Obituary of Joan Fitzpatrick

Fitzpatrick, Joan Elizabeth (nee Cowie), born in 1920, died peacefully on December 12th at Mount Sinai Hospital of pulmonary fibrosis. She was the beloved wife of the late Honourable John James Fitzpatrick, Q.C. and will be greatly missed by her family and friends. Joan graduated from the University of New Brunswick in 1939 at age nineteen, was an officer in Navy Intelligence in the Second World War, then married and moved to Toronto where she raised her family of eight children. Joan was an avid student throughout her life, especially interested in Chinese history and culture. She lead a group from the ROM to China in 1975, joined the Board of the Royal Ontario Museum in 1995, and was honored as one of the "Three Joans," for her dedicated service to the Museum in 2005. Joan was curious, resourceful and undertook her projects with indomitable energy and determination. Later in her life, she became a volunteer and supporter of the Friends of Schizophrenia. She had a wonderful ability to look beyond her own problems and engage with friends, ideas and the larger community. She will be mourned and missed by her children, Kathleen (David Seccombe), John Fitzpatrick, Margaret Ann (Charles Hanly), Moira (Bob Macdonald), Janet (Paul Morrison), Sheila (Ed Stevens), Jim (Suzanne Brown Fitzpatrick), Joan (Pim RomColthoff), and by her twelve grandchildren, Will, Roger, Jenny, Kaeli, Michael, Drew, Brendan, Elizabeth, Katie, Patrick, Carl and Teija, to whom she was a loving and attentive grandmotherThe family will receive friends at the HUMPHREY FUNERAL HOME - A.W. MILES CHAPEL, 1403 Bayview Avenue (south of Eglinton Avenue East), from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, December 15th. Funeral Mass will be held in OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP CHURCH, 78 Clifton Road at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 17th