“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understandings with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints in our heart, and we are never ever the same”
Family and friends are mourning the sudden passing of an exceptional woman, Dr. Katherine Clough. Just shy of her 67th birthday, she spent her final day doing one of her favourite things... hiking with a friend near Ottawa. She died unexpectedly yet peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday evening, October 29, 2013.
Katherine was born in Yorkshire and attended the University of Bristol. She got her Masters and received her PhD in plant pathology from University of Toronto in 1975. She was the devoted mother of Linnea Clough, currently of Montreal, formerly of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. She is also survived by her brother Fred Clough, his wife Sara and nieces Isabel and Olivia and Linnea’s father, Tim Bliss, all residing in England.
To all who knew her, Katherine was a brilliant, vibrant, social, resourceful and thoughtful woman who took great joy in all aspects of learning and exploring the world around her and did so with delight, wit and fun. She was passionately interested in so much; music, kayaking, tennis, scrabble, food, ecology and the wonders of the natural world. And she always came from a place of knowledge and caring.
Whether she was skillfully organizing a group hike at a moment’s notice or finding new paths to explore while waiting for the locksmith after locking her keys in her camper van in Scotland, Katherine had a zest for life that was both natural and contagious. Her sense of adventure enticed many a friend to join her on trips they might never have otherwise taken.
She was an active community gardener, a volunteer with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, a member of the Seton Cantata Choir and the You Gotta Sing! community choir in Halifax and a treasured member of the Gaia Singers and the Indian River Festival Choir in P.E.I. Friends adored her dinner party invitations as the quality of her cooking was a match for her ability to converse. Katherine loved to travel and never lacked the courage to pick up and visit a place for the very sake of experiencing something new. One of her favourite quotes was "Roots hold you close, wings set you free.
A botanist by profession, she authored the book Wildflowers of Prince Edward Island in 1992. She spent nearly a decade as the Director of Policy and Planning for the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Before that she worked at the ARK in Spry Point in the late 1970’s. She also worked for the P.E.I. town of Stratford as their Sustainability Planner, before moving to Halifax to begin the next part of her life’s adventure. Most recently she taught courses on The Flora of Nova Scotia for the Biology Department of Dalhousie University and conducted a survey on the endangered botanical species for the Muskrat Falls project in Newfoundland & Labrador.
As one of her close friends has written: “She awed me, challenged me, made me think, made me laugh, made me better, made this world better. An amazing smart funny lovely singing woman - a friend to many, and we will all miss her.”
A memorial gathering will be held at the Universalist Unitarian Church, Inglis Street, Halifax, Sunday, November 10 at 2 p.m. The family requests attendees dress in colorful outfits with headlamps and hiking boots encouraged! Family flowers only.
A gathering is being planned for P.E.I. and details will be posted on Katherine’s Facebook page.

Hommages