctoral term at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, earning him the moniker of “rocket scientist”. In 1989, he returned to Canada for a tenure-track position in the Department of Physics at the University of Manitoba.

This job held many rewards and an unexpected blessing. Peter discovered chemistry in physics when he found the love of his life, Patricia Mitchler. They married in 2004. Peter and Patricia spent a quarter century of their lives together: finishing each other’s thoughts, doing physics, doting on their beloved Labrador, Noah, enjoying Gimli, watching romance-based reality TV and syrupy Hallmark Christmas movies, travelling the world for physics conferences, Rusalka dance tours and pleasure, spending Friday evenings at Paradise Restaurant, working out, and most importantly, laughing. To say that Peter was a devoted and supportive husband does not do justice to the love and care he provided through all of life’s challenges that they faced together.

Peter was a fiercely proud father to his sons. When Mark and Adrian were small, he loved playing with them, reading to them, making up stories and songs, creating dinosaur models, building Legos, and facilitating science projects that ranged from clever to dangerous and ill-advised. In campsites, zoos, and forests, Peter showed his boys the wonder of the natural world that could be found equally on starlit beaches beneath towering mountains and in the humble puddles of local parks. In their adult years, nothing made him happier than sharing a laugh in conversation and reciprocating the latest recommendations of books, music, and movies. Peter relished participating in and hearing of their latest (mis)adventures: knowing that they were finding their places in life.

Peter was a dedicated and supportive big brother to Kristin with whom he shared a lifetime of love and friendship.

Peter was a well-respected figure at scientific conferences, presenting finely crafted and enthusiastically delivered research talks. He served as chair of the Division of Atomic and Molecular Physics for the Canadian Association of Physicists. Far from a one-dimensional physicist, Peter was not only brilliant but outrageously funny and creative, with an artist’s soul. He had a passion for photography and won awards for his images. Peter also loved cooking, exercising, reading, and music. After his retirement from the U of M in 2016, he returned to another of his childhood passions, astronomy. He built several spectrohelioscopes and joined the online community of amateur solar astronomers. His posts were expertly written and led to him contributing chapters to a book on solar astronomy. So many projects are left unfinished…

He leaves to cherish his memory, his beloved wife, Patricia; sons, Mark and Adrian, daughter-in-law, Hannah; sister, Kristin Phillips (Neal) of Canton, MI; cousin, Cathy Alix of Kingsville, ON; brother-in-law, Gregory (Sandra); sister-in-law, Mary-Ann; nephew Dan (Lauren) and great-nephew, Cameron of Canton, MI; extended family, friends, and so many more in the local Ukrainian, Canadian physics, and international solar astronomy communities.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Peter's memory to the St. Boniface Hospital or the University of Manitoba’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The funeral service will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, February 18, at St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, 250 Jefferson Ave. with Fr. Dmytro Dnistrian, CSsR officiating. Interment to follow in Holy Family Cemetery. A gathering to celebrate Peter’s life will follow in the church basement.

We are grateful for having had Peter’s loving presence in our lives and will treasure our memories of him forever.

VICHNAYA PAMYAT!