BEATTIE , Rosemary Eileen Clark-Beattie

Rosemary died on August 10, 2025, at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto with her husband and her sons at her bedside. She was 71 years old.

Dearly beloved wife of Robert (Bob) Beattie during their 45 years of marriage. Loving mother of R. Graham Beattie of Los Angeles and Ian W. Beattie of Montreal. Survived by her sister Alison (Clark) Vannah of Ocean Park, Maine, her brother Ritchie Clark of Vancouver, her sister Lorna Clark of Ottawa, and many cousins, nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces. Predeceased by her parents E. Ritchie Clark and Eileen Crawford.

Rosemary was born in Toronto, Ontario, and lived briefly in Vancouver as a child. She subsequently attended Robert H. Smith School in Winnipeg, Russell School and Town of Mount Royal High School in Montreal, and Branksome Hall in Toronto. She obtained her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral thesis was on the later novels of George Eliot, and she published several articles on topics in Victorian fiction in major literary journals. She taught English at the University of Toronto and at Trent University. After a period of about eight years at home with young children she started a second career as an editor of academic journals with the University of Toronto Press from which she retired in 2016.

Rosemary was admired and respected by everyone who knew her for her intelligence. A truly independent thinker, she instinctively distrusted current opinion and conventional wisdom. She was a voracious reader all her life with a wide range of interests, always ready to engage with anyone in a friendly discussion on almost any topic. She loved discussion and debate, games and puzzles, mystery novels, anything and everything that engaged her energetic and endlessly inquiring mind.

Although her professional activities centered on literature and the written word, Rosemary had an abiding interest in and passion for music. She sang in choirs from public school until shortly before her death when her health prevented her from continuing. Her school friends remember her as a member of the alto section who could be relied upon to keep others on pitch. She played the French horn in high school and came back to it as an adult as a keen member of the New Horizons Band. In keeping with her nature, she especially enjoyed singing and playing in big ensembles together with other music-loving amateurs. And she enjoyed attending concerts and encouraging other musicians – friends who performed in choirs or ensembles, and young performers with whom she came into contact through Toronto Summer Music.

Rosemary led an active life until limited by her last illness and always loved the outdoors. She had fond memories of summer camps and skiing in the Laurentians in her youth. In later years summer holidays at the family cottages on Beaven Lake in the Laurentians and Windfall Lake on Manitoulin Island, and wilderness canoe trips with Bob, Graham and Ian, were some of the happiest times of her life. She would speak of the peace beyond understanding that could be experienced on a campsite in Killarney or a lake in Algonquin Park.

Those who knew Rosemary well perhaps remember her best for her good-natured kindness. Warm and loving and friendly, she enjoyed being with people and loved to talk and laugh and tell stories. She formed friendships everywhere she went and maintained and cherished lifelong friendships from public school and university days. She loved travelling, especially when it gave her the opportunity to visit family members or old friends or to make new friends.

Rosemary loved life, loved people, and was devoted above all things to her family. She and Bob were everything to each other and were never apart. She loved her two sons with a powerful maternal passion and was enormously proud of each of them. Her relationships with her parents, her Aunts, Harriet Clark and Martha (Mattie) Clark, her siblings and her extended family were central in her world.

A memorial service for Rosemary will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, September 13, 2025 at Glenview Presbyterian Church, 1 Glenview Avenue, Toronto, with a reception following in the church. In lieu of flowers the family would be grateful for donations in Rosemary’s memory to Street Haven at the Crossroads, Doctors Without Borders, or a charity of your choice.

Memories and notes of condolence may be shared at Funeral Home Not Listed.