Earl Drymer

On April 24, 2025, peacefully, in the embrace of those he loved above all others, Earl Drymer set sail, three days after his 90th birthday. 

Son of Sarah Paperman Drymer Selby and Syd Drymer, father of Heidi Drymer and Stephen Drymer, grandfather to Jessica, Eric and Luc, father-in-law to Peter Graham and Caroline Gauthier, Earl will be deeply missed. 

A St. Urbain St. boy, Earl was a graduate of Baron Byng High School (class of ‘52), McGill College (‘56) and McGill  Law (‘59). At law school in particular his worldview expanded in a way for which he was forever grateful : “I learnt not what to think, but how to think,” he would say. 

As a lawyer he was a partner at the distinguished firms Robinson Sheppard Shapiro Drymer and Ahern Lalonde Nuss Drymer, and he remained a member of the Barreau du Québec until his passing. 

Earl was a polymath: a confidante of leaders, diplomats and peacemakers, a boulevardier, a lover, a poet, an adventurer. From his childhood days in a rowboat on Trout Lake in Ste. Agathe he became a self-taught sailor whose happy place was the open ocean on the deck of his prized Pari Passu. 

Earl loved life. He loved to live. And he lived to love. Days after the rest of his body had failed, his heart continued to beat strong. As it beats still in all who choose to remember him, and by so doing, to honour life. 

All who knew Earl, all who cared for him, all his many friends of the mind and heart, will think of him and wish him fair winds. 

Funeral service from Paperman and Sons, 3888 Jean Talon W., on Monday, April 28, 2025 at 11:00 a.m.  Burial at the Independent Hebrew Cemetery, de la Savane. Shiva at his daughter's home. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Earl’s honour to the charity of your choice.