Obituary of Michael David Sibalis

Michael Sibalis, professor emeritus of history at Wilfrid Laurier University died at Kitchener April 9, 2019.

He was the beloved son of Shirley and the late Jack Sibalis and dear brother and brother-in-law of Stephen and Anne, Rosalie and Jack Taylor and Lisa and Tim Aubry. A highly-respected scholar, Michael made significant contributions to the histories of homosexuality, the police under Napoleon, and the early nineteenth-century French working class. At Laurier, generations of history students passed through his survey of modern European history, his courses on Paris, Napoleonic France, Vichy France, sex and sexuality, and war and society.

Born in Montréal in 1949, he graduated from McGill University in 1970 and took a doctorate from Concordia University in 1979. He taught at numerous universities across Canada before joining Laurier’s History Department in 1991. Michael was born a Montrealer, but at heart he was Parisian. He arrived in Paris as a young doctoral student in the middle of the 1970s, first settling in Montparnasse before moving to his beloved Marais, where he lived for almost twenty-five years. Michael was never happier than when wandering the streets of Paris, preferably with a friend, as a long summer day softly gave way to night.

Michael will be deeply missed by friends, colleagues and family on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world.  A memorial celebration of Michael’s life will be held at Descendants, 319 Victoria St N, Kitchener, from 5:30-7:30 on Saturday, 11 May, 2019.  Friends, colleagues and former students are welcome to attend and share their memories.