Mary-Wynne Ashford: March 17, 1939 - Nov. 19, 2022
Dr . Mary-Wynne Ashford was never a person for half-measures. Nola-Kate Seymoar recalls her older sister rising to the top of whatever she set out to do, whether that was dazzling her grade-school teachers, becoming a physician after raising three children, or influencing world leaders and several generations of Canadians as an internationally respected anti-nuclear activist. “Plunge, immerse, master. That was her,” Ms. Seymoar said. “When I heard about her accident, I thought, ‘This is not how it’s supposed to end.’” Dr. Ashford died Nov. 19 in hospital from complications of a head injury incurred after she fell Halloween night while out walking her labradoodle, Suzy, near her Victoria home. She was 83, and at the time of her death still very much the engaged and passionate peace activist she had been for nearly 40 years. “We had plans for next year to roll out a curriculum to high schools throughout B.C.,” said Dr. Jonathan Down, president of International Physicians for the Preventi...