Joyce Deveau Kennedy

“The weight of years will sag the body, but the curious mind will never grow old.”

Passed away December 7, 2012, in the Victoria General Hospital comforted by her husband and her youngest son. Joyce was born in Boston on July 2, 1937, the daughter of Simon Cyrené Deveau, an Acadian émigré from Salmon River, Digby County, NS, and Evelyn Burrill from Skowhegan, Maine. She attended Boston public schools, graduated in 1955, and went to work at the First National Bank of Boston. She began attending evening classes at Boston College, and there discovered her love of learning. She enrolled as a full-time student at BC, graduated Magna cum Laude in 1962, and went on to graduate studies in the Department of English at the University of Delaware. Her curiosity was boundless and in no way limited to her chosen field of study. She would interrogate her friends at the university’s Catholic Student Center to learn what they were up to. There she discussed medieval history with Len Delozier, argued evolutionary biology with Lee Crane, and marveled as her best friend, Frederick, shared his fascination with the mysteries of quantum theory. In June 1967, she both obtained her Ph.D. and married Fred.

She subsequently taught English at four universities, ending up at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax in the mid-seventies. Her scholarly writing was varied. She edited two volumes in the definitive edition of the works of Daniel Defoe; she also published numerous articles and reviews on children’s literature, on the plays of Eugene O’Neill, and, most extensively, on the writings of Herman Melville, an artist she felt to be a kindred spirit. Her most recent work was as Contributing Scholar to “Published Poems: The Writings of Herman Melville Vol. 11” (2009).

From childhood, Joyce felt a calling to put her spirituality into action, dreaming of becoming a priest while still a young girl, and as a young adult spending a brief period as a postulant with the Maryknoll Sisters. This proved not to be the path that would ultimately feed her longing for a more active understanding of her faith. But in later years, responding to a desire for a more formal grounding in spirituality, she enrolled at the Atlantic School of Theology, graduating in 1986 with a Master of Divinity. In 1990, she was named Director of Continuing Education at the Mount, a position in which her AST training in pastoral ministry was invaluable in helping her guide many new students, particularly women whose educational aspirations had been put on hold years ago, and who were now intimidated by an unfamiliar college environment. After retirement from the Mount in 1999, Joyce spent several years as the full-time head of Elderhostel Canada, Atlantic Region (later, Roots to Learning), a role in which she traveled throughout the region coordinating educational activities for seniors who wished to use the freedom of retirement to expand their learning and experience.

Joyce belonged to a large number of professional, church, and civic organizations and boards. She was a founding member of Canadian Catholics for Women’s Ordination. Aside from all of these activities, she was a columnist for the “Daily News” from 1991 to 1994. She was a devotee of the music of Elvis Presley and an ardent, if irrational, fan of the Boston Red Sox, not above exploiting her academic connections to score tickets to the 1986 Red Sox–Mets World Series when she discovered that Boston’s Chief Financial Officer was a fellow BC grad.

In addition to her many professional accomplishments, Joyce was a beloved mother. She encouraged her three sons to follow their dreams, urging them to pursue their own particular talents and passions, while instilling in them a commitment to hard work and a profound sense of responsibility to friends, family, and colleagues. The boundaries of motherhood did not end with her family, however. She possessed a rare gift for friendship and displayed an inviting openness to everyone she met, becoming a second mother to many. She often spent summer afternoons ferrying all of the neighborhood children to Graham’s Grove beach or cooking pancakes for a dozen of her sons’ friends. Her generosity of spirit was renowned, and over the years she came to the aid of many in her community. From freshly arrived refugees looking to begin new lives in Canada, and who relied on her hospitality and help, to folks in the neighborhood who treasured the advice and counsel she so warmly offered, to the many people down on their luck who she assisted with numerous small and large acts of kindness, nobody who came to her in need was ever turned away. In this she provided an inspiring example to those who knew and loved her of a life lived in the service of others.

Joyce is survived by her loving husband of forty-five years, and sons Simon (Suzanne), David (Dana), and Frederick (Deadra); grandchildren Fiona, Timothy, Leo, and Ceres. As well, she leaves her sisters, Marion Joyce and Myrna Deane, and her brother, René Paul Deveau. She also leaves brothers-in-law Bill Deane and Laxman Desai, and sister-in-law Ann Desai; nieces Elizabeth, Celina, Linette, Johanna, Sara, Carolyn, and Delia; and nephews Evan and Cameron. Joyce’s family is very thankful to the staff at the Halifax Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Clinic, especially nurse Linda Ferguson and Dr. Simon Jackson, Joyce’s trusted cardiologist; also the many kind nurses in the VG who cared for her in her final days. In accordance with her wishes, Joyce’s body was cremated. Visitation at Cruikshank’s Halifax Funeral Home will take place on Friday, December 14 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The following day, Saturday, December 15, a memorial mass will be celebrated at Saint Thomas More church in Dartmouth at 11:00 a.m. In the spring, Fred will take his beloved’s remains home for final burial in Island Pond Cemetery, a woodland resting place in Harwich, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, the place Joyce loved most for nearly all her life.

Photographs of Joyce may be viewed at www.cruikshankhalifaxfuneralhome.com. Anyone wishing to honour Joyce’s memory may do so by making a contribution to the scientific effort to ensure the eradication of scleroderma and pulmonary hypertension. The family requests that donations be directed to the Scleroderma Research Foundation (www.srfcure.org), the Cure Scleroderma Foundation, which is an affiliate of the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group (www.csrg-grcs.com), and the Pulmonary Hypertension Association of Canada (www.phacanada.ca).

That like the crocus budding through the snow—

That like a swimmer rising from the deep—

That like a burning secret which doth go

Even from the bosom that would hoard and keep;

Emerge thou mayst from the last whelming sea;

And prove that death but routs life into victory.

– Herman Melville, 1876