Obituary of Wayne Wooden

The family of Wayne Wooden are saddened to announce his passing on April 14, 2025 at the age of 74. Wayne and his two sisters, Nancy and Sheila (Jerry Lawrence) were born and raised in Halifax by Ralph and Thelma (Gray) Wooden. 

From a young age Wayne had a wonderful sense of humour and dreamed of being a famous baseball player. He continued to play baseball until his late 20s and was an avid supporter of the Toronto Blue Jays. He could often be seen around town wearing a Blue Jays baseball hat and lamenting that neither of his children turned out to be ball players - but he held out hope for his grandkids. 

Wayne worked for the Halifax Regional Police for 33 years and retired in 2004. It was his privilege to mentor and lead the younger generation of police officers and a job he took seriously. One of the highlights of his career was working in Dartmouth after amalgamation and meeting his dear friend Gord Lewis, with whom he had many adventures and laughs. He also completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with a Criminology Certificate from Saint Mary’s University while working shift-work, the first in his family to graduate university and something he was very proud of. 

Upon retirement, he pursued his dream jobs of driving a bus and working at a golf course but this only lasted a very short time. He preferred driving armoured trucks, cruising around the province eating hot dogs at gas stations and worrying about the high-tech truck locking him out. 

While Wayne was not an avid flyer, or sailor for that matter, he did like to travel and visited places like Hawaii, Scotland, Qatar, Korea, Thailand, the Caribbean and Greece. He took any opportunity he could to talk about his travels and made sure to insert the one Greek word he learned (“effarrystow”) into every conversation about his trips. 

Wayne was an enthusiastic deer hunter and loved his hunting trips with his brothers-in-law every November. He loved spending time on his motorcycle, cruising around the country roads, often with his brothers-in-law. He was a beautiful golfer and a pleasure to golf with. He also staunchly considered himself to be a fisherman and loved fishing, but to this day we are still waiting on fish for supper. 

He and Diane dabbled in entrepreneurship as landlords and they opened two Pretzel Twister shops with friends in 1995. Wayne also had life-long aspirations of someday living down in Florida amongst the palm trees and pelicans, however the snakes and alligators gave him reason to pause on moving forward with these plans. 

Another passion of Wayne’s was his love of food, and he could often be found surrounded by his old favourites: Kraft Dinner, KFC, homemade pizza, hot dogs, a full turkey dinner with his famous dressing which he turned into Monday slop the next meal, apple pie with cheese on top, shrimp dip, black bottom cupcakes, cheese log, tuna melts and a juicy Harvey’s hamburger. 

Wayne loved his “darlings”, his children and grandchildren, and also took every opportunity he could to talk about them to strangers and friends alike. He was a patient, loving, devoted father and grandfather who would get down on the floor and play and read book after book, over and over again. He fostered a love of reading that will forever be remembered and cherished. 

During his time as a police officer, Wayne encountered many challenging situations; these experiences stayed with him long after retirement. He was stubborn to a fault but also kind, gentle and accepting. He loved people and would often say, “they’re such a nice person” about those he met. 

Wayne will forever be loved and remembered by his wife, Diane, and his children Leanne and Neil (Sarah), as well as his four grandchildren: James and Oliver Watson and Hannah and Lauren Wooden. He will also be fondly remembered by many extended family and friends.

The family would like to thank the staff at Parkland Clayton Park (Bradford Hall) for taking such good care of Wayne in recent years. We would also like to thank the staff at the Halifax Infirmary 4.2 for providing empathetic end-of-life care. 

Please join us for an informal celebration of Wayne’s life on Sunday, April 27th, 2025 from 2-4pm at the Maritime Cremation Centre (67 Temple Terrace, Lower Sackville). Come and share your favourite Wayne memories and stories with a few or to the whole group. 

It should be noted that Wayne loved funeral sandwiches immensely and we’ve done our best with the sandwich selections. We hope we’ve made him proud.