Barbara Hawkins Rager
(1947-2018)
Barbara passed away peacefully on Sunday, November 25, 2018 due to complications from Parkinson's disease. She is survived by her husband John and her sons, Josh, his wife Min Jung Suh and grandsons Maxwell and Hayden, as well as her son, Jordan and his wife Melanie Spring Johnston.
Barbara was a high school English teacher for the former O.B.E. and then the O.C.D.S.B. boards of education. After retiring, she took up painting and literary pursuits in both poetry and play writing. Along with her husband, Barbara worked in educational programs in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Bosnia i Herzegovina, the United States and also China. Her spirit and warmth both directly and indirectly touched the lives of hundreds of adolescents around the world.
A funeral service and reception will be held at Capital Memorial Gardens, 3700 Prince of Wales Dr., on Saturday, December 1, at 3:00 p.m. Sharing Memories and Condolences at www.capitalmemorial.ca
Published in theOttawa Citizen on November 28, 2018. Thanks to Christine Casselman for letting us know.
Here is the bio Barbara sent us in 2008:
Vital Statistics
Name: Barbara (Hawkins) Rager
Age Now: 61
Mailing Address: 27 Tower Rd, OTTAWA ON, K2G 2E4
Telephone: 1 613 228 7884
Married: since 1972 to John Rager
Children: two boys
—Josh, 34, a jazz musician making it work in Montreal (has produced 4 CD’s), married to Min, 34, also a jazz musician in Montreal; both play the piano; married 2000, one child Max Myong Wan Rager, 1 yr, old
—Jordan, 29, director of curriculum, Bosch Baha’i School, Santa Cruz, California. Married to Melanie, 29 a
Social worker for the aged.
Member of the Baha’i Faith since 1976. The Baha’i Faith teaches the unity of humanity, the equality of the sexes, abolition of all prejudice, acquisition of a universal language, and that the purpose of our lives is to work for a world order based on peace, equality, unity, empowerment before power and consultation before confrontation.
B.A.—English Literature; Mt. Allison University; B.Ed. University of Toronto; Certificates in Drama, Special Education, E.S.L., Drama Specialist.
Teaching
Taught High School English with the Ottawa Board of Education from 1970–2001; Creative Writing; English Media; Dramatic Arts, Wrote Curriculum Booklet, etc.
Other Jobs: chamber maid at the Banff Springs Hotel; Retail Sales; Waitress.
Taught English in China for one year; Guidance Counsellor and English teacher for a Moslem School; had a column in a local newspaper on the subject of Media; Director of a leadership program called Transformation for Peace which began in Switzerland in 1993 and now has spread to Czech Republic, Norway, Dallas Texas, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Consultant and workshop teacher of peace studies to teachers and students in Bosnia–I–Herzigovena.
Writer: one published poem in a Canadian anthology.
The most fun teaching job was China where I taught English literature to Chinese university students with no text books or any resources at all. What was fun was watching the students learn to trust me and my family until we really became close friends.
Health
Health: very bad. I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease fifteen years ago and I am continuing to fight with it from taking over my life.
My father died in 1971 from lymphatic cancer. My mother died in 1980 from pancreatic cancer. My sister, Ann, died last year from brain cancer.
MRHS Recollections
My most memorable moments at MRHS aren’t really splashy events. They are small moments of discovery about the feel of a world, a grown up world where the illusion of control was just that—an illusion. Moments like standing beside Barbara McCarthy’s locker when she found out she had to go to the Catholic HS because she was Catholic. She was very hurt and was crying. I couldn’t understand why the administration was making her life so difficult.
Leaving our locks half opened so we could get our books from our lockers fast between classes. It also enabled mean friends to change your locker to another place if they decided they didn’t like you any more.
Being with Kathy Tweedie when she found out she had to get braces on her teeth. Walking to school every day with Linda (Gilbert) Allen. During what was a difficult time for me, her calm presence in my life every day kept me from losing my path.
MRHS Teachers
I remember being blasted by Miss Dombrosky who caught me out in the hall during a class. I had been tossed out for talking in Dr. Smart’s Chemistry class. Mr. Campbell also gave me a blast and took me out of Chem. for a week. I remember kind, gentle Mr. Scammell singing the Squid Jiggin’ Ground for us one day in Geography. (He had written it.) Mr. Marcus was gentleness in motion. You really got the feeling as you went into his class, as he looked down on you with his arms crossed and a slow smile on his face, that he was in charge, and you better have done your homework, but the class would be essentially a warm, kind place. But the absolute best teacher in the entire roster was Mr. Logan. He was a Quaker and had a beautiful wife with six little blonde children. He was consistent and thorough. I got marks in the high 90’s in Algebra and Geometry because of him. It was those marks that got me into university because Lord knows my other marks were a disaster.
MRHS Classmates
I remember sitting beside Mags Crothers in some class probably Math, and planning how when we got out of school we’d live together in one of the apartments we could see from the classroom window, up the mountain. Our standard of excellent freedom was to picture a barely furnished apartment with a stack of lp’s standing from floor to ceiling.
I remember scandalizing the ski bus kids while I necked with “T.V.” all the way home from Chalet Cauchon. He was a good kisser, but it was a totally dumb thing to do.
I remember how jealous I was of David Caplan, who seemed to know everything. One day in Miss Welham’s Shakespeare class he asked if she thought that Hamlet was a manic depressive. I was so mad at him for knowing what a manic depressive was.
And then there was Jimmy Brown who in our last year moved his locker next to mine and before I knew it we were going out every Friday afternoon in his black Morris Minor to the Orange Julep. I loved the musty old smell of that car. Gas was so cheap then we could pool our coins together and come up with around 35 cents which would cover our driving around for the next three days. I loved Jimmy and I am grateful for the time we shared together.
Barbara