October 21st, 1935 – October 16th, 2016
Pat passed away suddenly on Sunday, October 16th, 2016 at Bridgepoint Hospital, where she had been staying between hip operations. She was looking forward to her 81st birthday party.
Pat was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to Dr. Peter James Rogal and Dorothy Quinn Rogal of Milden, where she grew up.
She attended university in Winnipeg, but was soon drawn to the big city and moved to Toronto on her own in 1960. She started with the Toronto Public Library on her second day in the city. She moved to the Metro Toronto Reference Library when the head of the Arts Department, Alan Suddon, learned she was from Saskatoon, as was he. He hired her on the spot.
In the days before the internet and Google, Pat maintained and nurtured the Library’s Picture Collection, which was an essential reference for the city’s artists and teachers. She clipped an annotated and filed thousands of magazine photographs, newspaper articles, and illustrations. Many Toronto artists such as Anita Kuntz and John Coburn relied on her visual knowledge. She worked for the library for 35 years, retiring in 1994, just before automation and digitization eliminated the personal and hands-on aspects of the work that she so enjoyed.
Pat had an eye for design and craftsmanship, scouring flea markets for pieces by emerging artists, and amassing collections of antique glassware, advertising tins, delicate pottery and old cookbooks, which she generously donated to city institutions. She loved handiwork, and spent hours making one-of-a-kind beaded necklaces, painted rock turtles, and sequined Christmas eggs. She was active in the Toronto Bead Society, the Ephemera Society of Canada, and the Sunday Antique Show at St. Lawrence Market.
She is survived by her sister Joan (Ray) Richards of West Vancouver, brother Ron (Jean) Rogal of Saskatoon, nieces and nephews Ann, Barbara, Jim, Cathy, Scott, Dawn, and Paul, and her birth daughter Kirsty Kilner (Tom) Holmes and their children Jared, Zach, and Logan.
She will be missed by many friends in Toronto, and by her best friends Maybelle Henry Scheidl, Shirley Tegart, and Betty Barber Ringrose, who she met in Grade 1 in Milden, SK, and has kept in touch with ever since.
The family would particularly like to thank her dear friend Margaret English, who found a home for Pat’s beloved cat Oscar, and Mary Williamson, Harriet (Hal) Goldsborough, and Laureen Howe for their long-time friendship. Pat was grateful, too, for her medical and health advisors.
Cremation has taken place, and Pat will rest in Saskatoon next to her mother Dorothy, as they both wished.
Friends can attend a visitation at Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home, 467 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, on Saturday, October 22nd, 2016, from 1:00 – 3:00.
In lieu of flowers, Pat would like donations made to the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.ca) for the preservation of land in Western Canada.
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