Brian Hedley Taylor & Jane Elizabeth Taylor (Bird) - 1928-2015
Brian and Jane met and married in Montreal in 1951. Their honeymoon, a long bike trip through Spain on their beloved three-speed Raleighs, was undertaken at a time when tourism in that country was basically unheard-of. A good indicator of the kind of people they were: open-minded, unconventional, and each with an appetite for beauty and a need for a certain amount of gentle adventure. They remained together through almost seven decades, weathering free-love in the sixties, embracing feminism in the seventies, and surviving the economic challenges of the eighties and beyond with determination and a not insignificant measure of grace. Throughout their life they strove together to cultivate an appreciation of art, music, and style in their home - as they did in the lives of their four sons Andrew, Mark, Derek, and Geoff, all of whom survive them. Never very far apart, they died as they lived, passing within two weeks of each other. They will both be missed.
Jane Elizabeth Bird (05/13/1928 – 05/10/2015)
There’s a picture of Jane at 16 that, for anyone who knew her, captures all her best qualities: her innocence, her style and beauty, her cleverness, and her intractable Scottish stubbornness. She displayed all these traits in equal measure throughout her life. In 1960, already with three small boys under four years old in tow, she disembarked at the old Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, on her own, speaking not a word of Italian, to begin the life of an Expat Wife. A life of child rearing, cocktail parties and travel that she, by turns, enjoyed and endured. Upon her return to Canada a decade later she discovered, not coincidentally, that she was drawn to Feminism. She became instrumental in cultivating the early growth of Ottawa’s feminist movement, attending and hosting consciousness-raising and discussion groups and working for the newly formed Secretary of State for the Status of Women department, forming many life-long friendships in the process. She retired to the home she built with her husband Brian, just outside Perth, Ontario, and spent many happy hours tending to the flower and vegetable gardens that she loved. Her sister Molly and her brother Tom survive her.
Brian Hedley Taylor (09/14/1928 – 04/24/2015)
Brian was a quiet, solitary, and thoughtful man, with a sardonic and mischievous sense of humour -handed down to him, perhaps, through his mother’s eastern European Jewish heritage. He was smart, considered, and kind -a man unafraid to embrace change- whose greatest pleasures were probably travel and discovery. In 1960, armed only with a degree in Creative writing and a home-grown interest in photography he brought the family to Rome, Italy, wangling himself a ten year posting as an editor/photographer at the headquarters of FAO, producing feature articles for the development magazine Ceres. After taking a year away to study science writing at Columbia in NYC he returned to Ottawa to begin a career as an associate professor of Journalism at Carleton University. In assessments by his first-year students he was often awarded the title “most boring speaker", to which he responded with characteristic indifference, taking comfort from the fact that he had a much deeper appeal to his more thoughtful fourth-years. Brian had a deep love of classical and early Jazz music and a life-long interest in art, and left behind many sketches, paintings, poetry, writings and journals created during his life. He will be missed by his sister Beryl and their brother Geoffrey.
Their four sons will hold services individually, each in the manner of their choosing. Brian and Jane's final wishes were "not to fuss about it". Goodbye to both of you. You were unusually good parents.
Children: Andrew, Mark, Derek and Geoffrey
Brian and Jane met and married in Montreal in 1951. Their honeymoon, a long bike trip through Spain on their beloved three-speed Raleighs, was undertaken at a time when tourism in that country was basically unheard-of. A good indicator of the kind of people they were: open-minded, unconventional, and each with an appetite for beauty and a need for a certain amount of gentle adventure. They remained together through almost seven decades, weathering free-love in the sixties, embracing feminism in the seventies, and surviving the economic challenges of the eighties and beyond with determination and a not insignificant measure of grace. Throughout their life they strove together to cultivate an appreciation of art, music, and style in their home - as they did in the lives of their four sons Andrew, Mark, Derek, and Geoff, all of whom survive them. Never very far apart, they died as they lived, passing within two weeks of each other. They will both be missed.
Jane Elizabeth Bird (05/13/1928 – 05/10/2015)
There’s a picture of Jane at 16 that, for anyone who knew her, captures all her best qualities: her innocence, her style and beauty, her cleverness, and her intractable Scottish stubbornness. She displayed all these traits in equal measure throughout her life. In 1960, already with three small boys under four years old in tow, she disembarked at the old Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, on her own, speaking not a word of Italian, to begin the life of an Expat Wife. A life of child rearing, cocktail parties and travel that she, by turns, enjoyed and endured. Upon her return to Canada a decade later she discovered, not coincidentally, that she was drawn to Feminism. She became instrumental in cultivating the early growth of Ottawa’s feminist movement, attending and hosting consciousness-raising and discussion groups and working for the newly formed Secretary of State for the Status of Women department, forming many life-long friendships in the process. She retired to the home she built with her husband Brian, just outside Perth, Ontario, and spent many happy hours tending to the flower and vegetable gardens that she loved. Her sister Molly and her brother Tom survive her.
Brian Hedley Taylor (09/14/1928 – 04/24/2015)
Brian was a quiet, solitary, and thoughtful man, with a sardonic and mischievous sense of humour -handed down to him, perhaps, through his mother’s eastern European Jewish heritage. He was smart, considered, and kind -a man unafraid to embrace change- whose greatest pleasures were probably travel and discovery. In 1960, armed only with a degree in Creative writing and a home-grown interest in photography he brought the family to Rome, Italy, wangling himself a ten year posting as an editor/photographer at the headquarters of FAO, producing feature articles for the development magazine Ceres. After taking a year away to study science writing at Columbia in NYC he returned to Ottawa to begin a career as an associate professor of Journalism at Carleton University. In assessments by his first-year students he was often awarded the title “most boring speaker", to which he responded with characteristic indifference, taking comfort from the fact that he had a much deeper appeal to his more thoughtful fourth-years. Brian had a deep love of classical and early Jazz music and a life-long interest in art, and left behind many sketches, paintings, poetry, writings and journals created during his life. He will be missed by his sister Beryl and their brother Geoffrey.
Their four sons will hold services individually, each in the manner of their choosing. Brian and Jane's final wishes were "not to fuss about it". Goodbye to both of you. You were unusually good parents.
Children: Andrew, Mark, Derek and Geoffrey
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