Browse the obituary of residing in the province of Nova Scotia for funeral details
Barbara Natalie Clow
December 17, 1959 – January 26, 2025
It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the death of Barbara Natalie Clow, dearly loved wife, mother, sister and aunt, on Sunday, 26 January 2025 in Halifax after a long illness.
Barbara was born 17 December 1959 in Brockville, Ontario. The daughter of Natalie Kathleen (Berry) Clow and David Lionel Clow, she was the youngest of ten siblings and half-siblings. After attending Brockville schools, she acquired training as a veterinary technician before switching over to the study of Canadian History and the History of Medicine – the areas of specialization for her undergraduate degree at Carleton University as well as her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the University of Toronto. A brilliant researcher and remarkable writer, she won various postdoctoral funding awards from federal and provincial agencies, as well as from the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine. In 2001 she published Negotiating Disease: Power and Cancer Care, 1900-1950, a history of alternative cancer therapies in Canada during those years. In the words of the publisher, the book provides a “detailed analysis of popular beliefs and behaviours [that] reveals the compelling logic of personal decisions about health and healing. Experience and expectation, not fear and ignorance, shaped the health care choices of both cancer sufferers and the ‘healthy’ public.”
Arriving in Halifax with her family in 1998 and with no prospects of finding a secure position in academic teaching, she remade herself into a Canadian health researcher of the first rank, with a particular focus on – and Gender-Based Analysis. For a decade beginning in 2003, she was the Executive Director of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, whose initial remit was to define and explore the determinants of women’s health in order to advocate in matters of research and policy. Under Barbara’s leadership, the Centre’s work expanded to include examination of the complex factors involved in promoting social change through policy-based research in women’s health. Following the Centre’s closure in 2013, she worked as an independent researcher and consultant, with a final stint at Veterans Affairs Canada before taking medical retirement in 2020.
A lover of animals, a gifted artist and jewelry maker, it seems she could excel wherever she chose to apply herself. She leaves behind a heartbroken family: husband John Bingham and son Harry Bingham; sisters Dorothy Couper (Don) and Kathie Morgan (the late John); brother Albert; and numerous nieces, nephews and their children. A celebration of her life will take place at a later date. For those wishing to honour her memory, a donation to the Palliative Care unit at Victoria General Hospital would be most welcome and appropriate.
She is a phoenix flame
Never truly extinguished
Ashes birth a new journey
Not an end
December 17 1959 January 26 2025
Death notice for the town of: Dartmouth, Province: Nova Scotia
death notice Barbara Natalie Clow December 17 1959 January 26 2025
obituaries notice Barbara Natalie Clow December 17 1959 January 26 2025
We offer our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Barbara Natalie Clow December 17 1959 January 26 2025 and hope that their memory may be a source of comfort during this difficult time. Your thoughts and kind words are greatly appreciated.
