Dorothy Walker Robbins made a difference

Last week, Dorothy Walker Robbins was quoted in this column. This week I want to honour her as Dorothy died in her sleep on the morning of Oct. 15.

Having celebrated her centenary in some style a year ago, she died one month away from her 101st birthday in November.

Dorothy was a good neighbour and a friend. She loved people and nurtured many friendships. I first got to know her when the Kings County Courthouse Museum was brand new. She was terrific at using her energy as a volunteer and fundraiser.

This past winter, when Dorothy was far less mobile, she shared with me some stories about her parents coming to Nova Scotia from northern England. She viewed their immigration as a huge step into the unknown that helped establish her own values system.

As newlyweds and new immigrants, her parents lived in a small farmhouse in Hillaton with none of the comforts of electricity, indoor plumbing or the conveniences that her mother had always taken for granted. They had no close neighbours, only a horse and buggy to provide transportation and no ready access to shopping. She had to be a real trooper to deal with this new way of life.

Dorothy believed that arriving here at the start of a Nova Scotia winter helped make her mother a strong individual. The young family moved to Chipman Corner and then Kentville.

Her mother was a very competitive athlete, especially when it came to tennis and golf. She recalled growing up playing reams of active and sedentary games. There was no TV. After attending the one-room schoolhouse in Chipman Corner through Grade 8, Dorothy went to high school at Ackworth School in Yorkshire, England. Her grandfather was headmaster. She claimed her years at boarding school “gave me the confidence to become what I ended up becoming.”

Dorothy never saw herself as an athlete, but she began advancing school sport and women's sport after attending the Margaret Eaton School of Physical Education in Toronto on scholarship. She later taught at a private school in Ontario, returning to Nova Scotia to focus her career in physical education.

In 1946, as consolidated rural high schools were developing, Dorothy joined the physical education office of Nova Scotia's Department of Public Health. She served 18 years as one of the first supervisors of physical education and recreation, where she saw herself as a promoter of the benefits of sport and recreation in the school system.

Dorothy taught at the Nova Scotia Teachers College in Truro and was the supervisor of physical education at the provincial level.

“Back then, there were no physical education specialists in Nova Scotia schools at all. There were very few gyms, even, and only in a few places, widely spread,” she said.

Prior to retiring in 1981, Dorothy was the physical education consultant for the Kings County District School

Board. My former colleague, John DeCoste, chronicled Dorothy's role as a pioneer in women's sport in Nova Scotia back in 2017. She gained national status serving on the National Advisory Council on Fitness and Amateur Sport. As the only female chaperone and advisor to the Canadian Olympic team in Tokyo in 1964, she worked with 34 female athletes. She was also a national basketball official for many years and a member of the Canadian Officials Rating Board. She had so many firsts in one life. No wonder Acadia University gave her an honorary degree. Almost 20 years ago, she was the first recipient of a lifetime achievement award (specifically for females) from the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation, which was named in her honour.

Dorothy liked going to the gym at Acadia and seeing young women playing rugby and hockey at the university level. She could not help but note how many more opportunities there are today for female athletes than existed during her youth.

It's no wonder she was keen to foster broader participation. Dance, particularly Scottish Country Dance, was a great joy in her retirement. As she once told DeCoste, “I'm much happier when I'm active. I'm not very good at sitting still.”

Being active, I bet, gave her a long life. Dorothy wanted to be remembered, “as someone who was concerned for the other person, and as someone who may be made a difference.”

There's no doubt of that.