8 Bells – Elizabeth Ann Kerr
Apr 24, 2025
Ah, Elizabeth, Liz, Goozie. How we all shall miss you.
On Wednesday, April 16, with family and friends wishing her fair winds and following seas, Elizabeth Ann Kerr, 68 and five months, set sail on a final solo voyage. As with almost everything in her life, she did it on her own terms.
Seeing her off were her brother John and Susan (Duross), niece Julie (Hugh), nephew John (Amanda), Ian, her great niece Frances and godson Jamie, and an extended family of close friends. Her parents, J. W. (Jack) Kerr, DFC, of Regina, SK and Wendy Kerr, née Lamb, of Harrow, U.K., are already awaiting Elizabeth at her next port of call.
Born in Toronto, Elizabeth was formally educated at Richview Collegiate, Glendon College, and the University of Western Ontario. But Elizabeth found opportunities to learn in everything she did. As a child, she took up skating and synchronized swimming at The Granite Club, where she formed lifelong friendships. Decades later, Elizabeth and these friends saw their swimming coach through her final months. Loyalty and thoughtfulness were prized values for her, not to benefit from but to extend to others.
In high school Elizabeth took up and then taught sailing at the Boulevard Club. Her love of sailing led to competitive sailing on a C&C 34, and more lasting friendships. Golf followed sailing, but always there was swimming. Whether in indoor pools or northern lakes, her favourite place to be was in the water.
Professionally, Elizabeth had many lives, each more creative than the last: insurance sales rep, advertising account manager, marketing manager, publisher, principal of her own marketing firm, travel writer, executive director of a national association for travel writers, mentor, ESL teacher, and creative-based project consultant who, in her own words, “thrived on impossible deadlines, restricted budgets, and the highest of standards.”
Any room Elizabeth entered lit up with her energy and enthusiasm. This world has become a smaller place without her.
Wait for us, Elizabeth, at that next port of call so that someday we can all sail together. In the meantime, a celebration of everything Elizabeth is in the works. Donations can be made to the Odette Cancer Program at Sunnybrook, Covenant House Toronto, or OVC Pet Trust.
