In Memoriam
In Memoriam: Don Cartwright (1933-2024)
Surrounded by family on Thursday, January 25, 2024, Donald Gordon Cartwright of London passed away at Richmond Woods. Don had just celebrated his 91st birthday on January 5.
Cherished husband of Julie Doran for 38 years. Don was predeceased by his adored son Stephen (Cindy). He is survived by his daughter Susan (Murray) and his son Richard (Jennifer). GrandDon will always be remembered by his grandchildren Erik, Julia (Dawson), Sarah, Andrew and Daniel. Dear brother of Bruce and Betty Cartwright.
Don was a Professor of Geography at UWO for more than 25 years. A passionate educator and instructor, Don received a number of teaching awards including The Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 3M National Teaching Fellowship.
In Memoriam: Pat Rogers (1945-2024)
Pat Rogers (née Patricia Greenslade) died tenderly on January 21st, 2024, with her daughter holding her hand, her surrogate-daughter by her side, and her two sisters and surrogate-niece in the next room. She was 78. Known to many as Dr. Pat Rogers, a title she would often roll her eyes at, Pat had a remarkable and influential career that spanned across many different institutions, roles, activities, and relationships.
Born just after the end of the war in Woking, England on November 1st, 1945, to a Scottish mother and a Welsh father, she spent her early years in Belfast, Northern Ireland and later in Cardiff, Wales. She was one of few women to study mathematics at the University of Oxford in the class of ’65. While pursuing her PhD at the University of London’s Bedford College, Pat taught at North London Polytechnic and Goldsmith’s College before becoming a faculty member in Mathematics and Education at York University in Toronto, Canada. Here she played a critical role in organising the union of part-time instructors and in the fight to regularise sessional work at the university. After being tenured as a full-time Professor, Pat was founding director of the Centre of the Support of Teaching, for which seminar room 3003 at Vari Hall is named after her – and where the plaque honouring her is the only thing bolted down, in keeping with her boisterous teaching style, in which chairs and tables should always be moveable to encourage discussion and collaboration. Pat also served as a grievance officer for the York University Faculty Association which continued her support for junior faculty members across the university. Pat was very proud of ‘Real Woman Don’t Do Math!’, a 3-day residential program she developed that championed maths education for teenage women and was marked by her signature, dynamic workshop delivery. Her young daughter brought along to participate and witness! She left York to pursue two instrumental terms as Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor, where she helped develop many programs encouraging work within community and where she was consistently energised by a very special group of academics who remained her good friends – you know who you are. Pat’s work was passionately rooted in social justice, and upon leaving Windsor, a scholarship recognising students working towards alleviating educational inequalities in the local community was established in her honour.
Pat was recipient of numerous teaching awards throughout her career, including the prestigious 3M National Teaching Award, and was the first Canadian and the first woman to be appointed as a Pólya Lecturer by the Mathematical Association of America. She retired as VP of Teaching and Learning at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo.
Pat was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in 2021 and profoundly impressed her family, friends, and many health practitioners with the tenacious and spirited way in which she battled it. When she asked one of her doctors how long she could expect to live – the striking response which she proudly repeated was: “I can’t answer – you have already lived longer that I expected!”. Pat’s last months were spent living at Christie Gardens, where she made new friends and was cared for by a loving team, who she energetically raved about, notably Lorna and Tenzin. She was extremely grateful to the oncology team at St. Joseph’s and felt so lucky for the care she received by SE Health, including Frances, Malak and her palliative nurse, Carrie.
Pat will remain a part of everyday for her daughter and grand-daughter, Kate & Vy Greenslade – the loss too great for words here. Loved by many, including her sisters Bryony Harmsworth & Chris Ashton, their partners, children, and their children, her surrogate daughter Kerry Smith, with whom she was once a ‘force-some’ with Leslie, her great-niece Fiah, surrogate family Daniel Lutz, Gerry and Heather McLetchie-Leader, and a family-ship made up of a gaggle of devoted friends, including Walter, ML, Julia and Shahnaz, her ex-husband Nick, and numerous colleague-friends and comrades. Bonded in our hearts and thoughts, our P will be remembered for her warmth, generosity, supportive nature, hard work, passion, mischief, humour, irreverence, and no-nonsense courage.
In Memoriam: Jeanette McDonald (1971-2023)
“Be kind and have courage.” Cinderella said it and Jeanette lived it. She was a strong and empathetic leader who knew how to bring out the best in people, an incredible mother to Nixon, who was her pride and joy, a loving and fun wife, and the best friend to all who knew her. She had passion for her work in higher education and the purpose it gave her. She enjoyed Book Club and the tangents the conversations created. Jeanette and her husband Jeff were project-oriented in the most loving way; these projects were so frequent that she even has a paint colour named after her – “Jeanette Blue.” She is survived by her husband Jeff, daughter Nixon, mother Anne Eckes, father John Dayman, and sister Elizabeth Leacock (Marc). Pre-deceased by parents-in-law Andy and Geraldine McDonald; also survived by Jeff’s siblings Greg McDonald (Helen), Michele Delisi (Vince), Ross McDonald (Helen) and Stephen McDonald. She will be missed by many nieces and nephews.
Jeanette embraced the field of educational development early on in her career and completed her Doctorate in that area at the University of Toronto. She held educational development positions at Guelph University, Wilfrid Laurier University, Queen’s University, and most recently at the Ontario Police College. Jeanette also held a variety of leadership roles nationally within the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and was instrumental in the creation of the Educational Developer’s Caucus within the Society. For her ground-breaking work in this area, in 2016 she was recognized nationally with the inaugural Distinguished Educational Development Career Award. Throughout her career, she was a highly valued colleague, educational developer, researcher, mentor, champion, and leader as she had a way of building excitement in a project or initiative that inspired others and many of these initiatives continues in one form or another to this day.
Anyone who had the good fortune to have Jeanette in their lives as a colleague, friend, or family member knows how special she was, and how greatly all will miss her.
In Memoriam: Anne Marie Ryan (1955–2022)
Anne Marie Ryan, a beloved University Teaching Fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Dalhousie University, touched our hearts deeply. Although many of us only met her for the first time in 2019, when we, along with Anne Marie, received the 3M National Teaching Fellowship, she had a profound impact on all of us, enriching our lives, our personal and professional outlook, and our teaching.
From our first gathering as a cohort at the 2019 STLHE conference in Winnipeg, we were all touched by her joy and kindness, her creative approaches to teaching, and her amazing smile that would light up a room. In November we met again in Montebello, Quebec, for a 3M Teaching Fellow retreat. It was there that we got to know each other better and discovered Anne Marie’s deep love of family, her care and concern for students, and her compassion for humanity–it was just so clear. One activity we did as a group in Montebello is notable; our task was to write a letter to our future selves with some sage advice. Anne Marie wrote the following words to her future self: “Remember stories, different perspectives, and joy – also, too much busyness can destroy creativity & ideas or keep them from moving forward – don’t let this happen. Remember the heart is important – always!”
Anne Marie had an enormous impact on the lives of those who knew her. Indeed, Anne Marie’s generosity, kindness, and caring for her students both inside and outside the classroom was legendary. She was a role model to her students who benefited from her “compassion for and faith in her students.” Yvonne Ritchie [former student] says that she was able “to connect with her in a way that is unmatched by any of [her] other professors. She inspired [her] to take risks, to challenge [herself] and to step outside of [her] comfort zone, and ultimately to become a stronger leader.” Similarly, former student Catherine Evans highlights Anne Marie’s “compassion for students outside of the classroom,” noting that “she is well loved by her current and past students as a result.” “The level of care that Anne Marie put into every class she taught” was shown in “the effort and time she put into ensuring she knew every student name and spoke to them about their progress and interests over the course of the semester,” wrote Nathan Glas [former student]. Good teachers deliver curriculum and content, great teachers engage and inspire students, but the best teachers transform and empower them. There is no doubt that Anne Marie was one of the best, as outlined by an anonymous former student:
“I have learned a little bit more about my values, my passions and myself as a whole. I have learned more about science in the big picture, how research really works in the world and important issues to be considered when researching or forming opinions about papers. I have never before encountered a teacher that really made me think about my place in the science world. She doesn’t just teach how to learn science or how to perform science but really how to be a person in science.”
Since the time of STLHE 2019 and Montebello, our 3M National Teaching fellow cohort has presented together in different settings. We invite you to watch Anne Marie Ryan share her warm personality and creative approaches to teaching in the following clips, so that you too can witness her magic:
3M National Teaching Fellow cohort (2019), Debra Dawson (2019 Fellowship Co-ordinator) and Shannon Murray (2019 adjudicator)
