SCHEFFER, Edith Claire, nee Thomas
Born: Lethbridge, AB, 26 July 1929
Passed away: Abu Dhabi, UAE, 24 February 2003
Claire spent her early years on her father’s farm near Diamond City, Alberta. In 1946 the Thomas family moved to Victoria, where she attended Victoria College. Later she attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and gradulated with a BA. Being an adenturous soul, she moved to Toronto to work in the University of Toronto library, and where she met and married her husband Jan in 1960. The couple then moved to Montreal, where Claire attended McGill University to obtain a Bachelor of Library Science degree. Upon graduation, Claire worked in university libraries in Edmonton, Calgary, Nelson, and Victoria. In 1972 the couple spent six months in the Netherlands, where Jan had a teaching position at the University of Utrecht. Upon their return to Canada, Claire opened second-hand bookstores on Vancouver Island, first in Courtenay and later in Parksville. She had to close her Parksville store in 1999 when her eyesight began to fail.
Claire passed away suddenly while she and Jan were visiting friends in Abu Dhabi. Her husband Jan, and her sister Phyllis, her nephew Tom (Kathy) and children, and her niece Ann (Steve) survive her.
Claire will be missed and remembered by many friends and patrons.