ROXINE HAMEISTER – June 29th, 1946 – February 25th, 2022

Roxie was born in Hanna, Alberta to Ted and Betty de Pencier where she lived on the family farm at Endiang. with his parents and grandparents, During her first year they moved to Canmore, Alberta to be closer to Bettys parents and family.

Roxie loved Canmore, she did all her schooling at the Canmore Public School and graduated from Canmore High School in 1965. She had great memories of her time there, loved the mountains, and fondly remembers working as a Cooks helper in a remote horse camp one summer with her good friend Linda Saunders. She also said her job as an interpreter at the wax museum in Banff prepared her to be at the front of a classroom.

In her last year of high school, the grade one teacher passed away. The Principal of the school, Mr. Brock, asked which of the high school students intended to be teachers. Roxie and her friend Margaret Wilson put up their hands and the two taught the grade one class for the rest of the year. This cemented her desire to be a teacher

She left Canmore to join the Company of Young Canadians. While teaching head start kindergarten to the children of new immigrants in Toronto, she met and married George Hartwell and had two sons, Christopher and David. After ten years she decided to make a break with him.

She went to University in Edmonton and finished her teaching degree in early childhood education and in school libraries; in a class there she met the love of her life and best friend Eric Hameister. They married in Canmore in 1982. They taught in Caslan, Alberta; then went to what is now Nunavut to Pond Inlet (Mitimatalik) and then to Resolute Bay for a second year. Moving back to Alberta, they lived in Willingdon, Alberta; she taught at the Plain Lake Hutterite Colony School. With the closure of Erics high school, they were laid off and went to teach in Northern Saskatchewan, first at Stony Rapids, where she became Principal, and then at Churchill High School in La Ronge.

After five years in Saskatchewan they moved and taught for fifteen years in Nanaimo, B.C. (S.D. #68) where they retired from teaching public schools. She taught in three elementary schools in Nanaimo, Forest Park, Quarterway and Davis Road, before teaching Social Studies at Wellington High School. She served for many years as a staff representative and later an executive member of the Nanaimo District Teachers Association.

Before retiring, she taught briefly in Kuwait and then in Taipei, Taiwan during a leave of absence from Nanaimo. After retiring she went offshore again, and taught in Wenzhou and Shanghai, China; Monterrey, Mexico and Guatemala City. She was very fond of Guatemala and regretted never returning to visit. She said of teaching offshore that it was the perfect way to visit nearby countries.

She earned many honours in her lifetime. She was extremely proud of being chosen as a teacher consultant for the National Geographic Society and trained at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. With others, she went to Korea, and later to Japan, as a teacher consultant to their governments. She gave workshops at NASA in Houston on inner ear disorders and space sickness. She completed a Master of Education in Curriculum at the University of Victoria. She contributed to a number of Social Studies curricula for the B.C. Ministry of Education. She was made Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the British Columbia Social Studies Teachers Association.

Roxie always looked forward to returning to Canmore. No one loved the place more than her. You Can Take The Girl Out Of The Mountains But You Cannot Take The Mountains Out Of The Girl.

She will be sorely missed by her husband Eric, sons David and Kip, her daughter in law Joey, granddaughters (the other loves of her life) Serenity (Aaron) and Maxine, sisters Cheryl Comin (Cher), Colleen Chapelhow (Coll) and Heather de Pencier (Hess) and their families, and all who knew her both here and abroad.

There will be a gathering in Roxie’s honour at the NANAIMO YACHT CLUB on June 26, 2022, at 1 pm.