Nonie Guthrie, former TOPIC columnist, dies in 90th year

Iona Vivienne Guthrie, 89, who wrote a monthly column for TOPIC in the early 1980s titled “My Father’s World,” died last August on Salt Spring Island.

Nonie Guthrie was described by long time friend and companion, Caroline Hamilton, as “a woman of stature, a writer of elegant letters and essays, an accomplished cook, a passionate vegetable gardener, a bell-ringer and an educator. In her prime she delighted to drive a small tractor and relished bonfires almost to the point of pyromania.”

Caroline was a neighbour of Nonie’s, and always drew an illustration to accompany the TOPIC columns.

From 1959 to 1969, Nonie was head of Strathcona Lodge School on Salt Spring Island. She was a founding member, later chairperson, of the Salt Spring Community Society; a member of the advisory committee to the Capital Regional District; and chairperson of the school board. In church affairs she served as a parish warden and worked for Camp Columbia and the Bessie Dane Foundation Hospice.

Nonie, in her ninetieth year, once said, “I wouldn’t have missed old age for anything!”