Margaret Black was distinguished nursing professor
A mentor to many, she loved travel, piano, painting, adventure
Dr. Margaret Black, who died after being hit by a truck in downtown Dundas, is being remembered as a wonderful and adventuresome friend and a hardworking professor of nursing.
She retired in 2011 after a 26-year career at McMaster University that included recognition in the field of geriatric nursing and serving as a mentor to many students, but was active with local choirs, painted, played piano, served as president of the Zonta Club of Hamilton 1 and was a volunteer at Westfield Heritage Village near Rockton.
She was also a member of a travel club and was set to travel to Egypt after just returning from a trip to Mexico before her death.
“She was a very generous, kind person,” said retired nursing professor Barb Carpio, who had known Black for 24 years and travelled with her on some of her trips and called her fun and adventuresome. “She worked with academia, the health department and in the community.”
Black was hit by a tow truck while crossing Sydenham Street, at King Street West, in downtown Dundas on the morning of Feb. 6. She was taken to hospital with serious head injuries and died on Feb. 15 with friends and music at her side. She was 70.
McMaster said in a statement that Dr. Black played “an important and impactful role” in the School of Nursing and her contributions included co-ordinator of graduate studies, clinical nurse consultancy, and the assistant dean of the Graduate Nursing Programs. She was a public health consultant with Hamilton Public Health and served on committees and task forces for the district health council, the McMaster Office on Gerontological Studies and the Ontario Ministry of Health. She did a 2001 study on breast cancer that found older women forgo screening because they did not believe they could overcome the disease, and she worked on a program to boost breast screening among Hamilton’s immigrant women population.
When she retired, she founded the Dr. Margaret Black Ontario Graduate Scholarship, which is awarded to a graduate in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Maureen Montemuro, who called her loss “a terrible tragedy,” travelled with
Black to the United Arab Emirates in 1996 to teach a course on geriatric nursing.
“We hit the ground running as soon as we landed although we were very jet lagged,” she wrote on the memorial page of Circle of Life Cremation and Burial Centre in Dundas. “I have never worked so hard in my life and I know Marg felt the same way.”
Black was born in Port Hope, the daughter of John and Helen Black. Her father was a chemist at Dow Chemical and her mother was a homemaker. She had an older brother named David, who predeceased her.
Her nephew Miles Black, a jazz musician who lives in Vancouver, said his aunt was inspired to go into nursing by her aunt Isabel Black, who he said was a prominent nurse in Ontario. There is an Isabel Black Prize at the University of Ottawa, which is presented annually to an undergraduate in nursing.
“(My aunt) went down that route as well,” said Black.
Black said his Aunt Margaret went to Montreal for university and went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to study gerontology. She had three degrees; a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing and a PhD. In 1976, she went to work as a supervisor at the Middlesex and London District Health Unit.
“She had lots of friends,” said Black. “She just had a zest for life. She was really inspiring, joyous, curious and very supportive. She was a wonderful aunt.”
Black is survived her nephews Jason and Miles, cousin Jim Stanley and greatniece Jessica.