Joan Mary Boutilier

Photo credit - Wendy Elliott

Joan Mary (Burnard) Boutilier

8 February 1950 – 10 January 2025

Our beloved “Treasure Beyond Measure” died at the Palliative Care Unit in Saanich Peninsula Hospital where medical staff and family supported her final days with compassionate treatment and devoted love. Thank you all. She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Roger, daughter Joy (Greg Foster; step-son Trent), daughter Grace (Scott Black and children Sylvie and Everett), as well as siblings Marian (Ron) Colpitts, Tom (Marilyn) Burnard and Helen (Jim) Gorter, and brother-in-law Bob (Linda) Boutilier and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by son Aaron in 2015.

Joan’s deep humanitarian values were the bedrock upon which she built a lifetime that was largely devoted to empowering others through her quiet, pragmatic optimism and resolve to be a “heavy ender” who gave more than she received. She enjoyed nothing more than encouraging others to exercise and expand their God-given talents and praising them when they demonstrated success. Her ready, cheerful smile radiated especially to her children, family and many friends whose hearts she warmed in its glow.

Joan was born in Hammersmith, London to Thomas (Pyworthy, Devon) and Edna Bullock Burnard (Calne, Wiltshire). The family emigrated in 1952 first to the Chicago area and then on to the west island of Montreal, eventually settling in Beaconsfield, Quebec where Joan completed her early education.

In 1967 she left to enroll in the B A (Psychology) program at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. It was there that she met her future husband, Roger, and they were married in 1972. Joan completed her M Sc at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) that same year and was granted her Ph D (Psychology) from Queen’s in 1975.

Shortly after her marriage, she faced the onset of Stargaart’s Disease that gradually removes central vision. She registered with CNIB as visually impaired and completed her doctoral studies in spite of the disability.

Joan then moved to Middleton, Nova Scotia to re-join Roger and was soon hired as a school psychologist in Annapolis County. Her sense of duty soon resulted in her “staring down” Acadian Lines Bus service when she applied for a CNIB disability pass and was asked to sign a form to promise not to sell pencils on the bus (a common practice for blind persons in earlier years). Management promptly rescinded this demand when she indicated she would file a protest!

Joan became a founding member of both the [crisis intervention] Valley Care Line (chair) and the Revolving Door sheltered workshop for persons living with disabilities in the 1970s. In the following decade she served as a member of the town swimming pool committee to support an essential program that benefited her children --- Aaron, Joy and Grace --- as well as the wider community. In the early 1990s the Middleton & District Figure Skating Club was the top junior club in the province with Joan as President, using her powers of persuasion and inter-personal skills to smooth egos and nurture cooperation for the greater good.

She was a willing and active member of a committee that successfully lobbied in the 1980s for the construction of a new elementary school for Middleton. Much later, c. 2016, she was a one-woman crusade at the Saturday morning farm market in Wolfville, gathering close to a thousand signatures to persuade the town to post signage to prevent cyclists from riding on sidewalks in a town with a large population of seniors and three L’Arche homes, where persons with mental and/or physical disabilities lived.

Joan was a regular Red Cross blood donor and her quest for a “century” (100 donations) was only thwarted by the onset of heart problems. Another aspect of her commitment to the common good on a broader scale was participating in the hour-long, Saturday morning Wolfville Post Office Peace Vigil - year round - from the time of the First Gulf War to when she left to reside in British Columbia in 2018. Only sickness and occasional vacations were acceptable reasons for an absence.

As noted earlier, Joan had a passion for fairness and justice for all; equality over privilege. She was the Annapolis East candidate for the New Democratic Party in the 1981 and 1984 provincial campaigns under leader Alexa McDonough and sharply raised the NDP vote each time. Despite increasing visual challenges as she aged, Joan continued to play significant roles in the party after she and her husband moved to Wolfville (Kings South) in 2000.

She was a woman of deep faith. The Methodist roots of her parents found full flower in Joan’s contemplative approach to living a life that tried to reflect Christ-centered values and practices. The ease with which she melded her faith with tolerance and an open-mindedness is reflected in the fact that she was a valued member of the spiritual lay leadership at St John’s United and Emmanuel Congregational Churches in Middleton and Wolfville Baptist Church in that town.

Apart from taking a couple years off for the birth of her children and gradually moving from part-time back into full-time work, Joan was employed as a clinical psychologist in the public health care system in a variety of roles from 1977 to her retirement in 2009. Her strong academic training and scholarly inclination eventually brought her to serve two, 3-year terms on the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission between 2012 and 2018 and at least as many years around the same dates on the Acadia University Research Ethics Board.

Not to be over-looked was her determination to exercise body as well as mind. In her mid-40s she geared up her recreational running into road racing. By careful pre-race scouting of routes and asking race officials to call out turning points rather than silently pointing directions, Joan ran well over 100 races on the Run Nova Scotia circuit over a two decade span. This included about 20 half-marathons and, at age 50, the full Johnny Miles Marathon in New Glasgow, N S.

As she and her husband “aged gracefully” into their mid-60s, they took up walking abandoned rail beds in the Maritimes. During the second decade of this millennium that included multi-day hikes on the Dominion Atlantic Railway bed from Yarmouth to Wolfville and all 435 kilometers of the Prince Edward Island Confederation Trail abandoned ballast beds. These were carefree strides indeed; no traffic, the silent, scenic splendour of nature at the elbow and lots of time to chat with her man ... and even steal a kiss!

Joan was a wonderful wife, mother, sister, and friend to all who sought her love and counsel. We who remain miss her desperately. Her spirit exhorts us to action: to love God, to love each other, and to serve our communities and the wider world.

• “What we desire for ourselves, we wish for all. To this end, may we take our share of        the world’s work and the world’s struggles.” - J S Woodsworth

• St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 4: 4 – 9

• “Gratitude, Respect, Responsibility” - RB

There will be a celebration of her life by webcast, please see information below. Should you wish to honour Joan’s memory financially, a donation to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or a charity of your choice would be appreciated.