With sadness but also with gratitude for a life well lived, the family of Merrill Dickenson Wittman announces his death on June 19, 2026 at home in Vancouver. He is survived by his wife Roberta (nee Brown), his daughter Anne and his son Robert.
Merrill was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1939 and moved with his parents to southern California in 1946. From an early age he loved finding out how things worked. In high school he found boys who shared his passion for engineering, math and physics, and he stayed in touch with these friends for the rest of his life.
Merrill’s professional life as an electrical engineer spanned four decades. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, he joined the Peace Corps in one of the first volunteer cohorts and served two years in rural Brazil, a country he came to love. He joined BC Hydro in 1966 and worked there until his retirement in 2003, except for two years in the 1970s when he returned to Brazil with his young family to work for an international engineering firm.
He was passionate about hydroelectric dams (and could talk about them endlessly) and over the course of his long career at Hydro had the good fortune to be a part of building two of them: Seven Mile and Revelstoke. He also worked on the transmission control centre at Burnaby Mountain and travelled for Hydro to Japan, China, the UK, Brazil, and Malaysia. He was always grateful for the many opportunities he had to do interesting, innovative and productive work and for the camaraderie of valued colleagues.
His family would like to thank all of the medical professionals and caregivers at VGH (Emergency, Hematology, Spinal and Palliative), BC Cancer Agency, UBC Hospital, BC Ambulance Service, Coastal Health Home Support and most of all the Pacific Spirit Community Health Palliative team.
Special thanks go to all of the many friends who visited during his last years and who brought support, laughter, puns (a Merrill specialty), and stories of work and family.
There will be no formal service. In lieu of flowers, donations in Merrill’s memory may be made to the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation or the BC Cancer Foundation.
“If there’s another world, he lives in bliss – if there is none, he made the most of this.” Robert Burns
