April 18, 1922 - February 18, 2024
Teacher, critic, writer, mentor, friend and beloved mother Elizabeth Waterston died unexpectedly in her winter home in Bradenton, Florida, in her 102nd year. Her life was as full as it was long.
Elizabeth was born in Montreal to Lt. Col. Daniel and Bertha (Smith) Hillman. She enjoyed a very happy childhood with her younger brother Don and, with the help of her Aunt Zoë, learned to read before starting kindergarten. Creativity was honoured in their Montreal West home, where lines from William Blake, Robert Burns and Lord Byron were known well and used often. While Elizabeth valued all things Victorian and Edwardian, she frequently reread the novels of Jane Austen and L.M. Montgomery.
After two active undergraduate years at McGill, she transferred during WWII to Toronto, receiving her BA in 1944 from Trinity College. Academic life suited her well and she kept on, earning postgraduate degrees from Bryn Mawr College (MA) and U of T (PhD).
She met and married Douglas Waterston, who had a degree in agriculture from Macdonald College, while working on her PhD. Doug supported her career throughout their 65 years of marriage.
Her first teaching assignment was at Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) where she taught returning war vets from 1945-58 and lived happily at “diaper dell”, adding three children to the growing baby boom.
When Doug was appointed editor of the London-based Farmer’s Advocate, the family moved to Ontario. Elizabeth joined the faculty of the University of Western Ontario from 1958-67, had two more children, and made friends with many of the poets, painters and patrons putting London on the map in the heyday of the 60s.
While Doug was appointed Director of Information at the newly-formed University of Guelph, Elizabeth joined the inaugural English Department, as professor from 1967-87, chair from 1974-77 and eventually professor emerita in 1989. During their Guelph years, she and Doug frequently opened their home for Spring Festival events and receptions, working closely with the festival’s founder, her mentor Murdo MacKinnon. A lover of musicals, theatre, operas, symphonies, Burl Ives, Yo-Yo Ma, CBC choral music programs and choirs big and small, every day of Elizabeth’s life was enriched by the lively arts.
A founding member of the Association of Canadian University Teachers of English and of the Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures, she was also a founding editor of Canadian Children's Literature and president of the Humanities Association of Canada from 1977-79.
Elizabeth’s numerous academic works include Survey: A Short History of Canadian Literature (1973), Canada to 1900: The Travellers (1989), and Children's Literature in Canada (1992). She was, with Mary Henley Rubio, co-editor of the 5-volume Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery.
In retirement, Elizabeth happily divided the year between her London and Bradenton homes, so she always had a garden to enjoy. She travelled, connected with family at the cottage in Québec and continued to encourage the aspirations of younger people. Retirement also gave her more time to explore her creative side, resulting in a dozen more books. She joined writers’ groups and PEN Women. She wrote poetry, novels, memoirs and plays—and even a hymn. Remarkably, she sent her last manuscript to her publisher three days before she died.
In 2010 Elizabeth was appointed to the Order of Ontario. In 2011 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2018 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada and was a co-recipient (with Mary Rubio) of the inaugural L.M. Montgomery Institute Legacy Award.
Predeceased by husband Douglas (2012), granddaughter Katie Waterston (2015) and son-in-law François Bregha (2022), Elizabeth Waterston is survived by her children Daniel (Jennifer), Jane, Christina (Tom) Beaver, Charlotte Turner and Rosemary (Phil King); grandchildren Michael (Maria Hristova), Emily (Mark West), Sarah, Stephanie (Mark Remington); François (Abby Menendez) and Daniel Bregha; Austin (Mairead OBrien) and Alex Beaver; Matthew and Andrew Turner, and great-grandchildren Hannah, Lauren, Liam, Julia, Stan, Rosemary, Collin, Sage and Meredith. She is remembered fondly by many Hillman, Lyons, Ritchie and Waterston nieces, nephews and sisters-in-law, and by scores of friends and colleagues in Florida, southwestern Ontario, and Prince Edward Island.
A funeral will be held in Trinity College Chapel, 6 Hoskin Ave. (Toronto) on Saturday, March 9 at 11 am. Those unable to attend in person are invited to watch the livestream at https://evt.live/waterston-funeral. Notes of condolence may be sent to the family via elizabethwaterston.com If you wish to make a donation in her memory, please donate to your local women’s shelter or a charity of your choice.