Joan Sherman Weir

JOAN SHERMAN WEIR April 21, 1928 – June 15, 2019 With great sadness we announce the passing of the author Joan Sherman Weir, who died peacefully at Cedarview Lodge in North Vancouver on the evening of June 15, surrounded by family. She leaves four sons, Ian (Jude), Paul (Sandra), Michael, and Richard (Coleen); grandchildren Christina, Rachelle, Mitchell, Amy, Alexandra, Andrew, Jeannie, Taylor and Houston; and eight great-grandchildren. Joan was born April 21, 1928 in Calgary, the youngest of four children of the Anglican Bishop Ralph Sherman and his wife Carolyn (nee Gillmor). She was educated there and in Winnipeg, where the family moved when her father became Archbishop of Rupert’s Land. Graduating from the University of Manitoba with a B.A. in English and History, she worked for several years creating radio broadcasts for children as part of the advertising department at Eaton’s. In May of 1955 she married the surgeon Dr. Ormond Weir, and in 1959 they moved to Kamloops, B.C., where they lived for nearly 50 years. Given the constraints of the era, she deferred her writing aspirations until the day her youngest son started Grade One. Then she launched her career in earnest, and went on to write 16 young adult novels, notably The Brideship and The Principal’s Kid, which won the B.C. Centennial Book Award in 2000, along with six books of history. She was a proud member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, and for many years she taught English and Creative Writing at the University College of the Cariboo (later Thompson Rivers University), where she is remembered by many as a mentor and inspiration. In 2004 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree. For half a century, Joan was an active member of the congregation at St. Paul’s Cathedral. An avid horsewoman, she loved riding in the hills on her horse Rajah, or else hiking with a sequence of beloved yellow labs (four generations’ worth). She was predeceased by her siblings Laurence, Barbara (Cantlie), and L.R. (Bud) Sherman, and in 2007 by Orm, her husband of 52 years. The family is deeply grateful to the nurses, care aides and long-time companions at Cedarview Lodge, where Joan coped with great courage and spirit with the onset of dementia. There will be a funeral service at 11 a.m. on Saturday July 6 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Kamloops.