Linda Clarkson Stevens

1951 - 2018

Lin Stevens, as described by friends, was bright, vivacious, articulate, committed to the causes she embraced, and beautiful. She died too young, at 67, of a sudden, unexpected heart attack at her home in Cambridge, Ont. on Nov. 6. An ardent feminist and dedicated advocate for the environment, she loved books, newspapers, CBC Radio, music, travel, cooking, gardening and dogs of all sizes and breeds. She spent many happy years in the Beach in Toronto, a wonderful mother raising her young children, entertaining friends, kayaking on the lake and strolling on the boardwalk.

A marketing graduate of what is now Ryerson University, Lin was part of the wave of ambitious young professional women that emerged in Toronto in the 1970s. An active member of 21 McGill, the downtown club for professional women, she worked for City Woman magazine as long as it lasted and later at Michael de Pencier’s Key Publishers.

In 15 years in Cambridge, she threw herself into environmental challenges – to protect the Gilholm Marsh from developers and to stop the relentless encroachment of gravel pits on residential areas. A woman of strong opinion, she despised politicians who are too blind, or too compromised, to recognize that global warming is destroying the planet we will leave our children and grandchildren.

Lin leaves a devastated family: her parents, Nancy and Doug Clarkson of Brampton; her husband and partner of 34 years, journalist Geoffrey Stevens; her daughter Casey and son Jamie at home in Cambridge; and her stepchildren in Toronto, Alexandra Stevens (Michael Garrels) and Sean Stevens (Sarah). She is also survived by her sisters Jane Gilmour (William) of Brampton and Valerie Robinson (William) of Jacksonville, Fla, and her brother Robert Clarkson (Angela DiCintio) of Oakville.

A celebration of Lin’s life will be held in Cambridge in the near future. [For details, please email: [email protected]] As much as she loved flowers, she would have appreciated donations to the David Suzuki Foundation or the Heart and Stroke Foundation (Cambridge Chapter), for which she was a canvasser.