Teacher remembered for her passion
Tough, dedicated, passionate and compassionate.
These are the ways that Phyllis Barnatt is described by those who knew and loved her.
Barnatt retired last year after working at Niagara College for 26 years as a professor in the journalism program, a program from which she herself graduated, and she was program coordinator for a period as well. Before that, she was a reporter and editor in her hometown for the Fort Erie Times Review in the 1980s.
The 60-year-old passed away on Aug. 12 after a multi-year battle with melanoma.
Gary Erb, a former co-worker in the college’s journalism program and a close friend of Barnatt’s said she had approached him roughly three years ago with the news of her diagnosis.
“She tried everything she could, but in the last few months, she had stopped her treatments and they kind of sent her home. She knew her time was limited,” Erb said.
“But she still had her sense of humour. She accepted her fate, but with a smile and just her sense of humour came through every time I talked to her.”
He said up to the very end she was her usual self: straightforward and passionate about the things and people she cared about. She spent much of her final time with her long-time partner Gerald Ruch.
Charles Kopun, journalism program co-ordinator, worked alongside Barnatt for five years, teaching the next wave of students hoping to break into the news industry and working with her on the college’s paper, Niagara News.
He described her as a thorough professional who had great news sense and was blunt about what she expected of people. But, he said, she was also compassionate.
“When you got to know Phyllis, she was super soft on the inside,” he said.
Chris Gerics, who had Barnatt as an instructor for both of his years in the journalism program, knows that first hand. He said his first impression of her was she was intimidating, but as soon as first semester was over, he saw that she really cared for the students and wanted them to succeed.
Gerics especially saw that caring side of her when his mother passed away during his second year of studies. He credits Barnatt for helping him get through the rest of the school year and being able to graduate.
“When my mother passed away, she immediately knew I needed to (recuperate) and get my life back on track,” he said. “She helped me every step. She was my school mom.”
Will Noiles, another former student of Barnatt’s who went through the program starting in 1993, said he had kept in touch with her after graduating, and she stepped up to help him when he was going through a tough time after a work accident in 2000.
He said she was there to help him move when he was in a wheelchair from the accident, and she was one of the first to recognize he was suffering from depression. Noiles said she even offered to pay for his depression treatment.
Paul Dayboll, a professor in the journalism program, said this was typical for Barnatt. She was there for students, including being willing to help them through their problems and pay for food for students who couldn’t afford to eat. He said she did it in such a quiet way that no one really knew the extent of her generosity.
Dayboll said she helped her colleagues a great deal, too. He worked with her at the Fort Erie Times Review before she invited him to come to the college to help modernize the way students were being taught to produce a newspaper. When he took over the role as program co-ordinator from her, a position she’d held for 13 years, she was there to answer all his questions and help him get settled into the position.
Noiles said because of the work she put into Niagara’s journalism program, he sees it as being a reflection of her. He said she put countless hours in that she never got paid for.
“Seeing students succeed was her reward,” he explained.
Melanoma wasn’t Barnatt’s first run-in with cancer. Erb said she battled and recovered from breast cancer in the mid-nineties, but she had only told a few people about the melanoma.
“She was a public person as far as being a teacher, but a very private person on her own personal life,” he said.
Because of that, news of her death came as a shock to many.
Several who knew Barnatt, including former students, expressed their sadness of her passing across Facebook. They appreciated how she made everyone feel like they had a place in the classroom and her willingness to share her wealth of experience and knowledge in the field. They respected her toughness because they knew she cared and was shaping them to be better journalists.
Erb said even those who didn’t end up graduating from the journalism program said how much they respected her and enjoyed her classes.
Her friends and former colleagues shared about what a pleasure it was to work with her and how much of an impact she had.
Erb said cremation has taken place and he doesn’t expect there will be a service.