Ann Miller Harley

HARLEY, Ann Miller (nee Retzlaff)

Ann Harley (81) of Victoria, B. C., died peacefully at home with family at her side on September 9, 2023 from neuroendocrine cancer diagnosed in October 2021.

Ann enjoyed an active and rewarding life, both personally and professionally. First and foremost, she was the centre of a wonderful family. She is lovingly remembered by her husband of 57 years, Knick, her daughters, Kim (married to Chris Fry) and Robin (married to Ken Geis); her grandchildren Maddie Fry, Anna Fry, Kate Geis, and Ryan Geis; and her goddaughter, Gaïa Orain.

We remember Ann for her laugh, her energy, her friendships and her passions and interests. She made friends easily and strived to maintain connections over decades of changing circumstances. Their support was a great comfort to her in her journey with her cancer. Her passions and interests and her insatiable appetite to learn stayed with her to the end. She loved to travel and had a lively cosmopolitan range of interests. Including an appreciation for indigenous culture with an impressive collection of art and a strong commitment to truth and reconciliation. She loved food of various cuisines, especially ice cream. She had a passion for gardens and roses.

Her life extended well beyond the family. She was passionate about social justice and spiritual growth. As a teenager she was active in her church and spent a summer working with disadvantaged youth in Chicago. As an undergraduate at the College of Wooster she spent two terms at the International Christian University in Tokyo. At the end of her stay, she travelled around the world through Southeast Asia, India and Nepal, Ethiopia and Europe for 6 months. This trip intensified her interest in international affairs and Asian history and culture. It also broadened her spiritual thinking with a strong Buddhist influence. In 1964, she moved to New York City to obtain a master’s degree in East Asian Studies at Columbia University. One of her great joys was learning Chinese cooking and exploring the Asian restaurants of New York City. In 1975, she participated in a group tour to China, one of the first trips after the country opened to outside visitors.

After graduate school she married Knick, who she had met in college. In 1969, they moved together to Vancouver where Knick had taken a post in Economics at the University of British Columbia. There Ann discovered her passion for continuing education which she retained throughout her life. She worked at UBC and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and then at the University of Western Ontario, after Knick took a post there. Continuing education was a life calling as it dovetailed with her social concerns, she programmed extensively in women’s issues and worked with organised labour. Her open and engaging personality, exceptional networking skills, talent for detailed organisation, and life-long love of learning made her a perfect course and conference organiser. Non-credit university adult education fed her broad range of interests. She interacted well with academics, helping to corral their ideas and make them accessible to general audiences (aided, perhaps, by skills she developed as the wife of an introverted academic).

She eventually left academic life and became increasingly involved in environmental issues (she organized the Green Communities Conference in London Ontario in 1994). She also devoted her skills to her spiritual interests. For many years she organized of the annual conference of the Seven Rays Institute as well as many other projects. In this work, her concentration on organization perhaps led her to overlook her own substantial spiritual contributions.

In 2004, Ann moved to England when Knick accepted a position at the University of Oxford. Characteristically, she soon became deeply involved with the University of Oxford Newcomers Club (an organization that helps spouses of new arrivals, both students and faculty, to fit into the often not family-friendly structure of the University and its colleges). For the next ten years, the Newcomers was one of the centres of her growing network of friends. She also continued her spiritual work establishing many local connections.

Ann and Knick retired to Victoria in 2011, but until the Covid epidemic continued to spend several months each year in Oxford visiting friends and favourite places in Europe. In Victoria, Ann quickly developed a network of friends and continued her spiritual work.

Ann and Knick enjoyed a rich life together. They were able to travel widely, primarily in connection with Knick’s work. They enjoyed opera, ballet, and classical music together. Ann is remembered for her easy laugh and loving presence. Her gift of bringing people together ensured that she had a wide circle of friends in various parts of the world. She will be dearly missed.

Friends are invited to a celebration of life to be held on Friday, Oct 20 at 2 pm at the Church of Truth at 111 Superior St, Victoria, BC. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the RAVEN Trust, or the David Suzuki Foundation, organizations that Ann felt strongly about. Condolences and donations may be made by visiting www.earthsoption.com.