Dr. William Barakett, the President & Chair of the Butters Foundation, passed away peacefully at the MUHC in Montreal during the night of August 26th surrounded by family, at the end of a 6-month battle with brain cancer.
Dr. Barakett had been the President of the foundation since 2000 and had led the organization through 3 capital campaigns that had netted over $10 million dollars for the benefit of projects targeting intellectually disabled people and their families. His efforts went to housing and respite options, help to families in need and, lately, to applied research projects to help disabled children with behavioral issues.
Dr. Barakett was poised to launch another campaign related to supporting research into new therapies and strategies for dealing with elementary school disabled children with behavioral issues. Unfortunately, his illness stopped this campaign from being launched at that time.
His past history as a long-standing respected family doctor in Knowlton (over 47 years) with expertise in pain management and addiction provided a strong base for solicitation efforts for the local hospital foundation initially, and later for the Butters Foundation.
He had a profound impact upon his community and the community of intellectually disabled people & their families for which he was awarded the Order of Canada. He will be sorely missed.
Visitation will be at the Désourdy Funeral Home, 101 rue Jean-Besré in Cowansville QC on September 13th from 1pm to 5pm & 7pm to 9pm. A funeral will be held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 24 St. Paul Road, Knowlton, at 2pm on September 14th, (see obit in the Montreal Gazette of Saturday, August 31st).
-Ron Creary
