With his rumpled suit, frayed pants and dishevelled appearance, Ken Narvey always looked like someone who had just woken up at his desk after an all-nighter researching some arcane point of law.

A freelance legal researcher with a passion for the Nazi war crimes dossier, Narvey died recently in his hometown of Winnipeg from a heart attack. He was 66.

A self-trained legal researcher who never completed law school, Narvey nevertheless was one of the most well-informed experts on war crimes and bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. It’s a subject he had been researching for nearly 25 years. Over the course of his career, he gained intervener status in various cases involving war crimes on behalf of student groups and the Coalition of Concerned Congregations, a Montreal organization.

He had a passion for the law, and in the early years of his research he was part of a group of advocates who insisted there was nothing to prevent a Canadian legal solution to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. This view was at odds with the accepted wisdom that little could be done domestically regarding foreign crimes committed many years before.

Lawyer David Matas, who remembers Narvey from their days as undergraduates at the University of Manitoba, said Narvey played a significant role during the discussion leading to adoption of the Charter of Rights. Narvey’s research helped ensure the Charter contained a provision that would not preclude retroactive prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Winnipeg lawyer Gerry Posner said that “Ken flew under the radar. I suspect most people didn’t know about him. But his research was as good as any lawyer. He was so bright.”

“This was a guy with his idiosyncrasies, but if you knew anything about him you’d know how brilliant he was,” said Posner, the executor of Narvey’s estate.

Narvey grew up in Winnipeg, but lived much of his life in Montreal. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a degree in arts. He received a Rhodes Scholarship and travelled to Cambridge to study economics. Narvey also studied at MIT, but never completed a degree and left U of M law school after a week or two, his sister, Janice Afruma, said.

Matas said before turning his attention to the war crimes file, Narvey had been researching the legal aspects of the flooding of Indian lands in Quebec.

Narvey joined him and law professor Irwin Cotler in studying the war crimes issue in the late 1970s, Matas said. They researched the legal basis for an intervention application in the extradition case of Helmut Rauca, an SS sergeant wanted in Germany for murdering 11,584 Jews.

“Ken was always a freelance activist and researcher, but his focus was this issue. It kind of became his life’s work,” said Matas.

Narvey supported his research by fundraising within the Jewish community, he added.

Narvey, who suffered from diabetes for many years, is survived by his father Fred, sister Janice Afruma, niece Anya DeMontigny and her son Naryan Schindler, nephew Michael Afruma, his wife Katy and their daughter Ryan Elizabeth.