Jean LAUNDY

1927 - 2021

JEAN ELIZABETH LAUNDY Born December 28, 1927 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, the only child of Dr. AF Laird, MC, of Blenheim, Ontario and Sadie Robinson of St. Vincent Township Ontario. After a few years in Yorkton and then Vienna where her father studied medicine, the family settled in Owen Sound. Jean grew up there, attending Ryerson PS and the OSCVI. She went on to the University of Toronto (Vic) and the University of Toronto Library School, graduating with a BA and an MLS. Jean had a career as a business and law librarian, working at Imperial Oil, Tilley Carson Finley, and Sun Life. In addition to an active career, Jean served her community. For ten years she was an officer and then president of the Toronto Ladies Club. After the amalgamation with the York Club, she continued to serve on the board. She volunteered at St. James Bond United Church, the Lytton Park Residents' Association, and worked on the David Crombie campaigns during the civic reform movement. She supported many charitable causes. Jean had a great interest in the decorative arts. She authored a definitive monograph on Stevengraph bookmarks, which she collected. She endowed a theatre arts collection to the Osborne Children's Library at Toronto Reference Library. She had an enduring passion for ceramics, especially creamware, and spent many years as a docent at the Gardiner Museum, where her collection now resides. Her other collection of eighteenth century English porcelain she donated to the Royal Ontario Museum. Jean is survived by her husband of 69 years, Kenneth Herbert Cridge Laundy, retired from Clarkson Gordon, her three children Katherine, Diane (Peter Coffman) and Laird (Jane Ormrod), and grandchildren, Rhodri, Owain, Max and Claire. Our thanks to all the staff at The Russell Hill Retirement Residence, where she lived happily for the last seven years, and to the palliative care team and especially the PSWs. A private service will be held. There will be a Book of Remembrance through Morley Bedford Funeral Services Ltd., for those who wish to share their thoughts. She will be interred at Meaford Cemetery in her family plot. In lieu of flowers, the family would be grateful for donations to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the Fred Victor Mission or the Scott Mission.