SIM joins the many colleagues and connections of Marie DeYoung across the country in mourning the loss of an exceptional librarian and friend. Marie endlessly supported SIM and our students, and among her many honours she was awarded the SIMAA Outstanding Alumni award. We feel fortunate to have had her in our community, and are celebrating her life well lived with all of you.

From the obituary (click here to read in full):

Marie Elizabeth DeYoung hung out a perfect line of clothes a week before she died. “That’s my last line,” she said as her sheets dried in the wind and sun just as they were supposed to do. A day later, Marie spent the last day in her Halifax home putting her documents into folders – one for legal documents, one for subscriptions, one for appliance manuals, one for bank and credit card accounts. A librarian by vocation and by disposition, she saw putting files in the right folders as a first principle. A principle with a purpose. Get yourself organized, and you might just put the precious time you have on earth to good use. Marie did just that. In her last year of life, after major surgery, Marie seized the day by taking one final trip to Europe. She always flew business class, stayed in good hotels, dined well and came home after a few days to her spotless home on a leafy Halifax street to watch Jeopardy on her ancient cathode ray TV. Earlier in the day, pre-Jeopardy, Marie would tune her stereo to CBC Radio to listen to classical music while she read a book. A glass of fresh water was left on an end table for Alice, her cat. A half dozen or so novels, borrowed from the Halifax Public Library, were stacked neatly on the coffee table.

Marie worked in libraries for most of her career, though she never called it work. Managing information, cataloguing books, guiding students through the stacks and through life – these were all part of the vocation she loved. Her distinguished career was also reflective of that passion. After completing her Master of Library Service degree at Dalhousie University in 1980, Marie managed libraries at the Nova Scotia Departments of Justice and Labour before taking senior positions at the Nova Scotia Community College and finally Saint Mary’s University, where she served as University Librarian for ten years before retiring in 2018.

A private celebration of Marie’s life will be held at a later date. Donations can be made to a charity of your choice. Marie’s favourites included the World Wildlife Fund and Bide Awhile animal shelter.

SIM is sad to report that MLIS alumna, Robyn Gray, has passed away.

From the obituary:

Robyn Emily Gray passed away in Calgary on January 29, 2022, at the age of 31 years, after a courageous year-long battle with brain cancer.

Born on January 18, 1991, in Calgary, from an early age she showed an aptitude for music, having the innate ability to pick out, on almost any instrument, a melody she had heard, regardless of how complex. She played clarinet, oboe, bass guitar and stand-up bass while in junior high and high school in music programs; she had five years of piano lessons and taught herself to play the ukulele. But the musical love which she pursued and which brought her so many years of enjoyment was playing bagpipes. She got her first practice chanter at the age of six, and immediately started playing melodies on it by ear.

Robyn’s other love was books. She was read to from the day she was born, and that love of reading stayed with her forever. She loved all things book-related, developing an interest in public and academic libraries during her time at UVic, and nurturing that love by visiting as many libraries in European countries as she was able during the year she spent in Berlin. While living in Germany, she made the decision to further her education, and was accepted into the Master of Library and Information Studies graduate degree program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which she started in the fall of 2014. Robyn earned her MLIS degree from Dalhousie in 2016, and immediately started a job in her chosen field in Elk Point, Alberta. She moved to Camrose, Alberta, in late fall of 2017, again with a job in her field. The last stage of Robyn’s career was as the Director of the Public Library in Camrose, a job which she started in January of 2019, but from which she was forced to take long-term disability leave in the spring of 2021 due to her devastating cancer diagnosis and its cruel manifestations.

A celebration of Robyn’s life will be held in Calgary as soon as it is possible to gather a larger in-person group.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Daybreak Rotary Club in Camrose by e-transfer to camrosedaybreaktreasurer@gmail.com, noting the name and address of the donor. Tax receipts can be provided. All donations made will go directly to providing books for children from newborn to five years of age in Camrose every month, to encourage literacy and family reading time.

Donations may also be made to the Rotary International Foundation, which provides funding for projects around the globe, and donations can be directed to specific areas of focus, such as literacy. An online portal for donations is available on the Foundation’s website at Rotary.org.

Donations may of course also be made to your favourite charity.

Though the pipes have fallen silent, her music will forever live on
Mountains will stand tall and true, the ocean will sing her song
And in the forests and fields and over gently rolling hills
The sounds of her laughter echo . . . still.
– Gord Robinson

Photo from obituary linked above

SIM is sad to share that MLIS alum Bonnie Waddell has passed away. Bonnie graduated from the Master of Library & Information Studies (MLIS) program in 1973 and was the former University Librarian at Nova Scotia Agricultural College. Our thoughts are with Bonnie’s loved ones at this time.

From the obituary, which can be read in full here:

Waddell, Bonnie Ruth – April 6, 1945 – October 21, 2021, Upper Onslow, NS

Bonnie has strummed the last song on her ukulele and read the last page in her book. Born in Rhode Island, Bonnie was a daughter of the late Dr. William and Barbara (Christie) Waddell. She grew up in Boston and Denver. She graduated from Colorado State University and then took a job in a library because she wouldn’t have to pay late fees as a staff member. Moving to Nova Scotia where she had family roots, she obtained her Masters in Library Science from Dalhousie University. Upon graduation, she worked at South Shore Regional Library, Colchester East Hants Public Library and finally, as chief librarian at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. While there, she was involved in library projects in Africa and South America. She was the Canadian representative on an international library board in Washington, DC.