Margaret (Peggy) Jacobs recently of Meadowbrook Seniors Residence died on Monday, December 28th, 2009. She will be remembered on Salt Spring Island for her ready smile, her lively conversation, her interest in the arts, in conservation and hiking and her strong interest in the sciences.
She leaves to remember her fondly her two children, Angela and Adrian, her three grandchildren Tom, Peter and Leslie, and seven great-grandchildren as well as many many good friends in Western Canada, especially on the island and some still in England.
Peggy was born close to the Lake District in England in 1916 and met her future husband, George, during beagling meets, but they also enjoyed field hockey, mountain climbing and kayaking, the latter especially on the great rivers of Europe.
She was persuaded not to study sciences or engineering where she really wanted to go, and instead studied Home Economics at Battersea Polytechnic in London and then became a school teacher in her native Barrow-in-Furness.
After marriage to George, by now a solicitor (lawyer) they settled outside Windsor, England where they raised their two children. In addition during the war years she worked to increase voting registration especially among women, made electrical coils for the war effort, started a kindergarten initially in a spare bedroom in their flat which then moved to it’s own building. She also gave cooking lessons for both children and adults in nearby Windsor.
The family moved to Edmonton, Alberta in the mid ‘50s. She initially became a substitute teacher in junior high schools, then moved to the Correspondence School teaching Grade XII biology. She was then asked to redesign and rewrite the course. This lead to her preparing a series of TV programs to teach distant Correspondence School student supervisors around the province about the new course. In order to increase her understanding of teaching and communication she went back to university to earn an M.Ed in Educational Psychology (with distinction). Peggy was then taken on as a faculty member by University of Alberta, Faculty of Home Economics, to teach communications, especially to the young women who would become dieticians in the community. Her final academic position was as Research Associate in the brand new Athabasca University.
Peggy was widowed in 1965 and remarried in 1974, returning to Cambridge, England where they lived in a unique National Trust protected house some 500 years old. She was able to meet and become friends with many world-renowned scientists, including Stephen and Jane Hawking, during those years. She returned to Canada, to live on Salt Spring Island, in 1981, living on Old Scott Road for almost 27 years. She joined the Hiking Club and quickly made many friends on the island. She enjoyed her garden, her painting, hiking both on and off island, the Arts and especially music and keeping up to date on current affairs. Her living room table was always covered with a mass/mess (!) of periodicals, magazines, books and newspapers. She loved conversation and the sciences, and only a month before her death was asking about the latest findings on black holes. She enjoyed her computer to keep up to date with her friends both here and in England and had it brought in to Lady Minto Hospital to try to keep going. Alas that was not to be, and she died peacefully, her friends by her side, a smile on her face.
The family wishes to thank very sincerely all her friends who visited and supported her while she was in Lady Minto, as well as the health care team from the kitchen aides and servers to the nurses and physicians who were so kind to her. Thank you. You all made her stay much more bearable.
There will be a reception at Meadowbrook Seniors Residence, 121 Atkins Road, SSI
on Wednesday, January 6 between 2 and 4 pm