Prince George lost a passionate advocate for education and the preservation of local school history earlier this month.
Barbara Hall, 74, died on Nov. 10 after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. Hall was a longtime teacher-librarian at Duchess Park secondary school and the District Resource Centre, friend and colleague Kris Nellis said. After retiring, Hall served two terms as a School District 57 school board trustee from 1996 to 2002.
She was also heavily involved in the heritage committee of the Prince George Retired Teachers' Association, Nellis said. Hall and Nellis served as editors of Historical Memories, a multi-volume book chronicling the history of the approximately 150 schools which have operated in the School District 57 area since 1910.
"When she retired, that was around the time the district was closing down a number of schools," Nellis said. "She and some retired teachers and teacher-librarians... took it upon themselves to form a committee to go out and save this stuff... student photos, trophies, memorabilia. We have now almost 10,000 items from schools."
Much of the historical photos and items from the schools would have been lost if the committee hadn't taken on the task of collecting and cataloging it, Nellis said.
"Than Barb had the idea, along with others, to write a history of these schools," she said.
That project expanded to become a history of all the schools - open, recently-closed and long-closed -in the district. Volumes one and two have been published, and are available at local libraries and museums.
Despite her illness, Hall was active in the work on volume three up to the day she died, Nellis said. Although Hall wasn't able to take part personally, she was interested in how the move of the committee's collection of documents and memorabilia from Gladstone elementary to Ecole Lac des Bois had gone, she said.
Hall also did much of the research on smaller, one-room schools from the early days of the school district. She'd just completed the entries on 18 of the smaller schools for inclusion in volume three of Historical Memories.
"She made it her mission...," Nellis said. "I saw her Nov. 9, she died through the night on Nov. 10. She'd figured she'd done all the ones that we could get information on. It was almost like she could let go. It was like her work was done."
Nellis said before she left, she promised volume three of Historical Memories would be complete by the end of next year.
Prior to retiring, she was a passionate teacher-librarian who was active with the B.C. Teacher-Librarian Association, including a term as president from 1986 to 1988. She encouraged all local teacher-librarians to be active in the provincial body and share best practices with their peers, Nellis said.
In 2010, Hall was presented the Jeanne Clarke Award by the Prince George Public Library for her work to preserve local history. Earlier this year she was honoured by the Canadian Federation of University Women.
As a coworker and individual, Hall was a strong person who spoke her mind, led by example and was "a consummate professional" during her 17 years as a teacher-librarian in the district.
Tiiu Noukas, another former teacher-librarian in the district who knew Hall well, said as a teacher-librarian she had a passion for helping students use the library effectively for research.
"She had a really crackerjack memory," Noukas added. "[And] she was really astute in sizing up people."
As a friend she loved gardening and hosting events, Noukas said.
"She was a fabulous cook and loved to entertain," she said. "She was very generous in welcoming people into her home."
Hall was born in Prince George in 1939 and raised in Vanderhoof. She graduated from UBC and received a Masters of Library Science from the University of Alberta. She taught in Kelowna, North Vancouver and Kamloops before returning to Prince George.
She is survived by her daughter, granddaughter and sister. No funeral was held for Hall, at her request.
