Marilyn Luella Conibear

Marilyn passed away peacefully with loved ones present. She is survived by her sister-in-law June Ernest, sisters Carole Ernest and Elaine (Bob) Pando.and brother Doug (Donna). She was predeceased by brothers Robert and Gerald. Her beloved husband Kenneth passed in 2002.

As Marilyn often said, she took the slow road to her professional education but kept going until she was satisfied with what she had attained.

1958 - Diploma, Physical and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto

1969 - BSR, Physical and Occupational Therapy, University of British Columbia

1970 - Diploma, Adult Education, University of British Columbia

1972 - MA, Adult Education, University of British Columbia

Her professional work history also gave her a wide knowledge of how occupational therapy worked, and how it could grow.

1958-1961 - Psychiatric Unit, Union Hospital, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

1961-1963 - University Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

1963-1968 - Charge occupational therapist, Physical Rehabilitation Centre, Regina, Saskatchewan

1971-1990 - Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy, The University of Western Ontario.

Duplicate Bridge was one joy of her life, as was classical music.

As a result of her numerous teaching, administrative, and research efforts for her chosen profession, she was well recognized in the profession and received numerous awards both during her 19 years of teaching at the University of Western Ontario and after her retirement and marriage to the love of her life, Ken.

• Awarded Professor Emeritus, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario Achievement award in recognition of outstanding contribution to the profession of Occupational Therapy by a graduate of the University of Toronto.

• Awarded CAOT Fellowship (FCAOT) by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists

• Awarded Life Membership in the Ontario Association of Occupational Therapists

• Awarded Life Membership in the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists

However, her professional pride and joy was the development of OTDBASE in 1986. It's development was based on her perceived need in the profession for an only-occupational therapy literature search service - and the coincidental development of personal computers. When the CAOT decided to make this literature search service available to all CAOT members at a nominal cost to them. Other countries and university libraries followed in the CAOT's footsteps - England, Iceland, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Turkey, Japan, the United States, Luxembourg, and Flemish-Belgium, as well as many other occupational therapy schools around the world.

In collaboration with the WFOT and the European occupational therapy educators association (ENOTHE) - OTDBASE provided free 5-year access to numerous countries that were developing occupational therapy programmes. As well, because of the OTDBASE income, Marilyn was able to establish three distant fieldwork bursaries at the Universiy of Toronto, The University of Western Ontario, and the University of British Columbia.

Marilyn was a kind, loving and caring person both personally and professionally.

She will be sorely missed but her legacy will continue.