Hugo Armstrong Tippett died in a tragic accident on October 29, 2022 in Montreal. Hugo was 18 and in second year university at McGill studying Computer Science. He was born in Vancouver in 2003, attended the Trek outdoor program, and graduated with distinction in 2020 from Kitsilano High School.
He was an incredible person with a great sense of humour and a wide range of interests and talents. He studied piano for many years, reaching a professional level by the end of high school, and continued to play for fun during his time in Montreal. We believe that his greatest achievement in piano was mastering the extraordinary complexity, depth, and feeling of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. He also wrote his own music starting from a young age.
Hugo was a gifted and passionate photographer and artist. He approached photography with a balanced eye that was both artistic and technical. In High School he started a professional photography instagram account and took his camera on his many wilderness trips hiking with friends. As an artist he focused on stylized portraiture, mainly featuring rap artists, and was published in an Oakland-based magazine focusing on trap music. With the skills he gained through art he built a business taking commissions from friends and clients online.
His most recent interest was in clothing design. His first projects were pants, which he designed from his own patterns and wore day to day, and he also made clothes for friends. He was beginning to explore pattern making software and received a beautiful vintage sewing machine for his birthday.
Hugo was a natural coder, great soccer player, and gifted athlete who could stand up on a surfboard the first time he tried surfing in Tofino. He was a curious and adventurous soul who had a chance to travel with his friends to Greece, England, and Albania in 2022. Hugo was a smart, creative, kind, hilarious, and principled person who had many friends and was widely recognized for his wit and calm strength.
He is survived by his parents, Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett, by his sister Sylvie, with whom he was extremely close throughout his life, and by his dog Pepper. His maternal grandmother Gigs lives on the Sunshine Coast with her crazy dog Max. His paternal grandfather Graeme Tippett and his partner Gordon Hu live in Vancouver. His maternal grandfather John Armstrong and grandmother by marriage Karyn Leidal live in Calgary. He will also be missed by Aunt Sally and Uncle Gerry, Aunt Jill, Uncle Jonx, and cousins Isabel, Macie, and James in Vancouver, and Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jeff in Memphis, Tennessee. He will be missed by his intramural soccer team, housemates, and many, many friends in both Vancouver and Montreal, who he treasured throughout his very short life.
We are devastated to lose Hugo and will miss him every day for the rest of our lives but we feel wildly lucky to have had the chance to know this outrageously unique and luminous young man. Two celebrations of life are being held, one in Montreal and one in Vancouver.
