ROBERTS, SHEILA LEMONT 1922 - 2008 You might be wondering why the flags at the University of New Brunswick flew at half-mast last week. It was a post mortem acknowledgement of the contributions made by Sheila Lemont Roberts, Class of '43, to her alma mater. Though Sheila had been born in Mobile, Alabama and was an American when she came to UNB, she had Fredericton roots and connections. Her father, composer, Cedric Lemuel Wilmot Lemont had attended UNB for several years and had familial connections to Lemont Trading, which later became Lemont Furniture Company. Her mother, Anna Beardsley Taylor Lemont, had spent the favorite parts of her girlhood here. Sheila was active as a student on campus, writing for the Brunswickan and the Yearbook; and playing a part in the Drama Society, Student Government, and the War Effort Committee. Before she died at the age of 86, Sheila was the oldest surviving captain of the UNB basketball team. That's pre-Varsity Reds and pre-Red Bloomers. And if you look closely at the basketball scene in the lobby of the Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium, the dark haired guard towards the right - that's reputed to be Sheila! Sheila played 4 years on the co-ed hockey team and was even, briefly, on the UNB Diving team, having been recruited at a party the night before to learn the dives early the next morning before the meet. It probably helped that her sister, Virginia, had been an Ohio State Diving Champion. Sheila finished a year of class work towards her Masters in English, but didn't finish - always saying her thesis was her daughter Barbara. But it was for dancing - not basketball or diving, that she was known to generations of UNB students...as the choreographer for twenty years behind "the best kick line east of Montreal" (as the program called them) for the Red 'N Black Revue. She was known as "the Choreographer to the Stars" having orchestrated the soft-shoe performances of four UNB Presidents. Sheila met her future husband Edgar William "Doc" Roberts on the train coming to UNB from New York City. They married during the war and, through thick and thin, until Doc's death at age 53, continued to make each other laugh. While her children were young, Sheila stayed at home but did a lot of volunteer work serving on the Home & School Association, Women's Aid at the Hospital, the Hospital Board of Directors, and the UNB Alumnae Association. She also took road trips with the UNB Swimmers, travelling on the team bus as a chaperone. When her son, Mike, entered high school, she went back to work as editor of the Alumni News pioneering features which remain to this day - (can you spell "Hither and Yon"). She also worked for the New Brunswick Department of Tourism as a writer and editor. Once she even edited an engineering master's thesis. After her retirement, she enjoyed her winters in Florida and several noteworthy trips to Europe, discovering a passion for pashminas on her final trip with family to Italy. Sheila was a stickler for grammar, spelling, and use of the precise word. Indeed the dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus were always close at hand and consulted almost as often as the phonebook. Sheila enjoyed countless glasses of Scotch and wine but always believed that champagne "made everything more festive" Survived by daughter, Barbara Anne (Robin Hopper); son, Edgar William "Mike" (Marguerite) and grand-daughters; Stacey Elizabeth Robertson (David Stone), Jennifer Lemont Robertson Parr (Mathew Parr), Jessica Lauren Roberts, and Stephanie Elizabeth Roberts. A Memorial Funeral Service will be held at Christ Church Cathedral at 3:00 PM Friday, October 17, 2008. In lieu of flowers, donations to the University of New Brunswick Alumni Fund or the charity of the donor's choice would be appreciated. Arrangements have been entrusted to McAdam's Select Community Funeral Home, 160 York Street, Fredericton, NB (458-9170) (www.mcadamsfh.com) where condolences and donations may be made.