Passing Of Dr. Shirley Ross

It is with profound grief and sadness that we are letting you know that Dr. Shirley Ross, a founder of the Green & Gold Community Garden, and its long-time manager and driving force, died late last week. Shirley had been receiving cancer treatment for many months, but, despite her illness, she was still at the Garden regularly and putting in countless hours on grant applications and plans for the Garden in the future.

For those of us who have known Shirley for many years, her presence quietly sustained and gave us the energy to do the hard work that is involved with our Garden. She was a font of knowledge, calm in chaos and always had solutions to whatever barriers and challenges we faced — from disastrous weather events to this year’s pandemic.

It is hard to imagine our Garden without her and we will be grieving her loss for a long time.

If you would like to view the video of the memorial service for Shirley Ross, please contact gggarden@ualberta.ca. Thank you to Shirley’s family for allowing us to share the memorial service video.