Lifelong Haweater Austin "Pops" Pickard of Billings Township died April 5, 2026, at 87. A skilled mechanic, woodworker, and sugar bush keeper, his celebration of life is June 27 at Ice Lake.
MANITOULIN鈥擳here are some people whose lives cannot be separated from the land that raised them. For Austin Charles Pickard, lovingly known to so many as 鈥淧ops,鈥 that place was Manitoulin Island.
Born on January 28, 1939 to Norma and Ida Pickard, Austin was a proud lifelong Haweater whose roots ran deep through the fields, bush lots, lake roads, and family stories of Billings Township. His life began the way many Island stories do, with weather, grit and someone finding a way through. Austin often told the story of being born across the lake in the middle of a terrible storm, when his father had to go down to the bottom of Billings Hill by sleigh to meet the doctor. It was a fitting beginning for a man who would spend his life doing what Island people have always done best; working hard, making do, fixing what was broken, building what was needed and taking pride in the place he called home.
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