Jean Mary Robertson

Born in Sheffield, England, Jean studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England. She emigrated to Calgary in 1954 with husband, Dr. Archibald Robertson and their three daughters, Valerie, Anne and Pauline.

Sadly, her youngest daughter, Pauline, died following a motor vehicle accident in 1955. Her son, Rob, was born two years later.

In Calgary, she taught art at U of C and numerous subjects - art, drama, music and social studies to name a few – at Tweedsmuir, Melville Scott, Senator Patrick Burns and Sir Winston Churchill schools. Her final years, before retirement in 1984 were spent working as an art consultant for the Calgary Board of Education.

She had a passion for historic buildings and sites and this led to many years of activism including attending protests to try to preserve buildings at risk of demolition.

Another passion was the English language. She taught elocution & grammar, did crosswords regularly and was hard to beat at Scrabble even last year. She could still recite verses of poetry a couple of months ago that she had learnt as a child.

Jean looked forward to her retirement at age 65. She decided to do things for her mind, body and soul through swimming, Knights of the Round Table and learning foreign languages before trips overseas.

She had been an active young woman, swimming and playing cricket, tennis and lacrosse. In her later years, she enjoyed following her favourite sportsmen, golfer Phil Mikelson and tennis player, Andy Murray.

Her 100th birthday was a great celebration with greetings from numerous dignitaries, letters from many former students and visits from friends and family from Calgary, regional Alberta, Australia and England.

Until only a month before her death, she was still knitting squares which were sewn together to be given as blankets to the Mustard Seed.

Predeceased by her parents Jennie and Samuel Worrall, daughter Pauline Mairi, grand-daughter Deborah Jensen and son-in-law, Keith Jensen, she is survived by daughters Valerie Jensen (Keith, dec.) and Anne Robertson (Rob Cross), son Robert Robertson and by grandchildren Jennifer Jensen, David Jensen (Natalie) and Anthony Cross (Anna).

Jean died peacefully at home, aged 104 after a very brief illness. She will be missed by surviving family and friends.

A Celebration of Life is being held on November 13, at 1:00p.m. at South Calgary Funeral Centre, 12700 Macleod Trail South.

You may join the service through livestream via this link: https://view.oneroomstreaming.com/index.php?data=MTY5OTM5OTc4OTI3OTk2MyZvbmVyb29tLWFkbWluJmNvcHlfbGluaw==