Margaret Axford

It is with profound sadness and grief that we announce the passing of Margaret Evelyn Axford. Margaret was small and she was mighty, in her intellect, wisdom, compassion, and charisma. Margaret was a leader. She was a teacher, community activist and organizer, feminist, historian, author and editor, and a world traveller. Described once in the Frontenac News as a Spitfire, she was a valued member of her community and an all-round nice person. Margaret died at home with her husband Ian at her side. Her daughter, Margot, her dear cousin Judith, and her cherished friends Wendy and Marg were with her in spirit.

Margaret earned an Honours B.A. in English and French at The University of Western Ontario. She graduated in the spring of 1964, having already been accepted to the Bachelor’s of Education program at the University of Toronto. After obtaining her B.Ed., she was offered her first teaching position at Monarch Park Secondary School in Toronto. She taught there for four years. In the fall of 1968 she accepted a job at a school closer to her childhood home of Verschoyle, Ontario, a small farming town in Oxford County. The local cheesemaker, Margaret’s favourite site to visit, was just across and down the street. Her new position was teaching English at H.B. Beal Secondary School, a technical high school in London, just a short drive from the hospital in which she was born.

Never one for big city life, Margaret applied in 1972 for a position at North Addington Education Centre (NAEC) in Cloyne. She was hired the day of her interview. At NAEC, Margaret taught English for many years, and latterly added French courses. During her early employment at NAEC she was very active in the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, a commitment involving many late night travels to and from Napanee and elsewhere during negotiations. She progressed through the ranks to Department Head, and was Vice Principal at both NAEC and Napanee District Secondary School. She became Principal of the Gateway extended learning school in Napanee, and retired to her home in Cloyne in 1997.

Margaret had an impact on her adopted community from her arrival to her last years. She advocated for medical, social, and health services, all lacking in the early 1970s, and she was on the first doctor recruitment committee in the area. When the first medical team in the area was established by 1976, she was involved in the setting up of the Land O'Lakes Community Services (LOLCA). Not done yet, Margaret and others made multiple presentations to the Ministry of Health between 1982 and 1988 to convince them of an urgent need for a long-term care home. Anyone who has heard the story of her impromptu visit to a Ministry bureaucrat in

Toronto, a person she had never met and had not made an appointment to see, will appreciate once more her persuasive charm. After she presented her case yet again, he pulled their application from deep in a stack of files, moved it to the top of the heap, and left it there. The result was an approval that took months rather than years, and the eventual opening of the Pine Meadow Nursing Home in Northbrook in 1993. Margaret also contributed to the redevelopment of the Cloyne and District Historical Society, consisting of the Historical Society itself, the Archives and the Cloyne Pioneer Museum. She was the Museum curator and archivist for many years, wrote articles for the Society’s newsletter, and gave many presentations – ever the interesting teacher. Even with the long list of her volunteer efforts and accomplishments, Margaret also had time for fun. She greatly enjoyed her membership in The Land O’Lakes Glee Club, revisiting her time in the choir at Western. She and Ian attended concerts, music festivals, and live local theatre all over the region. She was a lifelong devotee of the Stratford Festival. She was enthralled at twelve years old by her first Shakespearian production, just a year after the festival presented its very first season. She would travel the 400 kilometres from Cloyne and back every season, one year even arranging a school trip for her students – who returned to the school at about 3:00 in the morning. Margaret kept her Stratford tradition alive for 70 years. Margaret’s love of the area and its history was contagious and respected by those associated with the Museum and the community. In her last years with us, she wrote In the Shadow of the Rock: Bon Echo’s Story, a history of the land and the owners from its beginnings around 1900 to the founding of the current Bon Echo Provincial Park. Her book is also a tribute to the Mazinaw rock standing guard over the lake, the steadfast rock that “knows the amplitude of time” (an excerpt from the Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman).

Margaret Evelyn will be dearly missed by many, particularly her husband of almost 40 years, Ian Brumell; generations of students to whom she passed along her love of language and literature; the myriad of cousins across Canada; her cherished, close and supportive friends in the Land O’Lakes area; and her devoted daughter, Margot Stothers and her partner, Larry Prong. Our Margaret was a charming, vibrant woman with a disarming smile and a wonderfully wry sense of humour. We know you will remember her fondly; better yet, recall a moment when she made you laugh.

A Gathering of Family & Friends will take place at the Milestone Funeral Home - Northbrook Chapel on Saturday, October 25, 2025 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. If your thoughts are of maintaining her legacy, the Cloyne and District Historical Society would be honoured by any donations.

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